Learning To Fly - Hour 57 – Solo

Learning To Fly - Hour 57 – Solo
 
So I had done an Hour in the morning on General Skills Revision (GST), and got a little better, so Rob had said and if the weather improves later after lunch, I could have an hours solo….. Bliss I thought.
 
Whilst I was sorting myself out in walks Alex Craven AKA “Iceman”, “Howdy doody dudes”, am I going on my second cross country today, err maybe, said Rob, I would still like to do the mock GST first and then see how the weather is.  With his little face looking rather glum, off he walked to the hangar to pull his Quantum out, poor thing, everybody say aaaaarrrre!
 
Shortly after that, I wondered out of the office and saw Alex, “cheer up mate, you know we have to do this, get this out of the way and it will be the bigun next, Yea your right GT, but I really fancied the cross country today, the weather looks good this morning, yea it does mate, anyway, good loo with the Mock Test, cheers GT said Al.  With that I was sorting my stuff out for an hours solo, practicing the areas that I had got wrong in the drills I had undertaken that morning.
 
I bumped into Rob a few moments after that, and he reminded me that the cloud is coming in from the west, and it is fairly low, so I was to return before it hit the airfield.  Not to long after that Al & Rob taxied by and were soon disappearing into the skies, good luck I thought!
 
As I sat in Gunnies cockpit, and went through the pre-start checks, I began to feel the end of the training is near, and soon I would be doing it for real and when ever I wanted to weather and health permitting, with that, a look around, “Clear Prop!”, V VVVROOOM, the old rotax burst into life, I taxied off carried out the pre-takeoff checks and then taxied down to runway 30.
 
Soon, I was airborne and flying off towards Bovingdon. Whilst in this area I carried out . an HSELL check as I was going to put Gunny into the incipient stall position, this I did, but I feel I could have done better; again I did it, better I thought. LIFE check over Bovvy I said to myself, and ooooouuuue those clouds look low, and sure enough they were, then the radio busted into life “Student  Pilot, Golf, Golf Tango “Pause” Golf, Tango Zulu, what’s your position over, Golf, Tango Zulu, over Bovvy, why. I would like you to return to the airfield GT, the clouds are coming in, and I want you on the ground. “Student Pilot, Golf, Golf Tango “Pause” Golf, Tango Zulu, roger wilco, Student Pilot, Golf, Golf Tango..
 
So I had to return to Plaistow’s, “Plaistow Traffics “Pause” Student Pilot, Golf, Golf Tango inbound from the west for an over head join.  Soon I was over head at 1600ft QFE, and yes it was a dreaded 30 landing.  The thing is reader its not that I find runway 30 hard to land on its just that it is fairly short, and you have to get the old girl down and as you may have read in previous blogs, the approach speed needs to be no faster than 60mph.
 
I descended on the dead side, and made the call for a left hand circuit for runway 30.  Not long after that I was downwind, on base and finals. Here we go, radio call, nose wheel straight and enough fuel to go to Iceland and back, good I thought. I had remembered that my previous landing that day had been a little quick, so I am slowing old Gunny down with bar and throttle control, but the wind was a little breezy across runway from the west, so I needed to track into wind.
 
So a sort of a minor powered approach, 300ft, 200ft, over the hedge, down the dip, and touch down, (which was a little hard) aeronautical breaking and taxied off to the grassed apron, did the mag and tick over checks and shut her down …. “Bugger”, I wanted more airtime than that, Bugger, Bugger and Bugger it (OK Rob).
 
So that was that, nothing to report and digest, apart from the landings, I need to get the speed right every time, between 55mph and 60mph, failing that go around…
 
Happy Landings
GT & Gunny Flexwing