Hello everyone, my name is Samantha Lindsey and on the 10 January, I went to the North Island to go on a two-week camp to learn how to fly a plane. There were 42 Ab-Initio students at this camp all ranging from 16-19 years old.

This camp was the 53rd Walsh Memorial Scout Flying School, and even though I wasn’t a Scout, I was still able to get into this camp through an Airways scholarship that covered $1200 from my overall cost of the camp. Over the two week course, I had 3 flying lessons every day some starting bright and early at 6 am and some later in the day at 7 pm and we also had 1-2 theory lessons a day. I got to make many new friends over the two week period from all over New Zealand and I still continue talking to them and am getting updates on their flying experiences.

On the last day of the camp, I went solo in a C152 (a two-seater plane with the wings positioned above the cockpit doors), this means I flew the plane all by myself when the instructor believed I was capable of flying the plane by myself. This means I knew how to give radio calls, knew how to control the plane, knew how to save myself in case of an emergency, knew how everything in the plane worked, knew how to check the plane before takeoff and knew how to land and take off without assistance. After I went solo I finished with a flying time of 11.2 hours which means I am just over one-quarter of the way to getting my PPL (Private Pilots Licence).

I am aiming to get 40 hours of flying over the next 15 months and to pass all of my theory tests to try and get my PPL. I plan to do 19-20 hours at the Dunedin aerodrome and do the rest of the time at the next Walsh Memorial Scout Flying School.

At the camp, I got to meet police helicopter pilots who flew in specially for the camp and I found out the camera system on their helicopter costs 1.2 million dollars. I also got to see a lot of very cool and different planes such as a Gyrocopter, a Hercules plane, Tiger Moths and a Texan plane. I even got to experience night flying where everything is pitch black and you had to rely on the lights from towns to use as reference points, it was so amazing!

After the two weeks was up, I got my Wings, which shows I now have the capability of flying a plane solo. I now have a Student Pilots Licence which means I can fly with an instructor or I can fly by myself, but I can’t fly any passengers until I have 40 hours and 5 theory papers passed under my wing. 

Overall I would have to say that this was probably the best two weeks of my life, I have an amazing skill now, I have met so many amazing people (such as the people who helped me with my journey to getting my Wings, and the students that were in my flight), and I am very grateful to the people who helped me get this far. At first, I wasn’t very into the idea of flying as a career or even a hobby, but after the two weeks,

I now have the flying ‘bug’. I recommend to everyone to give every given opportunity a try because you never know if you might love it or where it may lead you in the future.