Unsupervised Solo

Posted on July 2, 2007 | Filed Under Flying

Today I got to fly out to our local practice area with only my nerves as my copilot.

Again there were thunderstorms 10-20 miles away. Although they weren’t heading toward the practice area I was mildly apprehensive. As I was heading to the practice area I saw lightning in the distance. I nearly did an immediate u-turn to go back for just touch-and-go’s. However, to the south the sun was shining, and the clouds were distant.

I worked on basic ground-reference manuevers. I still suck at those which is frustrating. These should be the simplest things to do, but Mr. Wind kept messing with me. After several turns around a point I finally realized an easy trick: Pick out landmarks and fly over them to help keep the radius equidistant. Rectangular courses and s-turns I didn’t do that well, either, but I think another practice or two will get me locked in on them.

Three landings (two touch-n-go’s), and I was done. I’m not sure what the hell happened, but my landings were pretty good–a bit of floating–but, I’m proud of myself. I just need more crosswind practice now.

Flight Time: 1.4 Hours

Total Time: 26.0 Hours, 2.8 PIC

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