Back to college – well almost!

Monday, September 24th, 2007 at 20:57 | by Alistair Baillie

So my 6 weeks worth of holidays is almost over, I’ll be flying back down to Southampton on Friday, all ready to start first thing on Monday morning at Warsash.

Since being home I have done quite a few things, as well as being bored out of my mind!

Firstly as mentioned earlier this month I did a trial flying lesson with Edinburgh Flying Club out at Edinburgh Airport (surprising eh!). That was a lot of fun and really interesting. Flying isn’t all that easy, with pedals to control the rudders, and the stick to control the elevators and ailerons. My instructor was Tom, and after he had explained the basic principles we walked out to the aircraft, a Cessna 172. We took off from the smaller runway at Edinburgh (I cant remember its name), then turned left and headed for Grangemouth then north towards Stirling, flew round the castle and then back to Edinburgh over the forth bridges and landed on the main commercial runway in between large and very fast planes.

I got a chance to fly the aircraft once we were up, keeping it level and straight required constantly adjusting the controls but I was beginning to get the hang of it – at least I was maintaining the right height. We also did a few simple manoeuvres and he explained the effect of trim. Being a cadet he also showed me what happens if you try and turn an aircraft the same way as you would a ship (the rudder), needless to say it turns, but it also rolls over.

That lasted about an hour, and was worth the money. I am definitely going to be taking flying lessons once I complete my cadetship – after all what else am I going to do during those long holidays.

I also went down to Southampton, via Bristol to take some more stuff down to the flat I have. Due to Warsash being full I am staying at UNITE’s Mercury Point in Southampton city centre. Let’s just say it’s much nicer than Warsash and Solent University’s halls of residence – and cheaper with en-suite bathrooms. I have a 6 bedroom flat and am sharing with some of the Holland America cadets, but most of the phase 3 deck and engine cadets have moved into the same place so at least we’re all together.

So a few more days and I’ll be back at Warsash until May! Seems a long time, but if the sea phase was anything to go by, it will fly past.

In website news, I have added a selection of the 800+ photo’s I took while away to my photo page.

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