Zero 2 ATPL

So I’ve had a few additional lessons since my last post.

I wasn’t having much luck with the weather on the first 3 circuit lessons, the first 2 had strong cross winds, the third was called off early due to low cloud/fog.

Roll on the 4th lesson:

The conditions were not great, there was lots of mist, no real horizon and a slight cross wind (only about 6Kts).  My first circuit didn’t go to plan and the instructor had to offer a little advice at the final flare. After the first circuit everything seemed to come together, after an additional 5 or 6 landings my instructor took control and taxied us back to the aero club, requesting ‘student first solo’.

My First Solo:

After dropping my instructor off at the aero club, it was time to call ATC and request taxi to the active runway. By this time the airport had gotten very busy, I was asked to hold and informed I was number 6 for takeoff! I was holding for a good 10-15 minutes while various airlines either arrived or departed.

Finally it was my turn to depart, shortly after take off I was informed I was number 5 and was requested to orbit on the start of the downwind leg. I was orbiting for a good 10-15 minutes (again), managing to maintain my current level. I was just about to check in with the tower (to ensure they hadn’t forgotten me, or I somehow misunderstood an instruction) when I heard them refer to me to an airline, followed by a call from me to follow them in. Rolling out onto the downwind leg, and doing all my pre-landing checks and setting the DI I suddenly realise I’ve now gained an extra 100 feet, this was easy enough and corrected. Soon enough I was on final and ready to make my first solo landing. Touching down I made one of my best landings so far.

I managed to make two small mistakes on RT, the first was not reading back the QNH on reading back taxi instructions and the second was not reading back ‘VFR’ on my departure clearance read back.

In all it took me about 5.5 hours to go solo (excluding my experience from 6 years ago)

Foggy Day = Air Law Exam:

Well two days after going solo it was a horrible foggy day! So it was time to sit my first exam, Air Law! I wasn’t looking forward to this exam, and decided to take a quick 90 minute cramming session to try to remember a few facts and other points I had highlighted in my Air Law book.

Result? I passed

What’s Next?

Next lesson will either be more circuits (with more solo time) or if the weather is not good enough we will start on the navigation sections flying over France.

The next exam I am studying for is: Navigation