And there it is, the break: six landings in 38 minutes. The furthest point from the airfield is 5.4 km away. The track is no longer an outing, it is a rectangle repeated six times.

The circuit is the treadmill of flight training and at the same time its heart. Everything that matters happens in the last thirty seconds: approach angle, speed, rate of descent, alignment, flare. You cannot read your way to it, you can only repeat it until the body knows how.

From here the logbook goes very monotonous for a few weeks — and that is a good sign.

1,621 ft maximum altitude — circuit height and not a foot more. Six landings in 40 minutes, so one roughly every seven minutes.

But something else is on the programme this Monday: clearance to taxi solo. The first step where the instructor gets out — not into the air yet, but alone on the ground. Taxiing, braking, turning, talking on the radio, with nobody sitting alongside.

It sounds like little and it is not. Moving an aeroplane on the ground is the one part of flying where you compete with others for the same space — and the first part you are truly responsible for on your own.

19 minutes on the ground after the last flight, then four more landings in 20 minutes. 1,486 ft — the lowest flight in the whole book.

Two sessions on a Monday afternoon, ten landings together, plus the clearance to taxi unaccompanied. This is the moment where "I can do a landing" slowly turns into "I can do landings".

OE-AKI, 14:19, five landings. The 2,689 ft suggest that something other than the circuit was practised in between — probably a trip out to the training area and back.

Back in the air 21 minutes later, four more landings in 24 minutes. Together with the flight before that makes nine landings on a Friday afternoon.

The numbers in this phase are astonishingly even: 70 to 78 knots average speed, 1,500 to 2,700 ft, 20 to 40 minutes. A very narrow window — exactly what repetition produces.

70 km of ground for six landings, that is barely 12 km per circuit. A tight, clean rectangle.

1,690 ft, 33 minutes, no excursion, no detour. The dullest track in the whole logbook — and probably one of the most instructive afternoons.

14 minutes on the ground, then five more landings. Eleven landings on this Monday altogether.

From here the training has a clear rhythm: two sessions back to back, a quick refuel in between, catch your breath, debrief, carry on.

Block off 07:42. The first proper change of airfield: 15 km across to Wiener Neustadt-Ost, three landings there, then back.

LOAN is Vöslau's big brother — historic ground, a wide runway, plenty of traffic. And above all: a different runway, different surroundings, different references. That is the whole point. Someone who knows only one runway does not land — they land on one particular runway.

The recorded track covers the entire session that morning, out and back together.

20 minutes back to Vöslau. Two logbook entries, one track, one morning.

The distance between LOAV and LOAN is a mere 13 km as the crow flies — you are airborne, you level off once, and already you have to think about the descent. Short legs are surprisingly demanding.

After the double airfield change, a third session the same morning: four landings in 17 minutes. 1,571 ft.

Eight landings before half past nine. A very productive Friday.

Block off 17:30, six landings. The latest training flight so far.

Evening thermals at the foot of the Alps are a discipline of their own: the air is still warm, but the slopes are already throwing shadows, and a restless layer often stands over the Steinfeld well into the evening. Six landings in conditions like that are worth more than ten on a smooth morning.

16:18, OE-AKW, five landings in 37 minutes. Notable: the average speed drops to 69 knots — the lowest figure in the whole book.

A low average speed in the circuit is exactly what you want to see. It means: no rushing about, cleanly slowed down, the approaches sitting at the right speed.

Off again 19 minutes later, six landings, 40 minutes. Eleven landings on this Friday evening, block on at 18:08.

At this point the logbook stands at 21 flights and over 50 landings. The solo flight is not far off.

Block off 07:13 — the earliest start of the spring — and seven landings in 34 minutes. That is the highest number of landings on any single flight in the book.

A landing every seven minutes, in morning air that has not yet felt a single thermal. A morning like clockwork.

Back in the air 17 minutes later. Four landings this time, but the track reaches 12 km out — circuits plus a detour into the training area. 101 km in 42 minutes.

Eleven landings before nine in the morning. Anyone who gets through that has had a pretty good Monday.

The shortest flight in the whole logbook: four minutes in the air, twelve minutes block, one landing. 12.7 km — and S. in the right-hand seat again.

Progress Check B, split across two flights. The first is short: one circuit, one landing, done. The peak speed of 155 knots points to a brisk descent.

When a check starts like that, it is either very good or very bad. The second flight this Saturday reveals which.

Barely an hour later the actual session: three landings, 30 minutes, 2,765 ft, again with S.

78 km of ground covered with a maximum distance from the airfield of only 5.7 km — the signature of a check flight in the airfield area: circuits, procedures, exercises, all within sight of the runway.

Progress Check B is the last station before the solo flight. Pass it and you soon hear the sentence the whole six weeks of circuits have been leading up to. It then takes another eighteen days.

One more trip out before the solo flight: 146 km across the Rosalia range and Wiener Neustadt, 51 minutes, 3,497 ft, only two landings. 93 knots average — the fastest training flight so far.

The change of character is unmistakable. After six weeks of circuits there is cross-country flying again. And the numbers say: it flows better than it did in April.