First Solo Outside the circuit (to the North)

Well i got down their nice and early. It was a really cold winters day, -1 temp. It was that cold we had to wait to bring the planes around and for the wings to defrost. Well they didnt, so i did my first de-ice of the plane - with neat solution as the temp was stil below zero.

Eventually, i got in the plane (very cold) and did all the check and set off to the holding point.

First mistake i made called up with the wrong call sign - doh - had to make a correction.

Off for the first circuit. I was told i would get my clearance to depart to the north whilst taking off after my circuit - but not when landing.
So took off, 500ft rate one turn for a right hand circuit. called downwind, pre-landing checks, report final, so i did, and im coming into land and he gives me my departure clearance - after touch and go, cleared lima whisky depature, not above altitude 2000ft VFR. So im readying this back and trying to land - i could have asked him to Standby i suppose. Anyway first landing was pants! Flared too much, so
stuck so power on, and got it down ok without a bang which was good but it felt messy.

All in all the circuit felt a bit hectic, i was also on my cross wind limits too. not to mention id not been solo or done a circuit for 7 months!

So off i went for my first solo outside the circuit (and zone). Called up for zone exit, and changed to approach, they gave me FIS and call for rejoin. Stuck the transponder on ALT 7000. and headed up to 3000ft, around the outside of hucknalls ATZ - i know above 2000 and you dont need to but i thought id stay clear.

Did my freda checks and turned east to go around the south side of mansfield.

All going very well, vis was ok, and up at 3000 it was nice and calm. So im getting cocky now, this aint that bad, so i called up for QTE, just to test my RT and for a laugh :)

This was my first worry - the reply i got was "G-RY say again transmission unreadable" - oh crap not a radio failure. so i adjusted the mic boom and shouted up - luckily it was ok - i got my QTE 023 degrees

:)

So i plod on a bit more, and decided to do some steep turns and maybe a stall. Went through my HASELL checks and did a steep turn to the right, then the left - tee hee felt wicked!

So then i had ago at stalling - OMG! how nerve racking is that on your own: Powered back to idle, held the nose up, stall buzzer, nose down, full power - and were off again. Did about 3 of these, leaving them longer in the stall each time, i wasnt brave enough to do a stall in a turn though :)

Then back on my route to return to East Mids, down the M1 and into the bloody sunlight, couldnt see a thing, struggling to make out Trowel, called for Rejoin and got my clearance to enter, but what with not being able to see for the sun and haze i forgot to make my zone in call, so i got a call from approach saying "contact tower..."

Reported right base for 27, came in a bit ropey, but the landing was pretty sweet, nice and soft and on the center line for a change :)

WOW that was it - i done my first real solo flying - well pleased!

Radio Telephony Exams

Well after completing the RT course with Pete Stephens (an ATC at East Mids) I did some theory brush up for the written exam. I sat a load of mock exams, from the Pratt books, the PPL confuser and www.airquiz.com. Once happy I got myself booked in with Bev (another ATC at East Mids, who is a CAA examiner - Petes qualifications have now lapsed).

The written exam:
The normall CAA format: 40 mins, 30 questions, multiple choice 4 possible answers. After all the mock exams I had done I was happy I was going to pass I just wanted to get 100% 
So I sped through the paper and completed it in 10 mins – so I went back through it again making sure I had not misread anything, and 20 mins into the exam I declared done.
Bev was surprised how quick I was, but then we sat down and discussed the oral exam 

The oral exam:
We went through 4 pieces of A4 which were part of the exam.
1) The Instructions
2) The Flight map, showing the route and zones
3) The PLOG
4) The frequencies available for use on the map

She gave me 20 mins to work through the route and make any notes. She also said she didn’t want to see my writing a script out – lol.
So I worked through the route, noting down frequencies to use, point to make calls etc and distances for the pass your message calls. The 20 mins went very quickly.

Off to the exam room – a small box with the simulator in (headphones, switch box with push to talk and a light on the top) Apparently the light is used if you forget to do something on a leg that the instructions ask you to do.
So off I went, and let me say this was a very complicated route compared to what we had done on the course – it covered almost everything id ever seen or learnt or heard:
1) Mayday relay
2) PAN PAN and resume
3) MATZ penetration
4) LARS – RIS/RAS for danger area traffic
5) Pass your message
6) SVFR clearance.
7) QTE from a homer station
8) Call up for weather
9) Joining and landing using an AFISO.

Anyway, I made it through ok, with just a few slip ups namely:

1) I didn’t readback "5’s also" on the radio check
2) I got the mayday heading wrong, I though he said 200 degrees not 120 degrees so she said I should have said something along the lines of "Believe heading to be 200 degrees"
3) I asked for a RIS from LARS and she gave me RAS – which I read back , and I assumed she was just being generous – but I believe she wanted me to correct her and say "no RIS etc"
4) I tried to leave the Zone frequency before putting out a "Zone exit" or something along the lines of "7 miles from destianation, request frenquency change to "
5) On final join to land, I was asked to pass my message, so I did a full PYM but she said that wasn’t necessary.

All in all, I got quite a "bad exam" have spoken to others and they didn’t half as much in their oral exam.

Results:
Oral: She said I did very well – with the above points, but generally very good.
Written : YESS! 100% :) She said I must have had the text books in with me – tee hee.


Well that’s all over with now – just one more exam left – Aircraft Tech – oh and the GFT

Solo North Practice Run

Well Sunday 3pm December 4th lesson, the last lesson of the day which i was expecting to end in the dark and it did (well 5 mins before official dark - but it was dark)

This was a full practice run for the solo north which im going todo next lesson. Up out to the north, via Long Eaton Lane, to the west and north of Hucknall ATZ, around the South, East, North and West of mansfield back down the M1. We did some practice compass turns (and stalling, pfls, steep turns).

By the time we were heading back it was almost dark - really cool. We had to orbit at the zone boundary (for the first time) and came in with all the runway lights on. Did my pre-landing checks - but i must remember to power back to 1500 rpm before setting up for land (with carb heat obviously) got a good angle in, flared a bit late (Doug almost went for the controls) the landed it sweet as a nut, shame i was off the center line to the right- but even Doug said it was a sweet landing.

Apparently now, its mostly solos stuff.