Bristol Groundschool student – newly qualified tail-dragger pilot!

Last Wednesday I landed the Cub, kept the aircraft straight during the landing roll and taxied off the active runway.  I stopped momentarily, with a huge grin on my face and a series ‘wahooo’ exclamations! I’d flown the Super Cub solo around the circuit for the first time, completing the final stage required for  my tailwheel conversion.

 I really enjoyed all the training towards gaining this endorsement on my licence having completed the general handling, ground handling and a lots and lots of circuits! Working in flying school ops, I was lucky to gain quite a few ‘taxy’ trips taking the Cub from its daytime spot outside the flying school to its night-time retreat in the hangar. This helped me to gain experience and confidence in taxying a tail dragger on the ground. With this training under my belt, I will continue to hone my skills on flying tailwheel, alongside tricycle gear aircraft, and fly on a more regular basis once my ATPLs are complete.

I am incredibly thankful to all the patient instructors I flew with! (You know who you are!) and of course to the Air League who provided me with the bursary to undertake this training.

Apart from flying, my evenings have been spent making steady progress through the lessons of  ATPL Module 2. I’ve nearly finished Air Law and will soon undertake mock exams for this via the BGS online question bank-a life saver amongst many students!! I’m currently working through flight planning which so far I find enjoyable, the same can’t be said for AGK electrics that’s for sure!! I find this challenging but will spend extra time to learn the fundamentals of this important topic.

As always thanks for reading, till next time…