Flying Lesson #62 - Solo Maneuvers

Today was a beautiful day for a quick morning flight. Sunny, not a cloud in the sky, and winds light at about 5 knots from 290. Time for a solo flight. I had 9.9 hours solo in the log book up to this flight and you need a minimum of 10 hours to qualify for a checkride (one instructor after my last solo said I should have just sat in the plane with the engine running to get the .1, but I told him I needed more practice solo time anyways).

So after a preflight in which I found fuel weeping from the fuel tank vent opening, which I was assured was not an issue, the filler guy had just seriously overfilled the tank prior to my arrival and the fuel had to go somewhere, I was ready to go.

I got a taxi clearance, did a good run-up and had clearance for a takeoff and I headed east towards the practice area.

After leaving KPTK's Class D airspace, climbing to 3,500 feet and getting into the practice area, I did a full 360 degree clearing turn.

Next I did steep turns, one each to a full 360 degrees to the left and right.

Then I did some Minimum controllable airspeed work, including left and right turns.

Then I did a power off stall and did a nice easy recovery after the buffet.

First time doing all of these things by myself and it was kinda fun, but a little exciting doing them completely on my own, especially the stall.

Then I headed back to KPTK which was getting pretty busy and got clearance to land, following a helicopter and an Archer.

The controller initially put me on a right base but the changed his mind and had me angle for a straight in approach from 2 miles.

Not a problem doing that even though it was my first time on a straight in alone, I had it handled. Glidepath was ok, airspeed was good, but I still managed to make the landing suck - it was a bouncer and not how I wanted to end the flight. Keeps me humble I guess, and I plan to work on making my next landings much, much better as a result.

A nice .7 solo and 1 landing.