View Full Version : 1st Circuit Solo
Hi All,
Been lurking around for a while now and have found a lot of information from your threads. Well as the title said I completed my 1st circuit solo yesterday , at the Illawarra Regional Airport , Albion Park NSW Australia. It is really an amazing experience to have nobody in the other seat where there had been for the previous 21hrs. It is something I will never forget. The landing was a bit ordinary but my instructor said I tidied and gathered it up well. The main thing was I brought the plane and myself home in one piece and had fun. Bring on the rest of my training :D
Cheers, Ron.
Miken100
8th May 2012, 05:27
Congratulations!!
Welcome to the club!! Still remember my 1st solo... one of the memorable experiences in life.... made all the more poignant when they told me afterwards that Liverpool was on full fire alert (done for all 1st solos at the time... presumably still the case!!)
They say it is probably one of the best landings you will ever do... I remember after takeoff that mental tape that said "Oh S**T - I've got to get this thing back down again!" and that the Tomahawk shot up in the air like a champagne cork without the second person...
Good luck with the rest of your training...
Mike
Congratulations. Well done &welcome to the club.
Congrats :ok:
My first solo circuit wasn't that long ago. You've got the milestones yet to come of the first solo nav, then solo land away.
For me, each one surpassed the other in terms of sense of achievement - it just keeps getting better!!
Pull what
8th May 2012, 10:36
The landing was a bit ordinary but my instructor said I tidied and gathered it up well.
Good to see your instructor watched your first solo flight, congratulations Ron!
I Love Flying
8th May 2012, 12:17
:D:D:D Congratulations Ron!!! :D:D:D
:D:D:D Well done that man.
Weirdfish
8th May 2012, 16:05
Well done indeed sir:)
Slasher
8th May 2012, 16:24
Congrats!
First solo day is a day you'll never ever forget.
I still remember mine untold yonks ago like it was yesterday.
Cessna 172S Skyhawk
8th May 2012, 19:19
Congrats man. Well done. I only did my first solo on Sunday last, and strangely enough when I was taking off and after the 300' checks and turn onto x/wind leg, I only realised then that I was on my own.
Usually I am cleared to take off when just after I hold short, but for my first solo ATC told me to line up and wait. My instructor was up in the tower with the controller and I never heard that before (thankfully I know now).
When I was coming around from the base leg onto finals I kinda overshot and had to track back, but it was one of the best landings I have done out of the nearly 60 that I had practiced.
Amazing experience. To echo what was said above, I'd say each next milestone sole NAV and x/country just gets better and better.
To the skies....happy flying
dr_darcy_tyler
8th May 2012, 19:25
Well done mate!
emmccan
8th May 2012, 22:12
Congrats, i went solo in the Hunter last month great feeling.
Hawker Hunter T7A WV318 G-FFOX Neil McCarthy going solo. - YouTube
Neil
Slasher
9th May 2012, 04:36
I was trained in a DH82 (I loved Tigers since I was a kid) and
was booted out of the nest after 6 1/2 hours instruction incl
spins and loops.
CFI got upset because I done 3 circuits ISO only the one as I
was told to do. Loved every bloody second of it and worth the
consequential abuse! :)
Thanks to everyone for their kind remarks and encouragement. Probably not as fast a learner as some on here but once it all falls into place it stays there. As much as I am doing it for the love of flying I am very serious about being a safe and responsible pilot on the ground and in the air.
Cheers, Ron
foxmoth
9th May 2012, 08:38
Good to see your instructor watched your first solo flight,
I think there are very few instructors that do not, I have been instructing 35 years now and would still watch a student on their first solo, firstly, though you know they will be OK there is always that slight nag at the back of your mind, more important is to be able to give feedback and debrief it properly, hopefully the debrief is just "Well done, nice landing", but it is no good the student taxiing in afterwards and saying "what happened at 'X' point" if you were not watching.
Grob Queen
9th May 2012, 17:53
Many congrats :D:D:D:D:
Best feeling in the world isn't it, and as others have said, it just gets better! Its now a year since my first solo, i'm still training , but am just enjoying the experience.
good luck with the rest of your training, and enjoy yourself!
GQ
HowlingMad Murdock
9th May 2012, 18:06
Congratulations RonM - it must be an amazing feeling!:D
All the best.
3 Point
9th May 2012, 21:39
Good work Ron, congratulations and welcome to the rest of your flying career!
Tangozulu28
10th May 2012, 08:44
Congrats!:ok:
InfraBoy
10th May 2012, 21:24
Well done Ron, I remember 3 first solos of my own! 17 years old on day 5 of my flying scholarship (in 1990 you could do a PPL in the UK in one month!) in a C152. Then 5 years later I was sent solo for the first time in the RAF. I revalidated my PPL a few years ago after a gap of almost 18 years in my civilian logbook so again had that feeling of being alone for the first time. But the most focusing of all was my first solo in a glider a couple of years ago! Awesome!
