I Didn't Go Solo

[alexbrown2005]

Forgive me if this is out of order. I've currently got 13.7 hours in my logbook in the Cessna 162 Skycatcher, and today was supposed to be the day of my first solo.

We landed after what I thought was a crap flight, and was told the inevitable: you aren't going solo today, Alexander. I was then told that my rudder work needs work on final approach.

My mind's telling me that I'm now a crappy pilot, even though it was quite bumpy this morning. Considering I've dropped my Law degree to follow the aviation path, does not going solo the first time around mean I'm a bad pilot?

[Mach Jump]

Hi Alex. Welcome to Pprune. :)

Firstly, you must be nuts to drop a law degree to become a pilot.

Secondly, no, you just have a crapy instructor, who shouldn't have even told you that you might be going solo before the event.

[9 lives]

Welcome Alex. I second MJ, your solo should be a low stress surprise. It has worked out for the best for you. Ask your instructor to tell when you're going solo, when you have just landed, and not before. It'll really work out better for you.

We all have days where we are not up to our best, your instructor put you on hold - perhaps the best for you. You'd rather be unhappy here today, waiting for a good first solo, than looking at an unhappy plane right now, and your first solo being bad. It'll come.

The second time I went first solo, my instructor did tell me the day before, and I really sweated it.

Hang around here for some great support in the long term. In the mean time, don't worry about solo, it'll happen fine, and for the rest of your life, you'll look back on a success and bit late, that's all - focus on the success you're going to have.....

[Fantome]

dear brown axle 2005 . . . . surely you are not all of nine years old?

if so maybe short legs accounts for deficient rudder work


pardon the flippancy . . .. . it is said that levity can counteract too much gravity

it may well be that you need to consider a change of instructor and/or school

if you want to PM me maybe I can point you towards some better choices

[piperboy84]

I may get slaughtered for this one but here goes,

I wouldn't worry about not soloing, if you are indeed "lazy" on the rudders perhaps you may want to get a bit more proactive upon turning final and get your heels up off the floor and feet fully onto the pedals. I sometimes give a little left /right alternate push on rudder on final to get a feel for its authority in the present conditions then leave both feet up on them to sense the alternate pressure which leaves me in a position to be proactive with it.

Caveat: I,m not an instructor, have never flown a skycatcher (but think they are cracking little planes) and I fly a taildragger where the level of rudder work needed sometimes feels like riding a bike.

[Fantome]

it is fact beyond all dispute that when you are slipping in over the trees into a narrow strip with a gusty variable wind you must be on the controls
in a way markedly different to a calm and ordered approach to a nice long wide strip when it's wing commander's weather

you could compare it to the difference between sparring easily . .. having a warm up with an easy going partner . . .to the need to be right on your toes as the bell rings for round three with a thrashing machine

[AtomKraft]

If it was 'quite bumpy this morning', as you say in your post- maybe it was the weather that wasn't suitable rather than the student?

Just a thought.

[mary meagher]

I sure wouldn't send a student off first solo on a bumpy day! we want to get the aircraft back intact....

Don't take it personal. Do you like your instructor? enjoy flying with company. If you don't like him/her - get another one!

[wood73]

I done my first solo back in july and it was sprung on me at the end of a session of circuits.
I think that had I known beforehand I would have worried about it to the point I wouldn't have felt comfortable.

[Corsican]

I knew I was going to solo soon and over thought everything beforehand and overcontrolled with the instructor. Unsurprisingly, my instructor did not let me go. Came back the next morning, did one circuit and my instructor hopped out and told me to have fun and it was. Don't worry and go with it.

[Jan Olieslagers]

we want to get the aircraft back intact

Indeed. On top of that, some training organisations might even be concerned about getting their student back, at least sufficiently intact to continue p^Ha^Hy^Htraining.

[Jan Olieslagers]

which of course makes

I sure wouldn't send a student off first solo on a bumpy day!the more sensible. When/where I learned, first solo was often just before sunset, because there is often less wind then.

[tecman]

Use the experience to cultivate resilience, and be thankful that your instructor puts safety above other pressures. You're presumably at least a tertiary-equivalent CPL student or similar, and should be actively involved in managing your own training and destiny. No problem putting a strawman plan on the table, including a possible solo session. As Fantome said, you're not 9 years old - don't expect spoon feeding, and work with your instructor to make it all happen when you've reached the required standard and the conditions are suitable.

In any career things won't always go as planned, and flexibility and the ability to bounce back are important life skills. Professional aviation, of all careers, surely needs resilience in bucket loads.

[Fantome]

that's a fair comment tecman . .. but it is probably more correct to say . .
that a career in aviation requires a resilience not as a rule encountered in too many other walks of life . .. except working on psych wards . .. . ambos and police at accident and crime scenes . .. . enduring close encounters with certain mongrels and retards in specific government departments . .. . . and . .

