Very interesting folks, thanks for posting.
Roger, wow, you did cover a lot very quickly. I found it very difficult to keep the contents of a single pre-flight briefing in my head, but to come to terms with all that stuff in that speed is very impressive.
Whirly, actually I didn't really do any PFLs pre-solo either. I guess that the main part of PFL is to get yourself into a sensible orientation for a glide approach. In the circuit I am either in that position or too low in which case it is the EFATO, land ahead and upset the poor farmer a little, and upset his poor sheep quite a bit
. An engine failure early down wind might have been a bit of a tricky situation. Would probably have to hope that any traffic taking off can get out of my way as I land back the wrong way. Failing that, there is a nice little golf course in that position. Apparently the golfers are always complaining about the noise even though the airfield predates the golf course by at least 50 years. I would love nothing more than to put it down on the fairway!
Monkeeeey, your pre-solo lessons look quite similar to mine. I am intrigued about how early you did instrument stuff though. Did you just have a marginal day and decide to drop it in rather than staying on the ground? Instrument flight before C&D and turning seems a little bizarre. Isn't this exactly what you did on instruments?
I have to say I enjoyed my instrument appreciation. Probably my favourite individual lesson with the exception of first solo. The 'fly for 2 minutes with your eyes closed' was a riot, I thought I was doing so well until my instructor told me to open my eyes, when I saw the clouds at 40 degrees across the screen the dialog went like this...
Me: Fffffffffu.......I was going to use a very rude word then
Instructor: Yes, I saw it forming on your lips
I hope the IMC remains viable for me to take after my PPL. I love being up above those clouds and actually find VOR navigation about a hundred times easier than visual nav.