Received my Part 61 PPL(A) from CASA on Monday.
Talk about mixed feelings. Achieved something I've always wanted and promised myself I would do, but now feel like I'll never be able to fully utilise it. Furthermore, the GA community at Archerfield (and it seems other Metro GA aerodomes), is largely dead.
I started at the RQAC at the end of 2015 and that wasn't hugely "clubby" then. And then they went bankrupt. After that I found another place to continue and concentrated on finishing. Now that I've done I cannot find anything around there remotely social.
Also, my ambition to try and find ways to make things more affordable seems to have been futile. I now calculate a the maximum hours I can afford to fly a year under the cheapest scheme I found is 15. Kinda sad (and probably somewhat unsafe).
Many have talked about GA->RAAus conversions as a cheaper path, but max 2 POB and in reality 1. What is so recreational about going solo? And the price reduction (relative to the C172 syndicate I've enquired in at Archerfield) is modest. And I _still_ have to do a conversion course.
So I'm a man who has climbed the mountain only to fall off a cliff onto a sinking ship.
