I was so well aware that today's lesson was, if well-flown, to be the last before the Test, that it almost felt like the Test itself. I badly want to go for the Test now and I felt that if I flunked this flight it would be a step back and a real heart-breaker. So I was pretty keyed-up this morning.
I checked out the aircraft, but before take off, two relatively minor but important things happened. The first was a gathering of (what seemed like) Dutch, German and French microlights. They were all shapes and sizes, and the little bit of international peer-bonding and banter which took place gave me a nice little glow. The second was the arrival of a Tiger Moth at about 1,000' overhead. 'Hmm. Overhead joins aren't permitted here', I thought. He then turned deadside and dived. Up she went into a loop, up again into a chandelle which reversed the direction. A climb to the other end of the field and another loop and chandelle. Keeping up the speed upwind deadside at about 100' he turned in downwind and beat up the runway. (By this stage I recognised the Tiger as one of the Tiger Club's own.) Keeping down to between 50'-100' he turned about 300 yds beyond the threshold, sideslipped and brought her in for a perfect three-pointer.
Headcorn had put on one of her shows for me and helped me realise that all this hard work and angst was going to result in a whole lot of fun. I have realised that all along of course but it's nice to get a tangible reminder once in a while!
Onto the flight itself. Bruce is an examiner, so I get his instruction based on what the examiner is going to be looking for, right from the horse's mouth. This sometimes adds to the
frisson of the moment. I felt as if I were under examination fromthe start of this flight.
Suffice it to say, everything went so smoothly, I couldn't believe it. Conditions were good - not enough cloudbase height but amazing vis. In fact, the vis was so good you could see the next turning point from the one previous! I planned Headcorn - Leysdown - Deal Pier - Headcorn. The wind I used worked beautifully and everything turned up right on the nose. We had a PFL: flown like a dream with all the checks recited en route. Flapless circuit - kissed the runway on the numbers.
I feel almost as ecstatic as if I'd performed like that on the test itself, but I've got to come down. We have a saying in the entertainments world, that if the dress rehearsal is terrible, the first night will go down a storm. Whether the corollary is true, I don't know, but I hope not!
Now to get comms written and the medical; then I phone Bruce who fixes up the Skills Test. I just can't believe I had such
sturm und drang over all this in the last couple of years.............
Roll on the next couple of weeks!
