From:Gerard CC:World

For those of you who are frequent flyers, have you ever wondered how it would feel if you had to use one of those life-vests stored under your seat around your neck, what happens when you pull that red tag? How do you get onto that life-boat anyway? For those who are private pilots (especially on floats), ever wondered how to get out of that thin layer of aluminum / plastic in case of a water landing gone bad? And is that window on the side big enough anyway to get through?

Shortly after getting my float plane endorsement,  I had the opportunity to attend a one-day Egress training session hosted by Bryan Webster near Ottawa to answer these questions and more.

I had a vague idea of what to expect before attending this training. But after going through the day, I can only recommend this to any private pilot (even if you don’t fly on a float plane) as well as for those who fly a lot in GA airplanes and are sometimes over water.

(more…)

It will soon be two years since I passed my private pilot license (PPL) and I’ve enjoyed it ever since. I’ve since then discovered a few people around me who share the same childhood dream, and all I can say is that while it requires some time and money, it is absolutely worth it.

Since earning my wings, I’ve continued with additional ratings such as the Night rating and VFR OTT one. But the one I recently finished certainly was the one that opened my aeronautical knowledge to a whole new topic: floatplane endorsement!

(more…)

Yes, a long time since the previous post, but the last 10 months have kept me fairly busy. In addition to welcoming to the world a daughter and maintaining a good workload from a professional side (we just announced the latest version of CorelDRAW), I had the opportunity to realize a childhood dream: becoming a pilot!

And what a great time it has been to go through the process. I earned my Private Pilot License (PPL) on January 15, 2010 in about 10 months and wanted to share the journey for those who might be interested in doing the same. While this post is based on the Canadian regulations, PPL licenses seem to be fairly unified around the world and the comments here might still be of interest for you.

(more…)