Learning to fly, or thinking of learning? Post your questions, comments and experiences here

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By lobstaboy
#1880466
Can I add my congratulations too? Well done indeed, and I like your description of the sensations and feelings - you clearly were ready. respect to your instructor for seizing the moment and letting you go without the air law pass - top stuff.

By the way, if you think that was good, just wait til you do your first solo cross country flight!
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By Paul_Sengupta
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1880483
lobstaboy wrote:By the way, if you think that was good, just wait til you do your first solo cross country flight!


I've always said that the first solo land-away is when you really feel like a pilot.
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By jcal
#1880552
Thanks all for the congratulations! I am indeed chuffed, smiling from ear to ear and still smiling!

It's easy to say "it's just a small thing" since it's on the path to so much more, but really, it's not a small thing!

Rob P wrote:
jcal wrote:One of the most amazing feelings was how peaceful it feels when you're alone up there.

Spot on! This is the reason I always try and remind early hours PPL holders that the aircraft does not fly on radio waves and, where appropriate, just switch off* the radio and enjoy the sensations of pure solo flight.

Well done. Where's the post-solo picture of you grinning like an idiot?

Rob P

*Note, switch off, not turn down the volume. Everybody who merely does that eventually winds up making increasingly desperate calls to the next ATSU, wondering why they aren't being answered, whilst everyone else on the frequency listens to both sides of the 'conversation' with the ATSU answering, but the pilot obviously not hearing and we know he has the volume turned down. Oh, how we laugh.

I love that :lol:, I think turning off the radio on my first solo circuit is probably a bad idea, but I'll definitely keep that in mind when it's safe to do so!

As for a picture, I completely forgot to take one! I was so elated by the experience I only remembered about taking a picture on my way home from the airfield. I'll take one next flight and pretend it was my first :mrgreen:. Pretty sure I'll be grinning just as much after doing a full hour of solo circuits.

RobW wrote:I hope you didnt make as much of a pigs ear of the logbook entry as I did, Its a great feeling to write Self and PIC, provided you remember to do it!
T6Harvard wrote:Well done Captain Self :mrgreen: :cheers:

Haha, my FI was actually very kind to guide me through the logbook writing careful so I didn't mess that special line up. He definitely knew how important it is!

I also had no idea the "Self" thing was a thing, he did tell me I could choose to write "Self" or my name, and I thought it made sense to just write my name, keep it consistent you know. But now I feel like I'm missing out :lol:.

lobstaboy wrote:By the way, if you think that was good, just wait til you do your first solo cross country flight!
Paul_Sengupta wrote:I've always said that the first solo land-away is when you really feel like a pilot.

I can't wait!
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By Cessna571
#1880586
We write our name in the aircraft logs, so after the covid break, I was filling in my logbook from a picture of the aircraft log and I started writing my surname in my logbook.

I now have half a page of my name, in amongst a logbook of “self” with a note in the comments column

“Styles = Self”

!
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By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1880619
jcal wrote:I also had no idea the "Self" thing was a thing, he did tell me I could choose to write "Self" or my name, and I thought it made sense to just write my name, keep it consistent you know. But now I feel like I'm missing out :lol:.

I wrote 'Self' for the first ten years. After that, it was just 'ditto' marks, except when I'm Pu/t from time to time.

As I mostly fly the same aeroplane, it's 'ditto' marks in the reg and type fields too. So much quicker to fill in.

Can't stand admin. Still love the flying though.
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By jcal
#1885390
Well, I passed Air Law and Operational Procedures!

Finally got them done, waiting for the CAA to approve my account was the biggest challenge! After 2 weeks I gave them a call only for them to scold me for not reading the instructions properly and to look again as I had to send in my ID. Lo and behold, I look at instructions, find no mention of sending in ID at all, and a week later, I get an email telling me my account was all set up. Turns out I wasn't doing anything wrong at all! :?

Oh well, crash course in dealing with the CAA is part of the PPL right? :lol:


Aside from the exams I've had a fair few lessons since last, been terrible at keeping up with the log! I have yet to do any more solo flying, as weather has been from quite windy to "really shouldn't be flying right now holy f-k". But we have had a chance to catch up with all the remaining elements between getting the solo circuit time and navigation, so it has been a good use of time!

Lesson 19

It's been a while now and I can't exactly remember why, but we chose not to do circuits on the first lesson after my first solo, instead we went out to do some steep turns. Frankly pretty standard stuff, not much to note. It was quite fun getting close to aerobatic maneuvers and you get a great view of the ground! :mrgreen:

Lesson 20

Ok, now this one was interesting. METAR was telling us it was 15kts cross wind with gust of 25kts, so my instructor thought it'd be a good day to practice crosswind circuits and he was keen to see how I'd do after my first solo.

Well, I did terrible. :roll: Nothing worked, the crosswind was throwing me all over the place, the extra mental load from considering the wind and having my instructor hawking my every move to see if I was still solo worthy was distracting and frankly, I was just not up to the task.

My first approach to land was so bad I wasn't even close, was a go around probably about 300ft above the runway. Then the go around itself was terrible, I janked all the flaps out at once in a stressed mind fart which could've gone worse than it did (as we're still here). :pale:

Every circuit after that was so much work and my instructor was pretty hands on throughout. I think the amount of crosswind really took me by surprise and showed me I really need more practice there!

