[Milty]

Sounds good - I’m sure that 20 minutes will have helped.

Wish I had your progress on the exams. Struggling to find Met as interesting as I hoped. Sounds like you got lucky on nav - one of the students at our school had 8 nav plans to do - pretty much impossible in the time allowed.

[T6Harvard]

@ericgreveson Excellent result for the day!

I'm still working through the EasyPPL Nav course. I got stuck on one bit, slept on it it, wrote out a cribsheet so it made sense to me (!) and am moving on. I'm enjoying it so far . A kind forumite has sent me some homework to test my learning so I need to crack on with it

[ericgreveson]

@Milty 8 nav plans!? I might have been lucky but your school's student sounds like they were very very unlucky! At least you can resit if something like that happens... hopefully wouldn't happen twice in a row!

I think if you can interpolate / extrapolate things like fuel flow, use the whizz wheel, remember the 'off track correction angle' formula, and do time based sums (knowing when to multiply by 60 etc), you will be ok. On the questions I got, there were quite a few carefully selected numbers (like 90 or 60kt speeds, multiples of 6 and 4 etc) that made it easy to do the sums even without a calculator. I could have been lucky though.

If you haven't done comms yet, I recommend it as a confidence booster! Took less than 5 minutes...

[ericgreveson]

Lesson report from Saturday...

I got relatively lucky with the weather this weekend, having booked on Sat morning it was sunny and clear but with a decent wind (10-12 knots when we left, more like 15-20 at the end of the hour's lesson, about 40 degrees off the runway). Before we went out, I was given a couple of "solo student" indemnity forms to sign, which was suitably exciting / concerning, and a not so subtle hint that a first solo could be in the offing. However, when we actually went outside (walking past a pair of very shiny Extras and a Cirrus!) it was clear that the wind was picking up and a first solo would not be on the cards after all - so, plenty more crosswind circuit practice instead!

I definitely felt less rusty this time, thanks to the 20 minutes' flying from the previous weekend, and there were only two of us in the circuit (and no ATC) which also made the radio calls more relaxing. I actually got pretty much all of them right for a change! Because of the crosswind, I went for just 1 stage of flap for each of the landings, which resulted in me being a little fast and high on the first circuit although managed to sort it out quickly enough. The landing was OK although I think my instructor was helping out with a bit of extra rudder. Next time round was a bit better although I was again going about 10 knots too fast on base / final initially, having again forgotten how much less drag there is with just 10 degrees of flap. Because of the crosswind I was also overshooting the turn to final slightly, although again was pretty easy to sort out early on. Third time round I was encouraged to slow right down since there was someone backtracking on the runway, and I started to twig that I could use a fair bit less RPM while still maintaining plenty of airspeed and glide path.

A couple of circuits later we had someone joining the circuit just ahead of us on crosswind, which was a bit concerning having heard the "joining crosswind" call just as I was in a climbing turn to crosswind and couldn't see the other aeroplane! As we reached circuit height, they appeared closer in to the airfield just turning downwind, although reasonably close, and since they were in a (slightly faster) C172 there was plenty of separation by the time we turned final - they were already landing. Presumably they had already seen where we were when they joined, but it was the first time I had an aircraft appear "close by" on the radio which definitely prompted some hasty looking around!

In total we managed 9 landings in the hour, which on the whole went pretty well - one which felt like a really nice landing despite the gusts, one which could have done with being a little bit less "drifty" across the runway (more wing down needed) and you could feel the sideways load on the tyres when touching down, with the others feeling mostly OK despite varying crosswind gusts. Although I've just checked https://www.flightradar24.com/data/airc ... b#2af27d94 and circuit 6 looks like a bit of a mess - not sure what happened there! (They all look a bit all over the place, actually, but I'm going to blame the crosswind again...). Main achievement: not forgetting carb heat at any point this time round!

When we had finished, my instructor mentioned that there was actually availability for the next couple of hours so did I want to do a first nav lesson?! Of course I did, but unfortunately I had already planned to go to a birthday party... never mind, I have the nav to look forward to for next time.

Finally, back in the clubhouse I bumped in to someone who has apparently been lurking on this forum and reading these posts! Even worse, they mentioned this fact in front of my instructor (who hopefully has far better things to do than read this forum but if not, obviously they are the best instructor ever). So Mr Forum Lurker, if you're reading, great to meet you and sorry I forgot to ask your name at the time... no doubt there will be another opportunity in future!

[T6Harvard]

Excellent! Not long until the big lesson 14....
A great read, @ericgreveson , thanks.

PS, I think I may have rung the party host and explained that my car was giving cause for concern and I would be slightly delayed. When I later turned up with a massive grin on my face it would simply be due to the car being repaired

[Milty]

Nice lesson report. Thanks for sharing. I quite relish the crosswind landings now after a similar lesson during my circuits. Definitely something to be respected but not feared.

I'm mildly disappointed at you turning down the nav in favour of a birthday party - I mean, they'll be having another one in a year or so's time.

Fingers crossed for the solo but if it doesn't come for whatever reason for a while, it's no great shakes - just enjoy the learning whatever it is. I quite enjoyed doing a couple of nav sessions to mix up the solo circuits - it gave me a bit of purpose.

[ericgreveson]

Haha @T6Harvard / @Milty I did consider bailing on the party but I'm glad I didn't - it was at a "Park-O" which is like parkrun for orienteering so I got to try that for the first time - it's basically nav, it all counts, right? Anyway I spent the best part of 10 minutes trying to navigate from checkpoint 8 to checkpoint 9 and only got back on track after my friend and his 7 year old daughter caught me up and pointed me in the right direction... ahem. (My excuse: I didn't have a compass). So I will pay extra special attention to headings when doing a similar thing in the air...

