Flying Solo - Why the 4th time is harder than the 1st

[Hobnobs]

Southend Airport and the first Sunday in March. The sun is out after weeks of dull winter gloom. The weather looks promising for my first solo land-away to Lydd, otherwise known as the glamorous Ashford International. Today is an important milestone and my logbook is showing 27 hours.

I've been solo before of course, doing circuits of Southend and a solo NAV away to some local landmarks. But today is different. Until today I've been kept in the play pen, mostly unseen and inconspicuous. Today I will be on show. Until today, perhaps I haven't really flown solo at all.

I start my planning, and I am feeling more nervous than normal. I took up flying because I love the prospect of the feeling of freedom it gives me, but today I am almost scared. I haven't felt like this on my previous solo's. Today is different.

I immediately start to question my course corrections for wind. I've done this before with confidence. But now I start to cross numbers out on my PLOG. I convince myself I've got it the wrong way around, until my instructor points out it was right the first time. My PLOG looks a mess. My planned altitude is 3100ft to stay well above the Challock gliding site but apart from that, it's a simple direct flight via Sheerness.

My instructor and I review TAF's and METAR's. We agree that it is looking fine, although I still seem to rely on his experience to tell me it's ok. It makes sense, but the weather is still a bit of black art to me.

We review a checklist of items. What to do if I get lost, FREDA, how to join the circuit at Lydd and a reminder that good RT will be expected of me amongst other things. Finally he reminds me to stay VFR and that knowing when to abort and come home is the sign of a good pilot.

I tell him I am feeling nervous but he reassures me that I will be fine and to just relax and enjoy it.

Minutes later I am strapping myself into the little 152. The sun is still out with FEW puffy clouds and I try to organise myself as much as my limited experience allows. I run through the per-start checks, crank her into life and tune to ATIS to get my departure info. I ask tower for taxi, consciously reminding myself to use the Student call sign. The Tower, always clear and patient with students, clears me to Charlie 2 hold.

I run through my power and pre-take off checks and I'm cleared to line up on Zero Six. Wind calm and cleared for takeoff, I roll down the runway feeling more relaxed. 600ft up I make a gentle turn to the south.

I continue to climb but looking out ahead the weather doesn't seem as inviting as above Southend. I am handed off to Southend Approach and handle the calls well. I feel pleased with my RT. The practice I have been doing seems to be paying off. I am abeam Southend pier and heading out over the estuary. I see Sheerness ahead and I am climbing through 1500ft on my way to 3100ft.

Southend Approach talks to a PA28 ahead of me who is letting the controller know he is descending because of cloud to stay VFR. I start to feel concerned that I won't be able to achieve my planned 3100ft. I pass through some light cloud at 2300ft and sense it is getting thicker. I decide to stop my climb and level out to see if it improves. I am now directly over Sheerness and I am handed off to Lydd Approach.

I tune the Lydd ATIS and it reports BKN at 1700ft. Instinctively I know this doesn't sound good and I start to feel nervous again but I press on. I make contact with Lydd Approach and pass my details.

I look out and see lower cloud ahead of me. I decide to descend and I feel compelled to drop to 1700ft. It suddenly dawns on me that Lydd is a 1500ft overhead join and Challock is just ahead. I could route around it but now the voice in my head is telling me to turn back. I can't get anywhere near my planned altitude and I am concerned about the low margin overhead Lydd. I start a 180 turn.

Unsure of the proper call to make, I ask Lydd Approach if I can return to Southend. They tell me to Freecall Southend Approach.

I ask to rejoin the Southend circuit and minutes later I am calling final to land back on Zero Six. The landing goes well, if a little long for my liking. I tell myself off for carrying too much speed and leaving it a little too late to power back completely.

I park the plane and shutdown. I sit and think about what has happened. Did I do the right thing? Did I bottle it? The TAF's and METAR's looked ok before I left. Was it possible my nervousness had made me over-cautious?

I am a reasonably confident person. I debrief with the instructor who says I did the thing if I didn't feel comfortable pressing on. Next weekend I will try again to complete the same exercise.

Why have I posted this? Sitting in armchair dreaming of being a private pilot is one thing but now I realise how real the decisions are to the potential consequences of flying. I realise that 45 hours for a PPL is nothing in experience terms.

My 4th Solo has been by far my hardest as the leash of responsibility is slowly handed over to me. I realise what Pilot In Command actually means. It wasn't nervousness, it was the sense of responsibility for myself that I had never comprehended before.

I am a student pilot, hoping one day to be a competent one. Thanks for listening.

[Steve6443]

Be proud of yourself that you didn't succumb to doing something you didn't feel comfortable about.... Don't worry about feeling nervous, because as you become more experienced, you'll want to start to test your limits, but as long as you listen to your inner voice and not get into positions without at least one way out, you'll be ok.

