slooooowwwww

Hey guys and girls,

Been a while since my last post - I'm sorry about that! I know you are dying to know what I've been up to this past month. Truth is - busy holiday! I've not flown a lot since I moved on to the DA40, just 5 missions! Guess IFR is much slower, and also thanks to a couple of other circumstances (problems with instructors' licenses, accident (sure you heard about it by now), we have been slowed quite a little bit, but hopefully we will pick up after new year.

The Diamond 40 is much easier to fly, landing is peanuts compared to the Archer, and it flies beautifully. Unlike the Piper, it looks like it's meant to fly. It just does not sink, it's like a glider with an engine. Looking forward to flying some approaches with it during the next month.

Positive note is my parents came to visit, so I had a touch of home this Christmas! We toured Sedona, 'some' shops in Phoenix, went up to Fountain Hills and Rio Verde (which I overflew endless times with my small Piper), and spent the last four days in Las Vegas, strolling through the endless casinos, shows and beautiful mockups (they even built a replica of the Eiffel Tower!!!) I am now waiting for my plane back home to Phoenix - I am very tired after this holiday - but at least I have the weekend to get my strength up before my next flight. I am looking forward to fly now, cause it's all downhill to my CPL check and my return back home!!

Till the next one!!
Kris

Cloud surfing

Hey guys and girls,

Busy week! Continued my cross countries up till Tuesday! On Wednesday no more flying due to bad weather, till this morning.

Tuesday Capt. Galea came to see us and we had a really good time this week. Always nice to have someone who has a Maltese accent to his English next to you! The other Maltese also came to the States, so now all the Air Malta cadets are in Phoenix (at least for another 3 and a half months :p)

Today was a beautiful flight. There were a couple of fair weather cumulus at 3000 feet (not very common here), so I practiced some cloud avoiding maneouvres and it was simply beautiful, seeing the clouds up close and flying past them at 120 miles per hour alone. Something I will never forget!

Check is coming up next week and hopefully I pass - then it's DA40 - nice upgrade from our old Piper Archer. Though I will kind of miss it!

Cu soon - almost at half of my stay here!

Kris

Prison Break!

Hey all!

As I mentioned before I have been doing quite a lot of cross countries. Indeed they take a lot of time and are kind of scary sometimes, but you see all kinds of stuff while doing them.

On Saturday I went to Flagstaff, and Winslow! It was really nice, flying at 10000ft in an unpressurised aircraft (on the limits of hypoxia :p) and looking down on trees, mountains and fog settling down in the vallies! very relaxing! I was feeling truly lucky to be doing what I am doing!

Today I went to Bisbee Douglas international! This was a regional hub in the 1960s, but today it is NOT used. As I was flying overhead I noticed some buildings right next to the terminal. Near these buildings were a lot of orange dots, and they were moving! Yep, they were prisoners, and quite a lot of them! I was thinking, what would they pay to get on the plane right now :p I landed and left really quickly cause I was quite uncomfortable there with a plane! I came back via Benson, where I refuelled, and landed on 22L with the sun directly in my eyes and a stroboscopic effect of the propellor when I put on idle and flared! Interesting flight.

To change a bit the subject, I wanna put ten tracks which I have been listening to this week (they keep me awake when I need, and make me remember the party bit in me!)

Puvertum 0 - Niels van Gogh vs Eniac
Morumbi - Tocadisco
Disco Volante - Ida Engberg
Heater - Samim
Automatic - Ultra Nate
Bucovina - Ian Oliver geat. Shantel
Fun Fun Fun - Dada Life
Together - Axwell & Sebastien Ingrosso
Anthem (Radio edit) - Filo & Peri ft. Eric Lumiere
Always & Forever - Chocolate Puma

Keep the beat ;)

narakom
kris

Adrenaline rush

Hey all,

Hope you are all doing fine! Thought I would let you know all about what i'm doing right now! Lots of things have happened this week, and I really don't know where to start!

I only have 10 mission remaining on the Piper Archer - then I get an upgrade to the Diamond 40, which is a much more modern plane!

