Qualifying Cross Country

So QXC time. It’s a sort of vanishing point, during last few years it was a point that never seemed to be getting much closer to reality.

I did all the planning two weeks before, in preparation for the big day. Two weather cancellations later, I got a go ahead. Took a day off from work to do this. 

Wind was calm, 5kt. And up North VRB/05 - So wind and such calculations were rather simple. 

It was a strange feeling, setting off in the aircraft by myself on this rather long journey. I never had a chance to take long trip by myself with landings away in the mix - that was a very new territory. I anticipated high gliding traffic west of Biggin - luckily there wasn’t anyone around. Take off was uneventful. Weather was slightly hazy - but visibility (apparently) 10k more. I set OBS to 270, with BIG tuned in. That should keep me out of troubles on the North side of things (Heathrow zone). By the time I got abeam Kemble (wouldn’t want to overfly it) - it was time to switch over to Farnborough West. I asked them for Traffic Service, which was given to me - with the provision that it might be reduced due to controller workload. No worries. 

Ten or so miles west of Biggin it was obvious that wind wasn’t exactly 5 knots. I drifted a bit to the north, so it was time to look at the chart and adjust my headings. My work load is always slightly increased when the inversion is up. The forward visibility isn’t as great and it takes me bit longer to spot and identify features on the ground. But no worries, I got the VOR tuned in and set up, in contact with FIR. Most importantly - I am always told - to trust my calculations - fly the heading and time. Minute or so before Guilford should have appeared in front me of - I had a look around to spot it and also use the Woking as a sort of secondary point. Problem was, with the inversion in place and sun above - the white buildings in Woking weren’t clearly visible as before. But I could clearly see Heathrow and Epsom race track (before, now far behind) and used ndb to double check my distance from Biggin. And there you go, 30 or so seconds later it was obvious that the larger town on my left is Guildford. Farnborough controller also made it slightly easier by giving me traffic information ‘unknown height’ 1m ahead west of Guildford - he said :-D . “Traffic not in sight, looking - G-FC” I responded as I turned to the South.

Once established on the southerly heading - I tuned in Goodwood VOR - but couldn’t identify it. Few more traffic reports, some of them I could see some I couldn’t. But it is always nice to have this additional level of support on the radio. Few minutes into the leg Goodwood VOR was identified positively - which allowed me to pin point my position and also make sure that I’m flying actually, generally - in the correction direction. 

About 12 miles out, I started preparing for the join at Goodwood, got the airfield chart out and also used VOR to turn correct heading towards it. I wasn’t far of the right heading anyway, so it was obvious wind was generally northernly - and not 5 knots. My time wasn’t off that much either. Again, because of inversion the airfield wasn’t easy to spot from 5 or so miles, but once I descended to 2000ft and got closer it was obvious. They asked me to report overhead, which I did. This was my second time here, however different runway in use this time. Very long one, tho - 014. 

So during brief my instructor warned me that landings might be interesting and I do have limited grass experience (thanks to DP) but this was to be my first solo landing there and on grass - exciting. Overhead join went uneventfully - not much traffic in the circuit, I’ve done tons of overhead joins at Ards before. The circuit height at Goodwood is 1200ft for fixed wing which is slightly higher then usual. I’m saying that, because that does make a difference. There’s also bunch of noise abatement procedures - but the general idea is not to overfly anything that looks like housing estate or such. So turning base - I decided to keep it so that I didn’t. 

That did put me in a bad situation, with speed still bit high and altitude still close to 1200ft. I think I dropped down to about 800ft on finals - but that was still too high. Once it was obvious that I won’t make it - I decided to keep the height and go around. The idea when you go around is not to climb back to 1000ft over runway - as other traffic joining overhead or crossing it to the dead side might be in conflict. So best is to climb up to half the height and stay there, turn crosswind - and climb to circuit height. I turned around, flew the circuit once again - and ended up slightly lower on finals - but still a tad too high. 

So no wind, possible slight tail wind (since it was varying), but runway long enough (014). 

I’m still too high on final - so I decided to try slight side slipping - which saved the day, popped third stage of flaps, speed dropped to 55kt, rounded out over numbers nicely. My side slip - importantly - wasn’t full - I added just enough input to both rudder and ailerons to keep me on the right descent path. Besides, full sideslip is not recommended when close to the ground. 

The roll was interesting as I looked down the runway and decided not to brake too hard when I saw a bump or hole - as I kept on reminding myself that I don't want to end upside down.

