It’s a long time since I took to the skies. I was a relatively young man then in my first job at BAe Woodford where I rode through gates for my first day on my Yamaha two-stroke motorbike to be met by pickets (nothing personal they just happened to be on strike for a couple of days a week). This was 1979. Being inside an aircraft factory and seeing how aircraft were made was exciting and new. My first “proper” job while being sponsored through higher education. I quickly discovered they also had a rather nice snooker hall and a gliding club. 

The plan was to learn to fly in gliders and then at a later stage convert the flying experience to a PPL with fewer powered hours needed.  The Avro gliding club operated very close to the Manchester TMA so there was operating height restriction I recall. My weekends for the next few years were spent all day at the club waiting my turn for a winch launch to 1200 ft and a 5-6 min training flight back to the main runway. Gliding is an all-day team sport, helping to launch and recover gliders and winch cables ready for the next launch.  Happy days.  By April 1981 I had done my first solo in an open top T21 glider. What a great feeling to look across at the other empty seat and saying to myself “Well Tim you are on your own now”. You are totally responsible for your own safety. By July 1984, after a couple of years in-between off flying to go to university in London, I just stopped flying. 

Well, you know how it is, life and other things that happened just meant that flying never floated back to the top of my priorities. Until now. After a trial “gift” flight in a T61 motor glider in September this year, followed by another trial flight in a PA28 Cherokee 140 at the airfield 15 mins from home I was interested again. Circumstances had changed somewhat in the last 40 years, and this looked like a goer. After jumping through a few hoops to get the medical, limited to daytime flying only (I have an inherited deutan colour deficiency), I’m all set to start the training for an LAPL(A). The process starts at Pilot Flight Training Oxford on 17 Nov 23. I will let you know how I get on, and if you really can teach an old dog new tricks.