Happy belated birthday to me
2 days ago was my birthday and I had a flight scheduled which was supposed to be my first solo flight. If you are reading this and you aren’t familiar with flying lingo, a “first solo” means the first time that a student pilot flies without an instructor in the plane.
Most student pilots from my understanding prize the first solo so much that it fits in well with life events such as:
* Birth
* First tooth
* Graduated college
* Marriage
* Had first child
* Death
The point is that soloing is a big deal… one that i’ve been looking forward to for quite some time now but wasn’t quite ready for it. Soloing really represents not just a personal milestone but also the fact that your instructors now feel confident that your odds of dying from a botched landing are lower than they were when you walked through the door (how much lower i’m not sure, but i like to credit my instructors so i’ll guesstimate that they were giving me at least 50/50 odds).
So back to my birthday, it was literally the worst flying weather i’ve seen ever. 0 miles visibility, below freezing, fog, clouds, rain… pretty much the scariest and worst flying conditions possible. Even instrument rated pilots would be unlikely to fly in these conditions, so my birthday solo was canceled.. Oh well. Then as g-d might enjoy planning, every one of my next scheduled flights was also supposed to be absolutely terrible weather.
Here comes Sunday morning, kids are watching cartoons, wife is making something that only she would like to eat and I’m fiddling around on the computer bored… check the METAR’s and sure enough it’s a spectacular flying day.. I call and as luck would have it, one of the instructors.. lets call him “Greg” had a no-show appointment which meant I could practice some landings.
I honestly had no clue that this would be the day that I would solo, but after a few good landings, some power off stall practice, and some engine failures landings “Greg” decided we needed to do a full stop (i thought he just needed to go to the bathroom)… but no my loyal readers, pee he did not, instead he asked if I wanted to fly by myself (solo).. affirmative, Captain Arlo ready to solo!
In any case I could build this up but it was a lot of fun, I did pretty well on the landings, takeoffs and radio comm. Did 3 landings with full stops and it really was exhilarating. A few interesting things about flying solo that I found was that 1) the plane weighed less so i took off faster, came in faster, and generally had to reevaluate my pattern power settings to have a good pattern… and 2) I was talking to myself the entire time because I am so used to saying “flaps 50%, power 20%” and generally advising my instructor of what I’m doing and what I”m thinking.
Really I don’t think I am able to wipe the smile off of my face… my wife and kids gave me a great big “Mazeltov Daddy!” when I walked in the door and now I get to go out for a post-birthday/post-solo chicken wing extravaganza celebration.
Here’s to you “Greg” and everybody at performance flight… that was fantastic and I can’t wait to do some solo missions!
- Arlo Gilbert