Hi everybody!
I’ve been lurking around these forums for the past year, and finally subscribed. I wanted to take the oppurtunity to introduce myself a little bit.
My interest in aviation started through my dad bringing home MS Flight Simulator 2002 when I was about 12 years old. I loved it, and as most kids do I just wanted to cruise around with the 747 in external camera view. Severly over MTOW and with no flaps extended I was stumped why the damn thing was scraping its tail all along the 3000m long runway before crashing in the trees. My dad, determined to teach me a thing or two, insisted that I could only play the game if I took the in-game lessons. Being the nice and obedient kid I was back then I did, and actually had a lot of fun with it. I even managed to get the 747 off the ground when I learned about the use of flaps! Fast forward a few years, thousands of flight sim hours later, flying as true to life as it could get in anything from a C172 to the Boeing 777, I wanted to pursue a career in aviation. I thought long and hard about it, but after seeing the cost for an ATPL, and the airlines in Europe not exactly throwing jobs around (this was back in 2007), with great sadness I decided to let the dream go.
This setback obviously didn’t mean my passion for aviation was gone. I’ve spent years going to airshows, reading aviation magazines and racking up even more hours on my trusty flight sim. This brings us to a year and a half ago, where after graduating, getting my first job and moving in together with my girlfriend, I finally had the feeling I had some free time on my hands and wanted to get a PPL. I started training with the Sabena Aeroclub in Grimbergen, Belgium (EBGB), and after 45:30h in a Reims/Cessna 152 I successfully completed my checkride! It was without a doubt the best decision I have ever made. It kind of makes me second doubt my decision for not going pro in 2007, but I guess it’s a bit late for that now.
So that’s my little story of how I’ve gotten where I am as I pilot today. I’ve learned a lot from these forums during my training and greatly appreciate all the little tips and tricks you guys and girls have given me unknowingly ;) I’ve taken a few friends and colleagues up for some flights around the area (everybody wants to see their own house, right?) but now i’m a little stuck with the “what now?” feeling. I want to grow as a pilot, but don’t really know how to do that . Well I do know, I need to get out and fly places, visit some French airstrips for example. But I don’t know if I have the courage to just get up and try it, in case I screw up. I decided to get SkyDemon for my iPad to back me up, and with the weather being exceptionally nice past weekend I decided to give it a try on a local flight, with my girlfriend tagging along for the ride.
Here’s some pictures from the flight:
Planning the flight and transferring it to SkyDemon
Our ride for today!
Inside the iconic round concrete hangars of EBGB
Preflight checks
Out in the sunlight!
Keeping it low to stay out of the Brussels CTR
The Hospital my girlfriend works at. The helipad doesn’t see much action anymore, after the management quickly realised the cost of owning and operating a heli and having a crew on stand-by 24/7. They sold their medevac heli pretty soon.
My hometown of Ghent. (Hey, I can see my house from here!)
Port of Zeebrugge
Approaching the Belgian coastline
So easy to operate SkyDemon! I love it!
My girlfriend having a crack at keeping it straight and level. Little disclaimer: I have my hands on the yoke at all time. She isn’t really in control of the plane (even though she feels she was and goes around telling everybody she’s a pilot now!)
I look forward to keep on reading all the nice discussions and trip reports on this forum, and might join in the discussion some times. Nice to meet you all! :)
Welcome to EuroGA Pieter !
Congratulations for getting you license in just the minimum flight time. You seem a competent and safe pilot already !
FYI, I took my first passengers like 15 hrs after my check ride and I got lost with them :) I have a little excuse, I didn’t have a IPad then !
My advice : explore one by one the airfields you don’t know yet, expanding your flying zone little by little. Spa and St Hubert look like good destinations for a short trip.
Flying in Northern France is easy, don’t be scared !
I flew 2 days ago to Saint Quentin LFOW, one of the most active airfields I hadn’t seen in a while (and in the middle of nowhere). Great restaurant, definitely recommended. But you’ll have to speak French.
Congrats for nailing the PPL on min time, with that attitude you should have gone commercial 
Pieter wrote:
But I don’t know if I have the courage to just get up and try it, in case I screw up
I find there is always some element of it when you try somewhere new, rarely 100% perfect and for my case mostly “ground shame” 
(to name few: asking to confirm the runway I am on before take-off, having to follow yellow cars, parking on the wrong spot/terminal…)
Welcome to EuroGA, Pieter
45hrs is impressive, and rare!
One day, you could pop over to our little meet-ups to Le Touquet LFAT; not so far away.
Thanks for the kind words everyone! My insecurity is indeed mostly due to local rules and regulations I might not know about. I am confident I can safely fly and navigate to most destinations, but I’m afraid of contacting a wrong controller or flying in a restricted zone I didn’t know about etc.
As a side note: I had my checkout with an instructor on my club’s piper warrior III. What a nice and powerful plane in comparison with the little Cessna I’m used to!
Welcome Peiter and congratulations on PPLA.
Pieter wrote:
but now i’m a little stuck with the “what now?” feeling
Pieter wrote:
but I’m afraid of contacting a wrong controller or flying in a restricted zone I didn’t know about etc.
Most of us newbies are fraught with such thoughts. This is a friendly forum where there is lots of encouragement to overcome these feelings. Lets continue to share and learn!!!
Welcome! Thanks for the little report and pictures!
Hello and welcome
I can surely help you as I did my training in the FLC as well… fine plane but drop it for the JMC or SAG.
What I do is to get a few friends from the Sabena Aeroclub and plan flights together… more fun and some motivation to go to new destinations.
France is nice and easy… just start bit by bit.. no worries nor reasons to be afraid.
Pieter wrote:
but I’m afraid of contacting a wrong controller
Feel free to contact me next time you fly, will be happy to give you some tips for destinations from EBGB
Welcome to EuroGA, great to see some more EBGB pilots around :)
If you have any questions, let us know.
France is a great country for the first ‘longer’ navigations. As mentioned before Le Touquet is a great option, but there are many more.
Vallenciennes, Maubeuge, Lens, to name a few.
If you want to fly to destinations further away, for example the south of France, I would recommend you to split the flights into smaller (for example1h30) flights, this will make it very easy to prepare, chances are smaller you’ll expierence big changes in weather, chances are smaller you’ll need to divert, and you’ll gain a lot of experience landing on different airfields etc etc
Of course a Warrior will/would be nice to fly, but I would only recommend you to fly it if you have the budget to fly it for the same amount of hours as the Cessna. In the beginning it’s better to fly more hours and gain experience instead of flying faster or more comfortable. In most clubs it will still be cheaper to fly the ‘slow’ plane for a long navigation instead of the ‘fast’ plane, because the ‘fast’ plane is exponentially more expensive.
