To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Australian Air League, Lima Section (some of the pilots from Air Activities who are formation endorsed (which now includes me)) did a formation flyover of the Air League parade.

• Lima 1, James, Warrior (UNL)
• Lima 2, Dan, C152 (UNO)
• Lima 3, Andrew, Citabria (MIF)

We flew from Camden to Longreef, and then down the coast to Manly in line astern. We made three passes at 1500 feet over the parade at Hinkler Park. The first pass was in vixen (aka phoenix), the second in right echelon and the third in line astern.

We planned to be a four ship formation, but unfortunately for Peter, SOX had a spark plug foul in the runup bay and had to return to the hangar.

Jess was my passenger for the day and she managed to get some photos (which have been up for a while waiting for me to write this note.) Thanks to our lead James for organising the flight.

Yesterday I tagged along when Andrew had one of his flying lessons. Andrew is at the learning to navigate stage of his flying instruction and yesterday's trip was to Dubbo. We flew over the Blue Mountains, the 3 sisters look so tiny from the air, we bypassed Bathurst, because of the Bathurst 1000, flew over Orange, never been there before (still haven't!) and 2 hours later we finally landed in Dubbo. The view from the air is amazing!

I've always wanted to go to Dubbo Plains Zoo but unfortunately we didn't have time to visit. It was back in the plane and back to Sydney. My first visit to Dubbo and all I saw was the airport. However, we did fly over the zoo and I saw all the little dots running round (is that a giraffe?). Hopefully by the end of the year we'll be able to fly to Dubbo for the weekend.

	I've started a basic aerobatic endorsement. So far I've achieved a tailwheel endorsement and have learned these manoeuvres; wing-over, aileron roll, loop, barrel roll and spin. Still have Immelman and Hammerhead to go. It's a blast.
Citabria 7GCBC

Andrew now has his restricted pilot's license, which means he can fly in the training area without supervision and take passengers. On the weekend Andrew took me for a fly. I was his very first passenger! (apart from flying instructors and they don't really count). I've been in small planes before so I thought I'd be completely fine and I wasn't nervous at all. Of course I didn't realise how small the plane actually was. There was just enough room in the cockpit for both of us. Because it is so small the wind affects the plane quite a bit. This means wobbling from side to side and dropping suddenly when hitting airpockets. My tummy didn't like that very much. Andrew also did some steep turns which made my head spin. I put a stop to that quite quickly *grin*. It was good fun though. We flew over Warragamba dam and then Andrew practiced his landings and takeoffs (we did about 3).

I can't wait for Andrew to get his full pilot's license. Then we can fly to the hunter for the weekend!! Check out the photos! (Click here).