Lesson #18 The Circuit (solo 2)

Monday morning was overcast and it looked like the day was going to be a complete washout. I checked the weather (GFA) and "forcasted" that it would clear up in the late afternoon and the winds would drop.

I went to the airport and chatted with Dave, told him my thoughts on the weather and he checked the forcast (TAF) for himself. The TAF was forcasting winds to pick up and gust 30 knots. I told him that I didn't beleive that this would be the case and we agreed that I'd call around 4 PM in the unlikely event that I was right and the TAF was wrong.

I was right, things did clear up and the winds did come down... should have been a weatherman...

Arrived at the airport at 4:00 PM and chatted with Dave for a couple of minutes, then went out to preflight the aircraft. A few minutes later I was all done, added a little oil and managed to get some on my shirt and the aircraft's windscreen. Dave did a few circuits with me to make sure I was good to go on my own again, as it had been some time since I had did my first solo. He seemed happy so he asked me to drop him off at the apron. He gave me a quick chat, basically don't kill myself and if the aircraft is still flyable after I'm done with, then that's a bonus. He said that I could stay out for an hour but if I felt like coming in early that's fine too... stay in the circuit and no off airport site seeing.

All by myself now, called tower and then taxied out to the new active which was 28. To be honest I was a little nervous, more so than the day a few weeks ago when I first solo'd. The past few weeks the weather has been miserable for a new student pilot and I was really feeling the "pressure" not to muck things up. I have a tendency to think things out a little too much for my own good sometimes.

The next hour went fine, my confidence started to grow with each completed circuit. I found myself checking everything a second time on downwind instead of relaxing and taking a minute to enjoy the view. During this hour I had to extend my downwind a few extra minutes on one circuit to let a commercial come in and land on the intersecting runway, as such I got to fly over one of the rivers that come off our harbour, at least it was a change of scenary. I also extended my climbout once to let a Dash-8 come in, so I also got to see some scenary on the other side of the airport too. I had a feeling I get some off airport site seeing in today.

Before I knew it it was time to make a "full stop".

All my landing were OK except one, I didn't like the way it was looking so I decided to just do an overshoot. My last landing was a thing of beauty, stall horn wailing for what seemed like forever in ground effect, then I could just barely feel the mains touchdown.

Today's totals:
0.5 dual
1.0 solo

Aircraft is still flyable.