[OZAPRS] First Solo

Tony Farrow tonyajf at gmail.com
Sun Apr 1 11:05:05 EST 2012


A wonderful experience that's for sure Darryl. I still clearly remember my
first solos around 50 years ago in both a de Havilland Chipmunk and a
glider.



Cheers,



Tony VK2AJF

On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 10:44 PM, John Williams - VK5ZY
<vk5zty at bigpond.com>wrote:

> Congrats Darryl
>
> I know that feeling well even if it was 20 years ago.
> It is something you never forget.
>
> Cheers
> John
> VK5ZY
>
> On 25 Mar 2012 at 8:35, Darryl Smith wrote:
>
> >
> > Hi Geoff
> > I just decided to flight plan a flight to see where you could go on a
> nav up there. Ybas to ytpe to
> > yaye to kkcs to yhaa to ybas. According to my calcs this would be 181
> minutes depending on what
> > you do at ayers rock. 100l Avgas. Sounds like a fun little nav flight.
> > I believe that for me nav will be easy. I have been on more nav flights
> as an unofficial co pilot in
> > flights to Coober pedy, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane, etc. I actually flew
> half the way from ypkg to
> > YSBK. I have also done victor one in Sydney and some other navs...
> Unfortunately this is all
> > without logbook time. Richard has promised to take me on the ppl test
> route the week before to
> > make sure I pass. Helps when you only need to pay the cost of fuel, and
> not even normally then :)
> > I am fairly close to GFPT standard I think. The unofficial flying has
> helped there. The rv I copilot is
> > interesting to fly compared to the 152. The rv is far more powerful and
> sensitive.
> > Anyway, good luck with the ppl.
> > Darryl
> >
> >
> >
> > On 25/03/2012, at 6:16 PM, "Geoff Gatward" <geoff-lists at gatwards.org>
> wrote:
> >
> >     Congratulations Darryl! It's a great feeling to get that first solo
> under your belt :-)
> >     Next stop GFPT and buld up some hours - you need to get to GFPT
> standard regardless -
> >     I've been there for some time, just getting back into things here in
> the Alice after a 6-7 year
> >     hiatus when kids came onto the scene. Did my training out at Camden
> where things were
> >     considerably quieter than Bankstown - 152's SOX and UNO, then moving
> onto Warrior UNL
> >     once I had the GFPT under my belt.
> >     Starting my Navs now in 172 RBF (or JDH if it's about) - I have been
> dorking around with
> >     taking the GPS up with me, and have started building up some
> interesting 3D routes in
> >     Google Earth with the resulting plots.
> >     If anyone's interested in listening to airband comms, I also provide
> a feed into LiveATC.net
> >     from here - the local ATC sector is linked to a massive portion of
> the Melbourne airspace....
> >       http://d.liveatc.net/ybas for those that are interested.
> >     Cheers,
> >     Geoff VK8GG / VK2XJG
> >
> >
> >     On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 2:58 PM, Darryl Smith <
> darryl at radio-active.net.au> wrote:
> >     Greetings to All... I hope you will forgive my off topic message. It
> >     is slightly APRS related, but only slightly. I tried to do a GPS log
> >     but the App did not work. I really should have loaded the APRS app
> >     for my iPhone.
> >
> >
> >     Well, Tuesday, I managed to do something that I was never in my life
> expecting to ever do -
> >     I took myself flying. I don't mean that I took a trip on a
> commercial airliner. I have been
> >     taking them since just after I was born. And I don't mean that I
> took a joy flight either. I am
> >     talking about a flying the plane myself without anyone else in the
> plane - my first solo.
> >
> >     And not only did I do my first solo, I did it at Bankstown, one of
> the busiest airports in the
> >     world. It used to be #26 in terms of aircraft movements, although it
> might have slipped
> >     recently.
> >
> >
> >     I arrived at the airport about an hour early, having had an early
> lunch. At about 12:15, my
> >     instructor sent me out to pre-flight the plane. For once, I did not
> need fuel but I did need to
> >     add some oil as the level was at minimum. Adding the required oil
> was easy thanks to the
> >     provided paper funnel. We then took taxied the plane out to runway
> 11R for circuits.
> >     Unusually, 11 Centre was being used because 11L was being used for
