First Solo and PT1

What a couple of weeks this has been! The first one was 6 duty days which included my first solo and first of my examination flights! I've only been out here 5 weeks and have somehow completed 20 flights and a load of ground school stuff. It's hard to believe that the next course has now arrived out here in Phoenix and has just completed their ground school, doesn't seem like a couple of days since I was doing mine.

So the entire of last week was focused on completing the necessary parts of the syllabus in order to allow me to go solo. This involved starting the week with a bit more instrument training under the hood. It was a very odd morning for Arizona as it was overcast and ever rained on and off (the new course arrived out on this day so they must have brought it with them). The weather brief showed nothing much happening and without the thermal heating effects we expected it to be a nice smooth flight. How wrong we were! Flying in moderate turbulence is bad enough, flying in moderate turbulence when you can't see outside is very interesting. After getting thrown around by this for a while we went into Mesa Gateway for a crew change. On this day there was a pair of fire-fighting water bomber aircraft around which were working at the various forest fires which are currently going on in Arizona (there's one about 100 miles north of Phoenix at a couple about 60 miles east at the moment). After chatting to the crew we got a tour around one of them which was an old P-2 Neptune converted maritime reconnaissance aircraft capable of carrying around 20,000lbs of water. It was a incredible aircraft to say it's around 60 years old with 2 18-cylinder 3,000bhp engines and 2 jet engines to help it get off the ground. They were just about to brief to go out on a mission as well so to take the time to show us around was really great of them. The second instrument flight of the day where I was back seating was even bumpier than the first, when we hit one particularly good bit of turbulence that launched us all into the ceiling (even though we all had seat belts on and tight) we decided to call it a day. I was very glad my headset has a good padded headband at that point!

P-2 Neptune Water Bomber

The other consolidation lesson was on practice forced landings and emergency procedures. Basically an engine failure is simulated by closing the throttle and letting the engine run at idle and then running through checklists as if you are going to be landing on a field/road/random airport, or whatever is handy. We always go around by 500ft above ground level by which point you have a fairly good idea of whether you would have been successful or not.

First Solo:

I had the unusual pleasure of my solo check out flight and first solo being in the afternoon. This meant it was hot, very hot! Before going solo for the first time you do an hour of circuits with an instructor to make sure you are up to required standard and are happy with the conditions on the day to go solo. It was 36 degrees when I went for the dual flight and apart from a little thermal turbulence it wasn't bad flying conditions. After landing and drinking about a litre of very cold water to try and cool down a bit it was time to head out for my first solo.
The first solo is a very important day in any pilots career as you are the only one in the aircraft so are completely responsible for any decision making and the safe conduct of the flight. Heading back out to the aircraft and doing a quick pre-flight it was time to jump in and start up for the flight. I very nearly burnt myself sitting back in the seat as it had been directly in the sun for the 20 minutes I'd been inside so had got rather warm to say the least! Thankfully the aircraft started up quickly (this gave me some moving air off the propeller which, if not cold, was at least cooler than that in the cabin) and then it was time to check the ATIS to ensure the weather was still in limits for a solo flight. For safety reasons all flying stops if the reported ATIS temperature hits 43 degrees. The latest weather was reporting 39 and the wind was 10 knots and almost down the runway so I was good to go. A quick glance at the outside air temperature probe in my aircraft (which measures the temperature underneath the wing and is affected by heat radiating from the surface) was showing a temp of 49 degrees.  A rule of thumb is that if the sun is streaming into the cabin then it's typically 10-15 degrees hotter in the cabin the OAT probe says, which means it was probably over 60 degrees in the cabin. So it was basically like sitting fully clothed in a sauna about to undertake something that's rather stressful, not that I really cared as I was about to go solo.

ATIS as copied down in the aircraft on my solo flight

After taxiing off I just concentrated on the task at hand running through all the checklists and heading down to the runway for take off. As I was the only person mad enough to be flying at that time of the day I got an immediate take off clearance from the tower and was soon heading down the runway watching as the speed built to rotate speed at 65 knots. Pulling into the air I was surprised by just how much better the performance of the aircraft was with only me in it.
A single circuit of the airfield from take off to landing only takes about 5 minutes so it's not the world's longest flight. The time I actually fully realised that I was alone in the aircraft was as I turned crosswind. Quickly glancing over to the right and seeing a large space where the instructor is usually sitting really made it sink home that I was the only one in charge of that aircraft. Before I knew it I was on final approach and heading towards the runway, thankfully on glide path and the correct approach speed. They say your first solo landing is either one of the best or worst of your career, I was lucky enough to judge the flare point just right and touch down with only the lightest of bumps and it was then a quick taxi back into the ramp to shut the aircraft down only about 20 minutes after I'd first fired it up, and smiling all the time and for several hours afterwards.
Then it was time to head back to the accommodation for a flying school tradition; getting thrown into a swimming pool in full uniform. That really is a great way to cool off after an afternoon flying in the Arizona sunshine!

Very warm and very happy after shutting down following the first solo

Post-solo photo with the aircraft

Progress Test 1 (PT1)

PT1 is an internal school assessment basically designed to ensure that we're safe when taking off and landing carried out with one of the schools senior flight instructors. This was scheduled for just a couple of days after my first solo. This is also the first time I'd flown with someone who wasn't my main instructor. It was an early day getting if for about 5am to make sure all the pre-flight preparation was done before meeting the examiner. The examiner was great, really helped to put me at ease before the flight, we also went over the theory portion of the exam. This was basically questions on the performance of the Archer and some legal stuff such as what documents were required on-board and at what intervals certain types of maintenance were due. I did ok at those but it did prove there were a few holes in my knowledge, though in most cases I knew where to look up the information if I didn't know it outright.
It was then out to the aircraft for the flying portion of the tests which is basically 3 landings and a go-around at some point as well. Thankfully it was probably the best I have ever flown and the weather was great as well which really helped so I successfully passed this first progress test and can now move onto the next stage of the training.

What Next?
The rest of that week was spent doing solo consolidation work in the circuit so I've done another 3 hours of solo flying. Next up now is navigation and more instrument work. Tomorrow involves 2 sorties, the first a general handling one looking in more detail at forced landings away from airfields. The second one is a proper cross-county flight down to Ryan Airport near Tucson. After that pretty much all solo flights will be concentrating on navigation work and the dual flights will focus on instrument flying. In a couple of weeks time I should do my night flying as well which is apparently meant to be really fun.

Part of the navigation chart for the route to Ryan