Another Milestone

I took today off as I had quite a bit of flying booked and it seemed a bit cheeky going into the office for three hours.

Today was hopefully going to be my first solo nav, and it was, twice.

I arrived at 10:00am this morning after driving over from Chester, a quick briefing from Christian and off to Sandtoft we went. Sandtoft was a little cross windy, but nothing major so over a can of coke I planned the route that he wanted me to fly.

The route was only a short one, Sandtoft to Scunthorpe, Scunthope to Gainsborough returning to Sandtoft. So after a quick plan off I went solo... It was only a short nav, first leg was only about 3 mins long, by the time I had managed to speak to Doncaster I was halfway towards the second leg. Doncaster was very busy this morning and the air traffic controller was very helpful and understanding, which really helped as I was understandably nervous. I turned at Gainsborough and headed back to Sandtoft. Joining the Circuit and landing without problem.

After a bite of lunch Christian sent me on a longer nav, Sandtoft to Market Weighton, Market Weighton to Snaith and then returning back to Sandtoft. The first lef didn't go too well, I was about 10' left of track, but I corrected and ended up on track arriving over Market Weighton. The Leg to Snaith went well, the leg to Sandtoft was also a little left of track. Once I had Sandtotf insight I did the radio call to change from Doncaster to Sandtoft, again it was the same Doncaster controller who was very helpful and patient.

Sandtoft tower informed me that runway 05 Lefthand was in use, so I set myself up and headed in, a couple of minutes later over the radio came "Attention all aircraft in the Sandtoft circuit, runway in use is 23 Righthand, so I though bugger, theres gonna be a cross wind... I descended deadside, joined the circuit and lined up for final... Cross wind would be an understatement, I didn't think I was going to make it, but a little extra power and a steeper approach got me back down safely.

Christian then jumped in and we headed back to Sheffield as I had a lesson booked in the Slinger (Slingsby T67M/Firefly) to try and get some circuits done at Sandtoft so I can be signed off to go solo in it. Due to the cross wind that was not going to happen so we decided to do a Nav Ex to Humderside as I would need to go there at some stage as its part of the Solo Cross Country Qualifier flight.

Phew, controlled Airfields seem to speak a completely different language, its alot more formal and it took sometime to get the hang off it, with lots of prompting from Christian and also him having to jump in once or twice.

Just for the record, the Slinger is an amazing aircraft to fly and if I buy an aircraft, its the one I'm going to get.

After a false start we left Humberside after a quick drink and headed home to Sheffield, about halfway back there were a pair of aircrafts in loose formation that were on an intercept course with ourselves so I descended to 1,000 ft to avoide them.... wow that slinger can't half move. We passed under them at the 1,000 mark doing 135 knots, that was without any extra power, just a gentle dive. We climbed back to 2,000 and headed into Sheffield.

I have decided to do the the Nav Qualifier in the Slinger, to me its the best aircraft for the job. Everything in it works, its strong, light, quick and the visibility out of the cockpit is stunning so I have another lesson booked in it to get cleared to go solo in it, plus a solo nav into Humberside to get me used to arriving there, then its dual cross country qualifier to go over the route and then its solo cross country.

I'm looking forward to it, but also nervous about it. Thankfully I've got ground school for the next couple of days to take my mind off it.

Till next time, stay lucky.