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“I’m really flying it by myself” My training from Solo to PPL(H)

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I started flying once a week, typically two 1 hour lessons a day as I was keen to keep the momentum, not leaving too long between lessons enabling me to keep all my newly found skills fresh. As you can imagine it didn’t take long for me to rack up the hours and able to confidently hover and fly circuits with take-offs and landings.
After a couple of months, I had completed around 20hrs and then on one particular circuit my instructor asked me to land the heli as usual and after doing so promptly said “So in a moment I’m going to get out and you’re going to fly a circuit by yourself”. This is commonly known as your first solo. Now, my instructor Jonathan Rolfe (JR) did weigh a fair bit more than me so he warned me about the large CofG (centre of gravity) shift that will take place and the different position the cyclic will be in. He reminded me how the R22 is going to go from not having a great deal of spare power to suddenly being like a small sports car… He wasn’t joking! It felt like I had to lean forward to reposition the cyclic and I lifted with minimal power (I remember it was around 18” MAP for all you Robinson pilots).
My first lift was otherwise uneventful, I had employed the standard two stage lifting technique to avoid the dreaded dynamic rollover. Next was the thumbs up from my instructor who was now standing 50’ in front of me and I made the radio call to fly my first circuit at Cranfield Airport. The R22 G-STOY transitioned without any effort into the climb and used very little power to achieve this. And there I was flying downwind having completed all my checks and radio call thinking to myself “I really am flying it by myself” and just how quiet it was without JR next to me but I could still hear his voice in my head reminding me to pull the carb heat before descending. I returned smoothly and safely to the hover and landed back on the grass. JR came over to greet and congratulate me 😊 Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos or footage of my first solo and what was probably the most memorable moment in my training ☹
I ramped up my training and eventually I was flying up to three days a week and it didn’t take long for me to be off on my QXC (Qualifying Cross Country). In those days the requirement was much more like a modern-day land away as I only needed to visit one aerodrome/airport. For me, this was Leicester. Needless to say, perfect conditions on the day meant that it was a pretty straight forward flight and when I handed over my signed QXC certificate to JR my license was in sight.

The finale as it were as it is for all student pilots is of course the PPLST (PPL skill test). My examiner was a very experienced ex-military Capt. Stuart Hughes and I remember feeling a little nervous, but I was focused and excited. I had been practising my fact, figures and planning for days before… Once I had landed, I saw in the corner of my eye Capt. Hughes give JR a subtle thumbs up. I could barely contain my excitement but obviously there was the small matter of shutting the heli down. I cannot tell you how incredible it felt when Capt Hughes said to me “I am pleased to announce you’ve passed!” He went on to say that this was not the end but merely the beginning and what I had gained was a license to learn”.

I had done it, I had ACTUALLY done it! I had completed my PPL training in 55hrs (7 months) and I couldn’t wait to continue my flying journey.

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Capt White hits 7000hrs : From building hours to building a Flying School
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Older Capt. White hits 7000hrs : Where it all began… From falling in love to my first lesson

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