Yesterday I went to Lake Havasu alone, which, to give you an idea, is the same distance from Malta to Reggio Calabria, or from Malta to Tunis. I really had fun going there, it took me about 1 hour since I had a pretty strong tailwind. The approach was quite nice as you pass over a lake and fly an approach near the riverside. I landed and had 3 cookies a hot chocolate and a diet coke at the FBO there (which is kind of a pilot lounge) This FBO looks really nice and posh - it even had perfume in the toilet and a big screen with sleeping rooms adjacent - very nice. All was relax until I departed. As soon as I departed I looked at the watch and realised I was running late - the sun was already going close to the horizon and I still had to land at another airport (Prescott) and return to Falcon Field before sunset. To make things worse, I had a headwind going back which means that the distance covered on the ground is less - I was really worried I would not make it in time before dark. And believe me, flying in the mountains in the dark with one of these planes is the one of the least things you wanna do in your life.

Full throttle all the way I managed to land in Prescott and get my signature and make it back just as the sun was setting down! I was so relieved to make it - now it goes down in one of the adventures to tell my grandkids. At one time I went between two mountains of 8000 feet each through a 2000 foot gap - phew the adrenaline was rushing!

Talking about pressure, my blood pressure was quite on the high side this week when I tried to cook beef stew. I found a recipe on the internet - ULTIMATE BEEF STEW - it seemed good so I decided to buy the ingredients and try it. It looked good until I did one small tiny mistake. The recipe said add 1 and 1/2 cups of beef broth. I thought that beef broth was actually the powder of beef broth so instead of throwing in the stew 1 and 1/2 cup of diluted watery beef broth, I threw a whole container of beef cube (cube tal-pakket kif jejd il-malti) - let's say the outcome was a bit...salty.

Anyway I posted a few pics of my cross countries on picasa. I am missing all of u friends, family and obviously d-dottoressa.... La nigi is-sajf li gej parties biss gejjin - ( u taf int namel flight lemm u law) :p

Narakom nies,

Kris

I can officially fly a Piper 28-181 :p

Hey all

Been a week since my last post. Again, busy week. I had my crosscountry check and I passed! yeeeee... this was quite an achievement for me because it means I can now go to another airport which is quite far away alone with the plane.

We are always getting closer to the real thing! Today I went to Sedona and it was really cool... mountains and an elevation of 5000 feet! wow

Tomorrow I plan to go to Cottonwood and an airport called Love... quite romantic no?

things are going great for the moment and I hope to see ya all soon!

Kris

I survived the Apache Trail... and the SE Practice Area

Hi all

Another week has passed... This week I've been very busy, and right now I'm feeling quite exhausted. I have flown 10 missions in 1 week which believe me, is a lot!

On Sunday we went to the APACHE TRAIL. I will not describe this in words. I will just paste a paragraph from Wikipedia which I think best describes what we went through on Sunday - you can also see a couple of pictures on my picasa link shown below!

Also admire my culinary skills :p

http://picasaweb.google.com/kristian2305

Cu
Kris

If your engine fails...

Hey all

Today was a busy day! I'm not getting enough sleep right now - as most of you know I need to sleep quite a lot :) This morning was again an early wakeup, to go and watch a couple of solos of my friends! I was supposed to fly at 3pm, but my instructor wanted to fly at 10.30, as today was a dual (not alone with my instructor), so I came home quickly, freshened up and went for my flight to the NE Practice Area.

My instructor was quite a help in seeing other traffic (other planes). Tomorrow I go alone to the NE Practice Area - and seeing other planes will not be that easy! hehe It is quite an adventure cause it's the first time I go 'away' from our home base alone!

Today I really had fun - simulated engine failure, gliding with no engine to the ground, choosing where you are gonna crash land (I chose a dirt road) and I was so close to the ground before I climbed again! I had so much fun!

Tomorrow I have to wake up at 4 o clock in the morning - so....

Good night!!!

Kris

Ups and downs

Hey all

Been a while since my last post. I'm sorry about that but I had a bit of a rough time this week. Unfortunately I was getting stressed out on my checks and I took some time for me to get my pre-solo checks through. We are all finding it a bit difficult. Guess it was one of the downs of my training. Pilot training is a mental game - you feel like shit one day, and you feel Top gun the next day..

