SEP and bye bye Arizona

You have the option to do a SEP (single engine piston) test whilst out in America (for an additional cost) I want to keep flying when I'm back in England so decided it would be a good idea, it’s in the Archer’s and practice area which we’re very familiar with and I think it works out cheaper than in the UK.

The actual test was pretty easy in comparison to everything else we’d been through, only lasting about an hour; there was an AJ departure, touch and goes at Coolidge and a simulated engine failure and forced landing. I went with another guy who was taking the same test and we switched over at Coolidge so I didn't even need to do the arrival back at Falcon. It was a really nice finish to the course and my time flying in Arizona and meant I got to fly the Archer and appreciate the scenery one last time (not much time for this on the CPL test!)

I spent the rest of the day at school running around with my logbook and signature list trying to get everything signed off. Since I’d also finished about a month early I decided to change the dates of my return flights so I could get myself home a little early. I gave myself a week to get everything sorted, do my SEP and squeeze in a trip to Vegas once Oskar had passed his CPL as I was the first in the class to take it (Josh was a massive spoilsport and left the next day after his test).

I didn't know what to expect with Las Vegas, everyone said you needed to see it but it was nothing special. I thought it was amazing! There’s no place like it and the buildings were fantastic! We stayed in the Tropicana hotel, in separate rooms overlooking the airport and tried to visit as many of the themed casinos as possible. My favourites were Paris and New York (cue Dodgeball quote about riding the roller-coaster!) We were both also over 21 so wanted to enjoy ourselves ;)

We had to clear out the apartment, this was a massive task and took the best part of a day and I'm really going to miss the place, we had a nice send off in the form of one last visit to Dos Gringos and were finally ready to come home for a couple of weeks off before beginning the IR phase back in Oxford. Oskar changed his flights to the same as mine so at least I wasn't lonely on the plane back :) Bye bye Phoenix!