It’s a nice place (I love guys in tower saying to me "welcome to Goodwood", very warm welcome).

After shutdown,I paid landing fee and visited Tower to get the paperwork and then settled down to eat a sandwich and watch airplanes doing their thing. As I sat there for good 30 minutes, I counted 5 other airplanes doing well pronounced side slip on finals - which made me realise that maybe my approach wasn't that horrible since others had to side slip in as well. Some without flaps to assist them in slowing down, some with big engines and tail leg ( :P ) - so visibility and/or drag is increased by side slipping. But I’m sure at least one of these was a tricycle high wing and another one was a Robin DR400. 

It was time to go to Lydd. I checked out the aircraft, jumped in - and went off. Taxying to the holding point and power checks were interesting. No taxyways as such on grass, so it is jus taxying in the general direction of holding point, trying not to bump into any buildings and stay far away from the runway itself. After power checks I forgot to release park brake and I thought I got stuck - but I fixed it quite quickly. Yet another of these things that you learn by flying solo. Off I went, the leg was to be quite scenic (shore on the right) and straight forward (go east…). Wind conspired against me again and like a dumb pillock, I forgot to take that fully into account. So no wonders, I drifted a bit too close to the shore for my liking. Farnborough controller started calling out an aircraft ‘Farnborough west , G-PC’ few times. I realised that he got my call-sign wrong - so I responded with the full one. He was letting me know that I’m flying in vicinity of Shoream and if I want to fly closer I should call them up - as they were busy apparently. I decided to just correct my heading to the north - which would keep me far away from Shoream. Actually I only heard one aircraft taking off few miles ahead - and crossing from right to left - and whenever I looked over, couldn’t see anything on the runway, taxying or in the circuit. “Oddly” enough - no gliders on this leg either. 

Approaching Lydd, I was making sure every few minutes that I’m not getting anywhere close to the danger or prohibited area. And also made sure that my join procedure will be up to scratch. Lydd’s ATIS is very very very slow - so I did remember to tune in 15 or so miles out - to make sure I’ll have time to write it down. It is seriously being read out that slow. Dunno how jets manage it…

The join is interesting, but I managed. Winds however were having a party. I got some fast tailwind on base, more so then I expected, so I had to correct for finals quite a bit. Massive runway, so no rush - but with my experience at Goodwood - I made sure I’m on the correct glide path. Altho, go around at Lydd would be a nice experience. Some other time maybe :-)

Landed at Lydd, shut down and as I was walking to the terminal - I passed a nice guy on the way, who apparently was on his QXC as well - from Southend. I asked him, where do I get the paperwork signed - in case I have to wonder to the tower again. He said, this time I can do it in the terminal building, and also that I should check the dates the guys at Goodwood put in - as apparently they made mistake on his. And sure enough, mine was off as well. One date was correct, another one was month before. Go figure, as it was signed by the same guy. Maybe he was testing us…

Paid my landing fee, got paperwork sorted, and had a chat with the lady - who - as it turned out, was from Northern Ireland - at least her parents were. So we exchanged few stories about life in Belfast and I was on my way. Every time I go to Lydd, the place is rather deserted. Maybe because I’m always there in the late afternoon. Dunno. 

I checked the weather, and phoned up instructor. The last leg of the day was to be fun - as I was flying into the sun.

On the start up - another cock up. I forgot to put the mixture to fully rich. Seriously.. So no wonders engine didn’t start. I had a discussion with instructor, before I left Biggin - he asked me “So what will you do, if you cannot start the engine at Goodwood or Lydd”. I told him “I’ll phone you up, of course”. He asked me to give it few retries, before I do that - but agreed that it would be a good action to take. So faced with perspective of staying in this rather quiet place (not that I mind such places), I decided to wait a bit, go through the check list and try again. And of course - it was obvious what the culprit was. Doh !

Taxied out, they want us to do power checks at the holding point Charlie - because there’s not enough space to pass bigger aircraft elsewhere. I called in ‘ready for departure’ and controller told me “taxy to holding point Alpha for runway 03”. Bit mixed up, I looked at the chart, holding point A was on the other side. I started doing 180 deg to get there - but decided to check again. And of course, she did correct herself. We passed few non-standard RT calls around, like “that’s alright” “no problem” - it was nice. 

