HELLO EVERYONE!

Seems like only yesterday I was writing my last bit of news to you all!!! Yet here I am and today is May 5th 2008. Much has happened since my last newsletter…

I left you all as I was completing my Visual multi-engine flying and beginning to approach my Commercial Pilot’s Licence test. Leading up to the test the training become incredibly exact and precise , to give us the best possible chance, and after a couple of extra flights to polish up my techniques I am extremely please to say I passed my CPL first time and it was a lovely day where everything seemed to fall into place. I did it on 08/04/08 and felt like a huge weight off the shoulders once we landed and my examiner told me I had passed!

Here we are now coming home in 24 days time and well on the way to completing the final few simulator lessons and flights on the instrument training.

The flying has really picked up and we are busy learning the instrument approaches, scanning techniques as well as how to fly an entire instrument route in cloud from airport to airport – good stuff!

We have had a few adventures to the nearby town of Tauranga which was a really good day out. Off we set on one of the last warm days of summer - surf boards swimming gear and coats at the ready and drove to the East Coast to Tauranga.

The surf was awesome although it was weird going to the beach in April!!!

Unfortunately today’s high of 15º means summer is well and truly gone so no more visits to the beach at least until the summer holidays back in England!

I also managed to get some time off to go and visit the South Island which was really amazing to see. I stayed with mum’s cousin and family in Christchurch and got to see the sights and take some time out from planes! On the Saturday day we visited the West coast by driving through the Alps and the scenery and views were awesome.

Unfortunately that mini-break ended and I am back flying later today (which is no bad thing!)

Not long now until I shall be getting on a 777 home. I am looking forward to seeing you all again sharing more news and returning to the modern world!

Cya all soon

Gareth Wynn

Gareth.wynn@ctctrainee.net

Hello! Just a quick note to let you know how everything is going now I have returned back to Middle Earth!

Yesterday 18 th Jan we landed at Auckland airport having had nearly twenty – four hours on two different planes! Ouch! This is our final visit to New Zealand and after that things should quicken as we return to the UK.

Some big changes mean our dates of doing things have changed and I have also changed to course CP48. This has meant that I will now be coming home around about the 8th May and, after a week or so off, will then move straight to Bournemouth and fly from Bournemouth airport. I live there for around about 4-5 months after which I should have all the necessary licences and then we will commence our Jet Training in September-ish! (these dates are as changeable as the weather!)

I have moved into my nice new room still in Clearways beside Hamilton Airport and on Monday morning will commence the Multi – Engine Ground Course and we will start learning about the twins in which we will do the majority of our training.

That last paragraph I wrote a long while ago it seems now, as today is Saturday 23 rdFebruary (Friday night for you at home). Things have moved swiftly since then and now we are the most senior group out here as CP47 returned to the UK 3 days ago! It’s mad!

We have now been flying the Twinstars for about a month and I have flown about 12 hours in them with the equivalent in simulator time. They are the most stunning planes to fly and being out here in New Zealand with these incredible opportunities has been so fantastic and I thank-you all for your prayers, emails, thoughts and support.

Geeky bit now…

The twins have built in Air Data Computers, ‘FADECs’, (Full Authority Digital Engine Control systems) and are very similar to the ones airliners use and work out so much stuff its unreal. Last week I flew a diversion with my instructor, Mark, and the plane nearly worked everything out for me all I had to do was turn the auto-pilot on! This week sometime will be my Commercial Pilot Licence skills test which I am hoping the weather will remain lovely for. From there we will be taught instrument flying in a really big way. All of March, April and the week in May will see us learning to fly along airways in controlled airspace, Instrument approaches and holding patterns so all is very exciting.

We have hardly stopped out here and I have barely had a moment to myself as almost everyday we are in at the airport learning something new or being lectured at!

I do have this weekend off however which will be very relaxing.

