The plan was for me to fly three circuits with Tim, then he would get out and I would do a further three circuits myself. We had a brief briefing, just to cover off what I should do if I have a radio failure, receive instructions from ATC I am not comfortable with and some advice that I only need to say "Student" once. On my first solo I had rather over-egged the point, but I did want to make sure that ATC knew!
The weather was good, but it had been icy the night before, so a good episode of de-icing the aircraft was required. I did the walkround, while Tim started the de-icing, leaving the de-icing of the wings for me to do. All of this to a background of swapping a few jokes - none of which can be typed here!
The aircraft had been refueled the day before, but then not taken up, so we didn't need to make a trip to the pumps, but instead set off for runway 24 and holding point ALPHA-1.
There was not much surface wind, but the wind at circuit height (1000ft) was a bit stronger from the NW. This meant that on the downwind leg I ended up quite narrow to the runway. We were also asked by ATC to make an early turn on to baseleg and with the wind behind us on base leg I ended up turning on to final still at about 1,000ft, so we needed to shave a lot of height off. Consequently the rate of descent was higher than usual which led to a harder landing than I would have liked. However, power on, chance to do it right the next time!
On finals on the last circuit Tim had requested that we would practice a "fan stop" on climb-out. For those who have read previous posts you will remember that this would simulate an EFATO (Engine Failure After Take Off). However, still thinking about not getting the previous landing right, I had forgotten his communication with ATC, so was quite taken in when all of a sudden the engine RPM dropped from 25,000 to around 700! My first glance was to the throttle and seeing it all the way back I remembered, so selected my field (that big brown one) and set the aircraft into a glide before going through the engine checks and telling Tim what my radio call would have been. Once we were confident we would have made the field, we climbed out of the glide and Tim advised ATC that we were on our way again.
This time we requested a glide approach to the runway. I turned in at the right moment, but cut the corner on the turn to finals, which again put us high on approach. However following Tim's prompting, I remembered the flaps, applied full flaps and was amazed at how quickly the aircraft dropped. This landing also wasn't the best - the high rate of descent meant that I had a low bounce on landing, but the aircraft settled down again and we were OK. Tim advised that if I was by myself I should go-around in that situation and to get the nose higher on the flare.
I wasn't sure there was enough runway to take off but Tim said there was loads and he was right. This final circuit was to be a normal circuit - no sudden EFATOs thrown in! This time I kept a much better circuit and the landing was much better.
We taxied back to Seawing, Tim jumped out and I was off on my own to Alpha-1 and the power and pre-takeoff checks. My first indication on how busy the airport was getting was when I glanced round during the checks to find 5 more aircraft with me at Alpha-1 all doing their checks too! As I say - first decent day for a few weeks.
I was cleared to take off after another 152 was on its climb-out after a touch and go. I then followed this aircraft round the circuit. The other pilot was taking a much longer circuit, but I didn't feel I could stick to the usual tighter circuit Tim had taught me to follow without getting too close to the other aircraft so I also followed a longer circuit. This was the case for all of the solo circuits I then did.
I really enjoyed doing these solo circuits. Although obviously still nervous, there is so much to concentrate on that there is no time to get scared! Unfortunately my high levels of concentration meant that I actually lost count of the number of circuits I had completed and ended up doing 4 instead of 3. Whoops! Tim was OK about it afterwards, but said he had come out of the club house ready to receive me back only to wonder where the bloody hell I was going as I took off again into the great blue yonder. After that he thought he would stay in the warm and watch through the window until he was sure I was really coming back.
One of the other highlights from my solo circuits was that a large Boeing came in to Southend. As there were 4 or 5 aircraft in the circuit at that time, ATC had us all fly in neatly spaced orbits on the downwind leg to increase the separation to the equivalent of 7 miles distance from the landing Boeing. I wasn't entirely sure of all the correct radio calls for doing the orbits, so following the "if in doubt, shout" rule; advising ATC when I was starting and completing my orbit. I also started it at the same time as the Cessna I was following, as this seemed the safest option - although we were probably a couple of miles apart. I do still find it difficult to judge distances in the air.
All in all a good fun lesson.
| Stats at end of lesson 19 | ||||
| Description | Hours as P2 | Hours as P1 | Take Offs | Landings |
| Lesson | 0:30 | 0:50 | 7 | 7 |
| Total | 18:30 | 1:10 | 46 | 38 |
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