David's Flight Adventures

First Solo This is a day in your training that you will never forget and will only ever happen once.  You might do a first solo in a new aircraft type further down the line, but this will always be the first real solo. The day was calm and even had a little bit of blue sky poking through.  I was originally booked in for an hour today but someone else cancelled and I took advantage and booked a second lesson slot, and it proved to be very worthwhile.  Today was my first time using runway 0 7 which has a bit of a dog leg approach and also means you have to come in over a line of trees.  The land owner was supposed to have felled a gap in to the trees that was in line with the runway, but got it wrong, so you still have to come in over the trees.  I spent the hour learning the circuit and approach and as the hour went on, it got better.  There were a few things to pick up on such as getting the flare right and landing down the middle of the runway.  I was...

It has been 4 weeks since I last flew.  The UK weather has been pretty awful with either wind, rain or a combination of the 2, so it was good to back at the flying school again. Today wasn't brilliant as it was still windy, probably 15 knots gusting to 20 knots, so it was decided that it was not particularly beneficial just to keep doing circuits.  After a chat with my instructor, it was agreed that we would move on to another part of the syllabus, part 16a, practice forced landings, or PFLs as they are known. There are 6 stages to the PFL: 1. Airspeed - set the aircraft up for the best glide speed, which for the C42 is 58 knots. Anywhere between 58 and 60 is fine.  This gives you the best option to glide the farthest distance. 2. Wind - Note the wind direction and speed.  Use anything and everything to tell you this.  If you have a map with you, mark a line on the map with the wind direction or use the wind direction indicators on SkyDemon.  Also look for ...