The last few flights we have done have been familiarisation with the multi engine aircraft and procedures. Last week we shut an engine down in flight as part of simulating an engine fire (the picture below is where we have the left hand engine feathered and secure without the propeller turning!!!) We have been taught the Visual navigation techniques and circuits in the twin and soon we will have to prove it to the examiner.

I’m having a great time here really appreciating what an awesome and impressive country New Zealand is but still look forward to coming home in about 10 weeks.

Thanks for getting in touch everyone in all forms of communication!

It’s great hearing from you all.

I’d love to get an email from you : Email – gareth.wynn@ctctrainee.net

Mobile number - I’d love to hear from you a text or a quick hello

or send me a random TXT I’ll reply!!!! – +64 210 570 762

Room landline number - (0064) 7856 1030… ext 8208

Snail mail: Gareth Wynn (CP48), CTC AVIATION, 131 Boyd Road,

Hamilton Airport, RD2, Hamilton, New Zealand.

See ya

HELLO!

Well the weather here has been stunning last few days - cold crisp blue sky winter days - but I had a flight booked at 0845 am which was meant to be my first navigation flight but unfortunately it was cancelled because of fog!!! Its 11:03 am Saturday morning, and it’s just starting to clear too!!! (I wrote this some time in August…)

Things have been quite busy here!! The last few days have been intense and been incredible… On Sunday, I booked the day off and went fishing with 5 guys in my group and with some of the flying instructors & we went deep sea fishing and it was absolutely fantastic!! Between the 18 of us we caught 80 fish roughly and they were snapper, barracuda and trevally (whatever they are) so yeah it was a beautiful day and off the west coast of New Zealand virtually the pacific – was a great day out.
Then yesterday which was Monday we were back at (haha) “work” - and I did a solo flight which was pretty sweet - flew around the local areas and practiced simulating engine failures and stalling and medium and steep turns. So yeah all was quite cool. Then Tuesday we had another day off and we went skiing which was a truly awesome experience on the mountain. On Mount Ruapehu - a 9000 foot mountain - the weather once more was fab. The cloud layer stayed below us all day and they had a fresh falling of snow which made for lovely skiing conditions. We grew in confidence, several of the guys and I, then... after lunch we got cocky and tried the lower mountain area - then swiftly returned to the beginner’s area before we broke a limb! Was hilarious. This is the mountain which also erupted on about the 25th/26th Sept 07 however it remained quite inactive whilst we were attempting to ski on it.

September was a busy month too with me gaining 25.6 hours flying in 15 flights.
Another snapshot of life here as it is now 5th October 2007 and yesterday I passed my first of four flying tests which we have out here!!! All went well in the test it was one of the best days we have had here. I climbed out of Hamilton to 4500ft and was cleared up through controlled airspace en route to a “town” (which consisted of about 10 houses) which my examiner had nominated. We flew around, returned doing some instrument flying and general handling and all was sweet.

So now I am officially part of the CTC Wings Cadets and am also contracted to them for a small sum of money. (cringe)!

Only 51 days until we are home now! Hooray. This is a very nice country but is nothing like England’s green and pleasant land. I am also finding that after a while of ‘attempting’ to cook you begin to get quite good at it… haha … so I can attempt spag bowl in style now, as well as sweet and sour chicken, stir fry, home made beef burgers, green Thai curry, chili con carne, steak and the legendary pasta.
Please send me a quick hi by email I’d love hearing from you.
See you all soon!!!

Email – gareth.wynn@ctctrainee.net

Mobile number - I’d love to hear from you a text or a quick hello
or send me a random TXT I’ll reply!!!! – (+64) 210 570 762
Room landline number - (0064) 7856 1030… ext 8402
Gareth Wynn (CP49), CTC AVIATION, 131 Boyd Road,
Hamilton Airport, RD2, Hamilton, New Zealand.

5th August 2007

28th June 2007

HELLO!!!

Greetings once again from “Lord of the Rings” country. Well a lot has happened since last time I wrote… some of the guys got stuck in a lift, we’ve been to Raglan surf beach twice, Rotorua and seen the geysers and mud pools and I have been flying a fair bit!

