well today i passed my A certifiacte test, which involves manitianing height whilst doing figure 8's, rectangular circuits, landings (which i had to do in a pretty nasty crosswind) and then awnsering a few general safety questions... so all that went well and then i attempted my solo flight...

so i did the takeoff alright, but as i was climbing out the right wheel fell off! :O literally, the bolt that held it on had come loose and when the plane was rolling it must have unscrewed it further... so now i was flying around with one wing (a spectator shouted "youve lost a wheel" and then went and got it) so after about 5 minutes of buzzing around the sky the engine quit, i am usually pretty good at landings but it jsut floated OVER the lnog grass that i was aiming for and when it finally got slow enough to land without damaging it, it was over a dry, rocky farmers field. so down it went with one wheel and there was a -CRACK-. on inspection i found that the landing gear had been ripped out and the wheel axle had bent...

anyway, i got home and put some epoxy on it (its sat here with the toolbox on top of it to make sure its on there nice and tight, but i snapped the wheel axle when i was bending it back) so all in all a rather interesting day...

do ya think it counts as a Solo if you dont actually land it properly?

Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.

G'day Mate,
It's a great landing, if you can reuse the aircraft.

Nope []

But you should be commended. You're getting close!

Once you land on the same strip you took off from, you'll get that elusive "Attaboy"!

I'm afraid I agree with MinnFlyer. []

That would never pass muster in our training program, but you are very close. Congratulations on your "A" certificate. You handled the wheel off/dead stick well. Most beginners would freak out having just one of those problems. It's should be comforting to know that you remain calm in a tough situation.

well the epoxy is dry, the U/C is back on but when i was straightening out a spare wheel axle i snapped it, i went to 4 different hardware stores but couldnt find any M2 bolts or studding (smallest they had was M4)

so now i need to find another axle for thursday (tho if the weather keeps on like this i wont be doing anything)