Last ramp solo... not.

Flight #: 057
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N2356T
Duration: 0.9hrs
As PIC: 0.9hrs
Cumulative Time: 66.4hrs

Certification for the Private Pilot license requires 5.0 hours of solo time. Today's plan was to knock out the remaining 1.2 hours of solo time in Charlie pattern. Just so happened that Kristie was flying with another student in Charlie at the same time. Keeping an eye on me.

Weather was a bit iffy at the start... not pleasant, but definitely within my solo limitations. Did 4 pattern circuits and had a bit of a haze blow in. Not bad, but certainly not what I would call fun. Figured I would set it down on the taxiway and check weather to see if anything had changed.

I flipped frequencies. (which I learned is not something you are supposed to do... if the weather changes, the tower will come on and announce it to all. Never switch frequencies while in the airspace without permission to do so.) Weather sounded fine, and I assumed that it was a local / temporary thing and that it would blow by.

When I flipped back to Tower frequency, 119.3, I heard Kristie's voice:

Kristie: "...45 to talk with the student in 56-Tango."
Tower: "Frequency change approved."

Whoops, clearly Kristie is trying to reach me about something. I glance over, and see Kristie and her student hovering in the grass in my line of site while I'm sitting on the taxiway. I tried to flip over to a few common frequencies, but could not get her. (She was on 123.45, but I must have missed her.) I then asked the tower if they caught the frequency change, and they did not. At that point, Kristie and her student took off for another pattern, so it must not have been anything significant.

I looked into the pattern, and weather was fine... whatever it was had blown through and all looked good. I made my pattern and came in for a nice normal approach. Again, all well, so headed back up again. And there it was... fog/mist/haze/rain. At that point, I decided to head back... not going to chance things if I can't see 100%.

I requested clearance to get back to the center tie down, and set down. Spun down the helicopter and checked my Hobbs timer. 0.9hrs! All I needed was .3hrs more. Ugh. It takes, minimum, .1hrs to warm up and .1hrs to cool down the helicopter. (.1hrs = 6 minutes, BTW). That means I would have just enough time to lift off the ramp, back up, go to the hover cone and request clearance for Charlie. By that time, I'd have to come back and land again. Ugh. What a pain in the ass.

As a bit of a side note... as soon as everyone heard Kristie asking to talk to her student on another "private" frequency... they all switched over to hear me get yelled at, or something. Turns out, all she wanted to do is to tell me that if I wanted to continue this another time, then I should just head back early and we'll pick it up later. Apparently she also tried to text me on my phone... but I can't really get to that while I'm flying, so that was lost.

So, fine flight, although I've got to waste .3hrs tomorrow to get to my minimum.