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At long last, I have my NZ PPL. It took a while to arrange because they insisted on a full, thorough BFR, which took me six sessions to complete. I was worried that they were going to bounce my application, because I couldn't reach them on the phone to seek clarification over just what documents would suffice to prove my lack of transport offence history in the UK - but they haven't argued with the set I sent them.
The license itself is a plastic card, valid for life - though only useful while my medical and BFR are current.
I recently finished reading Riding Rockets by Mike Mullane, former USAF officer and astronaut with three Space Shuttle flights to his name. It's a fascinating warts-and-all account of his time in the shuttle programme: the pressures and rivalry around crew selection, the effect it had on his family, nerve-racking launch scrub after launch scrub, the heartache of Challenger (and a chapter about Columbia, though he had long since retired from the programme by then) - and more intimate details about being an astronaut than you probably wanted to know! Well recommended.
The license itself is a plastic card, valid for life - though only useful while my medical and BFR are current.
I recently finished reading Riding Rockets by Mike Mullane, former USAF officer and astronaut with three Space Shuttle flights to his name. It's a fascinating warts-and-all account of his time in the shuttle programme: the pressures and rivalry around crew selection, the effect it had on his family, nerve-racking launch scrub after launch scrub, the heartache of Challenger (and a chapter about Columbia, though he had long since retired from the programme by then) - and more intimate details about being an astronaut than you probably wanted to know! Well recommended.