..... contending with the mother-in-law on a daily basis

I'd also say to Mr Axle . . .. . like mastering the golf swing. . . put all the effort you find you require into grasping the basics . .
then after a few lessons start sitting in the aeroplane . . wherever she is parked . . . and with your hands resting lightly on the controls go over and over a sequence until it becomes to some degree second nature. This is an exercise that many pupils going way way back have found most beneficial. At its most effective it is a meditative exercise blending into future
higher and higher plateaus of achievement . . and satisfaction.

Mary M will not object if I give another plug for gliding as the ultimate form of aviating close to the essence and near to nature experience. Once you make the transition from 'the nursery slopes' and find yourself strapped into a well mannered little single seater on a day full of lovely wide smooth thermals carrying you up up and away . . well others have described it better than I ever could . .(Philip Wills 'On Being a Bird') . . but it is a kind of nirvana. DO IT. to leave it too late is not a pleasant prospect. You will. . as it has been so often remarked. . . be a much better pilot than he who has not taken this road

here endeth the lesson

[tecman]

Sorry hear about the MIL Fantome...not one of my challenges, fortunately. If the situation deteriorates below minimums I suppose there's always an alternate in the great flight plan of life.

For the OP, I had in mind the career management side of aviation, particularly in the early stages when the rejection letters often come thick and fast.

Indeed, set-backs and challenges are universal.

[Hydromet]

Reminds me of a medical friend. When she started her specialisation (Paediatrics), the students were hit with an exam that most of them failed. Being the cream of the crop, most of them had never failed an exam before, and fell into a slough of despair. It was then explained to them that the whole purpose was to teach them that a single failure was not the end of the world, and they would meet many 'failures' that they would have to overcome.

[9 lives]

Thinking about the OP, I am bouyed at the thought that an instructor is requiring better use of the rudder. The least considered flight control needs all the attention it can get. Of course, not being there, I don't really know what the instructor said about the rudder, but I hardly expect that the instructor commented on incorrect rudder use so as to suggest it should be worse!

Alex said:

.....I've currently got 13.7 hours ...... I'm now a crappy pilot.... I'm a bad pilot?

Without wanting to seem negative, and with due respect Alex - you're not a pilot yet, so you can't be a good or bad one yet - relax! I know licensed persons with hundreds of hours logged, who aren't "pilots" yet, they are still just drivers (often 'cause they are really sloppy on the rudder!). If you walked into a courtroom articling for a lawyer, they are not going to call you a lawyer yet, nor expect you to be a pro. Even when you are out on your own in court, you'll still have some very experience lawyers with holding their buy in to your skill. Aviation is the same, give it a chance....

If Alex has the patience for law, and all the overly formal and pretentious goings on with that profession, aviation should be easy to withstand.

You are going to spend a lot of your hours flying a plane, realizing that you could have done better, get used to it. The rest of us have or are!

Wait until you have thousands of hours, and you bounce a landing in front of everyone - and you, and they know that you should have done way better than that! You're at the very front of a long path of learning, and having to rethink you perception of your skills.

Listen to your instructor, and give it time....

[mary meagher]

Step Turn reminded me of my last bounce in a Supercub! After all those hours and all those landings, and with all those spectators at White Waltham, with the London Aeroclub Chief Flying Instructor in the back seat, it was alas, three arrivals for the price of one!

Nothing like a taildragger to teach humility.

Approaching senility, the sensible thing to do was to sell my darling GOFER, which had been the towplane at Shenington Gliding Club since 1988. Still young at heart, GOFER had been built in Pennsylvania in 1977, and been kept in Arizona, the very driest place to preserve an aircraft. But with only 200 hours on the clock in ten years, another decay set in, and when my baby was boxed and sent to Britain, it arrived with a magnetised airframe, AND metal in the oil filter. All the instruments had to be relocated. And the engine had to go through a major overhaul, cylinders rebored, pistons reringed, etc etc. A year went by before all these works were accomplished.

The good news was that this repair to the engine effectively turned a 150 cub into one with the performance of a 160. In short, a very effective glider tug. We tug pilots get a lot of practice doing takeoffs and landings.
Most of my landings were adequate.

So on that final farewell flight, myself and the White Waltham CFI flew to Shenington for a picnic lunch. I was so at home at Shenington, I was quite cocky about the tow pilot style circuit and approach and PERFECT touchdown.

We enjoyed our sandwiches in the sunshine, then took off to return to WW.
Where all the WW pilots were enjoying the sunshine, and commenting on the assortments of skill displayed....I wanted so badly to make that last landing as perfect as the penultimate....

