Another student has finally reached the milestone of first solo. Unfortunately for him he had been flying with another flying school and had nearly 30 hours flying and had not been solo. I flew with him, worked out where he was going wrong, and in less than a couple of hours flying sent him off solo in our Cessna 152.

Rhodri was a bit nervous and under-confident when I first flew with him. He was worried about the circuit as he had been having difficulty landing and tended to land very flat. He had also picked up a few odd habits, and insisted on flying the circuit by reference to various landmarks around the airfield. I pointed out that unless he could fly in relation to the runway, he is going to be totally stuck if he flies to another airfield. We tidied up his circuit and explained why certain things were done at particular times. For example turning onto base leg when the landing area was back in about his 8 o’clock, and reducing power when it was at 45 degrees on the base leg, and then trimming for the approach so all he had to do on final was to keep it straight, and have the landing area about 1/3 of the way up the screen, keeping the approach speed constant. Then I taught him how to round out, fly level and hold off, trying not to land, and suddenly it clicked. A few more circuits and he was away on his own on a blustery day and although his landing was not perfect by any means, it was safe.

Now we have to get him through the rest of the syllabus in as little time as possible to negate the time he has wasted on the circuit getting nowhere.

Here is a video of his flight.

Watch the video on YouTube