A couple of years ago I was half joking that with all the flights I pay for within Japan it would be cheaper to buy my own plane! ( Actually some months it probably would be true).

But anyway today was my day off and my Mum and brother wanted a day out before I head off back to Asia next week. So we we’re driving along and my brother said he wanted to have a look how much flying lessons were. We popped in to have a look and they’d bought me one as a surprise birthday present! A little late ( 3 months – hence the surprise!) but pretty cool!!

So I got up in the air, started flying around ( I can’t believe how green England is!), and controlling it myself was great. Then some news started coming in over the radio that a commercial plane had crashed on the runway and we couldn’t land!! Nobody was injured, so it was OK, but it meant we had to fly off to another airport! So instead of just looping round and popping back to Leeds ( probably a bit boring), we really had to go somewhere. So the instructor was like “OK, I’ll have a look at the map, you just keep flying down the A1!”. Just like Grand Theft Auto!!

We landed at a grass runway airstrip a fair way away, had a coffee and a chat, then after a while got a call ( thank goodness for mobile phones), and could finally head back to the mini-runway at Leeds. So I got another flight, and again rather than just going round in circles I actually had to fly somewhere. Brilliant. So that was a pretty good day out to say the least!!

Now if only I could get more gigs up and down Japan, imagine if I really could justify getting my own plane!! : )