19.05.03 SHERBURN  CESNA 150 1 HOUR

runway 24 lefthand grass, qfe 1003

Weather: Changeable, clouds, showery, sunny spells. Wind straight down the runway.

When i arrived the weather was bad, i'd driven through sun and rain but a big rain cloud was approaching the airfield from the west, but it was moving quite quickly so i sat down to start reading the aviation law book so that some time soon i can take that part of the exam. The rain cloud went past eventually so pretty soon i was out checking out G-BBNJ, as i was doing the outside checks it rained of course but as soon as i was ready to go the rain cleared, jane came out and we were off. We taxied up to the holding line, did checks and off we went up into the clouds. The rape seed oil fields were still yellow and our rain cloud was dissappearing across the landscape like a smudge over a village to the east - its amazing how clearly you can see individual clouds once you get up to their level or above.

I havent flown from 24 for a long time, so it was strange to do a circuit without my sual markers, this time i had to turn at 500 feet just before the village, and the climbing turn onto crosswind leg seemed to take forever, i'm still not so good at keeping the pressure up on the right rudder as i'm climbing, i either use too much or too little it seems. then round onto the downwind leg, turning a little late so for the first time i saw the runway at church fenton, and back in - not such a good landing. Again climbing out i kept making mistakes, not watching the speed, not using enough right rudder, we practiced what to do if we lost power after take off, went round again, getting more familiar with the cirucuit, and a bumpy landing, and round again, this time even forgettting to push the nose down on take off, so when we came back round again i misheard Jane when she said 'do you want to go solo' i thought she'd said 'do you want to go around again' so i happily said 'yes'. i'd been thinking that my concntration wasnt as sharp as usual, but Jane obviously thought i was OK. So she back tracked on the runway, and gave me a few last tips - to do a go around if i had any problems as i was landing, but not to use that as an excuse to stay in the air forever. and out she got, and i set off, onto the runway, calling 'novermber juilliet departing 24' pushing the throttle in and as I sped along the runway pulling the nose up, and i was flying. It all went really smoothly, but wasnt until i had turned onto crosswind leg that i really began to smile, and on downwind it seemed really normal, i suppose i hadnt quite realised that jane really hadnt been doing anything with the controls for ages, and i really was flying the plane. Then i was turning onto base leg and beginning to descend, and come in to land, and it all went really smoothly, in fact it was the best landing i've ever done, it felt completely smooth. and a long taxi back, i must have been taxi-ing for longer than i was flying, but the feeling of having just flown solo was amazing. the certificate is great. I can now call myself 'pilot'!