Meanwhile, I’ve heard a guy coming onto frequency - C172 (I think) was routing from High Wycombe back to High Wycombe around London and of course - all the way to Lydd and he was asking for ATZ transit - or something like that. This far away from Farnborough they want you to talk to Lydd anyway.

As I reported myself at the holding point D1, I was given a clearance to take off, wind info, and ‘turn left after 1nm’ - or something like that. Meanwhile - the guy from EGTB was reporting very close to my path. After take-off, I turned onto my heading, adjusting it a bit for the wind I did encounter earlier. I didn’t climb all the way to 2400 ft this time - because of the inversion, and flying west - the visibility would be legal - but too low for my liking. So I stayed around 2000ft. As I was doing the weaving turns to clear the space under nose on climb out - I noticed that guy from Wycombe just overhead. I was glad I didn’t climb any further, as we would end up rather close to each other. He did say he saw me on the radio - so all was good. 

So correction for the wind turned out to be a bit of a mistake, as wind decided to blow from reciprocal direction this time. I was asked to report abeam Tenterden. Instead, I ended up very close to it - and it was obvious that my correction wasn’t working. So I adjusted my heading 25 deg to the left - and that worked - I ended up over Bewl Water. I really don’t like flying here on day like this (inversion), in the afternoon with sun making it hard to see horizon clearly. So this leg was rather horrible has to be said. However, I ended up doing it in rather record breaking speed - probably because of the wind that was pushing me north. I think it took me just above 40 minutes to get from Lydd to Biggin. Take off to landing. With all necessary joining procedures etc. And that’s in C152. Instructor asked me to call Lydd and verify my take off time - as he could not believe. I was wondering as well, but my own notes didn’t lie. 

All in all, nice experience. But - apparently normal - I felt slightly terrified afterwards. The sort of healthy dose of terrified. I didn’t feel proud or happy with an achievement, as I did after driving to my friends after I got the licence - but rather - I felt this sort of feeling of “well, this is a huge responsibility”. Maybe if it was uneventful and without small cockups - I would have felt differently. Nonetheless I’m happy to pass this milestone. And all that after so many years of flying on different aircraft, with variety of instructors and in few places. To this day, I don’t know if it is just because of lack of absolute focus, especially financially - or because I’m - like one of my instructor would call these sort of types - not the brightest cookie. I was ready to do QXC in NI in September, but I had to move - so I’d say the former. 

Great experience and if I had to do it over again - things would have been done differently, starting with solo land away much earlier in the training process.

I can’t wait to get to fly by to these and other places - on my own. 

Bread Crumb

SVG Bread Crumb: http://cl.ly/0X1N2x1S0r36/qxc.svg

Long solo nav

I'm rather short on solo time, either because guys at UFC weren't so happy to send me solo (because I did fsck up too many times ?) - or for whatever other reasons.
So the instructor at EFG is rather happy to send me solo as much as can, and as much as it makes sense. He was keen on letting me do circuits on the other day - when weather enroute wasn't so great to do a nav, but with the circuits cost at Biggin - I had to say no. Nearly £100 just for landing fee and touch and goes is rather steep for few circuits - £21 landing, £8 per t&g.

It's been few days since my last lesson - dual to Lydd, so I was rather looking forward to a solo nav, that would get me nearly as far as Lydd and back. The route is Sevenoaks->Bewl Water->Fairlight Cove (east of Hastings)->Ashford->Maidstone->Sevenoaks.
Since I got in rather late, due to horrible traffic queues on the way - I got quickly into the planning.

Instructor went through the 'before solo' checklist, went through my planning and praised me for rather neat lines on the chart. That's thanks to my new pen - much thinner then the previous one. We went through all the possibilities in case weather goes bad, or donkey quits, etc. The usual brief before flight.

Off I went to the aircraft, that odd feeling when you get to do all of it yourself - like an adult. Yay.
The airfield was rather quiet, some jet doing engine testing in the middle of one of the taxyways - so I was asked to do my power checks at A1 stop (last stop before runway). Off I went again, to Seven oaks. Very nice and clear day so far. This time I decided to plan from the intersection at Sevenoaks, not the town itself. Switched over to helpful as always Farnborough East. Nice female voice greeted me, and since the frequency was rather quiet - I requested Traffic service. Which they were nice enough to give to me. Despite the lack of traffic on frequency controller insisted for some reason to repeat full call sign prefixed by 'student' all the times.

