More Solo Action

I finally flew again after my first solo - two missed weeks with weather and work. Friday had been a great day so far, I'd had the morning off as well and got my hands on an iPhone 5s. It was a bright day with variable light winds and runway 25 was in use. As I arrived I noticed there were none of the familiar PA28's parked. Normally this means someone is having a lesson and probably one of them is off for a service. There was a stranger, G-BXWO was parked in the club's space.

Inside only Barrie was around - he said he'd be doing the lesson as Steve was engaged. Steve had mentioned beginning the navigation exercises which I loved the idea of, but Barrie said we'd do some circuits and most importantly if he was happy he'd send me solo again! The mysterious new bird was to be our aircraft so off I went to Alpha check her. She'd just arrived that morning and he warned me that the pilot who had delivered her had flown his whole journey on one tank. Whisky Oscar has a few more niceties than my regular pair of PA28's. She's fitted with door stops, sun visors, a transponder (!), her air speed indicator is in knots and she is in a much tidier condition. It looked to me like she'd been operating from a farm strip - grass in the tire tread and bird droppings all over the stabilator.

I flew three circuits with Barrie and after dropping him back at the club was send off on my own for another three. The crosswind caught me out on the first circuit with Barrie and my landing was a bit messy, but the wind dropped entirely for every other circuit and I had a great flight with Barrie praising the neatness of my circuits. The airspace was a little more crowded than my solo day but nothing that made me uncomfortable.

Barrie recommended that next time I go solo into the local area to get a feel for that! That would be awesome. I have some holiday to burn so I'll try to get an additional lesson in this week.

I'm pretty sure that this is a shot of me taxiing out with Barrie clearly visible in the right seat.