Hope you’ll all forgive this blatant piece of self-congratulation, but I’m far too elated to keep this one to myself.
To cap off a perfect couple of days, today I passed my Qualifying Cross Country. Route was Cambridge – Leicester – Norwich – Cambridge, and the met conditions were absolutely fabulous (barring the very hazy sunshine I encountered when I turned final for r/w 15 at Leicester! 😮 )
Landings and airmanship were all annotated as ‘good’ at both Leicester and Norwich, and I have to say I felt very confident all the way round; confident, not cocky.
Best moment of the day? Had to be the call I received from Cottesmore MATZ just after I’d gone through Wittering at 2500 heading east…
“Be advised traffic appearing in your ten oclock, same heading as you but 1000 feet below. Traffic is fast jet and has you in sight.”
Glanced down, couldn’t see anything, started to transmit an acknowledgement of the advice… just as a Harrier GR5 eased its way out from under my leading edge and gently accelerated away to the north east.
Got a horrible feeling my transmission was something like “Golf Whiskey Bravo, roger, traffic not yet seen… ohhhh beautiful……!” If so, sorry Cottesmore, I just couldn’t help myself… 😉
By: Deano - 20th December 2003 at 15:15
Well done mate, its a great feeling, and good luck with the rest of your course 🙂
Dean.
By: ageorge - 20th December 2003 at 11:38
Originally posted by SteveYoung
Cheers Al. 🙂If all goes well with the skills test, and if you’re still heading down for Legends next summer, I might be able to sort out a quick chug around the area while you’re here.
I’ll hold you to that one Steve !!:D
By: mike currill - 20th December 2003 at 09:08
Congratulations are in order then, well done and good luck with the rest of it.
By: Snapper - 20th December 2003 at 01:26
Well done mate.
By: Arabella-Cox - 20th December 2003 at 00:04
Cheers Al. 🙂
If all goes well with the skills test, and if you’re still heading down for Legends next summer, I might be able to sort out a quick chug around the area while you’re here.
By: ageorge - 19th December 2003 at 19:10
Well done Steve !!:)
By: Arabella-Cox - 18th December 2003 at 21:29
Thanks chaps, I have to say I’m still grinning…. 😀
Moggy, wish it had been yesterday, but the QXC was today. Yesterday I was up for an hour in the morning (just missed 10.30, bu**er 🙁 ) brushing up on emergency drills, and then drove over to Old Warden in the afternoon. Also had to get my medical renewed this morning (note to self, stick the next renewal date in the diary!), before setting off for the QXC so all in all it’s been a long but very productive and enjoyable couple of days.
Instructor reckons another hour or two of revision and the the Skills Test; I’m banking on it being slightly more as I’ll now not be flying again until mid January at the earliest. Plan is to get it all done by mid February so that the CAA can carry out their ‘sitting on the paperwork’ duty before the good weather gets here… 😉
By: Moggy C - 18th December 2003 at 21:07
Congrats Steve, was this on the 17th? If so, what a way to celebrate it!
Skills Test next huh?
🙂 🙂 🙂
Moggy
By: YakRider - 18th December 2003 at 17:57
Congratulations on getting your QXC. It’s at this stage that you feel you’re really getting the hang of things. Now a bit more revision and you’ll soon be taking your Skills Test.
The weather has certainly been superb and hopefully we’ll have a good few weeks so you can finish things off without any great delays. I know several people who had weeks of false starts for their QXC because of the weather.
My QXC was Stapleford – Southend – Norwich, and I remember getting back and feeling absolutely shattered from the concentration.
Yesterday I went to Le Touquet to celebrate the 100th Anniversary. That will be another big step for you – your first continental flight. I could see the white cliffs as I crossed the French coast, which must have been 40+ miles, so navigation was easy.
Good luck for the future…
YR
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December 18, 2003 at 5:03 pm