First Solo Nav Ex PPL
10 Aug 2005The weather was pretty good cloud was about 3100ft wind was coming from 340 degrees at 10kts and the visibility was about 20-30 miles. I took off on my own and flew out towards Holsworthy at 3000ft and arrived perfectly on time there, then I contacted Exeter on one frequency (119.05) and they told me to change to the other one (128.975) then I flew towards Crediton.
I ended up a bit lost when I was about 3/4 of the way there because I couldn’t see the railway line which practically runs parallel to the route so I turned a bit and eventually found it and then started to follow it, but lost sight of it again. Somehow I ended up about 4 miles north of Crediton.
With some hindsight, I now know what I did, I was on top the railway line when I couldn’t see it, when I turned to the right a bit that’s when I saw it out of the left window, the railway then bends sharply right then left, a bit like an a s-turn. While doing a cruise check which brings your focus into the cockpit, it must have passed underneath me now out to the right, & I thought I’d drifted south while doing the check so turned left to try and find the railway again. I recognized a town from the map which was north of Crediton, so I looked out to the right and there was Crediton (about 4 miles south)
Even after all that I arrived at Crediton on time - I blame the forecast being wrong ;)
Then I turned back to Plymouth, & had to go back to the other Exeter frequency (119.05) got down to Mortonhampstead and contacted Plymouth again, who told me to join the circuit from Ivybridge, which was a bit out of the way for me, and another aircraft had been told to head out that way, so I very roughly headed to Ivybridge (only about 5 degrees off the planned track) but I eventually decided to ask if I could join from the clay pits like I planned to (not sure why I didn’t straight away) and that was ok, so I continued on my planed course flying past the mast at Princetown and Burrator, then joined right base from the clay pits and landed so smoothly that I didn’t feel the wheels touch.
It was quite fun to fly away from the airport on my own & felt like a bit of an achievement! The whole flight was 79 nautical miles, or 91 normal miles.