Passed Me X-country

[Holloway]

Seems like yesterday I went Solo and now im within runnin distance of getting my licence!! I flew from Manston to Lydd, then onto Shoreham and I was so nervous about if I would join correctly over the Aerodromes and had my maps of the runways on the seat panicing and going through how to join.

After a successfull landing at Lydd I carried on to Shoreham. When I got there they changed the runway from the Asphalt one 03 to the grass one 07 and Ive never landed on grass before. I made a perfect landing and went for lunch.

After lunch I taxied to runway 03 with 10 degree of flap, full power then let the brakes go. I was really nervous as I could see the end of the runway not to far away (being used to manston) and off I went and there was a bounce half way down and I went up and down again and then I lifted off and climbed out with no problems. I was so glad that was over, even though it wasnt really a problem. Im still going to do some practice landings at Maypole on grass when I get a chance :)

Well that was the day for me, can you still remember your X-Country Qualifier??

Andrew :)

[Thrifty van Rental]

Well done Andrew

That is one more pilot for the GA cause. Do you fly with TG?

TvR

[Holloway]

Yeah, my instructor is Bob Mc chesney :)

[Evo]

Congrats, Andrew. When's the skills test then?

Wish I'd had your route - not much chance of getting lost on that one :)

[PPPPP]

Congratulations Holloway. It's a great feeling isn't it!
I'll bet you were exhausted when you got back.

I also passed mine today, Barton - Wolverhampton - Blackpool.
A slight cockup at Wolverhampton earned me a FAIR for airmanship (forgot to report final due to frequency congestion and dealing with a playful gust of wind at 300 feet) but GOOD for landing, and two GOODs at Blackpool! What a relief to get it done with only three false starts.

Let us know how the GFT goes, it can't be long now:)

[rustle]

Erm, I don't want to p1ss on your chips or anything, but unless you got lost that ain't 150nm is it?

[Holloway]

Three False starts!!! I hate that!!! I was really lucky, I did the route with my instructor on friday and did it solo on monday!! My instructor said its known to take 8 weeks to get those two flights done :) Only a few hours now! Cant wait, its gettin more exciting towards the end!! :)


rustle

Erm, I don't want to p1ss on your chips or anything, but unless you got lost that ain't 150nm is it?


Oh, I FLEW BACK TO MANSTON AFTER :)

[Fly Stimulator]

Well done Andrew!

According to FliteStar that route is a little under 150nm if you assume that all the legs are direct, but if you visited DVR, SFD and DET along the way then you can get it over minimum, so I assume that's the way you went ;)

[Evo]

Presumably the direct route has to be 150nm? Otherwise you could do lots of circuits as part of your QXC. However, JAR-FCL 1.125 doesn't actually say it needs to be direct :)

Doubt it will matter unless someone at the CAA is having a really bad day (although rustle is right - NavBox reckons it's 144nm direct) but bloomin' 'eck, your school should be smart enough to send you on a valid route. Maybe you should tell someone before somebody gets their licence application returned...

[HelenD]

Congratulations on passing, its a great feeling and not far left to go now. It is one of the most enjoyable flights you get to do pre licence issue.

[TheKentishFledgling]

Well done!

tKF

See you around at EGMH.

[KCDW]

Well done mate, as you can see from this thread, we all have our stories....

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=81730

[jonnys]

Well done on your qualifier mate!!

I remember mine...I should do, cos the weather prevented me from doing it for 6 months! I think I've got the club record for 34 attempts!!!!!!!!

I did Blackpool-Hawarden-Caernarfon-Blackpool, and it was amazing. Totally agree that it is the best pre-license flight you can do. The day I (finally!) flew, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, light and variable winds and vis so clear you could see the eyelashes on those welsh sheep from 3000ft!!

Knackered but very buzzed when I got home!

Do let us know how the skills test goes...that's another day to remember! Best of luck.

[Holloway]

Thanks guys :) I did route via ashford on the way to lydd to make sure I was in the quota of 150 nm :)

[Northern Highflyer]

Well done on the QXC

Have to agree it is one of the best flights you ever do.

Mine was Sherburn - East Midlands - Humberside - Sherburn

After getting used to grass and the open FIR it was quite daunting going to two International airports and dealing with controlled airspace. That soon went once I set off and I loved every second of it. Had to keep reminding myself to concentrate on the job in hand rather than gawp at the big stuff on the ground. Landing was easy, even I couldn't miss that big lump of tarmac at East Mids. Come to think about it I could have landed on it widthways its that bloody big.

I could have stayed there all day taking in the sights and sounds. Great feeling when the tower gave a BY757 clearance to pushback after the PA28 has passed behind - that was me !! :D

[terryJones]

Re the distances, I read somewhere that the QXC for the NPPL was only 100 miles (185k) as opposed to the 150 miles for the PPL.
Looking back at mine I find that the straight line distance was only 140 ish miles:confused:
Doing it all again now for the NPPL after letting the licence lapse.....
Well done anyway Holloway

TJ

[PeterJfrancis]

Well Done Andrew !
It must feel great to get that out of the way !


PeterJ

[Courtman]

Congrats on the QXC Holloway, Mrs Courtman has hers on Friday subject to wind and rain, and is even now poring over the maps to figure out the best routes etc.

This is interesting though, when I did my PPL way back in 1996 I routed Henlow-Leicester-Wellesbourne Mountford-Henlow it was less than 150nm (only 127nm to be precise) but I think it was just that one of the legs had to be greater than 50nm, i.e. the Wellesbourne-Henlow leg (which NavBox says is 49.5nm ;)). Was this correct or has my memory failed me?

[djk]

congrats Andrew,

I've got my QXC coming up soon which will be from Rochester -> Goodwood -> Lydd and then back "home" to Rochester :)

At first from the date of your posting I thought you were the guy ahead of me waiting to pay their landing fee who was on their QXC, but seeing the time you posted, you would still have been at Lydd at the time. I'm just wondering if that guy passed his too.