Coventry - Bristol Filton - Wycombe Air Park - Coventry
Weather was HOT, hardly any haze, and no wind. First leg was easy enough, following the Severn down past Gloucester. Accompanied by an Air Atlantique aircraft 1000' below me, and on my left, passing me very slowly, but it was nice to see him there! Filton were great, and saw me before I saw them. Gave me a right base join, sent out a marshaller for me, and he drove me up to the building. They got me the weather for WAP (although I had it pretty much memorised), gave me a phone to call my instructor, and got me a drink. Then took my money.
Asked for a radar handover past the various military places en route, all of which were great, friendly controllers, incredibly helpful.
Then I left Benson's frequency for WAP. Which leaves about 8 nm (from memory) to WAP's overhead... And WAP were BUSY. The controller was a trainee, and gave me the QNH instead of the QFE. The frequency was so busy I couldn't make a call, but someone in the circuit, on the ball, relayed me the pressure setting at the end of a call. I'd checked the joining procedure with WAP in the morning, and they confirmed it over the radio. Got half way through the 'fly down the length of the runway' bit and the controller yelled at me to turn immediately onto cross wind, and to report to the tower when I landed.
When I got to the tower someone came down, took me into his office, and gave me a lecture. He went through the departure procedure with me about three times "To make sure I didn't screw that up too". B@stard. Still have no idea what I did wrong. I tried to phone my instructor, but his mobile was off, so I had to pull myself together, and convince myself I was safe to carry on.
The last leg back was very mixed. There was a lot of gliding going on near WAP, and as soon as I got through that fatigue hit. My eyes were streaming, my head hurt, and my ears were sore from my headset. BUT... I detoured off my planned route to investigate Silverstone because I knew I could fly by this point! Soon after that I passed a hovering buzzard... which was pretty incredible.
I got back to Coventry, greased the landing, and almost fell out of the aircraft. I knelt on the ground and rested my head on the seat. My instructor was just coming out at this point and asked if I was crying or praying... I said "Neither - sleeping". Made it back to the clubhouse, and fell asleep before I could complete my paperwork.
My instructor phoned the controller at WAP, but I don't know what was said. Another girl in my club flew the same route for her Qx/c the next day, and had exactly the same thing happen.
People have since said to me it's a difficult route, and very busy. But I know if I can cope with that I can cope with most things. If you're a nervous pilot it might put you off, but if not it will give you confidence.