The CFI in the back said nothing, he didn't have to. Three bounces before my baby settled down. One final reminder that perfection is hard to achieve every time, even after 3,000 hours.

[Rabbs]

Couple of thoughts - lots of people fail their skills test first time round - that doesn't mean they are crap pilots - just that they need to work on something - most work on that something and go back and pass.


Second - don't be in a rush to lose your instructor, especially if there are things you need to brush up on. You mention something else in your post "it was quite bumpy this morning". Think about the instructors view - he/she needs to be 100% confident that you have everything lined up for a successful first solo - that's a lot of weight on their shoulders as well as yours.


I expect "quite bumpy" and some rudder practice, just tipped the balance. Go practice, go solo, do your exams, XC, skills test and enjoy :)

[phiggsbroadband]

Hi Alex, my guess is that your first solo will occur when....


The wind is calm, or less than 5 knots straight down the runway.
The cloud is either CAVOK, or better than few at 3000ft.
Visibility is 9999s.
No discernible thermal activity.


Get the idea? btw. Those conditions are not so common in UK !

[Gertrude the Wombat]

Is it usual for the fire engines to be sent out when someone's doing a first solo, or did I get special treatment :)

[Fantome]

One definition of the well trained safety conscious pilot is one who has -

1. been receptive to instruction

2. understood inherently his limitations

3. accepted without question that there is no substitute for experience

4. as part of his self-education program made the firm resolve to study
closely each and every accident report relevant to his kind of flying
he can get his hands on

5. at least one good book he can come back to regularly to refresh his
knowledge and understanding of all key points. (Alan Bramson's
'Be a Better Pilot' is an excellent primer)

6. if not already a patient considerate type, acquired the strength of
character
to never be rushed
to never be coerced by people or circumstance into undertaking
a flight unless absolutely confident of a happy outcome . ...
as opposed to crashing and burning and dying

[foxmoth]

As an instructor I do not tell people they are going first solo until they are ready - if they are ready you get out, if not you do not know how much more it will take and certainly not if there may be other problems (weather) that may get in the way, I would not say from just this that the instructor is a bad instructor, but hopefully from the reaction he will learn not to preempt things in this way.

[ChickenHouse]

Why do these threads always meander through topics on the roadside?

Back to the topic. First, we have not enough information to really judge what happened the day the poster did not go solo. It would be interesting to have the FI opinion on it. We can speculate on a couple of things, though.

I find it unusual to have a student with an announced go-solo. I would not do that, but it might be part of the game. If there is an overconfident student, you have to ground that brain, so it may be a lesson to cancel go-solo for that pure reason. It may be bad weather, but why was the solo pre-announced? It may be deficits on handling stick&rudder. It may be just a bad day and the lesson to learn was to learn how to mentally cancel a flight? In my surrounding, go-solo is usually a normal pattern exercise lesson at which after at least three patterns FI is confident the student is ready, just leaves the plane to let the student make three pattern solo - no announcement. My personal case was a bit different, though. I had a normal check flight, couple of patterns in quite some bad weather, and after pattern exercise FI told me that he would have let me do solo, if the weather wasn't that bad (OVC006 15kts pure cross). So, he offered me to go solo the next day, which I happily excepted.

No, you are not per se a bad pilot upon canceling your first solo flight. Your instructor was just not feeling right to let you go and my advice is, trust his experience and intuition.

[CISTRS]

It's just as hard for the instructor!

[BackPacker]

perhaps you may want to get a bit more proactive upon turning final and get your heels up off the floor and feet fully onto the pedals.

Be careful with this advice. With your feet fully on the pedals you may be hitting the toe brakes inadvertently. Which may cause you to "canvas" the tires (wear them away until you hit canvas) or worse.

Let your instructor show you the correct feet position for that particular type of aircraft. But if it's a conventional PA-28, C172 or similar, the proper position will most likely be with your heels on the floor.

Anyway, back to first solos. As with others, my instructor did not tell me before. We had done a few sorties away from the circuit already, and on this particular sortie we were back in the circuit for some touch and goes. Halfway through the lesson he had me do a full stop landing, hopped out and tell me to do three circuits on my own.

I taxied out, did the runup checks and got a massive mag drop on the left magneto. I tried to clear the engine with some increased power and aggressive leaning but it would not budge. So I taxied back, to a pretty surprised instructor. After he tried to clear the engine, and failed as well, he pointed me to another aircraft for a second try.

By the time I took off in that aircraft I was sufficiently annoyed with the whole thing that I was not even nervous anymore.

[Jan Olieslagers]

I was sufficiently annoyed with the whole thing that I was not even nervous anymore.

That was worth a warm, even abundant laugh of sympathy - cheers!

