Well I arrived back on Monday after a week in Florida at Ormond Beach. 20 hours got me a PPL revalidation checkride, an FAA multi rating and a UK night rating (CAA instructor was over there with me), which seemed like good going. Granted the multi will be pretty much useless over here unless I win the lottery, but it will stand me in good stead for ATPL training when/if I get there. Also it was great fun to fly a 'proper' aircraft with foldy wheels and two throttles.
As for radio, well it was easy as anything, I shouldn't have worried. I did enjoy being cleared for landing and take-off each time, as I rarely fly from fully controlled fields in the UK. Equally pleasing was a regional airport tower that had a radar picture, weather station and ATIS rather than just a walkie-talkie and a windsock. The transition from Seminole to C152 every day (multi in the day, single for night) was tricky at first as they required completely different styles of landing. To top it all off I got to take a 172 into Orlando Sanford to catch the flight home
. Great experience and very interesting.
Ginger
