And that's the highest I've flown so far. Mind you, it's not as easy as driving a car, but I suppose, that's the way it should be for a pilot. And let me quote my sister Maddy (I think she's marvellous with words and I'm going to hire her as my blog editor in the near future) - "nervous, tense, apprehensive, at the same time excited, enthusiastic, eager and full of josh" - just the words I needed. It's terrific. It's unbelievable. I've done 5 flights now, and I'm raring to go.

I've been grounded for 3 days now, because of a cold. Nothing major, just stuffy nose, no fever or cough. I'm much better now and should be back in action tomorrow. Unfortunately my instructor Ben Webster is off for 2-3 days, so I'll be flying with another instructor for a few days. Ben said that it'll be a good experience to fly with a different instructor. Ben pushes me hard, I think he realises that I can, and thus he acts. So far I've been able to match his expectations, I hope I can live up that way. He'll be off in May, so I'm going to push myself as hard to complete my Private Pilot License in April. That'll be a lot of hard work I bet, but I think I'm up to it.

And thank you all, who've left me messages on the website and sent me emails. I apologise for having not replied or sent one liners, but now I have lesser time than before, and I'm currently unable to connect my laptop to the internet. I hope you will understand. Not that I'm not going to write at all, it's just going to be delayed. So please do not stop posting messages. I love them. Your messages give me a good feeling - there are people out there who care about me - and what more could I want when I'm across the globe, trying to live it out, away from all my family and friends. I miss all of you.

Again, I haven't been able to get any pictures so far. Mostly because of the cold. I'm going to try and get some next weekend. Hang on. You'll enjoy the stuff.

Cheers
Mayur Poddar

I've been a lazy boy this weekend. While I could have written about the last few days, I've just shrugged. So here goes.

The journey to Vancouver went without an incident, and I slept most of the way. Rishil, another student at the same school, and I, flew in the same Cathay Pacific flight from Mumbai to Hong Kong to Vancouver. We landed at 1400 hrs on 16MAR - that's about 24 hours after we left from Mumbai at 0500 hrs on 16MAR. Notice the time difference - it's 13.5 hours off.

Blythe was very kind to pick us up from the airport and give us a ride. She helped us buy the very essential milk on the way, took us to the school (at the Boundary Bay Airport), about 30 minute drive from Vancouver, and then dropped us off at the farmhouse. The farmhouse is a 10 minute walk from the school. I'm living in a small room in the farmhouse. It's a nice quiet serene place in the midst of nature. The house is big, with a dozen small rooms, and just that many people living there. There's a shared kitchen, bathrooms, living room, a big screen TV and most other utilities. It's comfortable, and Judith, who's the caretaker, makes it so very warm for everyone who lives there.

THE BIG NEWS ::: I FLEW A PLANE. It was the day after I landed at Vancouver. Friday 17MAR 1500 PST. It was a 30 minute flight, with my instructor Ben Webster. He's highly regarded by the other students at the school, and I was completely impressed. Surely I'm in good hands. I hope to match his energy. Ben gave me an introduction to the exterior of the plane - a Cessna 152 - registration C-FIBX (Foxtrot Indian Bravo X-Ray), and how to check the controls, fuel, cables, nuts and bolts, rivets, rudder, elevators, flaps, ailerons, the works. Then he showed me the flight controls, engine controls, the instruments, gave an introduction about each of them, got me buckled up, and told me that “I'm going to fly the plane”. That literally got me going “Huh!”. Well, he took care of the tough parts - talking to the tower, controlling the pedals, and taking over when I was messing up or just didn't know what was going on. So we taxied to runway 25, took off, straight ahead to 1500 feet, then left turn to 2300 feet, over Point Roberts (mind you, that's in USA - we're very close to the border), couple of standard maneuvers like left bank, right bank, stall, emergency landing approach, stop and go, circuit and a final landing. I definitely couldn't land the thing, so he took over. The rest of the way he constantly guided me and I managed the controls. I couldn't get a good view of the outside because he kept me so busy. The few glimpses I got - my goodness - it was beautiful. And he did a 60 degree left bank - we were pulling 2G - that was awesome. This flight was very important to me - because it boosted my confidence - I'm going to do it - guys - just a year and I'll be back a pilot.

The weekend was dull, mostly loafing at the farmhouse with the rest of the guys. I also found another place to stay. I chose to move to another place for 2 reasons - the room at the farmhouse is very small, and I have to take care of my food and groceries and everything else. This other place is a big house and the family living there will let me stay in one of the rooms and also provide me with all the food I need, and it's only 4KM from the school. They have a bicycle which they are willing to let me use, and if the need arises, they would drop off and pick me up from the school. So it takes care of all my needs, while I can concentrate on my studies. Mind you, there's a whole lot to study, tons and tons of books.

