--- title: Whiskey Alpha Pilot: Learning to Fly Later in Life - Whiskey Alpha Pilot description: Wayne Allen aka WhiskeyAlphaPilot learned to fly in his early 50s and never quite stopped being a student. This is his honest, self-deprecating flying journey canonical_url: https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/?start=5 language: en-GB notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/?start=5. markdown-tokens: 1963 --- > **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/?start=5. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content. > **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above. [ ![Elstree Tower and airfield in the rain](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/images/airfields/elstree-egtr/elstree-tower-rain.png) ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/your-first-solo-what-it-s-actually-like-five-years-on "Your First Solo: What It's Actually Like (Five Years On)") ## [ Your First Solo: What It's Actually Like (Five Years On) ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/your-first-solo-what-it-s-actually-like-five-years-on) Five years ago today I flew an aeroplane on my own for the first time. One circuit of Elstree in a PA-28, fifteen minutes in the logbook, and a right seat so empty it was practically shouting. If your own first solo is somewhere ahead of you, this is the post I wish I'd read the night before mine. [ Read more: Your First Solo: What It's Actually Like (Five Years On) ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/your-first-solo-what-it-s-actually-like-five-years-on) [ ![A wedge of Carrot Cake on a plate at Elstree Aerodrome Cafe](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/images/airfields/elstree-egtr/elstree-cake.jpg) ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/when-your-airfield-cafe-gets-too-popular "When Your Airfield Café Gets Too Popular") ## [ When Your Airfield Café Gets Too Popular ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/when-your-airfield-cafe-gets-too-popular) I drove to my own airfield the other day, walked up to the café I've eaten at for years, and couldn't get a table. Turns out the national press had found the place first. Here's why that's the best problem an airfield can have. And why I still ended up at a drive-thru. [ Read more: When Your Airfield Café Gets Too Popular ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/when-your-airfield-cafe-gets-too-popular) [ ![My first Solo flight in G-KIKI](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/images/reviews/ftl/IMG_5172.jpg) ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/kit-reviews/flight-training-london-review "I Chose My Flight School Because of a Sign. Here's How That Worked Out.") ## [ I Chose My Flight School Because of a Sign. Here's How That Worked Out. ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/kit-reviews/flight-training-london-review) Five years ago I turned onto Elstree Aerodrome and I saw a sign. Now that sounds deeply religious, and I've probably just offended half of you already. It wasn't. It was an actual sign. A board. And on the strength of it I picked the flight school that would teach a man in his fifties to fly. Me. [ Read more: I Chose My Flight School Because of a Sign. Here's How That Worked Out. ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/kit-reviews/flight-training-london-review) [ ![Wayne Allen standing beside Cessna 172 smiling](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/images/videos/Look-Mum-no-instructor.png) ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/look-mum-no-instructor-solo-silverstone "Look Mum No Instructor") Look Mum No instructor ## [ Look Mum No Instructor ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/look-mum-no-instructor-solo-silverstone) Look, mum, no instructor! Yes it's true. I flew without an instructor and, more importantly to me anyway, I've managed to create another video from another flight in a month. God, is my channel coming back to life? Could I be doing more flying? Yes. [ Read more: Look Mum No Instructor ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/look-mum-no-instructor-solo-silverstone) [ ![Chalk figure on a hill](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/images/airfields/Cerne-abbas-giant.jpg) ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/giant-knobbly-stick-rub-down "The Giant With the Knobbly Stick Gets a Rub Down") The Cern Abbas Giant ## [ The Giant With the Knobbly Stick Gets a Rub Down ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/giant-knobbly-stick-rub-down) There's a man carved into a Dorset hillside who has been showing off for about a thousand years. The Cerne Abbas Giant. Fifty-five metres of chalk, a club in one hand, and absolutely nothing in the way of clothing. You can probably picture him. Most people can. [ Read more: The Giant With the Knobbly Stick Gets a Rub Down ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/giant-knobbly-stick-rub-down) [ ![a Full Sized Replica Lancaster Cockpit built in a garden](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/images/news/leon%20BBMF/cockpit.webp) ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/he-built-a-lancaster-in-his-back-garden "He Built a Lancaster in his Back Garden") Léon Ellison built a Lancaster Cockpit in his garden ## [ He Built a Lancaster in his Back Garden ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/he-built-a-lancaster-in-his-back-garden) ![Léon Ellison](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/images/news/leon%20BBMF/leon.webp)There are some people you carry with you long after you've stopped sitting in their classroom. Léon Ellison was one of mine. Léon was one of my electronics tutors at Royal Holloway. A genius and a gentleman, in that order and both completely. The kind of teacher who made hard things feel reachable, and who treated a slightly-lost undergraduate like the engineer he hoped you'd one day become. I owe him more than I ever told him. [ Read more: He Built a Lancaster in his Back Garden ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/he-built-a-lancaster-in-his-back-garden) [ ![YouTube Thumbnail with Engine Out Again Test and Wayne looking worried](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/images/logbook/engine-out-again-v3.png) ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/three-forced-landings-first-flight-back "Rusty, Corroded, And Back In The Air At Elstree") Engine Out Again ## [ Rusty, Corroded, And Back In The Air At Elstree ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/three-forced-landings-first-flight-back) It's true. I hadn't flown in months. November last year was the last time I was in the air. There was an abortive attempt to go night flying in December but circumstances canned that idea. So weather, work, more work, and then the annual appearing just as the weather improved all combined to keep me from flying. Well, that is my excuse, but the real answer is I also got a little lazy, finding excuses to not get my flight bag out and plan a flight. It was easier to start up Netflix than start up SkyDemon. The aerodrome was still there. KK was still there. I just kept finding reasons not to be there. [ Read more: Rusty, Corroded, And Back In The Air At Elstree ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/three-forced-landings-first-flight-back) [ ![Cartoon Piper PA28 light aircraft sweating with anxious eyes inside a wood-panelled library, beneath a large red SILENCE sign, while a clipboard-wielding noise complainer in green wellies takes notes from the side.](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/images/news/noise%20complaints/IMG_6961.png) ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/let-s-ban-hospitals-next "Let's Ban Hospitals Next") ## [ Let's Ban Hospitals Next ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/let-s-ban-hospitals-next) ![Screenshot of an X post by Seattle Submissions reading "The Laurelhurst neighborhood restricts helicopter landings to the Seattle Children's Hospital due to noise complaints," with a helicopter image and an aerial photo of the Laurelhurst neighbourhood.](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/images/news/noise%20complaints/submission.jpg)A neighbourhood in Seattle called Laurelhurst has successfully restricted helicopter landings at the local hospital. Seattle Children's Hospital, to be specific. The complaint? The helicopters are too noisy. [ Read more: Let's Ban Hospitals Next ](https://whiskeyalphapilot.com/touch-and-go-logbook/let-s-ban-hospitals-next)