Fortunately all went well, and yes ... I AM SOLO! For those who don't know what it means, I am now authorised to fly a Piper PA28-181 alone! Which means - there was also a first SOLO.

My first solo was on Tuesday, 21 October. I cannot fully describe what I felt before taking off. My whole life was passing through my mind - when I was a kid I would only dream of something like this to happen - I finally realised my dream. On taking off, I pulled the yoke and off I went. One word - exhilarating. I felt loads of satisfaction - I worked all my life to get here and I really felt good - one of the pilot training ups.

I was laughing all the way through downwind and saying loudly to myself - look what i'm doing! look what I'm doing!

I landed 3 times and went back to the ramp where my friends were waiting for me. After it was a very nice and comfortable trip in the trunk of our Jeep, to our apartments and they threw me in the pool in my uniform - as is custom when one goes solo! It was really a day full of emotions - I will never forget it.

I have done another four flights these past two days, and I'm feeling ever more confident to land now - from the beginning I have 124 landings! nice eh? I am always learning from my mistakes and that makes you feel better. I am also flying quite a lot right now and my training is going really fast.

I will post my photos when my new Macbook is here... :)

Life's good - and I'm still kickin' (and flyin')

Kris

Keepin' up the Stamina

Hey all

Busy week. We are flying every day, couple of last days I have flown to Williams Gateway, and I did something like 18 landings - quite a lot in two days eh? It is slowly coming together... and the more it goes well the more you have fun.

Gateway, for your information, has three infinitely long runways - you can like land and takeoff four times in one go! I think it is the fifth option for landing the shuttle - so imagine me with my little Piper Archer on a runway made for the Space Shuttle - Gulliver's Travels...



There we saw quite a lot of different planes parked on the ramp, including a couple of fighter jets, a plane which had a NASA logo on its fin (sorry dunno the name)and some business jets as well. You feel quite intimidated by all these planes using the same airport as you!

Also doing patterns on the parallel runway was a KC-135 refueler, which made me feel even smaller - but it was exciting being on the same frequency with the pilots of these huge jets!

I will try to get a couple of photos tomorrow to show you what Gateway is like (if we go there!) Life is going on pretty well, it's very hectic and time passes very very quickly here!

Give my regards to our tiny island...
Kris

Strange week...

Hey all

Sorry I've been a bit late on a blog update but this week was a bit busy! We finally moved into our apartment and it's very nice - good living room, bedrooms good sized kitchen, INTERNET, pool, jacuzzi, squash courts, gym and even a tv room with a 61 inch plasma where I can watch Premier league, serie A and Champions League!

However this week was a bit strange - on Wednesday I was supposed to fly mission 24 late in the afternoon, just before sunset. We took the plane and Rene flew to Coolidge, which is SE of Falcon. We did some touch and gos and landed for a full stop there. I was supposed to do the opposite leg. I had studied the flows and checklists quite well so I was kind of looking forward for a little bit of practice. BUT.... on engine start, the starter was not engaging = we were stuck in Coolidge. Probably you do not know where Coolidge is. It is a small town South of Phoenix, but Coolidge AIRPORT is not near the town, it is in the middle of the desert. There is nothing there but three runways, a toilet (probably not cleaned for 10 years or so) and a couple of unused hangars. We ended up watching the sunset in the desert, which was quite a view, but I lost my mission which I recovered yesterday. The night flight back was also nice!

I also had a change of instructor - I have a girl now teaching me how to fly (how about my ego?) but I must admit she is good. My radio communication is getting way better and I did my first soft landing :p after 7 landings or so. So I went home happy.

Yesterday evening we drove to a shopping mall, and on our way back we heard on the radio that Ferry Corsten (the world's no. 3 dj as far as I know) was here in Phoenix. After 3 weeks listening to big fat guys and black girls going on about their life (aka R&B), I was quite surprised to discover that TRANCE EXISTS HERE TOO!!! So we went to Ferry Corsten at Myst nightclub in Phoenix - and it was one of my best night outs yet - very nice club, people and overall - verrry good set by Ferry!

