unbelievable how fast time flies by when you're busy. We arrived in Australia 3 months ago and finished most of the trainings and courses. First off, Dan was suppose to finish his license conversion within 3 weeks. Now 3 months later, we had to realize that the Australian Government is more laid back than we anticipated but we are awaiting the approval letter anytime soon.
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| Back to School |
Therefore after the 3 weeks Daniel was only able to finish the 2 written exams but didn't fly at all : /
By the end of
June we traded the mild Mareeba "winter" for a cold chilly Melbourne
breeze. We had 10 days of so called transitioning training
and got educated in how to handle different cultures and ourselves.
Highlight was the four days trip on "the
great Ocean Road" after the training.
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| What we took away from this course ;-) |
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| The Great Ocean Road / The remains of the 12 apostles |
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| cheeky little parrots |
Back in the far north we started Orientation training in Cairns. During those 2 weeks we learned more about the structure of MAF and how they operate and manage the different programs. After orientation we had a 1 hour drive back to Mareeba where Dan started his standardisation flight training. Standardisation means adapting the company's standard operating procedures like which power setting and airspeed we choose for certain operations, how to take-off from a short runway and land into a narrow airstrip.
Deb was busy too, during orientation training we met another Swiss family which lives for the next few years in Mareeba. They have 3 kids and Deb helped out with looking after the youngest while Lilian was homeschooling the 2 older ones. Tom is working as a flight instructor at the MAF Training Center and it was great having another Swiss fella going through the same training as Dan.
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| on the "road" |
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| aiming for the right speed and attitude |
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| Last day of Standardisation, I know cliché but I love it... :-) |
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| Deb and Yann |
Now we are waiting for Dan's License approval from the Australian authorities before he can conduct his final check-ride and then we are off to Dili, Timor-Leste. Meanwhile Deb continues to help out Lilian with the kids and Dan is going thorough a maintenance training so he'll be able to change oil, tires etc... Good thing is that we won't get bored anytime soon :-)
