(Written and photographs taken by Katherine Williams)
Kori Shinn’s dream is to make a career out of flying smaller aircraft in general aviation. So when deciding where to train, MAF in Mareeba was the obvious choice, as MAF has a reputation of being excellent at remote-area technical flying. To be more specific, Kori would like to make a career out of flying over bush fires and dropping water to try and contain them. Kori is currently studying for her Private Pilot’s License (PPL) in Mareeba.
After a dual training flight looking at how to fly VH-WMC, Kori flew solo on a navigational flight to Cooktown. The aim of the flight was to familiarise herself with the autopilot and electronic flight display that are unique to VH-WMC. Kori commented “that it was really good to be able to experiment with the plane and get used to how things work. In particular, the autopilot takes a second to respond to your command, so takes a bit of getting used to, but all in all it was an excellent experience”.
The next step for Kori is more PPL navigational training, so this week she is flying again to Cooktown with Head of Training Andy Little. Andy has to attend an Awards Ceremony at Endeavour College in Cooktown, to present an award to a student on behalf of MAF Australia for fundraising. This is a perfect opportunity for Kori to have more practise with Andy.
I asked Kori how she felt about VH-WMC and her response was that “it was a really interesting aircraft, quicker than the other training aircraft, it climbs a lot faster and the automation was really useful”. She also said that “the digital number instruments such as air speed and altitude were great. All the information is readily available in one spot. Overall, a very stable and steady aircraft”.