> filming. This meant
> >     that I needed to be a bit more careful with my turns from base onto
> final than normal.
> >
> >     My first circuit was a bit rusty, but after that they got better. My
> flapless approach was quite
> >     good, as was the following approach. To be honest I thought I had
> stuffed it up but managed
> >     to touch down gently exactly where I wanted to. After about five
> circuits in total, the
> >     instructor got on the radio and let the tower know that we would be
> making a full stop, after
> >     which we taxied to an area where instructors wait for their
> students. I then got a briefing,
> >     basically saying that my landings were quite good, do one circuit,
> but go around if needed.
> >     Do as many go arounds as you need to until you are happy. If you
> have any issues with
> >     radio calls, ask, and ask more than once if needed. Also, listen for
> unrequested radio calls
> >     (we twice got asked to turn crosswind early during practice). Once I
> was done with the
> >     circuit, request taxi to pick up the the instructor up and go from
> there. And she got out of the
> >     plane.
> >
> >     Was I nervous. Yes. How could I not be. I was in charge of flying
> myself. As soon as she got
> >     out I checked the name of the holding point, and made the radio call
> 'Cessna 152 UAK at
> >     holding point Yankee for first solo' to which the tower responded
> 'Cleared for Takeoff, UAK'.
> >     I then taxied onto the runway and lined up. I turned the landing
> light on and opened the
> >     throttle nervously but firmly, accelerating to about 55 knots. I
> then pulled the stick back and
> >     started flying. Once I got to about 200' I was no longer nervous,
> more interested in flying the
> >     plane than being concerned about things.
> >
> >     There was no one in front of me which was great, so at 500' I turned
> right and continued
> >     ascending. I did notice I got to the downwind turning point I was
> probably 100' higher than
> >     normal and needed to level off and turn at the same time. No problem
> here.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >     Then came the BUMFISH checks on downwind (Check Brakes,
> Undercarriage Down,
> >     Mixture Rich, Fuel On, Contents sufficient, Instruments OK, Switches
> On and harness
> >     secure.), but I noticed I needed to go through them more quickly
> than normal. Then a quick
> >     call to tower 'UAK downwind for full stop'. Tower responded with
> 'Downwind for full stop.
> >     Traffic is a warrior on late final (Runway Centre?). You are number
> 1, UAK', to which I
> >     responded 'Looking for traffic, number 1 for runway right UAK'.
> >
> >     By then it was time to set up for turning base, so I quickly put the
> carb heat on and pulled
> >     back the power and kept the nose up until I slowed down and could
> add some flap and
> >     turned right onto base and started heading for the beach on the
> river. In the middle of this
> >     turn I was cleared for a full stop. Down about 500' I turned to
> final and adjusted the power to
> >     keep my height good. I was slightly low and I had turned slightly
> right - I will fix that on my
> >     next flight. I think I was using slightly not enough power on base
> and also turning so I kept
> >     away from the path to the centre runway.
> >
> >     I came in straight towards the runway, and was concerned that I was
> going to touch down
> >     before the piano keys. Thankfully I landed just after them. Not sure
> how far after, but it was
> >     fairly close. The landing was not the gentlest I have ever done but
> it was fairly good. For a
> >     first solo it was certainly good enough. I was happy.
> >
> >     I then taxied to the side taxiway and headed back to pick up the
> instructor after making a
> >     radio call. When she got back in the plane and congratulated me, we
> headed back and I
> >     made another radio call and got congratulations from the tower too.
> I was really happy, as
> >     you can see from the photo above.
> >
> >
> >     It has taken about 27 logbook hours to get to this point in my
> training. It should have taken
> >     22 hours, but issues with my CASA medical caused some delays where I
> just kept flying
