Flying solo - whoooope!

Today was probably one of the most important and memorable days in my attempt to become the youngest person to fly around the world and the first person to both sail and fly around the world. I flew my first Solo!

When I woke up this morning all raring to go, I opened my blinds, looked out the window and groaned in disappointment at the extremely low cloud base making look rather foggy. I could barely see even 100m down my road. I promptly phoned up Cabair (which has got to be the best flying school ever!), spoke to Liam and he certainly agreed that it wasn’t looking great for my lesson today. We agreed that I’d ring up again in a couple of hours to see if the situation had changed at all since then.

At 12.30 I phoned up, and once again the news wasn’t great. Heathrow airport, which is pretty darn close to Elstree aerodrome, was reporting a cloud base of only 500ft. Still not good enough for us, as the circuit height around Elstree is at 1000ft.

Whilst having lunch I was chatting to my mum and at around half one she suggested I ring Cabair once more on the off chance that there was a cancellation for Liam’s afternoon lesson with another student.

Incredibly, I think my mum has begun to mind read, as when I phoned up, Liam said that just minutes ago his student has cancelled his afternoon slot and so he was free to fly. I once again asked about the cloud base and Liam reported that it had improved sufficiently and was certainly flyable.

I immediately wolfed down the rest of my lunch, jumped in the car with my gear and headed over to Elstree full of anticipation and excitement.

When I arrived, Liam and I sat down for a short briefing on the weather conditions and we also did a quick recap of all the emergency procedures should I encounter any problems during my first solo flight. I was happy with everything, as was Liam and so I headed out to the aircraft to do a full A check of the plane. An A check is a complete check of the aircraft from top to bottom looking at everything from seeing that the flaps are in order to the right level of oil being in the engine. I was happy with everything, Liam did his own quick little check to make sure that I hadn’t missed anything, and with him being satisfied and in the co-pilot's seat, I started the plane up and we went through more checks and tests.

I radioed ahead for airfield information and taxi clearance. This was granted and once I had jotted down the relevant information, adjusted what I needed too, such as the altimeters pressure, I taxied out of Cabair and headed over to the runway. On the way there, we stopped, did our engine tests to check that it was in perfect order and then headed over to the holding line just before the runway. I radioed, saying that I was ready for departure. We were given the clearance and so we headed out to the threshold before stopping, holding the plane on the brakes, applying full power to achieve the best rate of acceleration and then as I released the braked we headed down the runway gaining airspeed until I reached 65knots at which point I lifted the aircraft off the ground and into the sky.

The circuit was a left hand one off runway 26 and so I proceeded to take us around the circuit smoothly at 1000ft before lining up for final at 600ft. At this point I had already completed all the pre-landing checks, I had two stages of flaps down. As we approached the runway even closer, I brought in another stage of flap, we passed over the school, which lies just before the aerodrome, and after I flew just over the threshold, I touched us down with a little bump. This was a go-around and so I didn’t apply any brakes this time. Instead, I dropped one stage of flap, increased the power back up to 100% and took off again. I repeated this circuit twice more before Liam and I agreed that the time had come for my first solo!

After landing on the third circuit I exited the runway and radioed ahead for a change of Captain. That was a good feeling! We taxied over to the same point that we did the engine testing before. Liam jumped out, wished me luck and I was on my own. What a cool feeling that was! I proceeded to do some more tests and checks then once again taxied down to the holding line, before requesting clearance for take off. This was immediately granted and with a little bit of nerves I taxied the plane out onto the runway and up to the threshold. I once again held the plane on the brakes, took a deep breath of air, increased the power to 100% and let the brakes go. I was soon gaining speed and it didn’t take long to achieve 65knots at which point I lifted the nose up into the air and the plane left the ground. After I reached around 300ft I proceeded to quickly do some more checks and as I could see we were nicely gaining height and our airspeed was fine, one by one I let off both stages of flaps.

At this point I was still gaining height and I couldn’t help but shout out loud ‘YES I’M SOLO!! WOOOOPEE!’ I certainly had a massive grin on my face right then. In fact, that grin never left my face for the whole flight.. Come to think of it, I believe I’m still wearing it now as I write this just a couple of hours after my flight.

I banked left onto the first short bit of the circuit after the climb and headed over to an area of fields keeping the houses on my left. The circuits are designed and laid out not just for the ease of the pilot but also to reduce noise for the houses below. At this point I was heading out in the direction of Wembley stadium which is one of the landmarks I use to remember the circuit and as I passed a couple of tall aerials on my left I once again banked over to my left. I was now on the downwind leg and so I radioed ahead letting the aerodrome know my position. Now that I was on the downwind leg I went ahead and did all my landing checks such as making sure that the brakes were ok and making sure that the landing light was on etc.

I turned on to base and started my decent down to 600ft for the final turning point. I introduced two stages of flaps on and slowed the aircraft down to fly at a perfect 70knots. I made my last turn onto final and I again radioed ahead letting them know that I was on final and that I intended to land. I introduced one more stage of flap whilst keeping the airspeed at 70knots, adjusted the engine power as necessary to keep our decent nice and level and as I flew just above the threshold I flared the aircraft and let her glide down the last few feet to the runway herself.

I gently slowed the plane down to a stop and was instructed over the radio to turn back around and exit the runway at the Alpha point once again. I did this, stopped after the Alpha point, did my after landing checks and then after requesting taxi back to Cabair I headed back over to them and parked the plane up. I really was dead chuffed.

I’ve got to say a huge thank you to the guys at Cabair flight school for making this happen as if it wasn’t for you guys I wouldn’t be where I am today. A special thanks must also go out to Liam my instructor for being the most helpful, patient and fun instructor any student pilot could wish for.

Mike

One very happy Mikeeee