Learning the Ropes at Servants Wings
Following our acceptance with Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) I was required to complete the standardization course to give me the tools I will need as a bush pilot serving with MAF. However after 3 years on the ground, mostly chasing after our daughter Bethan, I was a little rusty to say the least. I felt very blessed that Stu at MAF UK suggested a 2 week stint at Servants Wings beforehand. They are a Christian charity who allow potential pilots to train for mission flying at a considerably cheaper price than at a flying school.
My instructor Craig was very kind and let me get the hang of flying in America in a Cessna 172 before moving onto the Cessna 206 (which runs up the training bill a lot faster!). I was amazed how alien it felt to fly in America, everything seemed wrong. The radio calls are made at different places, the joins to the circuit (or pattern in the USA) are completely different - rather than a standard overhead join or a direct join the favoured approach is a 45 degree intercept to halfway along downwind. After a couple of hours I was getting the hang of the US differences and the local area so we moved onto learning the 206.
My instructor Craig was very kind and let me get the hang of flying in America in a Cessna 172 before moving onto the Cessna 206 (which runs up the training bill a lot faster!). I was amazed how alien it felt to fly in America, everything seemed wrong. The radio calls are made at different places, the joins to the circuit (or pattern in the USA) are completely different - rather than a standard overhead join or a direct join the favoured approach is a 45 degree intercept to halfway along downwind. After a couple of hours I was getting the hang of the US differences and the local area so we moved onto learning the 206.
Over the next 2 weeks I flew into smaller and more challenging strips, like Lenhardt which is 3200ft long but has tall pine trees at either end which make it a difficult approach to land, and Becksfield which is literally someone's field (presumably Beck's!). We mostly flew within 10 minutes of Aurora Airport (where Servants Wings are based) but we did spend one lovely morning doing a cross-country to the base of Mt Hood, landing at Sandy River (pictured below) and Estacada.
We were also fortunate that Matt has family who live in Portland, 30 minutes drive from Aurora so Matt and Bethan got to explore Portland and spend time with family while I was up in the air everyday. I also got to drive his uncles MG to work which was great on the drive back each day when it was nice and sunny and the roof was down. As you can see, Bethan also loved driving the MG!
