dac104y

So whilst on a trip back home to NZ after visiting family back in the UK the wife and i stopped off in Las Vegas for a few days. With all the scenic tours available I thought why not try and book a bit of a training flight with a local school around the scenic areas. I was lucky enough to find one with space "Airworks - can't recommend them enough" at short notice and availability in a C172 and went for an area familiarization fly around with an instructor over towards the spring mountains and red rock areas to the north east of the city. Amazing experience in rather turbulent conditions with gusting 25kts cross winds to 6500ft, anyhow here's a couple of pictures and a video of the final approach "My wife trying to hold the camera straight with all the bouncing around" into North Las Vegas Airport, the instructor taking over at the end just before we cross the highway.

I always thought it looked more like this.......maybe some of the British forum users or expats such as myself will remember this advert

Here are the take-off and landing videos for my first solo back in October of last year. The videos aren't as good as some but were taken by my wife on her phone as she knew I was going solo before I did as she was given the heads up by one of the other chaps at the club who had spotted the instructor walking back after the usual circuit training. So the experience.....well this for me was incredible and actually this is the first time I have had chance to write it down, which is good as its a way of helping me remember a hell of a milestone in my life as well as the training itself. I was lining up ready for another circuit after about 40 minutes or so of practice and my instructor looking over and giving me the nod "You're ready" he said. I remember he was talking to me in his normal calm manner and telling me a few things, I can't tell you what he said as I was still processing what I had just heard and mentally going through just what I had to do. After he jumped out I composed myself for a second and glanced over my shoulder to see him calmly walking away, head set in hand. I watched him walk away for about what seemed like an age but in essence was probably only 3-4 seconds. I then went into some robot/automatic mode completing my checks and rechecking everything once, twice, probably three times, I looked over my shoulder again to see that he was clear then radio call, full throttle and I was rolling. It doesn't matter how much my instructor had told me about how the acceleration and climb rate would be so much quicker over the preceding weeks but it really was eye opening and before I knew it I was at 300ft clear of the trees at the end of the strip with flaps up, and up to 500ft turning crosswind way before my normal visual marker. It was only at this point I thought to myself "I'm doing this I'm actually doing this I am flying an aeroplane on my own......bloody hell!!!!!!!!!" I then thought "What if something happens, what if something goes wrong" as soon as I thought it the thought was immediately gone, filed away within a microsecond and I caught myself saying out loud "You know what to do, you have the training, he wouldn't have let you go if he didn't think you were capable". I then started my turn onto downwind at 900ft and overshot the 1000ft to 1100ft. I descended to 1000ft, made the radio call and downwind checks before setting up for the turn and did so onto base with a small amount of turbulence but nothing to worry about. Lowering the flaps the next stage to 20deg I had my third major thought. "If I stuff this up its going to hurt......nope I have had the training concentrate George". 30deg of flap then I turned onto finals, I was slightly high at 600ft instead of 500 but then carb heat pushed off and I was on profile. I don't remember much after that on finals but landing I touched down a little further up the seal than normal due to the extra 100ft. My next recollection was that as I came to a stop thinking "I did it, I bloody well did it............" I made a call and back tracked to the club and shut down and remember looking over at my wife and the instructor with big smiles all round. All I can say is I had the driest mouth and throat I think I have ever had and needed a cup of tea........

Microman I may well pop by in the not to distant future its most likely to be the beginning of march now. Yes if course you are correct regarding the Eurofox, its fantastic and takes off like a fly, although I am still getting the hang of it slowly but surely.

I'm actually learning up in Kaikoura 170km north of Christchurch as I love the area and its a challenging little airstrip with short base and finals with the one approach. I try and get up there every other weekend for both the saturday and sunday, to get a lesson or two in each day but since the earthquake there last November I have only managed to get up since just before New Year. I was learning in a C150 which I fell in love with but that has since gone and am in a great little Eurofox with modern avionics which the aeroclub has recently bought. I will right about my experiences in the beginners and solo sections shortly. I have of course been doing my exams at Christchurch and they do have a quite a line up of aircraft "I will post a pic in due course" to learn in and it is a nice place to be but for me I feel that its just not personal being a larger club and where I am at Kaikoura you get a more one to one approach and get to know the folk individually. The benefit for me during my initial training there is that the air traffic is a lot less, but now as we are in the summer months this is getting busier and this is the right time for me for this type of exposure to increase. The scenery is something else as well especially during the winter months with snow capped mountains and flying up and down the coast.

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, a quick pop in here to say hello before thrusting off into the site for further posting. Based over in Christchurch NZ for the next couple of years with work so thought I would train for my PPL whilst here as it's something I have always lusted to do. Anyhow my current status is a little over 25 hours for my PPL with both Air Tech and Flight Radio exams completed in that order. I completed my first solo back in the middle of October last year and have been cracking on slowly since. Looking forward to learning and getting some advice from you all as I am now moving toward some of the more detailed stuff. Cheers George