Where did you go, and how far was it?
I passed my PPL on a Friday and then went back to working 60 hour weeks the following Monday. That was at the start of winter which wasn’t helpful for finding suitable time to fly. By Spring I was working a few less hours and actively trying to buy an aircraft so did go for a few flights with some owners. When a sale fell through I decided enough was enough and so five months after passing my PPL I went back to the school to rent the 152. That was my first flight PIC as a licence holder after a check flight to make sure I hadn’t forgotten it all.
I flew from the airfield to where I live and circled a few times. Circled a few times over where I work. Circled a few times over my mate’s place and then couldn’t decide what to do next so went back to the airfield. Flight was 1 hour 5 minutes and took me about 25nm from base. I’d suspected already that bimbling wasn’t my thing but that flight confirmed it.
A single circuit in a 152 on a windy special VFR day that scared the **** out of a work colleague who had never flown GA before 
My checkride was at another airport, 40 NM away from my home airfield. I flew there solo so after the checkride, my first flight with a PPL was the 40 NM back home!
My first substantial cross-country flight (to an airport 140 NM away) was about 10 flight hours later. I spent most of my flying the next 12 months getting night and tailwheel checkouts and generally having fun. Then a flight to an airport 300 NM away. Still another year later my first foreign trip to Frankfurt EDDF, some 700 NM away. That was at a time where you could still go there VFR in a C172. That also made me realise I really needed the IR.
Skill test in May last year … flights in June/July … making use of the excellent weather in a PA28 … flying solo except for non-aviation pax in (4) and pax + instructor in (5) … had not been to any of the airfields before (edit: thought I’d been to Cranfield on PPL XC, but hadn’t) … always looking for a new challenge …
(1) skill test + 3 weeks … EGLD (Denham) to EGTC (Cranfield) and return EGLD … 95nm
(2) 5 days after that … EGLD to EGBK (Sywell) [first grass] to EGSU (Duxford) and return EGLD … 161nm
(3) then 7 days … EGLD to EGHO (Thruxton) to EGHS (Henstridge) to EGTU (Dunkeswell) to EGFF (Cardiff) [first full ATC] to EGBP (Kemble) and return EGLD … 329nm (CPL XC done ;-)
(4) and 12 days … EGLD to EGLS (Old Sarum) [first passengers] and return EGLD … 177nm
(5) and 10 days … LFAT (Le Touquet) to EGLD [first cross-channel, on return leg, was a pax outbound] … 125nm
(6) and 7 days … EGLD to EGKA (Shoreham) to EGHR (Goodwood) to EGHF (Lee on Solent) to EGHJ (Bembridge), return to EGLD … 316nm
Distances as obtained from Skydemon log … tracking in a spreadsheet.
@Airborne_Again: So you got your license handed over at the end of your final check flight, is that common in Sweden, or do you have some kind of provisional license?
I had to look it up, but my first flight after getting the PPL was actually also the first flight with my own aircraft. Pretty marginal weather, so only a short local flight.
My first flight was to visit the instructor who had just successfully forwarded me for the Private checkride… a flight probably 15 miles away. He had never seen my plane or flown in the type, so I visited him and we went for a ride. Then I flew home. Not counting the solo on my 16th birthday and subsequent cessation of flying for some years, I had soloed first in my plane at my base (with a different instructor), then later with him in a C152 based at a second nearby airport. Then some instruction in the C152 and the Private checkride in that plane.
Going to and from was actually a fair intense flight for me at that stage: out of one busy controlled airport and immediately into another, with complicated taxi instructions at each end. All with a handheld radio and as the odd man out with no transponder, in an area where it is (almost) mandatory
My first solo flight post PPL acquisition was just circuits and touch and goes at my “new” Homebase (at the time). It was lightly raining and just a generally miserable day, but was more than good enough for circuits. I was more nervous than my very first solo. I couldn’t believe that someone had let me loose on their nice 3 year old aircraft (new type for me too), and I was paranoid about doing something wrong, added with the fact that I was of course absolutely 100% responsible for whatever happened. The first circuit was mostly okay until the last 10ft on approach where my mind just went completely blank and I flew it straight into the runway (fortunately on the mains, but it was a fair bounce). After that I thought to myself, okay I have to get my shit together and catch up with the aircraft. Fortunately the next 10 T&G’s were acceptable.
My next flight after this one was over the border to Denmark where I met a good friend/instructor and we flew into some short grass strips (including Femo for lunch) before I flew myself back solo again. This was a pretty good confidence builder of a day, adding 3 hours 37 in the logbook, and 7 landings on 5 new runways.
dejwu wrote:
@Airborne_Again: So you got your license handed over at the end of your final check flight, is that common in Sweden, or do you have some kind of provisional license?
It used to be standard procedure until a few years ago. Apparently EASA rules don’t allow it.
My checkride was in Santa Paula (KSZP), about 30 miles from my base at KBUR. So – first flight was back home !
PS: in FAA-land the DPE hands you a temporary certificate immediately after the checkride.