The best thing about the school - Professional Flight Centre - is that there's no such thing as a classroom - every student gets an instructor for one to one training for flying. So if the student is good and fast enough and the instructor and give enough time, then one can complete the flying much sooner. Ground school is held in rotation, that's for the theory courses, and even if you miss a class or two, you can easily catch up. There's few (very few) students who have completed the Professional Pilot Program in 6 months, there's mostly those who do it in 9 to 12 months, and there's also those who're struggling for more than a year and a half. I suppose everybody has their pace.

I hadn't extracted my camera from the bags until this evening, so there's no pictures as yet. I'm sure I'll be putting something up sooner or later. Until then. More after I get into the classes.

Over and out.
Mayur Poddar.

When I was in Delhi, I was talking to someone very dear to me, about the life gone past, about my ambitions, about my new enthusiasm with aviation, about my attempts to get a visa for Canada, and about how badly I wanted it. From the top of my head, I said I just want it. There's no such thing as how bad I want it. And so I got it. The visa to Canada came after a good 15 minute interview at Canadian Consulate, Shantipath, New Delhi, on 07MAR at 1015 hours.

Here's my itinerary:

IT 102    15MAR    BLR BOM    0650    0820
CX 750    16MAR    BOM HKG    0520    1530
CX 838    16MAR    HKG YVR    1640    1220

Captain Pushkarna tied me up with Rishil, who is also going to ProIFR to do the same course as me. We'll be taking the same flight to Canada. Well, there's company to start with, and maybe a new friend.

So I'll be Mumbai all of 15MAR. And take off for Vancouver on 16MAR morning. I'll be back in a year - I'm going with return tickets. In the meantime, I'll continue to write on my site, and put up any pictures I can snap up. I'm taking my laptop with me, so it shouldn't be all that much of a problem.

And I'm taking my mobile with me - international roaming is something I am willing to try. If you have my number, please do SMS me, at least my incoming SMS will be free of cost.

I'll be back.

Cheers
Mayur Poddar

The Taj Mahal - simply beautiful. When I saw it from The Agra Fort, that's quite a distance, I couldn't get enough of it. Very few things in life could actually generate such levels of initial excitement. And when I reached the Taj Mahal, I still couldn't get enough of it. I call it simply beautiful - and I also use the same definition for Delhi girls.

Click here to see the pictures of Tatanagar, Agra Fort and The Taj Mahal. I'm quite surprised at the quality of the pictures. However hard it may be to believe, all the pictures of the Taj and the Fort were taken by me with a Canon A70 3.1 MP digital camera. Here's a sample :

At Agra, I made friends with 2 tourists - Pradeep Kumar Pandey and Yuka san (from Japan). They were on a longer tour than me. We got together to share the taxi. The taxi guy charged Rs.450 for 9am to 4pm. He took us around to The Fort, Taj Mahal and a bunch of shopping places. Good guy he was.

Cheers
Mayur Poddar

It was the morning of 28FEB. Waiting at Bangalore airport for Air Deccan flight to Kolkata was not as bad as having to tolerate some jerks who were screaming away at the airline staff for the delay. And one fellow just wouldn't stop. Blaming the airline staff for the delay, cursing them because they were not providing any snacks and not announcing the expected departure time. The A320 was standing right outside the departure terminal and there was team on ladders near the tail trying to fix some technical snag. When the fellow finally cooled down, I walked up to him and asked him if he wanted to get some tea. And he's still fuming, bengali boy, early 20s. When I asked him if he understood that his screaming like that will not help in any way, he said that he knows that and he's only venting his frustration on the staff. Now isn't that cool. Such a good day and this joker was bent upon screwing it for everyone around there. Later in the aircraft, he created even more ruckus - wouldn't switch off his cell phone even when the air hostess came back and told him thrice. Then they called a group of men into the aircraft and that's when he switched it off. What an as$h@le. I don't curse so much, but this guy. Just the limit.

And I'll tell you another thing. I listen to airport radio telephony (RT) conversations and watch what happens around there. Most of the flight delays are caused because there's too many flights scheduled into a narrow window of time. In that little time, there will be take-offs and landings, not necessarily in sequence - since an aircraft in the air has higher priority than one on the ground. And Bangalore airport running with 1 runway will be slow. Inadvertently there are delays. So the next time your flight is late, cut the airline staff some slack. And appreciate the fact that they're there to get everything moving on time.

Cheers
Mayur Poddar