Approaching Bewl Water

As I approached Bewl Water - I would get the only traffic information on the whole nav. Some guy was doing some manoeuvring 7 miles to the right of my track.
After that my service was reduced down to Basic, since that's where the radar coverage ends. I was happily tracking down to the coast. Hastings on my right. I did some nice tight turns over Fairlight and set onto the course to Ashford. It was funny to approach the edge of land and stare into the blue sky and water ahead. Part of me did wonder - what lies ahead. One of these days I'll just carry on :-) Of course once I get licence and prepare for crossing.

My turning point on the coast

This was rather interesting leg, I got blown off the track a bit. And again, the fact that there's very little in a way of standing out features here - it wasn't easy to find myself. But I knew I was going in the correct direction roughly - so trust the planning - was my motto. There's a nice canal that stands out and Ashford was visible clearly from the distance with the white roofs over terminal there. So I corrected my heading nicely by 10 deg to the left - and that turned out to be spot on.

Rye and wind turbines in the distance. Visible for miles. 

Sun and taste of what's to come when I'll route west

Approaching Ashford, with the white building visible for miles

Over Ashford it was time to turn towards Maidstone. At this point sun was already lower on the horizon and straight on. So this part of nav was rather shabby - but I kept the heading again and made sure that the motorway is on my right. I could have done better probably - but it's hard to do it when you can't see as much ahead as you would love to.

South of motorway - right sort of towns to my Left - check.

I did check my heading using Biggin VOR (identified) and the distance made sense as well - so I wasn't much worried. But I have to say, there was part of me doubting my position more then on the other legs. Lesson learned - if possible, don't route direct towards sun (west) in the evenings. It's rather harder to do in practice in this part of the world - due to the relatively small gaps that I can use for navigation. Plenty of small and larger airfields below (Headcorn, Rochester) - LTMA above at 2500ft, will need to discuss options there with my instructor. Also, note to self - set the Skills test time for mid-day-ish. To avoid any of these corner cases where my performance might not be at its peak.

Anyway - Maidstone identified, at this stage few people started talking on the radio - this time controller has changed to a guy. It wasn't the usual guy with Scottish/Irish accent, some new fella. He did not upgrade my service to Traffic - and I didn't thought of asking. Perhaps I should have. I was rather hoping it will be upgraded again automagically once I'm back in the range of the radar. I was also surprised that the controller didn't hand me over to any other station earlier on - like London Area, or Manston, etc. Lydd was of course closed by the time I routed west of it - so no point even talking to them.

After Maidstone there's a nice junction to the north visible clearly and I started seeing clearly Sevenoaks (well, as clearly as you can into the sun). Time to let Farnborough known where I am and request frequency change.
The aircraft I flew doesn't have dual radios - so I can't listen to ATIS and monitor frequency at the same time unfortunately. ATIS at Biggin hasn't changed much, I gave them a call - screwing up less then previously. They were rather quiet as well.

Reported 3 miles out, dropped down to the circuit height. The usual. Joined downwind - nobody in the circuit, so took few photos. It was a rather long nav, very quiet - so I took few photos to keep some memories. Also, by now - I'm rather less stressed during solo flights - leaves me plenty of mental capacity to take few photos every so often. And there was tons of opportunities on this nav - which took bit over an hour flight time. Very happy with myself. Ended up higher on finals again, but nothing I couldn't fix - and requested taxy down the end of runway. Someone else was told to line up and wait - so I nicely told the ATC that I have vacated the runway - so they could let the other guy go. Parked and put the plane "to bed". Not much to debrief about, instructor wasn't unhappy about my radio work - said that it has improved, nice. That's the point.  I was grinning for whole day next day. Dunno why.. :-D

Still plenty bright - but sun decided to hide behind the cloud - I could see terrain for miles now!

And the party is over.. Go west.. 

Approaching Biggin

Short finals 21

GPS breadcrumbs

Solo nav Biggin->Bewl Water->Maidstone->Biggin

So following the solo rejoin - the instructor was happy to send me on a solo short nav. It was our second lesson I believe - dual nav between Biggin, Bewl Water Maidstone and back to EGKB.

This time I was to do it on my own, so no pressure :-) Day was nice, I booked the lesson for early morning. Planned everything very meticulously, asking tons of questions, etc. I was aware of all the little airfields on the way, including Rochester and Headcorn. Day was nice, so I did expect fair amount of traffic.

Went on with the aircraft checkout, everything looked fine, 3/4 fuel tanks - so plenty of fuel if something goes wrong. That's the way we like it.

