Perth is becoming too cold for my liking and I really dread the onset of winter. The days are getting shorter and the nights, longer and colder. These days I find it harder and harder to leave the warmth and comfort of my blanket, or the running hot water when I shower.

I am looking forward to going back to Singapore for that short break, back to everything that is familiar to me.

My nav solo today went well but the aircraft that was assigned to me was the one with a recent history of engine failures. Normally, I would lean the mixture to 9 US gallons enroute but at cruise rpm and mixture full rich, I got a reading of 8 US gallons. When I powered back to 1900rpm for descent, the gauge read less than 5 US gallons, which was quite alarming. So I played withe the attitude to give me 500 fpm rate of descent without touching the throttle.

There was also a slight scare for me and one of my coursemates as there was a near mid-air collision. I was maintaining an altitude of 5500 and our paths converged when he was on climb to the same level. He looked up and saw me in time and levelled off, missing me me by 500ft as I zoomed past. We thought we were well clear of each other, having last communicated our intentions on the CTAF frequency. A lesson to be learnt here, never assume and always, always keep a look out.

On my way back to Jandakot, I saw two big eagles at my 11 o'clock high at close proximity. It was really quite amazing to see these glorious birds of prey up close, though they could have posed a real danger to me.

Coming in for landing was another concern for me as I still had the problem of an unusually low fuel flow reading and I needed to power back to 1400rpm on the base leg. Again, I used attitude control to get my speed back to lower flaps and came in really fast on finals. I only idled the throttle at 300ft as by then, I was quite fast and needed to lose the excess height. Thank God, there were no dramas upon touch down.

I will really miss doing my solos and I will only have to clock 4 more PIC hours at before I am done. I wonder when I will get a chance to experience such freedom again, maybe perhaps in the near future when I am fully licensed.

Last night, I received a phone call and though nothing is confirmed at this stage, it all seems to be moving forward towards something positive. I do hope to make use of my time back in Singapore to secure something for the future. It will not be immediate but I have a feeling, it might be soon enough. That, I will leave it to God.