The first solo navigation exercise went smoothly - there was no wind which made it easy. No need to correct for drift and everything went as planned. I was quite nervous initially but was fine as I settled into the first leg. The thing that hits you in the first navigation exercise is the work load! You’re flying the aircraft, navigating, keeping a record of what you’re doing (plogging) - for example keeping track of the fuel, doing a bit of mental maths… and you can forget how good you are at mental arithmetic on the ground, it’s a mission when you’re multi-tasking! Nonetheless, you do adapt surprisingly quickly, especially as you work out little tricks to help yourself as you go along. What I found most difficult was plogging and flying at the same time, as whilst you’re plogging you’re looking down and writing… meanwhile the plane is banking… diving down… or pitching up to stall….! Okay it’s not that bad, but you get the idea. The turbulence I experienced in the previous flight did make things more difficult though. This time I found that once the aircraft is trimmed (set up so you can take hands off the controls and it will stay put), it will pretty much fly and maintain heading and altitude as set, which makes it much more manageable. Also I found that it helps if you divide attention between plogging and looking out, rather than burying your head in the cockpit whilst you write. Write a little, look out, write more, look out, etc. This is especially important with VFR flying since you have to look out for other traffic, terrain, birds, etc as well.

Unfortunately I don’t have any photos of my navigation exercises yet, however I’ll have a few to show later, as a friend of mine will be taking some for me soon!