After the last lesson of practising flapless landings and crosswind landings I was glad but apprehensive about the thought of going solo again.
The weather was good and it was with the thought of going solo most on my mind I made the trip to Humberside airport. Arriving at Soloflight I had a quick chat with my instructor for the morning. The weather was fine and if my checkout flight with Captain Gibson was satisfactory then it would be a few circuits on my own. With some trepidation I went out to check out Whiskey Oscar.
My instructor joined me part way though my preflight checks. First checks complete and engine fired up, I checked the ATIS and called up Humberside tower to ask for permission to taxi. As per usual I was given clearance to holding point Bravo and a QFE for my circuits.
I was soon at the holding point with my power checks completed and once again I was on the radio again asking for clearance to take off. With clearance given I was lined up and with the word of air traffic still ringing in my ears my right hand selected full power and we were soon in the air. A quick touch and go followed a full stop landing to drop off my instructor and it was time to take command. I killed the throttle as my instructor left and once he was clear I set the throttle to give 1200 rpm.
As on my first solo I started again from the beginning. Checking the instruments I switched to Com2 and checked the ATIS. Noting the altimeter setting and ATIS code and other relevant information I switched back to Com1 after checking the tower frequency was selected.
I pressed the mike button:
“Humberside tower good morning. This is Solo04 on the apron. Request radio check and taxi. I have information Charlie and a QNH of 1012”.
I was given clearance to holding point Bravo and a QFE for my circuits. Which I promptly set.
Once again the standard routine; I reached down and reduced power on the throttle and reached down to take off the brake. Increasing power ‘Whiskey Oscar’ slowly started to move forward. Once on the taxi way I reduced power and and slid my feet upwards to cover the toe brakes. Pressing down with my toes the plane started to slow. Confident that they were working I once again increased power headed off towards holding point Bravo for runway 21. As we made are way along the taxiway I made a few left and right turns and checked the DI and turn indicator to ensure they were working.
I had soon reached holding point bravo and swung to face into the wind and started my power checks. They and the take off checks were were soon complete so it was back on the radio to Humberside to get my clearance. Once obtained it was time to line up on runway 21. So turning onto the runway I backtracked to the end before doing a 180 and lining up on the numbers. I applied the break and set the rpm back to 1200.
After lining up it was not long before I was giving clearance to take off for a left-hand circuit. With a count of three I slowly applied full power and a little right rudder to keep us on the centre line. As our speed picked up I glanced down at the fuel pressure, oil pressure and temperature, as I had be taught. Everything was still in the green, another glance at the air speed indicator showed we were coming up to 60 knots. I started to ease back on the yoke and Golf Bravo Romeo Whiskey Oscar leapt into the air and rapidly gained height. As we climbed into the sky, much faster then before without the added weight of an instructor were we soon up to three hundred feet. Feeling a little self consciousness I called out “three hundred feet”, this was the point that I would remove the flaps, but in this case I had not used any. With the nose placed just above the horizon we gradually to give us hopefully a climb speed of 80 knots, we soon reached five hundred feet and so once again I called out to myself “five hundred feet”. Looking out to both my right and my left I started my turn left onto the cross wind leg.
Lining up just to the right of a tower on the horizon, I continued to climb until we reached 1000 feet, the circuit height and once again called out “1000 Feet” just to reassure myself and Whiskey Oscar. I lowered the nose and let Whiskey Oscar pick up speed. As the speed started to increase I then reduced power to 2300 rpm. It was now time to turn downwind. So again I looked out to my right and left and then made my turn.
Soon I was parallel to the end of the runway and I made my radio call.
“Solo04 downwind for touch and go.”
And to my relief Humberside tower replied.
“Solo04 cleared to turn to final”
With my radio calls out of the way I could then concentrate on my downwind checks.
With these complete it was time to turn onto cross wind
Again looking left and right I made my turn. Once on the crosswind leg I turned on the carb heat and then reduced power to 1700 rpm. Changing the nose attitude to assume a 80 kt descent, I checked my speed and as I was within the white arc on the ASI to selected two stages of flaps. The nose attitude tried to change but I caught it and kept us on the appropriate decent attitude.
