My story

First-hand accounts from pilots on how they went wrong and how the rest of us can learn from their mishaps. Submit yours to SteveHitchen@yaffa.com.au to win a prize.

14 Aug 2012

For all the budding and eager student pilots out there looking forward to their first solos, we hope this story will give you a revived respect for circuit emergencies.

08 Apr 2011

A private pilot explains, by way of a hair-raising first-hand account of a near-miss, the importance of maintaining situational awareness.

08 Feb 2011

A Melbourne private pilot details how he survived having a laser pointed into the cockpit of his light aircraft while flying at 500 feet at night.

03 Dec 2010

It was a cool spring morning with low overcast and the cloud base was about 1500ft AGL. There was occasional light rain as I drove to the regional airport west of the Blue Mountains, where I was doing my PPL flying training.

08 Oct 2010

It was one of those classic Sydney autumn days: almost no wind, sharp clear skies, perfect for flying. Despite what seemed ideal conditions, I was to learn a lesson which stays with me 25 years on.

08 Aug 2010

While I am admittedly a very inexperienced pilot with a scant number of flying hours to my name thus far in my journey as an aviator, I’d like to think I’m nonetheless proactively cautious everytime I jump in the cockpit.

09 Jun 2010

With a number of factors conspiring against him, this My Story pilot could have ended up inadvertently commemorating the Centenary of the Wright brothers’ first powered flight with a bang, literally.

19 Apr 2010

Not long after reading our ‘Unfamiliar airfield - don’t be unprepared’ feature (May/June 2009), this issue’s My Story pilot entered an unfamiliar airfield, unprepared, while on a navigation training flight. Oh the irony! There’s a lesson here for all of us.

14 Apr 2010

No matter how much experience we gain as pilots, the perils of overconfidence and complacency can always come back and bite us.

14 Apr 2010

Geoffrey Hamilton recounts his trials and tribulations from venturing into a wild dust storm and shares the lessons he gleaned from the experience.