More solo

Today was quiet for business and as I’ve had a reasonably good week, I thought I’d ring Rosie and see how she was fixed for a flight this afternoon. After a thumbs-up I found myself down at the field at around 5.45pm. The weather was gorgeous with just a slight gusting cross-wind on runway 02 so while Rosie finished off with another student, I got MZEL out of the hangar and did a DI. Funny how my DIs have become more thorough and much more effective since my involvement with MYRO but I suppose that’s not surprising really as I’m now so much more familiar with the structure and design of the AX3.

We took off and headed for the practice strip where I did a powered approach and landing on runway 03. Rosie then decided to get out straight away and told me to go off and do a few circuits. So I did 🙂

I started with two left hand circuit, powered approaches and ended with a right hand before pulling up for a quick chat with Rosie. Everything was fine so she said that I should go off immediately and do a couple of solo glide approaches. So again, I did 😀

They both went off pretty well and I threw in a bit of side-slipping for good measure, just for practise and old times’ sake you understand 😉 I got a total of 30 minutes solo in and then it was time to head back to the home field. But now it all got a bit more tricky because we were flying back straight into the gradually setting sun. However, I located the field OK and we made it without incident. I was looking forward to the landing because almost every time we’ve flown in the past, we’ve used runway 20 because of the prevailing wind. This time we were on 02 and I clearly remember the last time we landed on it. The wind was gusting badly and rolling over the trees on the left and the tractor was out right next to the threshold cutting the grass. It was early on in my AX3 flying and things were so tricky that just before we landed I handed over to Rosie’s more experienced hands. So this time landing meant quite a lot to me, and what did I do? I approached too high of course. The runway has trees at both ends and as I wasn’t about to touch down much before the mid point, I elected to go-around. This was my first go-around in the AX3 and Rosie commended me for it. I also think it was good experience to do it dual with an experienced pilot sitting next to me. Anyway, the next approach was fine and this time I nailed it I’m glad to say.

I discussed with Rosie what I need to do in order to get a GST in by the end of May. It doesn’t look good, I have to say. I need to get in a minimum of 7 hours solo and after today, my total stands at only 40 minutes! I phoned Rosie when I got home because I forgot to take my camera back off her and after a brief chat, I decided to fly again tomorrow at 9.00am. Desperate measures are called for! I’d better go off and set the alarm clock 😉