> >     doing more lessons. If my medical had come through, I could have
> done my first solo
> >     around February 19th. A bit over 15 hours of this has been doing
> circuits. This was more
> >     than I was hoping to do, but I was having issues in getting my
> landings to a standard that I
> >     was happy with. Eventually it twigged to me that my biggest problem
> was that I was not able
> >     to explain to others how I was intending to land the plane, and was
> therefore unable to land
> >     it properly. What had happened was that circuits were explained to
> me before the first
> >     lesson of circuits, and in future lessons we both assumed that I
> absorbed 100% of what had
> >     been explained. What really happened was that I had absorbed a lot,
> but thanks to lack of
> >     reference, some things had not really sunk in.
> >
> >     Once I realised this, I had another briefing from my instructor on
> the correct landing
> >     procedure, and this made a significant improvement. This included
> things like adding power
> >     when landing, regardless of the sink over the field on late final.
> This allowed me to quickly
> >     improve my landings. If I am honest, I don't know that I would want
> to have moved on from
> >     circuits any earlier as the time I spent doing circuits allowed me
> to improve my situational
> >     awareness and circuit procedures.
> >
> >
> >     I decided to get my pilots license in October 2011 when Richard and
> I arrived in Langley
> >     Park in Perth in a plane that we had built in a garage. After that
> amazing experience, I could
> >     not hold off any longer.
> >
> >     After some mucking around I did my first flight, a TIF in a Piper
> Warrior on November 28,
> >     2011. Since then, I have been flying Cessna 152's, generally either
> VH-JNB or VH-UAK.
> >     Both these are basic aircraft with little in the way of modern
> electronic avionics, which is why
> >     I chose to fly them. Having spent so much time in more advanced
> aircraft, I wanted to go
> >     back to basics.
> >
> >     Right now I would like to thank all those who have been mentors in
> my flying experience. My
> >     best friend Richard Talbot has been extraordinarily helpful
> providing advice and support. Not
> >     surprising really, since he is probably the most to blame for me
> going for my pilots license
> >     after all these years. I would also like to thank pilots John, Kevin
> and Ian for their advice,
> >     particularly as I was struggling with circuits.
> >
> >     I would also like to thank my instructor, Olivia H. for putting up
> with my amateur flying and
> >     fitting in with my varying work schedules.
> >
> >     Since last Tuesday I have done another two solo flights, each at
> about 30-40 minutes long.
> >     These are great for building up my confidence and abilities.
> >
> >     From here, my next stepping stone is (possibly) a GFPT (General
> Flight Proficiency Test)
> >     then definitely by a PPL (Private Pilots License). Then given some
> experience a Command
> >     Instrument Rating is definitely on the cards. The CPL (Commercial
> Pilots License) might
> >     follow, but I have not decided on that one yet. The GFPT only gives
> me some limited ability
> >     to take passengers, which depending on how long it takes to get a
> full PPL might not be
> >     worth it. Of course I will need to save up a bit to do all this
> training, as well as buy that new
> >     iPad which is definitely needed.
> >
> >
> >
> >     I am looking forward to a solo flight down Victor One when I get my
> PPL.
> >     This is a trip where you take off from Bankstown, head to the
> northern
> >     beaches, head south to Sydney Harbour, do a couple of loops near the
> >     opera house, head back out the heads and then south at 500' over the
> >     ocean before almost hitting Wollongong and returning to Bankstown. I
> >     think this will be a rite of passage for me!
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Darryl
> > ---------
> > Darryl Smith, VK2TDS POBox 169 Ingleburn NSW 2565 Australia
> > Mobile Number 0412 929 634 [+61 4 12 929 634 Int] - 02 9618 6459
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
> >
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>
>
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