Everybody should be able to pilot an aircraft
 

So, Thursday just gone I completed 4 circuits practicing take off, landings and touch and gos as per usual in a lesson in the circuit. However, on one of the landings, my instructor took control and taxied off the runway, im looking at my watch thinking c'mon this lessons an hour long and we have been flying 35 mins or so!

To cut a long story short, he said to me "right im getting out and you're going to do 1 circuit... On your own... Solo!

Yes Thursday 28th August 2014 was the day i piloted an aircraft for the first time... With my right hand seat empty. It was the best day of my life... An amazing experience that I believe everyone should have. Obviously not literally but the feeling was awesome and i hate using that word.

To the fellow aviators out there... Now i know why they say "you've got the flying bug"...

Happy flying
Pilot CR

Congratulations
 

Congratulations Captain Self.

Welcome to an ongoing collection of learning experiences. As you say, everyone should do it.

Safe Flying,
WKW

Congratulations :D I don't think anything's ever given me as much satisfaction as that first solo circuit

Two thoughts:
1. Oddly, not everyone wishes to pilot an aeroplane. Strange, but true.
2. You may well find your first solo cross country even more satisfying and exhilarating.


Welcome to the world's best legal high :)

Congratulations and welcome to the club of those with terminally empty wallets.... but at least the kick you get flying makes up for the emptiness of the bank balance :)

Well done!

Nothing tops the first time you pilot an aircraft on your own, though there's a long way to go to completing your PPL yet.

My first solo in 1978 still stands as a highlight of my life, even after all those decades of aviating.

Congrats pilot CR, you've only just begun! It is a great feeling having that seat beside you empty!

i have done two first solos. My first was in 1977, on the first C152 which was imported to Canada. With total time of 33 hours since new, my instructor was rather criticized for sending me solo in it!

I done my first solo 26th july, what a feeling!
Scared to death but it felt very satisfying.
my next lesson was 2 circuits with instructor then 35 mins of solo circuits, since then the weather hasn't been too great, had some heavy crosswinds but im booked for Friday and up to now the forecast is looking good.
Out of interest, how many hours have you done?

Thank you everyone for your responses :)

I had done 13 hours dual training before I went solo and I now have 40 mins solo flying. I'm next flying Sunday all being well with the weather so I hope for some more solo flying.

Pilot CR

Congratulations. Brings back memories from many years ago. Strangely, I think I am one of the few people who didn't enjoy his first solo. It came completely unexpectedly after only 4hrs 20mins, following ATC gliding 17 years previously. It caught me by surprise, and I guess I wasn't psyched up for it. Fine after I'd turned finals tho', and I had no further problems. Enjoy the rest of your flying career.

Congratulations to all those who have soloed recently! :ok:

It's been a while since we had one of these threads.

Congratulations, first solo is one of those flights that will be remembered forever, one of my top 10 life experiences !:D:D

Now on to the QXC (also in that list, maybe I'm a sad individual ?)

Aaah first solo.
Did anyone else have the feeling of once in the circuit glancing at the other empy seat and thinking 'gawd now i have got to get this thing down again'

I actually had the opposite thought. Having an aircraft to yourself is the bollocks. My instructor was a lovely chap but I was his first student. I loved flinging the thing around at low speed and high bank angles. Obviously my instructor didn't appreciate this.

He obviously didn't realize that I was Top Gun material and his slovenly 152 didn't cut the mustard.

We reached a compromise zipping through a valley following an ever tightening river.

Kelly wasn't waiting for me but I'd experienced a number of accelerated stalls and re-assessed my limits.

Get rid of the instructor as soon as you can. Then you will learn to bring he /she back for the things you really need to learn.

I started planning solo flights that required his knowledge. He was happy to answer my calls off the books.

I took the Cessna all around the Philippines, but then needed his help hot n high.

I know I'm rambling, but fly as much as you can solo. You learn so much more from your mistakes and especially being Sh87t scared.

Best,

SSS

That was a memory I was reliving just as you uttered it ;)

More to the point:

It sounds to me like a lot of responsible pilots would not appreciate this. :eek:

Reassessing personal limits is a good thing, after hundreds and thousands of piloting hours, but not after tens of hours. My hope for subsonicsubic would be that they reassess their limits again - much more toward the cautious and compliant! :=

For as much as I can remember, I did the first solo circuit almost without thinking whatever - it was just a confirmation of lots of drill. Even the much-warned-for difference in weight didn't come as a surprise. My instructor must have played the little game very well. Only in the days after did it slowly dawn on me that "yes I had done it". And what a great feeling that was!

No, once in the air it was fine. But sitting at the end of the runway, looking down it before take off, hand on throttle, I thought "if I take this thing into the air, I'll have to get it down safely again". But only for a second or so! ;)

Congrats!
I very nearly didn't get going on my first solo - as in - start moving.

The tower is quite far away from the apron we use, so we don't normally stop anywhere near it, so it was the first time I'd ever stopped on the taxi-way in front of the tower for my instructor to jump out.

After he did, I then spent the next 5 minutes (felt like a lot more!) trying to work out why my request to taxi wasn't being answered by the tower...

Now I had seen once before that at a certain hold, if the aircraft was pointing a particular direction the tower couldn't hear me - the aircraft / airport combination that I was in has a few radio blind spots. So in my problem solving I turned on / tuned in COM 2 (which I later found out has a different antennae position) which worked. Judging by the response from the tower - they could hear all my previous calls - I just couldn't hear them!

But after that - all went to plan. Discovered how much quicker even a bulldog climbs without 75kg extra weight holding it down :)

Great experience - take a photo and send it into Flyer ( FLYER Forums ? View topic - FLYER wants to help celebrate your first solo! ) and bask in the glow :D

congratulations, and i echo the empty wallet comment!

Safe Flying, ES