Shortly after completing my first solo. I relocated back to the south island where I was also training in a Cessna 152. When I returned this time the Cessna 152 had been sold and the club had a Technam P2008. The P2008 was a lot faster than the Cessna 152 and I had three lessons in it. At that stage I sort of stopped flying as I didn’t want to spend more money on trying to get to solo in another aircraft.
But after about 8 months I relocated back to the location where I had soloed again. I didn’t return to flying for a while as I had other commitments at the time. However, around December 2023 I restarted my flight training.
Thankfully a few lessons and a few more circuits and I was able to get back in the air solo again. Now I had the task of completing my solo consolidation.
There were some times where the weather was a bit above my minimums, where I had strong crosswinds that I wasn’t comfortable with. These days I would go up with the instructor and see how I go with flying in crosswinds. Thankfully, after flying with them I became more confident in flying in the slightly stronger crosswinds, and could continue solo for a few more circuits.
During the crosswind circuits I could add 0.3 hrs solo on top of the 0.9 hrs solo I had done. The following fortnight I flew 1.3 hrs solo circuits in steady weather which was nice. I did notice that I started with good landings as I was doing touch and go’s, but as I continued to do more touch and go’s my landings would get a little worse. At some points rounding out a bit early and slamming into the ground a little hard. Thankfully I was told, “it happens to everyone.”
I eventually ended up flying up until I reached 2.7 hrs solo flight time. At this stage I’m flying once every two weeks and I decided to fly a week later to get that last 0.3 hrs. I made the decision on the day and called in to see if the aircraft was available that day. Then I flew in the afternoon.
I wasn’t expecting the winds to start picking up, but I decided to continue as I had flown a few crosswinds before and they were okay. This day was a bit different though. While I was doing my run up everything seemed okay, and about two circuits into the flight the wind started getting more choppy. I had probably done the 0.3 at this stage so I was keen to get back on the ground. However, due to the wind becoming more intense on final I was being thrown around a lot, and had to do two go arounds.
I was getting a little nervous with attempts. However on the third attempt I decided to commit to the landing, I ballooned a bit, and freaked out a little bit, but thankfully it was the smoothest landing I had done in a while. I was very relieved. When I had talked to my instructors about what happened, they said it helps you become a better pilot. This relieved me even more, and gave me more confidence in that kind of weather. My minimums for winds are still low for now as I don’t want to put myself in a position where I think I can fly in any crazy weather.
Thankfully after getting 3.2 hrs of solo out of the way, I could continue onto the next set of lessons.
Find out more about my next flights in the next post.