To be fair, when we were back on the ground, we overheard people reporting 32kts gusts and several instructors cancelling their following flights, so I try to cut myself some slack.

Lesson 21 & 22

After that brutal beating, the next few lessons are a nice break for a change. Weather is still rough with fairly strong winds but clear (and COLD) days and my instructor suggested we try something different as solo circuits is probably not going to happen. I'm all for it!

So off we go to do practice forced landings, to the annoyance of all the nearby country towns :lol:.

I find the whole process quite fun, although I do struggle with the amount of procedures to go through in the few minutes you have from engine "failure" until you're a few hundred feet above the field. Still, I soon get the hang of it, and I find myself picking fields a bit quicker with every attempt.

On one of the fields we spooked a whole herd of reindeer! I think it must've been for some Christmas event or something, but both myself and my instructor saw it clear as day :D.


I've got another lesson booked in next weekend, hopefully we can get back into the circuit if the winds calm down, otherwise we're preparing our foray into navigation. I'm excited either way!
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1885401
Well done on the exam passes. Feels good to make a start on them, I think.

The horror lesson sounded tough but you did it and you know what it feels like in those conditions now :D

I'm envious of the PFLs! Well done.

Keep up the good work. It's amazing, isn't it? ((Have I said that before by any chance? :mrgreen: )
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By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1885415
@jcal sounds like great progress.

I’m still waiting for the CAA to sort themselves out. Might give them a call tomorrow to receive my telling off for doing the right thing.

I think we’ve had similar crosswind lessons by the sounds of it. Challenging, but I think great experience that you will grow and develop over time. As you say, you’re here to tell the tale so all good.

I think it’s good when instructors break up the monotony of circuits. Enjoy!
By jcal
#1885419
T6Harvard wrote:Well done on the exam passes. Feels good to make a start on them, I think.

The horror lesson sounded tough but you did it and you know what it feels like in those conditions now :D

I'm envious of the PFLs! Well done.

Keep up the good work. It's amazing, isn't it? ((Have I said that before by any chance? :mrgreen: )


It does feel very good to make a start! And great to have Air Law behind me.. Looking forward to start the next few as I'm expecting the reading to be a bit more entertaining :mrgreen:.

PFLs are indeed something to look forward to! It goes by pretty quickly, but I really did get a good feel for what it might be like in a real engine out situation, so it's a very handy thing to have in the back of your mind! I don't think I'll ever look at a field the same way again, they're all just potential grass strips to me now..

Milty wrote:@jcal sounds like great progress.

I’m still waiting for the CAA to sort themselves out. Might give them a call tomorrow to receive my telling off for doing the right thing.

I think we’ve had similar crosswind lessons by the sounds of it. Challenging, but I think great experience that you will grow and develop over time. As you say, you’re here to tell the tale so all good.

I think it’s good when instructors break up the monotony of circuits. Enjoy!


How long have you been waiting so far @Milty? I filled in the form on a Tuesday and got it approved on a Monday 3 weeks later. Feel free to phone them, maybe you'll get someone who's had a slightly better day than I did :lol: , but I think patience won the day in the end. It just takes a while...
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By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1885425
2 weeks today. Will leave it until tomorrow and give them the benefit of the doubt that it’s 10 working days then call them. Hoping to sit the first 2 on Thursday after my lesson.
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By StratoTramp
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1885571
Cessna571 wrote:We write our name in the aircraft logs, so after the covid break, I was filling in my logbook from a picture of the aircraft log and I started writing my surname in my logbook.

I now have half a page of my name, in amongst a logbook of “self” with a note in the comments column

“Styles = Self”

!


I kept doing this. It's annoying as my log book was so neat. Now it's a right mess :lol: :roll:
By Cessna571
#1885582
StratoTramp wrote:
Cessna571 wrote:We write our name in the aircraft logs, so after the covid break, I was filling in my logbook from a picture of the aircraft log and I started writing my surname in my logbook.

I now have half a page of my name, in amongst a logbook of “self” with a note in the comments column

“Styles = Self”

!


I kept doing this. It's annoying as my log book was so neat. Now it's a right mess :lol: :roll:


It’s not a real log book till it has some corrected mistakes.
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By lobstaboy
#1886232
Cessna571 wrote:It’s not a real log book till it has some corrected mistakes.


When I was a student my instructor made me fill in my logbook straight after the flight, during our debrief. Mostly I was so brain fried that I simply couldn't do it...
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By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1886236
Mine does the same. Today’s looks like a spider has crawled across the page.
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By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1886415
lobstaboy wrote:
Cessna571 wrote:It’s not a real log book till it has some corrected mistakes.

When I was a student my instructor made me fill in my logbook straight after the flight, during our debrief. Mostly I was so brain fried that I simply couldn't do it...

Ha, that brings back some painful memories.

I had to fill in the aircraft log sheet, which involved entering brakes off, brakes on, and airborne time. That was bad enough. But I also had to write down the starting tacho, and subtract it from the ending tacho, as that was what I paid for.

My brain was invariably so fried that the subtraction (in decimals, not even hours and minutes which is much harder) was always virtually impossible.
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