After several months of strict multi-engined IFR flights, it felt like a good idea to relax with some good old tailwheel action. To remind myself of why I actually got into aviation, for the pure joy of flight!

Since it is now just one month left before I’m on the plane westbound for the U.S. for two years, it also seemed like a good opportunity for me to take farewell to some of my glider friends, and one of my most loved girls. She is a PA25 Pawnee, equipped with a powerplant good for 235 snorting horse powers. She is not good looking, or young, she is not gracious, nor glamorous, but god she’s charming! I use to tell my baby, that if it is one girl she should feel jelaous about, it’s the Pawnee.

After gently waking her up from her beauty sleep(?), and checking on her health status, I taxied her down to the strip, to perform some visual circuits alone with her. After slowly, but firmly opening the throttle, she beginned to roar, and accelerated down the grass strip. She was really longing to get up to the perfect blue sky. As we lifted off, we begun skyrocketing towards our traffic circuit altitude. I get surprised every time I do this, how fast she actually is able to climb, when she’s not letting a glider borrow some of her excessive power.

Two normal circuits later, I went for a couple of power-off landings. As she is equipped with a plain flap, which only lowers the stall speed with about 1 MPH, and provides only a marginal amount of lift while producing loads of drag, this is childs play. It is very possible to use the flaps as a glider pilot would use speed brakes, continuously adjusting the glide slope using the flaps, making you hit the spot every time. The Pawnee is also very good with slips, so a very safe tactic is to always aim to get established on the final with lots of excess energy, and dispose of it, using slips, and then flaps, to finely align with your intended glide slope.

Having parked the Pawnee outside of the glider clubs hangar, waiting for the glider pilots to get ready, I met T, one of my role models, sitting outside in the warm sun, enjoying a cup of coffee. Being a glider pilot, and an instructor-instructor for centuries he as accummulated lots of wisdom and experience. Every time I’ve talked with him, I’ve always reached some new kind of interesting insight, be it about aerodynamics, airmanship or about life in general. One day, I hope to be able to give that kind of value back, to the aviation community.

T wished me best of luck for my trip to the US, and the gliders were ready to start

Today was the focus of several months of training and preparation.
Preparations consisting of endless ramblings of procedures, checklists, numbers, rules, regulations.
Today was my chance to prove to myself, and to the authorities that all this was not spent in vain.

Today was the day of my checkride for the multi-engine and instrument rating.

To get plenty of time to prepare, I and my partner P arrived at the flight school one hour before the examiner would arrive. Or rather should’ve arrived, as we were greeted by him.

“Good afternoon gentlemen!” he said with a grim expression, as the clock just passed 9 am.