Lesson 18, Solo

Thankfully I did get to do my solo after-all. The time today passed slowly and with each passing hour I thought my chances of soloing today were steadily decreasing, however at around 4:30pm I had a call from Antonio to say I can do it.

I got there as quickly as I could, scared that the opportunity would slip from my grasp once again, or they would change their minds about letting me loose with an aeroplane. Once I arrived I had a short wait for G-BWEH to return with it's previous student, while waiting my nerves started to jangle, I just wanted to do this! It was actually a fairly surreal moment, I knew I could do the solo but some doubts crept in. Things like the active runway (07) I had not practiced in awhile, and the thoughts of checklists etc.

Before long EH returned so I jumped in with the chief flying instructor and we got going, then everything went wrong. My take-off was just unbelievably poor.. I allowed the aircraft to lift too early, we touched the runway gently before taking off again! Argh.. bad.. I have never taken off so badly before and I can't explain why I did this time. First circuit was passable, at least I remembered the checks although I managed to screw up the height on the circuit, approach with flaps was poor. Landing good thankfully. Second circuit was a little better but again way way poorer than I have been doing up till now. I was expecting him to refuse the solo, however the moment we touched down he asked me "ok ready to go on your own", I was initially unsure whether he said that because he had confidence in my terrible display or was just trying to get out the plane away from this madman pilot!

I decided at that point that I had to go.. I knew I could do allot better and was determined to get this right.

Funnily enough, once alone in the aircraft, all my apprehension about soloing evaporated. I taxied and carefully ran through all the checks, making sure nothing was missed then taxied out for take-off. After another Katana landed I received the call "Golf Echo Hotel, take off at your discretion, wind is 090 06 knots" so off I went. The Katana shot into the air much quicker than I am used to, the weight difference solo sure made a difference. After completing the turn onto crosswind I was already at circuit height so reduced power and turned onto downwind. Checks completed and radio call made I was advised of two other aircraft, I saw a piper come from my left and join on downwind ahead of me. I was number 2 to land behind him.

Whilst up there it felt strange to be flying alone, I felt a sense of serenity and also was acutelly aware of all the little noises and movements of the aircraft, this felt great!

I turned crosswind after watching the Piper pass my starboard wing on his final and decided I would do a normal flap landing, so lowered 1st stage of flap and set up the aircraft to descend at 70 knts. I turned final and lowered 2nd stage of flap, hmm.. ok she doesn't want to sink so much with just one in the aircraft, reducing power.. hmm starting to look high still. I made the decision to continue with the descent rather than go-around because there was enough distance still so cut to idle and glided in gently. The landing again was different, she did not want to land! The Katana just floated for quite away before gently dropping on to the runway, I bounced a tiny bit then maintained back and then landed properley. Lesson learnt, landing solo will take a bit of practice.

I cleared the runway and Blackbushe Information called out "Golf Echo Hotel, congratulations on first solo!" I thanked them and taxied back to parking. Antonio came out to greet me and congratulate me, I thanked him also for getting me to this point. By this time the event was sinking in, I was wearing a dumb grin. We went inside the office and everyone immediately offered their congratulations, then the jokes started, Antonio mentioned that I will solo allot more now so I accused him of being afraid to fly with me.

All in all, I am still buzzing with the experience and I can't wait for tomorrow’s hour long solo, providing the weather holds out. For now I am going to head out to a pub to hoist a drink to the air gods!