By the time we had got down to 700 feet it was time to turn on to final. Checking right and left I made my turn. Once again I was lined up about to land onto runway 21.
I made my radio call.
“Solo04 Final for touch and go, runway 21.”
Humberside then replied
“Solo04 cleared for touch and go left hand circuit.”
The decent was good and on track so I reached forward and switched off the carb heat. At this point Humberside got back in touch and asked if I could see anything to my left. They had a blip on there radar of something large closing slowly at my 11 o’clock. I could not see anything but as a precaution could I now make a right hand circuit.
I replied
“Affirmative.”
During all of this I continued my approach and at 10 feet started to flare and reduced power.
The touch down was fine and I quickly removed a stage of flap and quickly increased power to full.
As the speed increased I glanced down at the engine instruments as I had been taught and confirmed that engine oil temperatures and pressures were still in the green. Tracking the runway centre line I kept glancing down at the instruments and when the AIS reached 60 knots pulled back gently on the yoke.
Whiskey Oscar leapt into the air and I established a 80 knot climb. While I waited for the aircraft to reach turn altitude I kept a good lookout to my left looking out for the blip that humberside had seen on there radar.
Once I had reached 500 feet I made a right hand turn. This now gave me a small problem. I had not done right hand circuits for many weeks and never on my own. There were few land marks to work from so I would just have to judge my eye from my distance.
At what I judged to be the appropriate point I turned onto the downwind leg. I then started my checks. It was at this point we discovered what the blip was. A pilot coming in from the south east was warned about the blip and as they routed round it they reported on the radio that it was.
It turned out to be large group of helium balloons!
I completed my checks and then thought I had reached my turning point to base.
As I completed the turn I realised that I had turned far to early and that I would not have much time to descend. Without wasting time I switched the carb heat on and reduced power to about 1600 rpm, a 1000 rpm lower then normal, and as soon as I got the speed into the white arc on the ASI I selected two stages of flaps. It seemed no time at all before it was time to turn to final.
With the turn to final complete I made my radio call and made a very hurried touch down. That was close! Not dangerous but I had given myself very little time to get everything completed and the plane on the deck.
Checking the carb heat, I quickly switched it off as I had missed it on the last check. I then removed a stage of flap and once again increased power to full.
Third circuit.
Once again I was instructed to make a right hand circuit and this time I made a mental note to give myself more room this time. The take off was simple enough and again at 500 feet I made the right turn on the crosswind leg. Leaving the turn to downwind slightly longer this time, I had reached the 1000 feet circuit height and retrimmed before I made the turn. Once the turn to downwind was complete Humberside radioed me.
“Solo04 what are your intentions.”
I told them that I was intending to do a couple more touch and goes before calling it a day and landing. The then informed me of a Boeing airliner on very long final making a straight in approach. This gave me a dilemma, I may be delayed because of this or could I just finish for the day and get down before the big jet!
I decided to finish for the day and called,
“Solo04 downwind to land.”
Humberside tower laughed and said they would try to get me down before the jet.
Quickly getting my downwind checks out of the way it was time to turn. This time I had left things a little late but I still had plenty of time to get set-up for a good landing.
Just as I started to make my turn Humberside tower again called me and asked me to speed things up. At this point there was not much I could do apart from making sure I made a smooth and efficient landing. Completing my turn to final and making my radio call, I then concentrated on lining up to make a good landing. Tracking the centre line I made my final approach. At three hundred feet I switched off the carb heat. As I reached the touchdown point I kicked the plane straight with the rudder and throttled back. As I flared the main wheels gentle touched the runway and we were down. I kept the speed up and continued down the runway. I needed to get off the runway fast I had a big jet bearing down on me! Humberside tower instructed me to turn onto runway 27. As I approach I braked and swung onto what I thought was runway 27 but the tower informed me was actually runway 09, but I was fine to wait there.
All in all an eventful day. My second time solo was a more nervous affair then my first but I enjoyed every moment of it.
I think the lesson from this day I learn’t was to learn to use my eyes and judge distance correctly and not just rely on land marks. Those right hand circuits had forced me to use my judgement on distance, a valuable lesson for the future.