Firstly a circuits lesson to get back into the swing of flying itself. It was an extremely frosty day and we spent some time de-icing the aircraft. Things went pretty smoothly with 8 or so pretty solid circuits using 25 and the ever present Alpha-November. The lesson here is to maintain speed all the way until the flair.
The second lesson was planned as a dual navigation exercise flying from Blackbushe via Greenham Common to Overton and back. There were weather fronts closing from the North and West so things didn't look to promising. We departed overhead, handed off to Farnborough and set off. The winds were very strong and I neglected the heading a few times which meant after a few minute we were way south of where we should have been. A quick visual correction and we were heading for Aldermarston. Sadly cloud cover was getting lower and lower so we abandoned the detail. Returning to Blackbushe Barrie landed her in what can only be described as challenging conditions - cross winds and gusts. We maintained 80 kts coming in and he did a lovely smooth touchdown as the things calmed near the ground.
