Hey guys,
well I've FINALLY flown solo with my PPL. and I had my first problem! Altho it was on the ground and nothing serious.
Basically came to the a/c and did the walkround as usal and got in and started the pre-engine start checks. First thing that caught my attention was that the electric fuel pump didn't do anything. Well, it made a noise but there was no fuel pressure. Tried it a number of times, still no pressure. hmm, little werid i thought. Decided to start the engine and see what happened. Cranked it for about 10seconds and it didn't catch, then tried to crank it again. Nothing. prop flicked a little, but barely moved. Doh, flat battery! Went back into the club to tell them. Out came one of the instructors with a high capacity pack to jump start it. My pa38 doesn't have a proper external power port so had to jump it directly under the hood. So had a guy standing about a foot away from the prop. Never good. Anyway got it started no problem and did all the checks, everything fine. Altho the ammeter sat on 30 nearly the whole flight! Only flew for 30mins since it took a while to get started. I also only did circuits since the cloud base was about 1500. Went ok and am looking forward to fly at some point, not sure when that will be.
Blue skies y'all!