On Sun, 2006-10-01 at 12:25 +0200, Ralf Gerlich wrote: > Hi everybody, > > in the tradition of all real-life pilots-to-be reporting about their > milestone experiences in their training, I'd like to tell you about my > first solo in the traffic circuit I had on Friday. > > For understanding of the context: I'm currently training to be a pilot > of microlight planes of the "aerodynamically controlled" type. IIRC > these things are known as VLA (very light aircraft) in the US, although > some of the parameters (maximum MTOW etc.) are different. So I'm not > flying trikes but merely a much smaller and lighter version of what you > PPL-pilots out there are using. I'm training on a Comco Ikarus C42B, of > which a model for FlightGear is in the making (detailed static 3D model > is nearly complete, FDM is a mess and no animation or scripting of > specific instruments has yet taken place ;-) ). > > On Thursday it happened to happen that the conditions of myself having > time off from my dayjob, not being too tired from it and the weather > being VMC (lower limits, however) met on the same day. I hadn't had any > lessons for nearly a month and the last one was a bit frustrating > because the landings just didn't want to work the way I wanted them to, > which - as I learned later on - was due to several factors I couldn't > expect to counter at my stage of training, one of them being the > maintenance guy who had fastened some screws in the front gear a bit too > hard which made control of rudder and steering wheel harder and much > less precise. It makes a whole lot of a difference whether you can > control the rudder with only small forces or whether you need to > literally stump on the pedals to actually move them. > > And on Thursday we went to our training airodrome (landing fees there > allow us to do ten times more landings for the same price as at our home > base), did some coordination training (following curvy roads) as well as > some navigation training in bad visibility, and then I did my first > landing for that day, which was absolutely perfect! We did 8 landings in > total and all of them were at least safe, even though not perfect in my > mind (I expect my passengers not to know that we're on the ground again > ;-) ) > > In the break we did in between my instructor already babbled something > about not letting me do a solo "today yet", but there was something in > that "yet"... > > On the following day, Friday, we went to that aerodrome again and I did > 3 landings, all of which were safe again. On the fourth landing my > instructor added a little spice by simulating an engine failure for me > to see that essentially that doesn't make a huge problem when you're > almost on the runway and high enough. After that landing we taxied to > the apron and he tried to assure me that we would have a short break > now. He's a very talented actor, but I was already prepared and it > seemed awkward to do a break after that few landings. > > He left the plane on the apron and then told me to do 3 or 4 landings > solo. I don't need to tell you I was nervous as hell, however, somehow I > didn't notice the "forgetting how to fly" effect others had told me of. > > I taxied to the taxi holding point, reported that I would taxi onto the > runway and takeoff as soon as the recently-landed powered glider had > left it. When the runway was clear, I went onto the runway, set flaps > and full power and finally was on my first real solo takeoff run. Soon > after the tires left the ground, the nervousness transformed into pure > excitement. > > I can't say I was relaxed but I wasn't exactly tense either. The plane > climbed like I'd never seen it climb before so I was on traffic circuit > altitude already before turning crosswind. Suddenly I had so much time > between leveling the plane and crossing abeam threshold (which is the > point for starting descent in the procedure I've learnt) so I could > really enjoy the view. > > In the second or third downwind I was flying the engine suddenly seemed > to run lumpy, so I tried some of the standard procedures to check the > engine I had learnt. Pulling carburetor heat (we had high humidity and > 16-17 degrees Celsius outside temperature), trying a different RPM, etc. > I blame it on being alone in the plane for the first time, where one > probably tends to hear ghosts, but there was nothing wrong with the engine. > > I just wanted to go on and on and on, but it was already near sunset so > we had to return to our home base soon. After the fourth landing I > parked the plane and my instructor came along showing "thumbs up". We > had a short break and then went home. > > The end of that flight was marked by the very first real-life landing in > EDNY which I did totally on my own: "No hands" for my instructor ;-) As > compared to the other typical traffic in EDNY we are relatively slow, we > tend to do fast landings, coming to 50m aside the runway descending with > about 140-160km/h and cruise power setting (normal approach speed is > 110km/h), do a relatively steep turn and align to the runway, then > reducing the speed by a long flare. There is an agreement between the > microlight pilots at EDNY and the controllers that, as soon as we're > cleared direct into base or right base we rush to the runway using that > "procedure" and it often gives a spectacular view from the outside and a > pretty nice "dynamic" feeling from the inside. Controllers love to clear > us "direct" to base even if there is no other traffic around which would > require it ;-) > > To sum it up: Being solo for the first time is a feeling nobody who > hasn't yet experienced it can imagine and it is an impression I'll never > forget. It also took me some time to actually realise everything I had > experienced on that half hour of being solo so this is one of the > reasons why I didn't write earlier. > > Next report: first cross-country solo or passing of theoretical exam, > whichever comes first ;-) > > Cheers, > Ralf > Congratulations!
Thanks for sharing the thrill and emotion of this day. You write well. My first solo was in a Cessna 150 8/7/1962 at a rural Iowa airport with 1 runway that was so narrow we called it the sidewalk. Now almost 2000 hours later, I still remember that day in terms similar to your description. Thanks again for sharing, -- Dave Perry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys -- and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list Flightgear-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-devel
