A big portion of my flying career has been in flight instruction. For many years I worked at flight schools in South Africa. Instruction started as something I needed to do, and grew to become something I really love. I love being able to break down something complex, teach it, and see others learn and take to it well.
So it’s been with enthusiasm that I have spend the last few months working with and training Chad. Chad has been with MAF many years, and has a good bit of flight time. Their family were previously located in East DRC, before transferring to Lesotho in December last year.
They spent the first few months of their time in Lesotho getting their house fixed up, learning the language, and generally adapting to Lesotho life.
In June I began working with Chad to get him back in the Cessna 206, after spending years in Congo flying a Caravan.
After getting him comfortable again, we began going deeper into the mountains to check out some of our different airstrips. We typically start at the ‘easy’ ones and work our way to the hard ones. The reality is that the list of easy ones is one airstrip long… From number 2 we are already onto the hard ones!
Chad did great learning about all the specific challenges of these airstrips, and typically did at least 5 take off and landings at each of these airstrips with me on board.
After getting him signed off on 7 of our most common airstrips, and having him complete his written and practical tests for the Lesotho Department of Civil Aviation, he was good to go.
On Monday we had a short flight on the schedule that would work great for his first solo in Lesotho.
Have a watch of the 3 minute video linked below to see how that morning went, and how it ended for Chad. Keep in mind how cold Lesotho is in August as you watch the last minute!