That day Biggin were using Tower and Approach frequencies. This is the first time I've seen that happening since I started flying here. No worries, I do note both down in my plog anyway.  Just a matter of putting the approach frequency in the standby instead of the Farnborough West.

I went off, and as soon as I changed frequency to LARS - it was obvious, every man and his dog with wings was out flying. Few airplanes around Sevenoaks, so I decided to drop down to 1800 ft and climb out upon departing to the south. Around the Bewl Water there was a cessna 172 doing exactly same route I just done the other way - at the same level. I did spot it rather early, however it was nice of the Farnborough to tell us that we should alter our courses - unless we want to be united. And personally I like to have a dinner at least first, before close encounters. So again, I dropped down to 1800 ft.

Almost nailed the altitude

Next leg was rather uneventful. I advised Farnborough that I'll be climbing up to 3000ft. This is due to all the traffic underneeth from Microlight sites and Rochester, Headcorn. LTMA boundary here goes up from 3500ft, so plenty of headroom. As expected, there were quite few aircraft routing west underneath me - so I think this was a good call. There was another aircraft on the frequency with the same last two letters, and it took controller few requests to realise that he was indeed not talking to me, but other guy. So when approaching Maidstone I had to start using my full call sign.

Overhead Maidstone, I turned west - and noticed a R22 or R44 hovering over the city, not talking to the controllers - and pretty much in my way. I had the right of way, however I decided to turn right anyway, just in case. Well, he did go the same way, so we had this dance for a while - until I finally had to descend and do a weird turn to keep him in sight. This is a downside to flying high-winged aircraft, but on the plus side - I could clearly see everyone underneath me. This of course screwed up my nav completely - but this is the easiest leg - just follow M20, M26 to Sevenoaks. Besides, I had the biggin VOR tuned in - so I did orientate myself pretty quickly using it and DME. I was still on the good track - so all good. Joined back overhead for 03, and went back to the club. My instructor was flying a trial lesson at the same time - and I caught him joining over Sevenoaks at the same time. So I just did follow his aircraft back to the club. Overall, nice 1h and few minutes solo nav.

I did hang around the club, as I we were suppose to fly to Lydd that evening. However, after refuelling turned out that the engine was running rough on Right magneto - the engine wanted to jump out of the cowling. Instructor tried to clean plugs, etc. - and I think was waiting for me to say something - so I just said to him "If I was solo doing this, I wouldn't leave." I think he was rather pleased that I said that, and told me "We're lucky it didn't happen at Lydd, there's nothing out there - not even McDonnalds".

Didn't take as many photos this time and no GPS track. Sorry.

Biggin Solo Sevenoaks rejoin

To build up mine and more importantly instructor's confidence before he sends me on my QXC, I knew that one of the things I have to do will be a solo rejoin from Sevenoaks.
Weather was good, instructor looked happy - he didn't shook his head when I did the superman pose, claiming that I just left my cape at home. All systems good then :-)

I was briefed about all possibilities, we went through solo checklist. Since the QXC route for EFG is Biggin->Goodwoods->Lydd->Biggin, I'll be joining from Sevenoaks. I've done this few times already on dual navs - so this was mainly a recap and bunch of safety tips.

Sevenoaks is pretty clearly visible, with big town, three large bodies of water and a massive junction on M25. The junction is rather important, as it's the edge of the Gatwick zone - same with M25 west to it.

Runway 03 was in use again Today, so we took off. Standard departure - 1nm and then right turn to the west. This keeps us just on the edge of Orpington, by by now we're 2000ft AMSL or more. On initial climb out I went up to 2500ft, before realising that LTMA is just about to start. Ooops.
We got to Sevenoaks and started routing slightly to the east - instructor demonstrated me how I can use VOR at Biggin to to make sure I won't bust LTMA to the north and how I could find my way back if I get lost, just by following 270 radial TO Biggin. That 'TO' is rather important :-)
We also practiced QDM, which I of course screwed up by saying "Practice QDM G-XXXX Practice QDM", rather then the expected  "G-XXXX Practice QDM G-XXXX". But it worked, we got back the heading back to Biggin from where we were, so we just started following it back.
After landing, I dropped the ballast (i.e. the instructor) and went on to do it by myself. Instructor just told me to "have fun, go to the east and practice some turns etc". I was happy to oblige.