[hegemon88]

I find it unusual to have a student with an announced go-solo

As unusual as it may be, it has happened to me. I was a nervous student to start with and my instructor told me that, although it isn't normally done, we will plan 1 or 2 possible first solo dates in advance. I even managed to decline the first one that was finally offered and told the perplexed instructor to "stay with ships". Soloed 5 weeks later and what a great day it was!

[m.Berger]

One January day, late in the afternoon and overcast with nil wind, the instructor decided that the conditions were perfect. I am still here to tell the tale. It isn't just you, Mother Nature has the casting vote but when she does it will be worth the wait.
Then it just gets harder; your landings will go to pot for a bit and you will wonder why it is now so difficult. You need to raise your game every flight from there on in but once you have the solo under your belt you will not be able to stop. Good luck.

[alexbrown2005]

Thank you all for your responses! Perhaps it was the weather, because I went solo on the 10th! :) 0.3 command hours, and I'm waiting for the G20 in Brisbane to pass so I can go up again solo.

Also - I may be nuts for dropping a Law degree, but by the time I hold my CPL + MECIR, I'll also have a Bachelor of Arts to my name.

Sorry I didn't reply sooner - uni exams are upon me.

[9 lives]

Good job Alex, it all comes back around in a nice way. Your flying career will have a mixture of successes, and a few not quite as you planned. Keep the not quite as you planned to a safe minimum, but be patient, and learn from them.

And... appreciate an instructor who holds you to a high standard!

[Jan Olieslagers]

I went solo on the 10th!

Congratulations! Well done!

[bugged on the right]

Congratulations on the solo Alex. Now get back on your law course asap. Aviation has gone from being the best job in the world to being dead mediocre. If you want to fly, a successful lawyer can buy his own aircraft and the best way to fly the big ones is in first class while you guzzle champagne. Sorry, I had a ball but I'm afraid it just isn't fun any more.

[Pace]

have to agree : ) when I locked myself out of my flat and was charged £140 for five minutes work. When I took on a specialist Lawyer consultant for a tricky tax situation at £450 per hour and think what I get paid to fly business jets often with multi hour days I Have to agree.

Stick with Law and fly your own plane :ok:

[alexbrown2005]

Haha I did think this over, long and hard, before deciding to drop my Law degree. Keep in mind that I'll still hold *a* Bachelor's, as well as (eventually) my CPL, so if things do go pear-shaped, I can just as easily get a DipEd and teach, if it comes down to that. Surely someone holding a political science degree can teach the social sciences?

The way I see it, I don't want to be 95, on my deathbed and kicking myself because I didn't grasp an opportunity to live my childhood dream and become a pilot.

[mary meagher]

naa, law is boring. If you get to the top of that profession, you get to be a judge and sit in court all day with a black robe and a silly wig, and listen to all kinds of little people who get caught while the big crooks are running the banks! Its a terrible system in England, don't know about Scotland....could France be any better?

The idea of being a teacher could be more rewarding in every way. Learn to fly properly, and become a flying instructor, one to one, and no back chat, very satisfying as the student literally places his life in your hands!

[skyhawk_norway]

I dont know how things are around in the world, but in Norway - the national air sport union recommend first PPL solo after eighteen 75min lessions of dual instruction (22,5hrs).. I think I soloed at 27hrs or something, and I never would have thought of soloing after 13hrs..

But congratulations anyway! :-)

[glum]

My first solo was after 20 hours, and I declined to go the first time I was asked if I felt confident, as I knew I was a little tired from long working hours during the week and simply didn't feel confident that I could handle an emergency that day.

There is no shame in ever saying no to flying.

Killing yourself or others through bravado is however, incredibly shameful.

[EMayhew]

Pilot training takes every person a different time for each stage. Some people will find the circuit pattern hard and the next will find navigation tricky. Personally i found that radio navigation like tracking VOR's very hard to get my head round. Im sure that soon the day will come and from my view its best not to know when your going solo, when i did mine i wasn't expecting it at all and when we got to the end of my flight , the instructor got out and told me to go again!!! This was the best possible this cause then you are to busy to worry about being alone.

Keep up the good work and i look forward to a Thread saying "Just been solo"

[DaveyC]

Forgive me, but

The second time I went first solo,

I've only just spotted this and feel that I've missed out as I only got one 'First' Solo, same as everyone else.

[9 lives]

I have been fortunate enough to go first solo in 1977 in an airplane, and second first solo in 2007 in a helicopter. The feeling was the same both times, other than to say that the radio work and navigation seemed less daunting the second time ;)

[thing]

Well done Alex! I notice you are in Bris, which airfield are you at?

[alexbrown2005]

Thing - sorry for the late reply. Christmas/New Years have been hectic, plus I started a new job that'll give me enough money to get in the air weekly.


I fly out of Archerfield. You in Brisbane too?