It’s mad out here! Training to be potentially in charge of a 60 tonne lump of airborne metal – is slowly materialising to be more than I could imagine. The guys out here are absolutely excellent – friends for life who I will hopefully be reunited with in the airlines!

We spent a weekend on yet another road trip (we’re making the most before they chain us to our books!) and we headed off in the minibus to Raglan beach on the West coast of the North Island – only 40ishkm (weird I know). Out there the sand is black because of the volcanic content but the surf was pretty immense. So yeah that was pretty much Raglan – we played football, Frisbee on the beach and were then eaten alive by the sand flies which had a passion for the blood of us Englishmen.

The Lift incident was a laugh and happened up in Auckland. 5 of us went out for a bite to eat and as we sat down to tuck into our main course we received a phone call from 4 of the guys back at the hotel that 6 of them were trapped inside a lift!!! “What do you want us to do?” was our response and we began eating our beef chilli wraps which were delicious! So with our stomachs satisfied we returned to the scene of the crime and discovered two fire engines had turned up to attempt to free the captive muppets! (don’t laugh these are the guys who are gonna be flying you on holiday in 2009 hahaha!!!)

Well, the 14th – 18th May saw us all studying hard for Air Law which subsequently went very well as I got 87% and I also gained a 96% in radio-telephony which I was delighted with. We then spent 21st – 25th May revising meteorology which wasn’t the most pleasant thing I have done. So all exams are now completed – Human Factors, Aircraft Technical & Principles of Flight, and Navigation.

My first flight! Sunday 20th May. This was pretty cool. It was in a Cessna 172 and my instructor, Nicole, showed me the ropes and flying in New Zealand. We took off, flew north and through a valley which was pretty sweet. She showed me the local area and pointed out local features of Hamilton. I took control and flew ZK-OUI around the skies and then approached to land. All was cool and we are now learning on the Robin R2160 which are pretty nifty with loads of flashing lights and groovy gadgets inside see the picture (and they are fully aerobatic!!!)

June 4th we created a masterpiece in the kitchen a beauty of a roast beef dinner – although we did smoke out the place and as a result 15 fireman to come and see what was going on… oops…

June 11th Other exciting information which has happened is that we have moved into the proper accommodation called Clearways. There are four blocks that house 24 people in a studio room each, we each have an amazing ensuite wet room, a big lounge with a HUGE T.V. and sky telly, a BBQ to each block and we are really close to the airport. My room is facing towards the approach path, so I work in between watching many a plane approach and land at the airport!

We are getting our Airline Pilot Transport Licence Theory books (ATPLS) and that is a proper boost. We had to complete the NZ PPL theory exams to fly solo in NZ, which hopefully should be within the next few weeks. Tomorrow 24th June we actually start our ATPL NAV lecture where we are taught the stuff which we then write up and check online using Bristol Ground School software. These exams are the ones we sit during December 07/January 08 when I come home for a 5 weeks.

Many thanks for all your thoughts and prayers I am still at Hamilton Central Baptist Church in Hamilton and enjoying it very much. I have managed to let everyone in my group know and really believe that it is God who keeps giving me opportunities to talk about what I believe. Its fab!

On moving into Clearways I have also met a couple of other guys who have been trying to get to a church and we 3 went on Sunday to a good church which was “Gateway Christian Centre” just to see as it is pretty near. The new group of pilots are here CP50 we’re welcoming them and introducing them to everything. I found out that CP stands for Cadet Pilots!

I am working hard and hope you are all well, missing you all, email me - godzillaishungry@hotmail.com

New mobile number I’d love to hear from you a text or a quick hello! – (0064) 210 570 762

New Room landline number (0064) 7856 1030… ext 8402

New address you can send stuff to…

Gareth Wynn (CP49), CTC AVIATION, 131 Boyd Road,

Hamilton Airport, RD2, Hamilton, New Zealand.

16th May 2007