ANOTHER Milestone for a fantastic student pilot, Stephen. This time, one of my own students. Stephen’s first lesson was at the end of September last year, and he and I have had a few interruptions since then, mainly due to unpredictable winter weather. I just did the arithmetic and I’m actually surprised that we’ve been training together for more than six months. However: the other numbers are excellent – it took Stephen only thirteen lessons and 14.3 hours of training, which is will under target, to be signed off for that first flight around the circuit alone.

Reviewing the video of his flight I am super-pleased to see really good, confident crosswind correction technique applied, touching down with the nose dead-straight and into-wind aileron to zero the sideways drift. I am doubly pleased to see full into-wind aileron applied after the wheels are on the ground, which really helps with the steering. Indeed Stephen landed and stayed exactly on centreline all the way though the landing roll.

Excellent work – and I’m looking forward to many more such landings.