Solo Time
It has been awhile since my last entry. The week after I soloed, I was out of town. When I returned, the weather was bad AND the plane was grounded due to inoperable radios. Finally, toward the end of last week the plane was put back into service. I was able to get a little less than an hour of solo flying in on Sunday and a little more than an hour of solo flying done on Tuesday this past week. In all, I need to complete a minimum of 10 solo hours to meet the requirement for the Private Pilot Certificate. As of now, I have 2.2 solo hours.
On Sunday the weather was really sketchy... it was marginal VFR for most of the day. When I got into the plane there was an almost direct 14-15knot crosswind with gusts of up to 20 knots I had to deal with and there were thunderstorms developing in the area. So, I decided to stay around the airport and practice crosswind landings. A nice way to begin flying after a two week lay off. Doing crosswind landings by myself. My first time around, I misjudged the turn from base to final and ended up to the right of the centerline as I brought the plane down. Then, when I was within about 10 feet of the ground, one of those 20 knot gusts came along and pushed me to the far right of the runway. I decided at that point to open the throttle and execute a go-around. The rest of my landings were better and I gained a lot of confidence in my skills with such strong crosswinds while I was by myself. In all I did 7 landings before I decided to stop for the day when it started raining on the plane while I was on the crosswind leg of the pattern.
On Tuesday, the weather was also marginal, but I got out to the plane early and was able to take advantage of a gap in the bad weather. This time the winds were more directly with the runway, so I started off doing a few touch-and-goes, then left the airport to the southeast and worked on steep turns, turns about a point and s-turns. After a total of 45 minutes I returned to the airport and did a few more touch and goes and finished up for the day.
Finally, have been taking a ground school class to prepare for the private pilot written exam, but I've been working ahead and am going to take the test this weekend. I have test prep software the utilized the actual exam questions and simulates the test and I'm able to consistently score over 90% on every practice test, so I think I can go take the test. This is important to complete because before I can do my solo cross-country work, I must pass the written exam.
Next flight: Saturday, April 5.
