Had a great day today; basic navigation exercise using the chart backed by basic time and distance. Flew down to Wellesbourne near Stratford upon Avon and back and I was able to keep track of where we were all the way. Wellesbourne has a tarmac runway which made for an interesting change to Sibson’s grass runways.

On the way there we were cut up (probably the wrong description because it wasn’t that close) by a helicopter – by the rules it should have gone behind us but it went straight across our path although slightly higher – we moved over a bit to avoid the downdraft.

Coming back it was a bit busy after take off a couple of microlights to watch out for including one I altered course for – we were flying at 2000ft and found ourselves with a DC10 crossing our path ahead  at right angles to us, but down below probably at about 1000ft – It was one of those ‘wow’ moments watching it fly past.

Of course after a great trip I had to go and screw up the landing at the end – it wasn’t too bad but not very smooth either. I have two hours left of the course and the syllabus allows me to do anything I want during the remaining time – I have decided that I need to do it all on landings to give me a head start when I go on to the full pilots course. I managed to get an earlier lesson so I am up again next Friday.