[i]I also quite clearly recall that the final words to me from the Instructor #2 as I boarded the aircraft for the solo were along the lines of ‘look at that magnificent cumulonimbus cloud formation… did know that that type of cloud has more energy in it than an atomic bomb’. (Actually, it might have been 6 A-bombs). I had no idea whether that was true at the time, and frankly still don’t, I have yet to read or take Met. Whether the thunder and lightning had started before my navex I cannot say, I am not sure. It had not at the airfield.
B0ll0cks.
Look at that magnificent CB... off you go Bloggs... yeah right.
I don't personally give a toss where you are training or when you alledge all this took place. There is a no chance I nor the CAA is going to spend a single second checking it out.
Doing 5 dual followed by 4 solo circuits sounds pretty thorough to me. Usually I would have done 3 lots of solo circuit exercies before tackling out of circuit work like nav but there are many different syllabuses out there and all of them are flexible.
Repeating a navex solo that has just been done dual is a cautious little baby step - often done when a student is thought to be weak or in need of a confidence booster for some reason.
You shouldn't really be let out of the circuit alone until you know how to obtain a QDM - from 121.5 if nothing else - and can demonstrate the Lost Procedure. Personally I would want you to be able to obtain a RIS as well but thats not always possible. But on the subject of radio aids No NO NO.
On your first, second, third and probably more solo Navexs you should be focussing solely on Lookout, Map, DI, Ground, Stopwatch, Radio, Drills and Log. Thats more than enough for all students to be getting on with.
Trying to fiddle with a VOR or ADF box is not on the agenda AT ALL. Frequently the boxes are different in how they operate. As are the ways in which they present their information. You need to ident the aid in use - do you know morse? Have you got a decode to hand? What is the promulagated range of this aid? Indeed - have you checked the NOTAMs to make sure it is serviceable?
Radio navigation is not some difficult black art. The basics can be taught with a couple of hours in the classroom and a couple of hours in the air performing some set exercises. But to try and use it without having undergone proper training is likely to lead you right up the garden path, into a control zone and on into a mountain somewhere.
Your training might well be below par. It sounds pretty pants to me. Try another school perhaps?
Often the best thing you can do is hire an instructor privately. By which I mean approach one - one who has been doing it a long time and is not connected to your club/school. Offer to hire him for 3 hours of groundschool at whatever rate he thinks suitable - for cash of course. The groundschool can be done at his house, yours, in McDonalds in a spare classroom - anywhere. The purpose of these hours is for him to go through what you have done and what you know.
He will doubtless expose any big gaps or any oddities to the syllabus you have flown. On the back of a fag packet he can draw up a suitable series of exercises that you need to do to sort you out ready for the PPL skills test. You can then take this information back to your chosen school and say I need to do this this and this and why the hell don't I know how to do this this and this yet?
Its no good being passed around from FI to FI at a cheaper end school. Nobody takes responsibility for what you have and have not covered. The buck gets passed. Which is why continuity is so important. Its cock all to do with being taught the same way and everything to do with being seen as WWW's student and if you are pants at the test stage then this will be noted and WWW's career at NotVerySpecial School of Aviation may be limited to the end of this summer.
Thus motivating WWW to make sure everything is covered and that you are taught in a sensible series of building blocks that will stand up the scrutiny of the Skillstest when you are bricking it.
You are the protege of your flying instructor. If you are the harlot product of 10 flying instructors then none will feel embarassed by your poor teaching. If you are the product of one then the embarassment will be acute.
Good luck,
WWW