De la Soul..

...Me Myself and I!

Don't worry I won't start singing. However... All this time waiting and waiting patiently for the weather to be right to allow me to tackle the hurdle that is Solo Flight. Well today was that day. Now you might think it was all very straight forward, Rock up at bournemouth helicopters on a glorious sunny day without a care in the world and go flying on my own. hmmm not quite. The weather was good and had all the recipe for a good day for soloing. i had from 9am to 1pm booked and it was decided on my arrival that we would go out and have a quick practice session on some emergency skills that I might need during the solo should something happen to the aircraft or some fixed wing decided he was higher up the pecking order and forced me to do an aborted take off or taxi.
This was all conducted in a nice 8-9 knot breeze with clear skies and hot sun. Glorious!
we spent about 0.8hrs out practicing and a few circuits (which if I do say so my self had near perfect approaches, which makes a change for being too high or doing a 'hockey stick' approach) (hockey for those from across thesea in different directions is a game played where two teams run at each other brandishing wooden sticks chasing a small leather ball much like one from base ball and proceed to try to rearrange each others dentistry and break each others shins - See wiki here. Americans and Canadians do it on ice (no pun intended)).
I Digress. while a taster flight was taken up for half an hour I had a comfort break. Sadly in this time the wind had started to do the sneaky and rise progressively. The company's first solo pilot's limit, for insurance purposes, is 10 knots wind or under. it was blowing 11 then after half an hour it was 12, then 13 gusting up to 16 by 12:30. i was really preparing myself to go home without it. however the TAF's were saying it was going to be dropping come 13:00. I took this as a good sign and prepped my wife for a late return. She very kindly gave me shore leave to hang about for the calmer wind, and it paid off. At 15:30 the updated airport information read out 10 knots. We leapt into action like an emergency call, not wanting to miss this opportunity before it rose again. We spooled up and headed to the Helicopter Training Area where i landed and my Instructor Carl gave me a final pep talk and got out to loiter near a parked fixed wing wile i committed aviation. it was short lived as he had forgotten his hand held radio and had to walk back to me before i left to get it. Dramatic leaving of the instructor before solo flight - Take Two!
Now it was over to me. I have been waiting my whole life for this moment to come. Hours spent dreaming, hours taken up on the flight simulator and now it was all my my grasp. Man machine become one. No external influences from and Instructor, no one there to talk me through a tricky bit or aply a gently pressure to guide me through an awkward moment. No, it was all mine now. i had full control and was fully capable now to kill myself in one fell swoop. This sounds like the babbling of a mad man but it went through my head before committing to flight. I had to do it now.

Taking into account the lack of weight on the port/Left side, or should I say the greater weight now on the Starboard/right, I slowly lifted the collective till she was light on the skids and felt the difference immediately. Easing the collective up i brought her into the hover with one of my best take-offs.
 Now I had her flying I took the view that now would be a good time to practice landing on my own seeing as I would need the skill without a shadow of a doubt very soon. (yes i look very serious in the picture - because it was pretty hot in there and pretty nerve wracking!). She went down so sweetly. Now all I had to do was take off again and push my confidence and abilities. Off i went again only this time I did some maneuvers into wind, down wind, traversing with and against the wind and flying backwards with and against the wind. I thought it best to try the trickier maneuvers now and succeed rather than get nervous on my next solo. all went fantastically well with several landings and take offs in between.
on returning to the start point and collecting my patient Instructor, we headed back to Bournemouth Helicopters base where other members of staff were there ready to 'Christen' me in the age old traditional way for anyone completing their first solo. This is done in different ways around the world with the original method of cutting the pilots shirt tails (see here). Fortunately I was spared the scissor attack but got a bucket full of water and a hose turned on me. A very proud moment for me. So this now means i can go soloing in the circuit to begin with then latterly long distance.
Onwards and up wards.