Lesson 33, Thruxton Solo

Today was the day for the Thruxton solo flight, I wake up this morning feeling optimistic as the weather outside looked good with clear blue skies and calm wind.

I arrive at Blackbushe early so I can complete the planning which is made easier from the last two visits to Thruxton, plan completed I call Thruxton to 'book in' and whilst on the phone I ask for the runway in use and the weather. The runway at the moment is 25 again which is good for me as I landed on it yesterday, however the weather is not so good, they currently have fog covering the airfield although it was lifting. I tell them I will call back before I leave to check the weather again.

Antonio returns from his first lesson of the day whilst I am starting the 'A' checks on Echo Hotel, he goes in with his student whilst I continue the checks, fuel is below a quarter so I taxi to the pumps and the man fills it to full. I then go back to parking. A little time has now past and I discuss the weather with Antonio, Echo Hotel is needed back at 12:30 and after that it doesn't look likely I will get a plane therefore I decide to call Thruxton again to check the situation now. Happily Thruxton tell me the fog has lifted and is now scattered cloud at 1500ft so I decide to go, if the cloud is too low overhead Thruxton when I get there I will just abort and return back early.

Antonio checks over my plans and briefs me, I think he is reasonably confident as am I. Strangely today I felt totally ready to do this trip. So I set off.

One thing I have been doing recently which has bugged me was allowing my altitude to fluctuate along with my airspeed, I decided shortly after taking off that today I would work on that. I climbed in the circuit to my desired altitude of 2500AMSL crossed the centre of Blackbushe runway and started the six t's, along with obtaining FIS from the nice people at Farnborough Radar. I requested also MATZ penetration however the MATZ was closed today so therefore I was cleared for Odiham MATZ. My first checkpoint was abeam Basingstoke and the moment I arrived I checked my time, absolutely spot-on.. it's a good feeling when the planning all works. My heading also kept me directly on track and my altitude was continously 2500ft with no deviation, so far so good.

At this point I felt really good, I had time to admire the scenery en-route and also felt ahead of the aircraft, thinking back to my first navigation exercises I realise I have made alot of progress. Flying solo gave me more time to think all the time, I was constantly checking my flight parameters such as heading, altitude and airspeed and managed to keep all of them correct.

I arrived at my next checkpoint on time again and began to descend to 1500ft to enter another MATZ as per the arrival rules for Thruxton, whilst descending I made a mistake by telling Farnborough Radar "GOLF ECHO HOTEL is changing frequency to Thruxton on..." rather than requesting frequency change. The controller forgave this and replied "Frequency change approved..". Before long I had Thruxton in sight directly ahead of the aircraft along with a long parade of clouds, at 1500AMSL the clouds were slightly above the canopy which was fortunate, so I requested joining instructions. The circuit here was empty at the moment and I probably could have done a straight in approach but I decided to stick to what I know and do a standard overhead join. During the circuit there was a lot of turbulence and I had to work hard to keep flying straight and level however when I turned final the perspective was good. The final approach was a little bumpy with a headwind that kept dropping off and gusting causing me to play with the power continously to keep on the glideslope, the landing was a greaser just beyond the numbers.. very pleased with that landing.

I got taxi instruction and was told to park between a Cherokee and an Archer which I did, shut down and then proceed to do the check-in/book-out. Whilst there I took a break and bought a coke, sitting outside on a bench with a view accross the airfield. Today was amazing for aircraft, there were a mixture of different older types, including a Boeing Stearman painted in bright colours with the words "Utterly Butterly" painted on the side. I saw it's pilot and crew outside, the crew being an attractive 20 year old girl dressed in a sponsered catsuit, she was a wing-walker. I decided when I get my license rather than buy a GPS unit I am going to get a bar on the top of my aircraft to try and encourage girls in catsuits to be my passengers.

I looked at the time and realised I had to be getting back so I quickly finished the coke and headed back out.

After start-up I taxied the long distance back to the threshold for RW25, seems I was a little slow because as I began my engine warm up checks the Stearman taxied up next to me, he reported he was ready for departure just before I did so I waited while he took the runway, giving me a wave as he passed. Cat-suit girl was sitting in the front seat rather than on the wing/tailplane/ailerons.

The flight back was much the same as the flight over here, I followed the procedures and these kept me on course and on time. Reaching Blackbushe I descended on the dead-side and joined overhead, the turbulence was now pretty bad, at circuit height I was getting thrown around alot. I turned final at a good height and immediately lost the head wind so started sinking real fast, I put on some power to arrest the rapid descent and continued trying to get a nice glide slope, the wind was varying alot and I was having to grip the stick tightly as she tried to roll first one way and then the next and the airspeed indicator was up and down all over the place. I arrived almost on the threshold but was too high so did a go-around. The next circuit was much the same although the final was a little more stable and I landed with a small hop.. darn would have been nice to finish the flight with a good landing but then on the other hand the conditions were not to good.

Antonio congratulated me and we had a few minutes to discuss the exercise, I really enjoyed the flight and it has given me a huge confidence boost. I am starting to feel like a pilot rather than just playing at one.

Next milestone is the qualifying cross country (QXC) which will hopefully take place in the next couple of weeks if the weather is kind. Before then I have some additional navigation lessons and a solo flight to Bournemouth which again should be fun. After that is preperation for the final skill test along with some more instrument practice.