Lesson 22 - round and round and round and .. a solo round.

Lesson: 22

31/X/2010

• Lesson time: 1.1h


• Solo time 0.1h


• Total time: 17.5h


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)


• Instructor: David Phillips

:) :) :)  ...

What can I say.

Air-law passed, medical done. I was looking forward to be in the air Today. But weather forecast was indeed shit. Heavy rains, yadda yadda yadda. Typical for this region.

But, typically, people in England have no clue about irish weather, and that was indeed the case this time. Forcast was just waaay off. Its 1600 when I'm writing this, and there's still no sign of rain. Plenty of clouds, but no heavy rain forecasted for this late morning !

Following my bit rough ride through the farm land yesterday, I got out earlier Today with intention to clean my car from all that mud. It is a religious experience for me. I like it. Drive to jetwash, grab the hose and just do it. 15 minutes or so, and car is sparkling.

Off I went to the club, lesson was booked for 13:30, I got there around 13:00. As soon as I jumped in to the instructor's room, I greeted everybody (rather quietly, but David spotted me). Could see they were busy chatting, as soon as I turned around David said 'Kilo Romeo ? grab the keys, I'll do the papers and meet you in the plane'. So I went out or a preflight. David jumped back in not so soon after I've finished:



Last time I flew with David, I was still trying to nail approaches and landings. He was kind enough to do pretty tight circuits, and let me just try landing. All I can say is that I sucked at it back than.

As soon as he got in, question was - did you ever practiced forced landings after take-off. I knew where this is going, altho I equally thought - darn, there's no way I am going to go solo Today. I have probably to try few other things, like after take-off practice landings.

David quickly walked me through it. The basic idea is, that there is no time to think about what's wrong. You need to keep the speed alive, choose a place and land it. Seems pretty easy to me, but of course a lot depends on the luck. Ie, where you are , and where can you actually land it.

Today 04 was active, which means right hand circuit, and need to backtrack the whole way to the threshold. Of course, on a weekend day there's no chance to actually do it without need to use one of the taxi ways at the end of the runway. There's just too much traffic.

Anyway, we got there, 'ready?' 'ready!'. And off we went. As soon as I turned cross wind David took over to demonstrate the engine failure procedure on takeoff. Taking off 04 there's only city ahead of you, so not really possible to practice landings there, so you need to wait for the mid-cross wind leg.

We did couple circuits, some tight, some pretty good ones. No two approaches were alike. I got a chance to try the practice approach (not the landing ;) ) after engine failure. The idea is pretty simple, so not much to talk about. Also, from that height there's not much you have time to do.

I had to go around at one stage, because I ended up way too high.

I ended up retracting flaps a bit too fast on the go around, so David decided to walk me through it. I only did it once before, with Anthony. Basically, I was too quick to retract the flaps, in stages, but too quick. Basic idea is to get rid of the drag flap (retract to 20), but leave it there, until speed is good and we're off the ground. In my case, I only waited for the VSI to show positive rate, and did another stage, etc.

Another thing that I got wrong was retracting flaps too quickly on touch and go. I ended up pushing the yoke a bit, when leaning forward to retract flaps. Obviously not a good idea. Thank goodness, that the C152s nose wheel are designed to take a bit of beating.

We did about 8 altogether, and when David said that this one is for the full stop - I knew that the judgement hour is upon me ;)

Needless to say, he told me to turn left (which is nowhere in direction of the apron). We stopped and he asked me if I would be able to do one on my own. Little expecting what's really to come, I nodded saying - there always has to be the first time, and thinking "of course I am, I've been hoping to do this solo for a long time now". He just organised a lift back to the apron, and told me to turn around and get back on the runway.

I taxied back. The view was really nice. Finally I could see to the right, no obstacles blocking my view ;)

Checked the approach, no one on finals or base. Good.

Lined up, waited for some guy to vacate the rather longish 04/22 rwy.

As soon as he said that he's off, I pushed it, and was airborne in no time.

My first two calls I made as 'kilo romeo', but than got back to 'scrabo 62' - David's call sign. I got told later that I shouldn't use it.

Everything seemed to be easy-peasy. But than once I turned base, the thought got me - "shit, you're on your own buddy. No one to back you up now".

pulled the power. I noticed that it was gliding much better. So had to pull some more, but I only did notice that before turn finals.

That was probably one of my best approaches, if I might say so. Probably because I got bollocked for previous eight approaches about what I did wrong.

Landed it nicely, altho, probably a bit before numbers (David said that at this stage if I land on the first 1/3 of the rwy it will be good enough for him).

I was a bit to the side, so there was a bit of rubber burning when I touched down. But it wasn't so bad. Stall warner sounded before the touchdown.

Whenever someone requested info, David would tell them that there's student on his first solo in the circuit. Makes you feel a bit special.

Backtracked to the apron, someone congratulated me on the radio. To which I replied "I feel a bit scared", "That's the way you're suppose to feel" , "tada". :D

I sort of abandoned the aircraft on the apron, I couldn't really see any good way to turn it around.



I'm the guy on the right. You can see that the whole traffic unfroze as soon as I left the taxiway behind me ;) There was some guy waiting there in microlight, but he was kind enough to move a bit to make some space.

The feeling afterwards reminded me of my first ride in the car after I got my license. I was on high alert, shaking a bit, or you could say - excited. But wanted more and more and more. Only difference is, that here I wouldn't probably dare to do more, because I was a bit knackered.

Checking out and paying for the lesson, Daniel - instructor I flew with couple lessons back, said that he was ready to send me off back then, if I only had my airlaw.



(I only noticed when I got home, it should say 152 instead of 172).

So here's the tip, for those who only started (and you have to be one, or be pretty patient to get here through my greggish writing, or be David P :P ).  Sort out your medical and airlaw as soon as possible. You don't really wantto hear that you could have been sent solo earlier if it wasn't for these things.

I'll probably start to grin Tomorrow. Today I just can't believe that I did it :)

I have the GPS tracks for Today's lesson, but they are really irrelevant.

Big thanks to David for all tips and the trust. I hope I got all the facts right.

... :) :) :)

• Route: circuits, RWY04


• Milestones: first solo.


• Exercises covered: ex 12, 13 and 14


• Weather: some clouds, QNH 1004, bit of a cross wind.