The story so far

Ok, so it all started back in 1999, about when the government decided to fully fund certified aviation courses, I was in Palmerston North at Massey University finishing off a B.Tech (Computer Systems Engineering). Massey had a School of Aviation and I had originally wanted to do a B.Av, but due to the large price tag and my lack of funds I had to go with my second love (computers).

With the advent of fully funded aviation courses, the School of Aviation offered a 'Learn to Fly' 1/2 year course. 30 Hours and some credits for your degree. The fact that my final year only involved a couple of papers meant i had lots of spare time, so decided to put some of it to use.

Anyway, I did my 30 hours and seemingly typical of the ways things seem to work, the next semester they split the course into two half year papers take took you all the way up to PPL (50 hours).

So after I had passed the course, done my 30+ hours, and was looking at continuing up to my PPL, 2 thing happened. I got layed off from the job I had and I accidentally found another job... in Auckland. So I packed up my stuff and headed to Auckland and spent a couple of weeks living with my In-Laws while I got settled and found a flat for my wife and I to move into. Luckily, she was working for Work and Income at the time, and was able to get a transfer up to Auckland without too much bother.

Unfortunately, Auckland is a lot more expensive than Palmerston North. That combined with the fact that we were having to pay rent meant no spare money for flying :(

After about 3 months of working at the ISP helpdesk on a casual basis (actually worked out really well, cause I could take 3pm to midnight shifts and spend my days job hunting), I finally managed to secure a 'real' job. As a software developer with Peace Software. That was an awesome place to work... young workforce, good moral, excellent people.

So fast forward to 2003, and I finally had got myself to the point where I could continue flying, so I did a ground course at AFS and got all the theory out of the way and had taken 2 flights when I got the chance to go to Australia as part of an 'On-Site' team at work. Was a really good opportunity so off I went thinking its just for 3 months.

2 years later (!), after buying an apartment off plans, getting sick of the 4 month delays in completion and cancelling the contract, buying another apartment and getting sick of a company that was going downhill rapidly, I finally managed to get off my ass and find a job back in NZ. At which point we decided to buy a house out in the burbs, as the central city apartment my wife had been living in while I was in Oz wasnt really big enough for both of us.

House + Apartment = LARGE mortgage and no spare money... so the apartment went after a year and I got myself into a position to start flying again. At which point, work offered me the chance to work on a fairly sizeable project for one of our key clients. Good career choice, but unfortunate timing, as it meant an overseas trip for a few months, most probably over Xmas. Notice the pattern here?

Luckily, the trip was cut from 3 months down to 4 weeks, and so here I am, back in New Zealand after a trip to Copenhagen, New York and Los Angeles, booking flying lessons and determined to get that PPL that has been so elusive over the last 6 years.

Fingers crossed for some nice weather for the next couple of months!

Total Hours: 35.9 (32.8 Dual, 3.1 Solo)