[Weirdfish]

Be happy that you made the right call for you in the given situation. The fact that you safely landed back at sowfend is proof enough. I had a situation on a similar solo landaway exercise, although the destination was Shoreham rather than Lydd, and after 3 aborted attempts to land i took my ball home and returned to Southend. At the time it was a very low point but looking back now I'm quite proud of my handling of the situation.

It also makes a great dinner table story:ok:

[AdamFrisch]

If you felt it wasn't right, then you did the right thing. Always.

I will say one thing though: In the beginning it's very easy to fixate on numbers and rules and see them as absolutes. I did this as well. By not being able to achieve a cruise altitude of 3100ft as per your flight plan, you already feel like you've "messed up" a little. But there's absolutely no harm in adapting to the circumstances at hand - and it doesn't constitute a failure on your part. Things change. Weather changes.

Likewise coming into Lydd, yes they do have a published 1500ft overhead join, but you can always do a low approach. You have that power. They don't want to force traffic into IMC anymore than you do to satisfy some silly OH join rule - they're there to help you get safely on the ground. So next time you encounter cloud base at 1700ft, tell them you want to do an OH join at a 1000ft instead due to weather. They'll say yes, guaranteed.

Safe and achievable flying is often just a radio communication away. Don't be afraid to tell them what you need in order to conduct your flight safely.

[thing]

Well done Hobnobs, you made exactly the right decision for you and your experience level. Keep that up and you'll have years of safe flying in front of you.

[Localiser]

I think you should be proud of yourself. You exercised airmanship and the right thing by taking the SAFE option.

Well done.

[localflighteast]

I reckon in a few months I'm going to be writing the exact same stuff. I was nervous to solo ( still am , and the weather refusing to cooperate means its been months since I did a solo flight) and like you I feel that I'm always overly cautious and I wonder if that is going to become a huge problem for me further along the road.

What was your instructor's take on the conditions? To me it sounds like they backed your decision .
I'm sure someone has said this old saying to you before "it is better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air , than in the air wishing you were on the ground"
it is so true.
No matter what someone else may have done. You absolutely did the right thing for YOU , because you are sitting on the ground trying to justify your decison NOT to carry one, rather than pulling yourself from a pile of wreckage trying to justify the decision that you made TO carry on.

it may be that with more experience you would have flown in those conditions, but you don't have the experience to feel comfortable, so it was the correct thing to do.

Pilot Decison making (PDM) should also be PERSONAL decision making, what is right for one person may not be right for you.

I really hope this helps and I think i understand a little of what you are going through and hope I can take my own advice shortly as well

[Winhern]

When I did my IMCr lessons I agreed with my instructor that we would not fly with cloud below 1500' aal. This gave us a reasonable amount of time to select a safe landing site should the engine fail.

As a low hours PPL, 1700' cloud would have me seriously asking whether I needed to continue my journey. Given you were just on a training exercise I fully support your decision to return to your home field.

Someone somewhere (possibly on here) said than on average 50% of winter flights and 33% of summer flights get canned due to weather - just something we have to live with in the UK. :{

[piperarcher]

Your planning, checking, attitude, and decision making in the air seem very good, and your considerations after the flight. In fact I would say beyond the level and skills of most people at that stage. You were definitely right to head back. Unless you have an IMCr, I wouldnt recommend chancing it with a lowering cloud base. You may have landed OK at Lydd, but it might have stopped you getting airborne later and getting back to SouthEnd via an expensive taxi or train ride.

[m.Berger]

Turning round and going home is never poor airmanship. Good luck for the next go. At least you know the way!

[Gertrude the Wombat]

(1) You could have negotiated a different join at Lydd. You can always try negotiating a different join. Plain English will do: "unable to join overhead at 1,500' due to cloud base, request right base join at 1,000' [or whatever]".

(2) I write three altitudes down on my PLOG, not just one. One is the maximum possible altitude, taking account of controlled airspace. One is the lowest I'll feel comfortable going down to (usually simply 1,000' above the number in the square on the chart, but it depends on the location and your club rules may be different). The third is the planned altitude, the one I've looked up the forecast wind for and done the sums for. I don't worry about being unable to continue at the planned altitude as long as I can stay above my minimum.

Having said which everybody else is of course absolutely right - deciding to turn back because you don't like it is never a wrong decision - and you are absolutely right - you don't get sent solo to see if you can find your way to Lydd in perfect weather, you get sent solo to see if you can take the responsibility for making your own decisions.

[carlmeek]

Agree with everything written here, but overall a good job done. Having information to hand, like your minimum level, and an idea of alternative routes to hand can help decision making.