As far as the potential solo goes, indeed I am not a big rush - am enjoying the dual lessons and there are always many things to improve on, the instructors can send me up when they feel it's a good time! One other nice thing about Saturday - it was so clear and sunny it almost felt like spring had arrived, and I realised that as I started in October, I've only ever been flying (other than as an airline passenger) in autumn / winter - really looking forward to what "good weather" flying looks like!

[Milty]

That could be a good omen. I was reasonable at orienteering in my scouts/air cadets days. I’m carp at air nav. Air nav I’m finding is on a much bigger scale. When orienteering, I was quite happy seeking out a church with a spire or spending time stood still while getting a triangulation or bearing of a pathway. In the air, it’s looking for woods, towns (many of which look very similar), all whilst running at it all at 100mph. I’d planned to mark a waypoint as a nice oxbow lake last week - that plan failed as the whole area was flooded.

[T6Harvard]

I've been wrestling with diversions this evening. Max WCA, and head/tailwind recalcs included.
Geometry. Brrr.

Actually, it's yet another bit of magic, really, isn't it

@ericgreveson In your pre-orienteering planning did you not think a compass would come in handy?

@Milty, funny about the ox-bow lake having disappeared! I sent some aerial photos of Shrops under water to a pilot friend. His immediate response was 'that's no good for a forced landing'. That had never crossed my mind - partly because I wasn't flying there, but also, clearly because I am not yet imbued with the necessary thought process!

[ericgreveson]

You have assumed I would do planning?! I just turned up and asked what orienteering was...

Incidentally as we were driving home, I pointed out a field that would be good for a forced landing. Wife not impressed. Apparently I am 'obsessed'.

[Milty]

Mine said the same. I do have a slightly obsessive personality apparently. It manifests itself by posting on forums late at night.

[T6Harvard]

Obsessed? Surely we're not?

My husband used to go to watch his footie team home and away. On his return home he would regale me with the various highs and lows of the 90 minutes.
So now, in revenge, I do the same after a 60 minute lesson. I mean, I'm sure I don't go on about flying as much as ...... oh .....

He zones out just as I used to

[JAFO]

@T6Harvard - when I was renewing my licence back in 2004, I made this double sided ruler and laminated it. The ruler side is obvious, the other side you write in the wind (and the direction that downwind would be for when your brain stops working) and then work out what the drift and +/- on the speed for each of the boxes.

You might have something similar already but I though it might help.

[T6Harvard]

Excellent @JAFO , I'll do that!

[ericgreveson]

Not long until the big lesson 14....

Well, today was a nice surprise with two "firsts"! I got a message from my instructor asking if I fancied coming in today since they had some free slots, and I did have a spare hour or so, so of course off I went...

The first first was that the wind was coming pretty much exactly down runway 05, so I got to use that runway and the corresponding right hand circuit for the first time! Very pleasant as you take off over nice flat fields instead of the city centre, meaning that EFATO options are much better. As soon as I had made my first "downwind" call we were immediately asked to orbit left, so I had a bit of time to get used to the visual reference points that my instructor was pointing out. Looking at https://www.flightradar24.com/data/airc ... c#2afc0147, you can clearly see me getting blown downwind during each orbit and not really sorting it out until the last half-orbit when I got back towards the quarry I was meant to be orbiting near! Did a normal full-flap landing (no crosswind at all, just the nice 10 knots or so headwind down 05) which was fine, pretty much on the numbers and nice and smooth, although was advised to go a bit further downwind next time to make the approach a bit less steep. Did another 3 circuits which all went fine, again the landings were fine, and then we went back to park up and refuel.

Which leads on to the second "first"... I was given the green light for first solo! My instructor went back indoors and left me to get back in, start the engine, do the usual checks and radio calls to get going. This all went fine, and ATC were obviously giving me a very easy ride (nobody else in the circuit, one other aircraft behind me but I was given nice easy clearances without even having to ask as I went from the grass parking to the runway). Backtracked, lined up, and was given takeoff clearance so off I went! I had read about the potential "improved performance" of the aeroplane when solo, but I didn't notice it that much - a bit more acceleration and climb rate maybe, but I guess my instructor is quite a lot lighter than me so it wasn't too different! As I turned on to crosswind, lining up with the heading bug on the DI, I spotted my first error - I hadn't reset the course bar on the G5 direction indicator after starting up, so the heading bug I was using to adjust my heading was aligned due north instead of with runway 05! Fortunately this was pretty obvious based on the view outside, so I just ignored the heading bug and used the DI without the fancy features (could have reset the heading bug but figured it wasn't worth it for one circuit).

Downwind calls made (again with ATC making it super easy for me), landing checks done, carb heat on, turned base, 2 stages flap, turned final, last stage flap, final radio call, carb heat off, landed. No problems, wind was perfect for an easy landing, and a nice "G-NC, congratulations!" from ATC which yielded an unimaginative "thanks, G-NC" from me.

Here for posterity: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/airc ... c#2afc2def

After parking up and shutting down, my instructor came over with certificate in hand, for traditional photo next to the aeroplane. Great fun, nice to have done it earlier than expected, and looking forward to more solo circuits and nav in the near future! Thanks to those on here whose lesson reports and posts have helped me thus far...