Well the holidays had arrived and it looked like it was not going to be a busy day at Biggin Hill ideal for me to do my first solo right? - Well I arrived and it really was windy - Horrid in fact me and my instructor went up and not only was it windy the wind was veering loads which meant the ride was really bumpy  - Certainly not good for any type of student solo - let alone first.  Bruno suggested that we landed and sit around at the club house to see if then wind dropped in the evening  - There was a few lessons going on but by the time they had finished the wind had dropped and Bruno made a phone call to the Tower asking if it was ok for me to do my first solo!  - They, said yes! - I got sat into the aircraft and just thought to myself its the same as if Bruno is there … just he is not…

The aircraft did not have all that much fuel inside it, as I got to the runway I pushed the throttle in, the aircraft rolled faster then I had ever seen! - I reached flying speed in no time and it was at the 1000ft above the ground, turning downwind I made the call making sure to use my new callsign ‘Student GBYEA’ - and was told to call final, the touch and go landing was, ok, I was surprised by how much the aircraft floated - The runway giving off all the heat, and lack of weight however it got down and I did another 3 circuits.

Can honestly say it is not something I will forget I really enjoyed it! 

Well it was the last day of work and I knew that we would be finishing early so I decided to book a flying lesson at the club.  Once I arrived I sow that there was a huge black cloud coming I didn’t think we would be flying however Bruno seemed keen! So after filling up the aircraft with fuel (on my own) once that was all done off we went! - There was lots of CBs (Thunderstorms) floating around the area so we knew it would be a little bumpy however as we took off the thunderstorms really did help us get up there!   There were a few bumps but it was nothing tragic.  As we took off we practiced some forced landings the first type we did was high key/ low key - these arnt too bad and much like doing the circlet!  - Constant aspect however is a lot harder and I think I know which one I prefer!!  After doing those we tried some stalling went quite well however I need to remember to do nose down, power, speed THEN level out of a turn! 

The landing was interesting  - Winds were about 240@17 Gusting 27! - With the controller giving us a few wind updates on the way down all in all way good fun though! 

Next lesson was supposed to be today but the weather looked bad and I fancied a lay in!!  So going to try again tomorrow although even that looks bad!

TW

I do feel sorry for my friends for the past few moths (especually on facebook) they have had to ut up with seeing status update after status update, tweet after tweet of me moaning, about airlaw.  I really harted doing this and I think if anyone has any trouble sleeping at night a read of the airlaw book will cure any issues!

Well after taking all the mocks using the PPL Confuser and airquiz I decided that I was ready to take my airlaw exam!  So I booked a session With Don at Alouette on the 2nd March 2010 at 1700 I managed to grab a lift off my dad and in no time I found my self in the tiny exam room with a pen and two pieces of paper reading through the questions.  Just like the exams I did at school I read through the question and then the multi choice answers before picking one that I thought was right there was about 2 that I was unsure of and 2 which I found hard to pick the answer I managed to get it dowsn to two possible answers.  However guessed the two that were hard I got one of them right!  I finally handed in the paper and dont think my heart has ever gone so fast while I waited for the exam to be marked.  Once the exam was marked and I found out that I had passed I was estatic!

So now airlaw is done next to do is RT and Nav :D

….  And of course solo?

Flying To Goodwood And Back!

Bruno and me did some circuits in the morning and decided to leave it at that until a time that I got air law  - I think that means he was happy with them!

Bruno had to take Robbie up on a flight so left me on the ground planning! - He said to plan the following route…. Biggin>Kenley>Dorking (ish)>Gilford>Goodwood.  The area that we had to fly down is in between Gatwick and Heathrow’s airspace. Places that must be kept out of!  The flight planning was not too hard and after a quick refresher read through the computer (not a digital one!) I had worked out what winds we were to use and what direction we would be going (I hoped!)   After waiting around Robbie and co finally got back to Biggin and shut down the aircraft.  While Bruno was left sorting out Robbie I went off (Solo) to go and get some fuel from the self-fuel system.  Once I had done that (and waited) I had to PPR Goodwood, this is basically a phone call telling them that we would be arriving what our aircraft type is, where we are coming from, reg etc.  Once this was done we was ready to rock and roll.  Climbing off of 21 the first place to find was the Kenley gliding site,  Biggin warned us that it may well be active so we ensured that we stayed clear!  I finally found it, the next place was Gilford my ground calculations had worked out how long it should take me to get there I had also called Farnbough radar they are a low alt radar service and provided me with a basic service  - Still they are rather helpful!  Once we found Gilford - huge town with loads and loads of roads I turned onto my last heading, which would be direct to Goodwood aerodrome.  I had to descend a bit because there was low cloud about however it was not too bad and we scraped past a rainstorm only getting a little bit wet but it cleaned the plane.  Goodwood was really hard to find!   - It was my first time there so all was new! But the runway really did look tiny!  However we finally managed to turn onto final passing over the road an Aston martin was driving around the racing circlet all good fun!  Finally we had landed (one of my best!) Taxing to the parking was an interesting expearence the all grass field really was muddy!

A fun flight!

Well…. after Jakes circets (All on the video) Bruno decided that it would be a good idea to do a navigation flight however he did not tell me where we was going or what we would be doing  - However when we came out of the club house with life jackets in our hands my mind did start to wonder! - We took off from Biggin and started to head east! - Navigating by the chart Bruno asked where we was - Avoiding flying over a prison we continued and monitored Southends frequency I then tracked onto a DET radial out to sea! Bruno asked me what I should see after 20 miles from DET VOR I worked out on the chart that it should be some wind farms, which, indeed we found!  They looked truly fantastic in the sun set!   Once we did a 90degree turn Bruno told me to get us back to Biggin Hill time for some IFR (I follow roads!) I tracked the M20 keeping it on my left so we was legal then tracked the M26 it was only needed for awhile because I found sevenoaks giving Biggin a call then told me to report final! - We still had about 10 track miles!  However once we were downwind we got put into an orbit!  Some deer had gone onto the runway - Closing the airfield im sure the security and fire guys had fun chasing them back into the wild!  Once the runway re opened we was cleared to land (Hard!) on 21 however I had to roll all the way to the end as the taxiway A had been closed while the deer were still running around.  It was almost dark at this point but we got back to the club in time for everyone to start going out to do there night raiting.

I thought this was an amazing flight!   I always had a bit of a fear of flying over water of course something that I would not admit! (Oh wait!) But flying out to sea and seeing the wind farm was just amazing!   Something Jake also got on tape!!

Well today we was back in the circet - I would be flying in the day with Jake and after a look at the weather it looked like it was going to stay nice.  After meeting up with Jake we started out Epic! (yeah right!) trip to the airport.  After a check of the plane and getting it to start we was on our way!  I did not think the circets were too bad I have done quite a few now and just need to try and get this airlaw exam done so that I can get up there on my own!  Some of the landings were a little hard but hey we all walked away from the aircraft in one piece!

After landing and getting back to the club house it was Jakes turn!

Well the airlaw exam did not happen!