djk
3rd May 2002, 19:58
Well it finally happened on Friday May 3rd!!!
The day started off quite normally with me waking up at 0830, pulling open the curtains and looking out to a nice clear blue sky. After a quick shower and coffee, several clouds had already started to form, but luckily they were still quite high up.
A quick phone call to the school confirmed that even though it's starting to cloud over, all should be fine for my lesson that afternoon. So I got my bag together, and caught the train down to Rochester. I got there quite early so sat around and waited till my instructor was free to start my lesson.
After a couple of checks with the tower to make sure there were no thunderstorm warnings (as there had been the previous day) I did the walk-round and everything was ready to go.
It started to get busy, so ATC told me to do my power checks where I was parked and I kicked the brakes off at 1440. It took me a little while for me to get my bearings so I did a go-around on my first approach. After a couple of approaches and slightly bumpy landings, I was then told to do a couple of flapless approaches. On the climbout from the first flapless landing, I heard my instructor radio to ATC and inform them that we were going to do an EFATO and then he turned to me and said "This isn't your lucky day, your engine has just stopped, what are you going to do"?. This was my second EFATO and I automatically pointed the plane towards the fields just to my left, put down a couple of stages of flaps and trimmed her nicely to 65 knots. Then as I was turning base, the instructor told me he was going to do the radio call for finals and then said "ok I want a nice smooth landing this time" to which I replied "You mean as opposed to the first 3 bumpy landings"? :)
I turned onto finals and my instructor called through with "G-OWOW on finals for touch & go or landing". And I made it down with a nice smooth landing. The instructor then took the controls and started taxiing back and told me now is the time I get to do my solo.
As I sat waiting for about 10 minutes for clearance from ATC to go off on my solo the wind had veered round so they then switched runways from 34 to 02. My instructor then came out after seeing the plane that had just landed having some problems tackling the crosswind. He then got back in the plane and then said that he'll come up again with me and see how I manage with a couple of circuits on 02.
Usually I hate using that runway, but my first landing was very smooth and I think I impressed myself on that one, the second landing was a bit scrappy and I got told by my instructor "I liked your style on that landing, but when you do your solo I don't want to see you nosediving just to get the plane down" :)
We taxiied back again and then he jumped out and left me to it. I turned the plane around and after a couple of minutes queueing I was cleared for take-off. She went up really quickly without the weight of my instructor beside me. I turned smoothly onto crosswind, and then onto downwind. Made my downwind call and checks. All the time I kept glancing at the empty seat beside me and saying to myself "Wow I'm flying this thing on my own"
I turned onto base, pulled out the carb heat, slowed her down to 1500 rpm, lowered to stages of flaps, turned her round onto finals, called through on the radio, and smoothly glided down. I got blown a little off the centre line, but corrected myself fairly early on. And then came the call from the tower "G-OWOW Congratulations"!!! I couldn't stop grinning at that point and could manage was "G-OW, thank you" :)
I still haven't stopped grinning :)
Yes it is true the plane's registration was G-OWOW and you can bet I did go WOW! when I landed :)
The day started off quite normally with me waking up at 0830, pulling open the curtains and looking out to a nice clear blue sky. After a quick shower and coffee, several clouds had already started to form, but luckily they were still quite high up.
A quick phone call to the school confirmed that even though it's starting to cloud over, all should be fine for my lesson that afternoon. So I got my bag together, and caught the train down to Rochester. I got there quite early so sat around and waited till my instructor was free to start my lesson.
After a couple of checks with the tower to make sure there were no thunderstorm warnings (as there had been the previous day) I did the walk-round and everything was ready to go.
It started to get busy, so ATC told me to do my power checks where I was parked and I kicked the brakes off at 1440. It took me a little while for me to get my bearings so I did a go-around on my first approach. After a couple of approaches and slightly bumpy landings, I was then told to do a couple of flapless approaches. On the climbout from the first flapless landing, I heard my instructor radio to ATC and inform them that we were going to do an EFATO and then he turned to me and said "This isn't your lucky day, your engine has just stopped, what are you going to do"?. This was my second EFATO and I automatically pointed the plane towards the fields just to my left, put down a couple of stages of flaps and trimmed her nicely to 65 knots. Then as I was turning base, the instructor told me he was going to do the radio call for finals and then said "ok I want a nice smooth landing this time" to which I replied "You mean as opposed to the first 3 bumpy landings"? :)
I turned onto finals and my instructor called through with "G-OWOW on finals for touch & go or landing". And I made it down with a nice smooth landing. The instructor then took the controls and started taxiing back and told me now is the time I get to do my solo.
As I sat waiting for about 10 minutes for clearance from ATC to go off on my solo the wind had veered round so they then switched runways from 34 to 02. My instructor then came out after seeing the plane that had just landed having some problems tackling the crosswind. He then got back in the plane and then said that he'll come up again with me and see how I manage with a couple of circuits on 02.
Usually I hate using that runway, but my first landing was very smooth and I think I impressed myself on that one, the second landing was a bit scrappy and I got told by my instructor "I liked your style on that landing, but when you do your solo I don't want to see you nosediving just to get the plane down" :)
We taxiied back again and then he jumped out and left me to it. I turned the plane around and after a couple of minutes queueing I was cleared for take-off. She went up really quickly without the weight of my instructor beside me. I turned smoothly onto crosswind, and then onto downwind. Made my downwind call and checks. All the time I kept glancing at the empty seat beside me and saying to myself "Wow I'm flying this thing on my own"
I turned onto base, pulled out the carb heat, slowed her down to 1500 rpm, lowered to stages of flaps, turned her round onto finals, called through on the radio, and smoothly glided down. I got blown a little off the centre line, but corrected myself fairly early on. And then came the call from the tower "G-OWOW Congratulations"!!! I couldn't stop grinning at that point and could manage was "G-OW, thank you" :)
I still haven't stopped grinning :)
Yes it is true the plane's registration was G-OWOW and you can bet I did go WOW! when I landed :)