I am leaving

A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are for. Sail out to sea and do new things. — Rear Admiral Grace Murray Brewster Hopper.

This year, Asia was teasing me with a glimpse of aviation heaven – I bought my first airplane and I have been in the air for more than 100 hours over six months.  But now the harsh realities of life caught up with me. After putting up with me for 12 years in Singapore, my company is now sending me to Dubai.  The new job is great and a logical next step in my career, but rising up into the skies every weekend and go wherever the fancy takes me is likely  a thing of the past.

Nevertheless, as the saying goes, “To most people, the sky is the limit. To those who love aviation, the sky is home.”, and so I am not actually leaving.  I am just going to use a different part of my home.

My strategy in life has been to do first what is necessary to fulfill your obligations to your family and other people and to do the best with what you got.  So far that has served me well.  What sometimes looked like the end of the road for me turned out to be the beginning of something better.

And so, I decided to use the time between jobs and get a commercial pilot license with instrument and multi-engine ratings.  I have already paid my deposit with Florida Flyers in St. Augustine and bought the Gleim materials to prepare for the theory exams.

I didn’t find anything useful  about GA flying and aircraft ownership in the UAE on the Internet. It frankly feels in bit like South East Asia four years ago.  In other words, a perfect starting point for my next blog “flyinthemiddleeast”.

Taking my Piper Archer to Dubai is not completely out of the question. She has served me very well and turned out to be a beautiful and rock-solid personal plane for a low time PPL holder.  I have an inkling, however, that a N-registered aircraft may have better utility in the UAE, which means I will try selling the Piper in Singapore and buy a new plane in Dubai.  If you are interested, look out for a blog post on that subject.