One thing that helped me, and still does sometimes, is a kneeboard sketch of the join. Consider your post-it note to be north up, draw the runway, draw arrows of the circuit. Can be a lifesaver when you are busy and need to plan an alternative join strategy.

If I was flying Southend to Lydd at this time if year, I wouldn't plan for more than 2000ft unless you want clouds to cancel you regularly! Go around the gliding field, lower.

[RatherBeFlying]

Agreed that you should have a minimum altitude. 1000' AGL can be reasonable over level terrain when there's airports about, but you'd want more over hostile terrain and a generous allowance for any possible towers.

More important than the forecast for the trip out is the forecast for the trip back -- get home-itis is a serious killer, especially as the cure can entail major inconvenience.

It really helps to look at the synoptic charts to have an idea for how the weather will develop.

[CS-DDO]

Allways a good decision to turn back! As you gain more experience you will get confortable in maybe more marginal conditions, but its never good airmanship to get in conditions that make you feel uncorfortable, no matter the reason...

The bold pilot uses his skills and knowlege to get out of dificult situations, the GOOD pilot uses his skills and knowlege to AVOID difficult situations!

[Hobnobs]

Thanks all for the constructive and encouraging feedback. It's great to be able to tap your experience. Mostly I am a silent observer here, but now the forum doesn't feel quite so intimidating!

Cheers!

[Sillert,V.I.]

At that stage in my flying career, I just wish I'd had even 1% of the airmanship & good judgment you've shown here. :D

Your fist solo is arguably the safest flight you'll ever make alone. If your instructor has done their job properly, you have absolutely no decisions to make & you can focus 100% on flying the aircraft exactly the same way you just did a few moments before.

A trip like this is light years ahead in terms of responsibility & judgment, and at this stage for most folks, the combined workload of both flying and decision making inevitably means your basic handling will not be as good as it was during your first solo. It may feel as though your flying has taken a step backward, but this is because you now have to multitask those basic flying skills with all the other tasks that are necessary to manage a solo flight in which you are using the aircraft for a purpose. You may find your landings are not quite as smooth as that first one, but as long as they are safe, you are doing just fine and all will be well :).

[Pace]

Was there anything wrong with making a VFR join with a cloudbase at LYDD of 1500 feet NO.

Did you do the right thing YES!

The most important guide for any pilot is to only fly within your own and the aircraft limits.

There will come a time when you will not bat an eyelid with a 1500 foot cloudbase at a destination especially one by the sea but that time is not now.

The worst you can do is to fly in conditions you are not comfortable with.
The only caveat I would add to turning back is to be sure that the weather going back is how you left it. There is no point avoiding a 1500 foot cloudbase if you are turning back towards a 1000 foot cloudbase (Yes it does happen)

Use ATC! be clear to them of your experience level and they will always be of help! They are your servant not your master

Pace

[piperboy84]

Use ATC! be clear to them of your experience level and they will always be of help! They are your servant not your master

You hear that Peter (DO)? I will expect a whole bunch of yes sir, no sir and how high sir? and doffing of ones cap upon my next arrival at Scone !!

[Local Variation]

Did the exactly the right thing and my advise is best get used to it as it is a typical scenario in the day of a VFR PPL who know what he/she are meant to be doing up there.

Succcessful VFR flying in the UK is alot to do with constant evaluation and decision making, particularly where the weather is concerned.

Unless you are being paid to do this, there will always be tomorrow.

Turning round is not a sign of weakness nor is it a sign of failure. The worst thing you can do is nothing, eg press on in the hope the weather sorts itself out.

Your judgement is sound and will make you a better all round aviator. Don't leave it too long before trying the same trip again.

[FANS]

Great decision making ability.

Wx planning in the UK is always an issue and for my money, it takes more confidence to change tack than carry on.

Just remember, this is meant to be enjoyable and every student/low hr pilot is a little nervous - I'd be worried if they weren't! Try not to overthink this lesson too much , as you're clearly progressing well & fast through the PPL course.

Enjoy.

[Arclite01]

Hob Nobs

What actually happened to the weather later in the day - were the TAF's and METARs wrong or the forecast poor - or did the weather forecast get the time wrong ??

These are also factors to consider since the TAF's and METARs are guidance only............

FWIW - I think you did the right thing............. I pushed on once to Goodwood when I should have turned back and my landing was awful................ and my takeoff on departure even worse. Definitely due to self imposed stress and 'press-on-itis'


Arc

[Pace]

I do want to stress a caution with turning back as turning back is pushed as the answer to all ills while pushing ahead a NO NO!

"I have left good weather hence will head back into good weather is not always the case!"

It is vitally important to be weather aware! Are you travelling north to south with a front moving west to east ahead of time etc.

Pace

[AviatorRodent]

Great post hobnobs thanks for sharing.

I only hope to be as sensible as you when I get to my solo land away.