Today I had PPL lesson 22: Solo circuits.
The weather wasn’t great today but luckily I had an AM session booked so I managed to get some flying in.
My instructor and I went to the plane and he did one circuit and one PFL (practice forced landing) where I just pick what field I would go for if the engine had cut out for real.
The instructor then jumped out after we landed and taxied and it was up to me to go again.
The performance of the aircraft is very different when you in the plane on your own. It climbs a lot faster and when the wind hits it, it rocks a lot more. It also gets blown of course a lot easier.
I did 5 touch and goes on my own which were all pretty uneventful. The circuit was also pretty empty with the only other traffic was another student practicing approaches using NDB’s.
There was a bit of wind so I had to be pretty good with my drift correction around the circuit.
On the landings I never suffered from much of a crosswind so I never used any rudder to help bring the plane in. The landings were smooth on the whole apart from one where there was a little bit of a bounce, but not much.
I remember when I was early on in my lessons I thought that I would never be at the stage where I could do solo circuits, so when I got back down after some smooth landings I must admit I felt pretty proud of myself!
Not to long after I got back in the school the weather changed and that put an end to flying for the day. It looks like being up there for 9am paid of for once!
I have some more time planned tomorrow as long as the weather is ok, however the forecast says it wont be great so we shall see.
