Welcome

Greetings from a recently-categorised and serial-numbered student pilot.

I will be beginning in the Graduate Diploma in Aviation at the UniSA Aviation Academy next week. Over the course of the program,  I will be undertaking flight training, with the aim of graduating with the licenses and endorsements required to work as a fixed-wing aircraft pilot. At this stage,  I am interested in the following kinds of flying work: flight instruction, working for the Royal Flying Doctor Service and aerial firefighting (much to the extreme dismay of loved ones). Any flying job that isn't actively ruining people's lives and pays enough for me to live on would be great, really...though I would like to stay in this wonderful city of Adelaide if possible!

With this blog, I will provide a sort of running commentary on my training, and on my prospects as they change throughout the year (and perhaps beyond).  I will try to give emotional self-reflection a wide berth, unless something extraordinary happens.  Instead I will stick to the sort of information that other prospective pilots and general humans might find useful, and try not to repeat things that can be easily found elsewhere.  That said, expect opinions to gush forth with little control. 

One mystery I would like to solve is how somebody can become a water bomber pilot.  It's likely that I'm just bad at finding information, but there appears to be some kind of media blackout on the issue.  I've found a few weak leads, and already know about the need for what's called an Agricultural rating, but that's nothing - I require far more information than this! Anyway, if I find out anything, I will post it here - I'm hoping to build a reasonably complete picture of the career and how to get into it.

Anyway, thanks for reading. I hope you find these writings to your liking!

Tristan