Same thing on the way out - this time by myself. I decided to stay at 2000ft. Went to the east, had a bit of a play with VOR. The rejoin itself would make the flight be about 10 minutes, and I need some solo time. Followed some turns and some heading changes, etc. Just basic stuff - but it was nice to do it by myself. All my previous navs or circuits were aimed at fulfilling a certain mission. So it was nice to do few general manoeuvres instead. I did the whole HASELL checklist and went on to do some steeper turns. Picking reference on the ground and trying to circle it evenly around. Worked rather well. I also managed to take some photos - because why not.

After about 20 minutes I had enough and decided to turn back with uneventful return to the apron. This time I asked for backtrack on main runway. Instructor wasn't expecting me so early, and in any case - he said that I should have enjoyed full taxy back - since this still counts to my solo time. Good point, but I think I can taxy well enough - thanks very much :-)

I just remember being extremely elated followed by feeling of extreme tiredness. I pretty much went to sleep once I got home and ate something for dinner. Apparently it's normal - and in any case, I've done full day of work before - even if it was just a desk job.

Three lakes at Sevenoaks

The massive M25 junction. We're just turning back to Biggin

Beautiful views with sun hiding behind clouds.

Overhead biggin, about to turn Downwind for 03

I was rather pleased with myself

Nav theory exam passed

Le misurabile 76%, but that's a pass.
My brain is fried, and I feel mentally challenged afterwards.

To anyone who is going to approach this - pickup south of England chart - and have a good look. Because there's an airfield on an airfield in there. Quite a busy airspace.

More Circuits and First solo in C172

More Circuits and First solo in C172

During briefing, we discussed different types of circuits in C172, flap-less, glide, go-around, powerplant failure after take off, etc. 

Did my preflight nicely, very confident about things I should be looking for. This is mainly due to the fact, that I asked my instructor day before to do one with me - instead of just going on bravely on my own and spending 30 minutes looking for everything. 

The airfield seemed busy in the morning, but most people just departed away - so for first few circuits - we were the only aircraft in the circuit. 

First circuit was uneventful, on the climb-out from the second, instructor pulled the power on me - and walked me through the procedure as I was doing it myself. The only criticism there was the bank angle, I should keep it to really minimal if engine did indeed quit on me, and land straight ahead. 

Next few circuits were flap-less, with more or less success. The wind was strong 100ft+ above the runway, with virtually no wind on the ground, which made for tricky landings - as close to the ground indicated speed would all of the sudden drop below required. Also C172 doesn't seem to be so bad in terms of gliding abilities (albeit with milling prop and no flaps to drag us down). Few go arounds, thrown in for practice - when we were too high. 

Another thing dully noted, on touch-and-go, it is necessary to wait for flaps to go up all the way. Otherwise, there's bit of a asymmetric tendency there in controls, and aircraft starts to lift off too early. 

At the end of the last circuit, instructor asked me if I'd be happy to do one solo - the answer was obvious :-) 

I felt ok, this time I was ahead of the aircraft most the times. So decided to give it a go. "It will give you a bit of a confidence boost too!" - well, that's a good remark :-) 

Since my balance on the account is down to 0 now, every bit of confidence boost helps. 

I had to wait a bit to get airborne, quite few aircraft backtracking, on finals, or wanting to go up again in front of me. 

But once sorted, off we went. Going solo, one thing I noticed even more - is that I have this habit from flying Tecnams to use rudder at the same time I use aerlierons. 

That doesn't work in C172. The committee behind yoke has to make the decision to turn first, and then you gradually have to add more rudder into the turn. I'll get that with practice. 

Landing was rather nice. I did watch my speed, made small changes, and waited for aircraft to settle before trimming or doing any further adjustments. Of course that's much different from Tecnam which basically does what you told it to - straight away. 

Landing was pretty nice, I was too slow closer to the ground - but that was down to the same issue with the wind I noticed before. 

One thing I registered and learned Today - is that you have to resist the temptation to push the nose down when you're already too fast, and you think you're too high. 

Turns out, actually sorting out the speed (yoke aft) will actually sort out the height too - and get you down nicely. 

All in all, very enjoyable 1.2h (out of which 0.3 were solo, mostly due to the wait on the apron). 

This went quicker then I thought. I was given this sort of a Hobson's choice by CFI Yesterday - thinking it will take me another 5-6h before I go solo. But there you go, I was wrong. Of course there's still bit work to be done before I can do my QXC, but maybe not as much as I thought. 

One happy, albeit completely broke, Greg.