So now this weekend I'm relaxing cause after such a hectic week I need to take it easy! Next week will probably be daily flights so I need to sleep!

for the next one
Kris

It's like being in movies...

Hi all

This weekend was like being in movies - we visited the ever famous Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Los Angeles. It's kind of different from Phoenix. To begin with, it is less clean, with trash all over the place. And there are more homeless people as well. But on the other hand it's much more exciting with loads of tourists here and there, and loads of exciting things to do.

On Friday we arrived late after a 7 hour drive and tried to find some place to stay. We found one room at one motel and another room in another, and we slept like 5 hours, before waking up to go to Universal Studios Hollywood.

I could describe Universal studios, but a picture is better than a thousand words, so you can just take a look at the albums!

Sunday morning we went to see the Walk of Fame, and it was quite interesting to see all the different signatures and footprints and handprints of famous people.

Long drive back and good long sleep - so today is a new day. Not flying today thank god - I AM tired. Today we should move to the apartments at last, hope it is nice.

Los Angeles & Hollywood

Still kickin'
Kris

i'm off the ground!

Hey all

Today was the big day. Prepared our weather, flight report, and met with my instructor. He asked us to go and check whether the aircraft was still in the hangar cause they were inflating the suspensions and to get it out and prepare it for our flight.

We went out and found it still being inflated, so after waiting for like 15 min in 40 degree Arizona heat, it was ready for us. Did the walkaround, cockpit preparation (still with the book for now) and so that we still had to refuel - so - call the fuel truck, which took another 15 min cause they only had one truck in service. After refuelling, did all our checks and were cleared to taxi via the run up area to runway 4L... and off we went to our north east practice area.

Whoever back home who thinks that the ride of any aircraft is like that of an Airbus, think again. At one point I was flying towards the mountains at 6000 feet and encountered a gust... immediately looked at my altimeter and found it was 6500 feet! wow! Being used to the simulator were everything is all smooth and nice this was quite an experience - but I couldn't help but smiling! The instructor was quite happy with our flying overall, at least he seemed so. I was cleared to land runway 22L and kept the descent profile pretty well for the first time, though we had some light gusts here and there. The landing needs to be worked on (if people were at the back they wouldn't have clapped for sure :p) cause it was quite bumpy, but again, it is different in the real world than doing it on a pc.

So back home in the scorching heat, and thinking that tomorrow will be a holiday cause some of us did not fly yet. Wrong - I have to get up at 4am to fly at 6am - early rise.. but at least the ride will be a bit smoother I hope.

So, to the next one - mis u all guys (and girls) and I will try to upload some photos as soon as possible cause here the internet is really messed up!

First Flights

My first week

Hi all

My new blog. Guess I had to make up for the time difference and not being able to talk to family back home by creating this new account of my stay in Mesa, Phoenix, Arizona - USA.

Flying here was like hell... it was like running after the sun. After spending 8hrs 20 mins in a cramped up 777 watching movies on a 3 inch screen, you kind of think it's time to get out of that plane go to bed...

...till you look at the local time on the screen in front of you.. oh boy you were wrong!! Still 3 o clock in the afternoon and a six hour flight to go. Mobile phones didn't work (actually waiting for a new iphone as I write this blog :) ) and the sky was grey.. is it like in Belgium? In six hours we had the answer.... NO! Getting out of the airport in Phoenix was like getting into a hot cauldron- it was quite hot and it was 8pm!! Leaves you to think about the next morning.

Next day we went to school and Kim Mitchell, our blonde (with that nothing said :p) student administrator, took our fingerprints and after that it was a week of briefings at school.

In the meantime we bought a car which moves ( at least most of the time.. a 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee) and made a bit of shopping here and there.

Tomorrow we start flying. Robert flew today and he felt sick cause it was in the afternoon.. but I don't care if I swim in my own v**** cause my dreams are slowly and surely coming true.

To close this post, I have only one word to describe USA -BIGGGGG... big Coke, big Malls, big Streets, big Women, everything is just huge.

TIll the next one
Kristian

First days in Phoenix