5th 1st solo

I was not confident my plan to go flying tonight was going to come off... it had been raining all day and the cloud was really low... but by 6:30pm the front had passed through and the lovely sunset was proof the skies were clear...

So the plan was to go up with Trevor and just make sure I had everything sorted and then, assuming it all went ok, I could do a B-Cat check with Rob so I could get signed off for Night Solo's...

Only Rob showed up and said "We'll just go up and then you can do an hour's worth of Solo's"... :)

As the wind had shifted, we were flying off 21... and I taxied out to the run-up area... and discovered that the Left Magneto was running rough... We ran the engine right up and leaned it out to clear the spark plugs which worked a treat and we were off...

It was the first time using runway 21 at night and it was interesting, as the view and reference points were all different. Having advised Rob of this, he was kind enough to point out some really good reference points to use. After some good standard approachs (with and without the landing light) and a decent go-around, Rob said "Ok, make the next one full-stop, not complete... I'll jump out and you can do an hours worth of solo"...

yeah baby! My 5th 1st solo... (1st solo, 2nd - solo 7 years later, 3rd - solo in the training area, 4th - solo cross country)...

So I spent the next hour going round and round... practicing standard & flapless circuits both with and without the landing light... it is amazing the number of circuits you can squeeze into an hour when no-one else is in the circuit to get in your way! ;)

I was a little nervous about the weather for the 1st 30 minutes or so... but then I noticed the stars had come out which meant no clouds :) I still kept an eye out down to the south, but as it turned out, I had nothing to worry about...

And I got possibly my best landing ever... flapless... without the landing light...:D

The first indication that I was on the ground was that I could feel/hear the main wheels rolling... no squeaking rubber, not even the slightest bump... it was silky smooth... I wish they could all be like that!

This flight: 0.6 Dual + 1.0 Solo
Total Hours: 105.9 (73.4 Dual Day, 2.8 Dual Night, 28.7 PinC Day, 1.0 PinC Night, 5.1 IFR)