How many hours student pilot generally have when going first solo?

[Seagull V]

Some tips

Roger Hugin
You certainly have got a lot of value out of this post. Maybe you should write a book on landing techniques from the responses. You have probably by now received too much advice, but having sent my fair share of first solos I thought I would add a few pointers.

Can you see out? Many pilots do not sit high enough. Use the seat vertical adjustment and don’t be too proud to use a cushion if necessary.

Can you see the same thing each time you fly? Don’t accept the previous pilot’s seat vertical position.

Can you see? I have come across a few trainees who had the wrong glasses for flying or wore non prescription shades.

Can you recognise the touchdown attitude? Try sitting in the cockpit, with engine off,and have somebody (your instructor) weigh the tail down until:
1. The nose wheel is just off the ground.
2. The aircraft is in the touch down attitude.
3. The tail skid is on the ground. This last one is to show you that you are unlikely to ever cause a tail scrape.

Fly a consistent stable approach. You won’t make a consistent landing if each approach is different and similarly you won’t make a consistent approach if each circuit is different. Truly the landing commences on downwind leg.

Have the approach stabilised (On glide path, on speed, landing flap set, trimmed) by say three hundred feet on final.

Trim is your friend, but remember you are trimming to “relieve sustained control loads”. I have come across instructors who teach students to trim out transient control loads, such as those resulting from even the slightest turbulence, with the result that the students are always trimming.

Too many pilots are taught to approach too fast, resulting in a prolonged hold off and ballooning. The recognised approach is 1.3 times the power off stall speed. The airspeeds for a fully laden aircraft are shown as the low end of the colour arcs on the ASI and are listed in the POH.

Ask your instructor to give you more stalling practice, and while you are at altitude practice slow flight. You will be very surprised just how slow you can make it fly.

Ask your instructor to give you practice in low flying along the runway. Motor along at hold off height with just enough power to prevent touch down. At first you will over control, but you’ll soon get the hang of it.

Try to pick your weather. Try early am or late pm to avoid convective turbulence.

Try to fly twice on the one day sometimes. Two shorter periods might be better than one longer one.

A First Solo is a confidence trick. Both the student and the Instructor must both have confidence in the student’s ability to safely make the solo flight. As an instructor I look to see that the trainee can recognise when the landing is going wrong and make the decision to abort the approach and execute a go round rather than having the ability to pull off a greaser everytime.

Remember that landings are optional. If it’s going wrong Go Round. Don't try to sort it out just Go Round. If you do decide to go round and your instructor then takes over and sorts it out every time, shame on him/her. After all it’s you who is learning to fly.

Good luck.
Seagull V