Hello all.
Mazzy - was a very nice flight indeed. Probably the most simple navigation excersise I'll ever do, but very enjoyable indeed. A nice change from circuits, too. A short 45 minute, gave me a nice insight to basic navigation, follwoing the map, looking our for lakes and roads...really enjoyed having a good look at the scenery, makes a nice change to trying to find the airliners hurtling towards you! Was a rather wierd experience when the darkness set in as well - seeing the beacon flash against the wings. I felt like a proper pilot (don't ask me what the significance of a flashing light in darkness is - simple things...)!
I was very pleased with the air law indeed, I'd been getting 80% (average) on the confuser, but the day before the exam i took a fair few notes on the weaker points and it obviously payed off!
I've been grounded because of the weather today, which is shocking up here, so I'm going to have a day of meteorology study, and can hopefully do that exam sometime this week.
As for the first solo, there's tonnes of factors which come into play. I was lucky enough to get it done fairly quickly with not too many circuit sessions. But the weather was perfect, traffic was quiet, I'm only 17 and I've a very good, willing instructor - he's old school. Points at the 'plane and tells you to fly it. It also depends on the school, some request that certain excersises are done before sending their students on solo. At the end of the day it doesn't matter - it's not a race.
Finally - I also agree with Bob, if the weather is poor try and get down to the club just to "hang out". There's always someone about, who can offer some wisdom. And you often can pick up the odd free flight, which is always good! Instructors also seem to be willing to go through some theory as well, such as the whizzy wheel.
Anyway, cheers all.
John.