Best of luck, fly fun and fly safe.
Chris
ct8282
11th May 2012, 20:22
Well done buddy.
My first solo was in Florida at Fort Pierce International. I was climbing out expecting a left circuit (we only do left circuits in the UK, usually) when at about 300ft the controller came on and told me to make a right circuit!! Great, first ever solo, my mind was working overtime to remember everything and I'm told to do something other than what I was expecting. I had done a few right hand circuits with my instructor but it still threw me off a bit.
Anyway, I'm midfield downwind, report to the controller and he tells me that I have a Learjet on final and asks if I want to extend downwind or turn base early!! At this point I'm cursing my luck, BIG TIME. I didn't want to turn base early as I wanted enough time to get established on final so I confirm that I will extend and let the Learjet come in before me. I turn onto base as the Learjet passes and start to get configured. As I'm approaching the runway I hit the wake turbulence from the jet and basically sh*t myself as the plane starts tossing about so I power up and go around. Second time round I made the best landing I've ever done (most will say this :)) and my instructor was very pleased that I had decided to go around and said I had of course done the right thing.
Was great looking back but slightly concerning at the time, lol.
foxmoth
11th May 2012, 20:53
One advantage in the UK, in my experience most controllers here would have given priority to someone on first solo, even with a Lear inbound.:D
Hmm... I once overheard somebody being told to 'hold' (rather than orbit) on their first solo and getting confused. Then there's the Southend accident.
Certainly it seems that making Easyjet and royalty wait for the first-solo pilots would be good for safety.
ct8282
12th May 2012, 08:46
One advantage in the UK, in my experience most controllers here would have given priority to someone on first solo, even with a Lear inbound.:D
Maybe. Fort Pierce being a bloody big airfield has lots of jets coming in and out and it's just an expectation that you learn to operate in the company of the jets.
A lot of people don't think that learning to fly in the US is good for UK pilots but I can tell you now that Fort Pierce is very busy, all day and usually most of the night too with hour builders. You learn to operate in a busy airfield environment indeed, usually with 3 or 4 planes in the circuit continuously and several others arriving and departing, including the jets.
Once out of the ATZ you do certainly have vast open spaces where sometimes you wont encounter another plane at all, which is great but once you get near airfields they are usually very busy.
On my qualifying Cross country I overflew Okeechobee (KOBE) and stopped at La Belle airfield to get my forms filled in etc. I departed La Belle and as I was passing Airglades airfield on the south side of Lake Okeechobee I converged with a huge military helicopter at 2000ft approaching from my left. I slowed and essentially let them move ahead and across in front of me and we literally flew side by side for a few miles with about a 1000 - 1500ft between us. It was incredible and I doubt you would have many experiences like this in the UK on your solo cross country.
When I landed at Stuart international (bigger than Fort Pierce and way more jets) I was greeted by a couple of guys who came out on a golf buggy thing and then guided me in to park using the orange stick thingys. Was a very surreal experience when you park your PA28 next to 3 corporate jets!
This was my view when I got out the plane at Stuart....
Pilot Training :: Dreaming of jets when I parked my little Piper PA28 at Stuart International video by ct8282 - Photobucket (http://s394.photobucket.com/albums/pp27/ct8282/Pilot%20Training/?action=view¤t=aa82a636.mp4)
(http://s394.photobucket.com/albums/pp27/ct8282/Pilot%20Training/?action=view¤t=aa82a636.mp4)
DavidWoodward
12th May 2012, 08:58
Well done.
My first solo was great and I made probably the smoothest landing of my entire training. I remember just after shutting down the aircraft that there was a huge flash and clap of thunder and an horrendous hail storm that had come from nowhere. It wasn't on the TAF and took us by surprise. Glad I'd already landed!
David
150commuter
13th May 2012, 23:08
Congratulations Ron
One of the big milestones and the best news is that some of the others- first solo nav, first solo land away- are as good or even better.
I found a point towards the end of my training when it all suddenly became very serious and grown-up as I realised that though I was always going to be learning to fly I'd soon be doing so as a licenced pilot. That was twenty years ago last weekend and it's still the best thing I've ever done.
RyanRs
13th May 2012, 23:31
Congratulations! Amazing feeling isn't it! and i agree with what 150commuter says. I found that after 4 hours of solo circuits (1 touch and go per 6 minutes) i got pretty fed up with them and was just gagging to go further afield! Soon enough me instructor took me on a dual nav exercise and then once landed he told me to plan the route for the reverse and go do it on my own! Doing that brought such a sense of freedom and achievement! Did my first solo land away about a month ago and i must say that was the greatest feeling of achievement yet! Next up is a dual trip to goodwood, then solo QXC .. Tbh now i cannot wait for that to be over because i just want my soddin licence!! lol :D