Goa

Flight hours: 0
Study hours: 0
Aviation Reading: Flight Safety Magazine (Australia)

I have been in India for almost 3 weeks and it is very apparent I am lacking two favourite activities... Flying and not working.

The flying component consists of two things:

1) Actually taking an aircraft for a flight, I wasn't impressed by the aircraft available in India (no wonder many Indian's do their flight training in places like Australia) nor the hoops I would have to jump to be allowed to take a "semi-wrecked" aircraft for a flight. I did see some nice looking ones on the flight line, but was unable to locate the owners.

2) Finishing the recording of a podcast for my show. This has been a little harder as I almost totally lost my voice in the first 10 days. I managed to get a sore throat before leaving for India and it progressed into Laryngitis from all of the talking I have been doing at work. Hopefully after this weekend, I might be able to get one released. (Thanks for all the fan mail and no, I have not been killed or kidnapped in India).

When I arrived at the office in India, it was at the same time as another employee from overseas. I could hear a Russian accent speaking American English. After quick introductions, we have been hanging out and going out on the town in Bangalore.

Did you know? for the last few years, Bangalore pubs/clubs shut at 11pm. They get busy at 10pm-10:30pm. You do the math. By curfew, I mean lights on, music off, police or security inside to escort everyone outside and then clear the crowd from the street. It is madness.

Being annoyed at this, I planned a holiday trip to Goa, a long string of beaches where the law is more relaxed and people come to party!

There is a public holiday in India on the 26th of January (Just like Australia day at home, but I will not be having lamb, I have been lucky enough not to get an Indian food enema/Delhi Belly etc thankyou very much, I'll have my lamb back in Oz). Due to this holiday, I planned to take a half day off on Thursday before the public holiday and a full day off on Monday. This saw me plan for a full 5 day holiday in Goa for both of us. Good Times! I Like! (In my best Borat voice).

Arezo, a co-worker from my Sydney office, is also arriving in Bangalore on Thursday night, so she booked a flight for Friday and cancelled training on Monday to give her a 4 day holiday in Goa.

So, the only flying I will be doing so far is in a crazy local Indian airline. I hope to take some pictures of me arriving safely in Goa. Perhaps I should fly the plane?

India

Flight hours: 22 (via Human Mailing Tubes)
Study hours: 2
Aviation Reading: Killer Caldwell

I haven't done any GA flying in the last few weeks as you can see. I have been thinking about it though and occasionally looking skyward.

The reason for this short hiatus is that I was over in Western Australia (thanks to Virgin Blue), for the Christmas break. I stayed on a homestead near the edge of Perth civilisation and dreamed about the possibilities of having a property with my own landing strip. One day.

We left Perth in the afternoon on NYE and landed at 10:10pm in Sydney. Just enough time to get home, change clothes, grab booze and fireworks and head out to Matty's house party. We arrived at 11:30pm. Yay!

The first week of 2007, I'm finalising my plans for the 5.5 weeks of work in India. I'm in contact with an aero club in Bangalore, so hopefully I can get some air sightseeing done.

I will be podcasting in India, albeit on inferior equipment and hopefully will get to release two planned episodes.

My flight to India via Qantas (for the frequent flyer points), would have seen me arrive in Bangalore around 3:30am. That wasn't going to happen. Instead I'm flying Singapore airlines and now arrive at a more respectable 11pm.