'Im riding solo'

I reached a mile stone recently in that I completed my first solo flight, this means for the first time I was Pilot in Command and made all the decisions with no other person in the cockpit, its a leap of faith from my instructor as we effectively 'fly' on their certificate. I was in no mood to mess up. The single circuit flight went well and it was a hugely enjoyable experience. (This actually happen approx 3 weeks ago but due to laptop 'issues' I have been unable to blog).

Before my solo

After my solo!

Certificate

My instructor gave me a certificate to mark the occasion, I don't think many instructors do this and I thought it was a very nice touch- I am grateful to him and look forward to hanging it on the wall with pride!

Obviously you have to be chucked into the pool with full uniform; a long spanning traditon of OAA... I was obliged.

We had a number of solo flights around Falcon and then came  instruments and navigation. With the instruments flying we fly under the hood; a

The tradition

screen on your head which makes you resemble a horse who isn't allowed to see, this fetching screen enable you only to see your instruments, meaning you fly only on what you can see on the primary flight display As shown here it takes some getting used to but is the technique we will be using for most of our flying careers.

We have also started on navigation flights going cross country which we would typically fly for a couple of hours from point to point, it takes around 2 to 3 hours of flight planning so if we are due to take off at 6.30 you can imagine how early some of our mornings are. This is where our 6 months of ground school training comes in when we have to deal with such factors as true track, magnetic variation and wind speed to name a few. As we progress naturally the instructor want a higher standard so we are now getting picked up on things were we might of got away with them a few weeks ago, pleading ignorance is getting harder....! 

Away from flying most afternoons the weather has been nice so the general thing to do is sit by the pool or in the hot tub exchanging stories from the days flight, its a very nice way of life. However there is always an exam to prepare, this one is a practical exam with much theory needing to be memorised also, the exam test navigation with practice emergencies thrown in... everything always goes wrong in training (simulated) so in the real world or on our own we can hopefully deal with such factors as an engine fire, luckily these situations are very rare.

I am still having a great time and enjoying the flying, my Dad has booked to come over next month so I have that to look forward to as I will show him the delights of Phoenix and where the 'investment' has gone, hopefully I can convince him we do work as well.

I hope your well, you may see some other course members blog on here soon as a bit of a change of opinion and experience... watch this space.

Thanks for reading.

Archer on short final