Good lesson learnt

Today I was scheduled to do some solo circuits, the weather didn't look too great (overcast with spots of rain) but was good enough for circuits. I turned up and soon the aircraft returned from the previous lesson so I carried out the 'A' checks. Antonio came out to give me a hand and just as I finished the checks another student appeared at the plane saying "I must have the plane now" .. Antonio and me look at each other as if to say "????" he said he had it booked (which he didn't he had booked the next hour after me). Anyway Antonio went in to speak to the operational staff while I remained with the other student, he was clearly aggravated and began to complain to me about the fact that he has had alot of cancellations because of weather and he has yet to solo despite having many hours. I figured, jeez if he so annoyed I will let him have the plane as he obviously needed the time more than me. When his instructor turned up he mentioned he wanted to do three hours of circuits, to which his instructor said no for all the obvious reasons (I mean one hour of circuits can be hard work, let alone three!).

Therefore I gave up my slot and was instead offered this students slot for one hour later, more was said on this matter by various people which I can not write about here. To tell the truth though I didn't mind, I was just surprised someone would be willing to fly when he was feeling pretty angry.

The hour soon passed, we watched some private jets arrive along with a large private helicopter. Out stepped a bunch of very well dressed, obviously very rich people on their way to watch their horses race at Newbury. I felt suddenly underdressed in a pair of cords and a t-shirt.

Echo Hotel returned and I went out to meet the aircraft, after the other student thanked me (he seemed alot calmer now) I assured him it was no problem and took over the keys. I carried out the second A check of the day and taxied out with Antonio beside me, our plan was to go up for one or two circuits to check out the flying conditions, if it was good I would then solo. At engine run up I did the normal checks, however when I switched to R magneto, whoosh.. down went the rpm's and the engine began running badly, ok not seen this before. Left was fine, right was inconsitently dropping way way too much rpms, we tried it at different power settings and it appeared that below 1500rpm it would start rough running, then around 1200rpm it suddenly dropped off to struggle to idle even. Not good, I stated immediately I would not fly today (especially not solo) like that, Antonio also agreed no way could we go like that. Antonio took some notes for maintainence and I taxied and parked.

One of those days today! but hey at least I got two more 'A' check practice and 10 minutes taxi practice! ;-) Still once again, I think positive things came from this experience.. at least now I know what I am looking for when I check the magnetos.

Early this morning before coming to Blackbushe I drove over to a nearby flying shop and invested in a headset, a David Clark H10 13.4 as was recommended to me. At least I got to test that out briefly also.

I have a 2 hour slot booked for tomorrow morning but it doesn't look likely to happen due to the weather worsening, tomorrow is expected to be strong and heavy rain, so I think I will likely study instead.