Today is the day. The day I’m (hopefully) going to finish the training for my PPL(A). The plan is to fly down to Sola, doing the preparation for the school check along the way down, and then hopefully complete the school check.

It’s unusually cold outside now, but we also got clear skies! So with the longer opening hours today (being a Sunday), this was the perfect day for the second and final solo navigation/cross country flight! This time I had to do a full stop landing on two other airports. In addition to this, I needed 3 hours of solo navigation time. So I spent the day yesterday planning a route from Karmøy to Sola followed by a long sightseeing route from Sola to Flesland.

There was a lot of crosswind when I started working on the basic maneuvers, but almost none when I was working on my landings. So I needed more training on crosswind landings.

With okay weather, daylight, suitable opening hours, and an instructor that could sign my solo endorsement - everything as ready for my first solo navigation/cross country flight.

The third stage check was the navigation stage check. As with the other two, I needed another instructor for this check. It took a total of four tries to make this lesson happen. In the end, I had to travel to Sola and rent one of their airplanes.

The next lesson on the plan was the third stage check (requiring a different instructor), which had already been cancelled once. Since I wanted to get back up in the air, and felt like I wasn’t good enough on steep turns, I decided I wanted an extra lesson.

The first lesson of the year was a big one - navigation via two airports. The plan was to fly to Voss and Sogndal, but due to difficulties with PFLY (the agreement that allows us to use Avinor airports outside of the regular opening hours), and bad weather, we decided to do ENZV Sola and ENCN Kjevik instead.

Today’s lesson was the third day in a row - what a perfect way to end the year! The next lesson on the plan require a bit more time and better weather than we had. Since I wanted to fly anyway, we did a bonus lesson instead.

The weather was good, and the next lesson on the plan was the second solo to the training area. The limited opening hours and daylight got me a bit stressed, so I forgot a couple things (nothing critical). But things went much smoother once I got in the air and could focus on flying.

The weather wasn’t the best I’ve seen on this first working day after Christmas, but it was just good enough for a lesson. I’ll take that!