There will be no flying until I get back from vacation.. around May 7th. My lesson today was canceled because of the weather.

Expect another update in the second week of May.

I came across the great circle mapper website that allows you to plot on a map routes you have taken from airports. I tossed in all the flights (that I can remember) since 2000. Total distance traveled: 67654 km

Lesson canceled again due to weather. I think this is a record for the number of cancellations in a row since I started training.

Good news is that I wrote the PSTAR on Sunday and received a perfect mark. With that out of the way, I’m ready to go Solo.. just a few more lessons. I wont be able to fly this weekend and all next week as I will be on vacation in Cuba. I’ll be flying on Sunwing for the first time. A friend of mine says a lot …

I spent this rainy day bumming around the net. I found some interesting aviation related websites. Please feel free to comment and let me know what your fav is.

Love Is In The Air. This is a dating site for “airline crew”. I took a quick look around and stopped when I saw “flight69′s” profile photo.

Crew Start: Toted as “The Airline Crew” portal, its operated by the same guys as the dating site above. The forums are the best part of this site. People here seem to have a more upbeat, …

No flying yesterday, and probably not today because of the rain. I’m going to head down to the airport this afternoon to write the PSTAR.

Here is a funny clip between tower and a pilot. The tower is asking him if he’s “immediate” (as in immediate take-off), the pilot thinks he calling him an “idiot”.

About a month after writing the radiotelephone exam, my certificate arrived in the mail. It’s a small wallet sized piece of paper that states:

“The certificate holder is qualified to operate radio stations as indicated in the regulations made persuant to the Radiocommunication Act”

This is one of the pieces of paper I need before I can go solo.

I’m writing the PSTAR on Saturday. Either instead of my flight (if its rainy) or after it (if its sunny).

I’ve been getting a few people asking me why my ground school cost is so high. So here’s an explanation:

The actual flying training is being done by Toronto Airways. The schooling portion is being done by Seneca College. Any tuition that I’m charged I categorize under “ground school”. Technically what I’m learning at Seneca you would learn during your ground school with your flight instructor. The main difference is that I would get 42 hours of Meteorology instruction, instead of the 4 (or whatever) you’d normally get in “traditional” ground …

The other day I was listening to Toronto Centre on liveatc.net. Someone chimed on looking for Toronto Radio. The controller corrected him by saying that he’s on Centre frequency.

I wasn’t able to catch the pilots response, but what the controller said next made me chuckle:

“Do you want to talk to a centre controller or do you want to talk to the radio? The radio people give you weather and stuff and the centre people keep you away from other airplanes”.

Here, listen to the clip yourself.

So technically what is the difference?

*something* …

This weekend was perfect for flying. The weather was great, with exceptional visibility (especially today).

As previously noted, I missed my class on Saturday. I did, however, get up on Sunday and twice today.

Yesterday was fun. I didn’t have my normal instructor, so it was interesting to see how things were done with someone different. We did a few take offs and landings, then it was on to the fun stuff – Flapless landings and comm. failures.

Ironically enough, the flapless landings that I did yesterday were the best landings I had …

Damn! My flight today was at 2pm, not 4pm. Got a call from my FI asking where I was (I was in the shower).

I feel bad. I always confirm my flight an hour before, but not today as I thought it was at 4.

I’ll need to find a way to make it up to my FI