Update. Yesterday, 8/8, I flew solo.
To be able to afford to travel and fly, I had to take up working again this spring.
Unfortunately, my groups of days off have not coincided with great weather.
So the four days I had last time gave me just 2½ training hours - and the upper prerotator axle broke.
(in a field inside of fields with no access - that's a story in itself)
In my small shop, after fixing the broken weld connecting the axle tube to the Bendix axle with the worn stub,
the axle stub supporting the Bendix gear had been free to move inside the inner ring of the bearing, so it had become quite worn.
I turned the stub down a bit, bushed it using Loctite 648 and put on new bearings top and bottom
(you have to know MT-03 and MTO Sport for this to make any sense).
I arrived in the hangar saturday evening and fixed the prerotator right away. Next day the weather
wasn't great with showers, so we flew a bit locally between showers. Start and landing - went very well.
Then yesterday, we flew to our old favorite spot near the sea. On the way, I had to make a figure eight and a simulated engine stop.
Arriving at the field, I had to make very short finals as it is very close to a restricted area.
That one is usually not active - except yesterday.
Did a few practice landings - then the solo check was finished. My instructor then asked me, if I felt ready for solo.
Using Skydemon we made a recognizable triangular track of 23 minutes plus.
Interesting, as soon as I pushed the button to prerotate, it was "business as usual".
I had no fear at all and everything went so well, that it was close to boring. One of my
best starts with a very short run. On the way out I had noticed the air was quite bumpy,
as the sun was out and there were lots of clouds. And taking off over a small piece of forest
made it worse. But not a problem. I started out the wrong way around the track and flew back to meet
the track again. Not that it mattered. So the solo ended up lasting 30-35 min. instead of 23-ish.
Do others have the feeling of having a "built-in flight instructor" in the back of your head? (I suppose everyone has)
After a near perfect landing my instructor asked me, if I wanted one more solo, but I refused. It all went so well,
that I was fully satisfied and needed no more.
Now I need 4½ hours of solo and one or two nav flights and I need to practice one thing I can't remember.
Then I/we will fly across the country to have the flight test.
So my work schedule have been very destructive to my flight training, but I'm getting there.
Cheers
Erik