A SHAKY FIRST SOLO
This is not about my first solo but about someone I sent on their first solo. His name was Bill. He arrived at the small flying school where I did part time instructing in between teaching airline pilots on a Boeing 737 flight simulator. His first flight was a disaster, Bill being so nervous he would try to hang on to me even on gentle turns. He was convinced he would fall out of the Cessna 150 we were flying. When it came to stalling, he simply refused to do one. I had to inveigle him by asking him to keep an eye out for eagles that I said I had seen near his left wing tip. Of course there were no eagles but at least it distracted his attention while I quietly raised the nose of the Cessna and did an ever so gentle stall. He never noticed it until I explained we had just stalled and recovered while he was looking for eagles. He was happy to practice stalls after that.
A few lessons later we started circuit training. During all our flying Bill was twitchy on the controls with his hands shaking and quivering causing the Cessna to wobble around the circuit. On take off his feet would shake like someone with Parkinsons causing the rudder to oscillate almost uncontrollably. Yet, he always managed to stay in the centre of the strip on take off using the law of averages. In other words plus or minus six feet either side of the centreline. It was quite mesmerising to watch. For all this however, Bill did safe landings and judged the flare and hold off perfectly with no twitch. But as soon as all wheels were on the ground his rudder would flap all the way to when we stopped.
After just 8 hours I thought it was time to let him go solo. Bill immediately became alarmed and tried to stop me from leaving the aircraft. We had been already lined up with pre-take off drills completed. I was ready for him this time and said “Bill, I am busting for a piss – so I can’t argue with you, so off you go for just one circuit and pick me up back here after you land because I don’t want to walk half a mile back to the club house”. He looked at me stunned and opened his mouth to say something. I slammed my door shut, gave him a thumbs up and walked away not looking back. It must have shocked him into reality and I watched from directly behind as he started his take off run.
Well, it was the funniest thing I ever saw as the Cessna took off with its rudder furiously flapping left to right and I watched as it lifted off with ailerons and rudder furiously wobbling. His approach to land was steady and sure and I was mightily relieved to see a smooth touch down. As expected the rudder flapping started during his landing roll. Bill had forgotten all about me in his excitement on going solo and left me to walk the half mile back to the aero club. It was only then that I felt the real need to have a nervous one and the windsock was handy.
I congratulated Bill on a perfect first solo and added I was expecting him to have a lot of trouble learning to land. He told me landing never worried him because he flew radio controlled model aircraft and knew all about flare technique and smooth hold off’s. No wonder his first solo was so confident.