A quiet day Saturday due to the weather - we have been very lucky as this has only been one of two or so days this month we haven't flown due to bad weather.

It has been a great month - we have had a number of new students started to learn and those new from earlier on in the year are making progress. Rob was first to go solo, but there are quite a few who will be following on shortly as they are doing well at the take-offs and landings in the circuit.

For those wondering, we have now finally got the new edition of the 'simplifier' (some of you may have known it as the 'confuser') which has got question and answers to help with the PPL ground exams. If you would like one, reserve one quick as they are disappearing fast.

Lots of good flying at the moment!

We welcome Eric Griffiths to the team, too. He is another Welshman (by pure coincidence) who is a senior instructor. He has taught not only PPL and the IMC course but also teaches the advanced courses such as the Instrument Rating Course and has flown many aircraft privately and commercially.

He has been teaching Nigel for IMC course revalidation, which involves being able to handle the aircraft flying in cloud with only the instruments to guide you. This is quite a skill and Nigel is congratulated on doing so well with it after a good few lay offs!

Well, training is going well here - we have students here now ranging from ages 15 to mid 70s - all seem enthusiastic and some are really quite talented. Certainly age is no barrier to flying! There are always slots available for training, but do now ring as early as you can as we are getting booked up quicker in the week than in the early months.

Though we have put it off as long as we can, the rises in fuel prices recently have meant we have had to review our prices for flying. The updated prices are as follows:

Dual £155 per hour and solo £130.

For trial lessons, we have:

20 minutes at £59,

40 minutes at £109,

60 minutes at £159.

As always, any questions please ask!

Funny how some things work out! Thursday was forecast to be poor, but it turned out to be probably the best day of the year - sunny, not too windy and warmer than any previous days.

It also turned out to be MSH Flight Training's busiest day of the year with both aircraft and flights from early on until after 6pm.

The biggest achievement of the day is by Rob Noble-Warren. He took off in G-OCPC lunchtime and successfully flew his first solo flight.

This is quite an achievement: there are not that many people who have flown completely on their own solely in charge of the aircraft and Rob is to be congratulated! No matter how experienced a pilot may be, they will always remember fondly their first solo!

"It was fantastic" commented Rob, who also has the accolade of being MSH Flight Trainings's first student to be sent solo since the school started. Who will be next?

Rob is pictured on the left with instructor Barry Mahoney and Cessna 152 G-OCPC

Some people have been asking about headsets. Some schools provide headsets with the aircraft (we do) though some suggest or even insist you provide your own. I am not sure of the hygiene implications of sharing headsets but I suppose they have a point, especially if you have children that seem to get headlice as often as mine do.

I have found a very good and opinionated article about good headsets which is below. I like it as it actually expresses what they like and don't like - enjoy!

http://www.flyingstart.ca/OtherFlying/HeadsetReviews.html

Time to upgrade to an active noise cancelling headsite soon then!

Looking good, apart from little bits of Iceland floating about in the air again! This has not affected us yet, and we will remain open and flying as long as the airport is open.

Just to update you, we have now secured courses with The Surf School at St Ives to offer Summer flying courses with surf lessons included. This will be attractive for pilots coming down from up country for a while to hone their flying skills and get their licenses who also would like to experience a bit more of Cornwall than Land's End Airport. If you would like to know more please feel free to ask! To answer the first question, yes, the latest wetsuits are very warm and you will not notice the cold water.

Well, if May is going to be like this it will be a great month. Currently not a cloud in the sky and looking to be quite good until Friday, little bit of a breeze to make things interesting. We have a lot of students 'in the circuit' as we say: they are practising what we call 'circuits' during their lessons. This means taking off and flying a box pattern around the airport, before landing on the same runway after having flown parallel to it. This is the most efficient method for practising the take off and landing - mastering that art of getting the aircraft safely and efficiently back on the ground again.

Mastering the circuit (or 'pattern' in the US) is the most challenging flying a new student can do - it involves take-off, climbing, climbing turns, radio calls, checks, visual awareness, flying straight and level, traffic avoidance, descending, descending turns and use of flap. In addition, there is the landing with control of power, attitude and direction and flaring. It is not easy and it is a pretty fine achievement when a student is getting to the stage of being ready for doing a circuit on their own. This is the 'First Solo'.

It will be interesting to see with so many students in the circuit who will win the accolade of being the first to solo alone. In the US, they have a practice of throwing buckets of water over students after their first solo. We certainly will not be adopting that at MSH Flight Training, but any ideas for starting a new tradition for first solos will be welcomed and the best one may well be adopted! Emails to the usual address!