"It is very important to have confidence in your instructor. You are placing your life in their hands. Equally, your instructor has to assess you as a student, how likely you are to go raving mad," said Jamie Honan an 'ab-initio', or raw, student.

We join in a lesson given by Arthur Armour, a very senior instructor who has come to Sydney for the day from his base in Tarree, and student Jamie Honan.

"The first thing you do as a student is sign a form that basically says 'Flying is dangerous, you're taking your life in your own hands, and we take no responsibility'," said Honan.

Training at Sydney Recreational Flying Club is currently done in one of two Lightwings. The older, the bright yellow 081, is used for today's lesson.

The lesson starts with a briefing in the clubhouse, an 'Arthur Daley' style caravan that has made its final journey to The Oaks airfield.

Arthur Armour, resplendent in a feral grey beard, quizzes the enthusiastic Honan on his current status.

"I've only got five or so hours," says Honan. "It's very confusing at times."

Armour nods thoughtfully. "Not to worry, it'll come."

Armour has been involved with the club for most of its 22 year history. He believes in an almost old fashioned instructional system, one that he learned from the military.

Honan and Armour add fuel to the Lightwing, and do a number of checks on the plane. These include a fuel drain, taking a sample of fuel to see if it contains contaminants such as water.

"I like my wings to stay on," says Honan, as he examines the bolts on the wing struts to see if they are locked tight.

The cowling over the engine, a two stroke Rotax 582, is removed and the compartment looked over for obvious failings.

"There's the favorite tale of the engine mount coming loose," says Honan as he pulls on the prop to feel for play.

The two wriggle into the snug cockpit, Honan drawing his feet up over the fabric covered side. The whole plane, including the two occupants, must not weigh more than 544 kilograms.

Honan has with him a box that looks like a bright yellow video cassette holder. Inside are three electronic circuits, joined by some rough wiring.

"It's my flight logger," says Honan. The device consists of an external USB GPS device, plugged into the small circuit. The device records location, speed and height every second.

The device also contains a three axis accelerometer, and a dual axis gyro.  Recordings are taken 20 times a second from these instruments. Honan hopes to make a complete logger that will show roll, pitch and yaw of a plane, the three dimensional turns that can be made. His ambitious plans include being able to play this information back into flight simulators, so that students can review their lessons.

For today's flight, only the GPS readings are used. The recordings are later taken and transformed using software called 'gpsbabel' into a 'kml' file for Google Earth.

We pick up the story of our adventurous aviators after their flight, using images from Google Earth to tell their story.