The Flying Fish

One of the requirements for a CPL is 5hrs solo night flying. Included in that must be a night x-country of at least 150nm. So it’s quite similar to getting a night rating, the only difference being that you must fly solo. I had hoped to do this nav last week when we had a full moon, but unfortunately I discovered that one of the aircraft’s nav lights wasn’t working, and I had to cancel the flight. I wasn’t too impressed because it was a perfect evening. But then I had the bright idea of doing the nav on Saturday morning, at about 5am. This meant waking up at 0330. I’m not a morning person, but all I can say is that the early wake up was worth it! At about 0330 I got up and called the weather office. I tried my best to sound awake, but I don’t think it worked. There wasn’t any fog or clouds, but the wind was strong; 160 degrees, 15kts gusting 35kts. It was dark, and while the wind was blowing in Cape Town, the airfield was still, calm and quiet. Until I fired up POV, a trusty 152....

Saturday, 6 July In order to get one’s commercial license, you have to complete a 300nm x-country. So a month or two ago I started planning, and I decided that I would go to Tanqua and Clanwilliam. A friend was keen on the trip, so he joined me and flew along in a Cessna 152 (I was in the Cubby, of course). We’ve been having a lot of good weather, so we decided that Saturday would be the day. We plotted and planned, and I went over a few ‘worst case’ scenarios; our fuel planning had to be perfect. I calculated that we would both make it from FASH to Tanqua to Clanwilliam if we only had a groundspeed of 65kts (Cubby normally cruises at about 75kts). We planned to leave at 0800. I took my time and we only took off at 0820. Despite my careful planning, I forgot that we would be flying directly into sun. I won’t make that mistake again. It was 6degrees on the ground, put there was an inversion at 2000ft, and it was 25degrees (so I didn’t freeze, for once). We routed via Wellington ...