The first proper navigation flight: Vöslau — Krems-Langenlois, 72 km as the crow flies, across the Vienna Woods and the Danube near Tulln. Saturday, 08:57, two landings.

LOAG lies at the northern edge of the Wachau, between vineyards and the Kamp valley. The approach from the south leads across the Danube — you see the Wachau from above, Göttweig Abbey on its hill, and then the runway appears between the fields.

The way there is the real exercise: hold the heading, match what you see against the chart, sort out the radio, and take care in good time not to get too close to the Vienna control zone.

36 minutes on the ground at Krems, then back — and considerably faster: 109 km in 33 minutes, 107 knots average, peaking at 161 knots over the ground.

161 knots in an Aquila A211 is not an airspeed, it is a weather situation. A solid north-westerly was pushing that Saturday morning. 3,906 ft, the highest altitude since April.

East this time: across Lake Neusiedl and the Leitha mountains out to the Spitzerberg, the gliding site above the Danube near Hainburg. 98 km, 30 minutes, 106 knots average.

The Spitzerberg is one of the finest airfields in eastern Austria: a grass strip on a ridge of the Hundsheim hills, looking out over the Danube, Devín castle and, on good days, as far as Bratislava. Everything around it is flat — the hill is the only rise for miles, and that makes the approach something special.

The way back does not follow the same route but runs to the north: along the Danube, past Vienna, across the Vienna Woods and south. 121 km, 42 minutes.

This route is navigation training in its purest form, because it runs along the edge of Vienna's airspace. You do not simply fly straight ahead here — you fly a corridor, with an eye on the clock, the chart and the radio.

Tuesday afternoon, D-ELFH, destination Stockerau. Across the Vienna Woods into the Weinviertel, 104 km, 38 minutes, two landings.

Stockerau lies north of the Danube on the flat plain in front of the Rohrwald — a grass strip in the middle of fields. The third new airfield within three weeks. The training programme has visibly switched to cross-country flying.

97 km, 33 minutes, 3,583 ft, 95 knots average. The way home leads across the Vienna Woods again.

For flying out of Vöslau the Vienna Woods are something like a front door: wooded ridges, hardly any fields to land in, often rough in summer, and behind them the other world begins. You cross them at least twice on every flight to the north.

The longest flight so far: 124 km to Graz, straight across the Bucklige Welt and the Styrian hill country. 161 km of ground, 50 minutes, 5,352 ft — a new altitude record since April.

Graz is a controlled commercial airport. That means clearances, transponder, instructions, fitting into scheduled traffic, taxiing at a large airport. For a student pilot that is a step up in kind — flying is suddenly no longer just a matter between you and the landscape.

The route across the Bucklige Welt and the Wechsel is also Austria's classic southern connection: hilly, green, dotted with small villages, and you have to keep your altitude, because the terrain rises slowly beneath you.

202 km in 64 minutes — the longest distance so far. Back across the hill country, the Bucklige Welt and Wiener Neustadt.

That the return leg is 40 km longer than the outbound one says something: this was not the direct line but an arc. Maybe weather, maybe airspace, maybe simply the wish for a nicer route.

Friday morning, three landings with an instructor in 21 minutes. The prelude to something else.

The GPS track of this entry covers the whole session that morning — the instructor part and the solo part together.

Block off 11:52, role PIC, four landings in 29 minutes. The second solo flight, and the first one with real substance to it: four approaches alone, four touchdowns alone.

On the first solo you are too excited to learn anything. On the second it starts.

And one more circuit: 15 minutes block, six minutes in the air, one landing, alone. 1,776 ft.

A single solo circuit to close a morning of eight landings. Short, clean, done.

17 minutes with an instructor, two landings, 2,661 ft. Warming up for what comes after.

37 minutes solo, five landings, 84 km. The longest solo flight so far.

73 knots average across five landings — that is a calm, even rhythm. Five weeks after the first solo, this is routine already.

Thursday evening, 16:56, three landings with an instructor in 13 minutes of flight time.

The track of this entry covers the whole session, including the solo part that follows.

52 minutes solo, six landings, block on at 18:16. The most extensive solo flight to date — a whole hour in the circuit at Vöslau, with nobody in the right-hand seat.

Six landings in a row on your own: that is the point where the circuit stops being a test and starts being a place.