I just completed my first solo in a
Cessna 172, yet another step in my
epic adventure of
learning how to fly.
A lot of people (as well as the
government) believe that undue stress is put upon the First Solo flight of any new
student. Yes, it may be the first time you are let free, and the first time you have to make all of the decisions yourself - but by perpetuating the "it's so important" philosophy just makes it that much more stressful, ultimately making people afraid of it; even becoming so distracted by the fact that they are alone as to start making mistakes and even get into an accident.
That's what "the book" says about the first solo. I think it's
BS. First solo is the greatest thing ever!! WOO WOOO WOOOO!
I climbed into the aircraft at 8AM on an
overcast,
drizzling day (which happens to be today), and did three
Circuits with my instructor. Out of sheer
luck (or maybe an incredible overnight gaining of skill) all three of my landings were nearly perfect and gentle and smooth. Just before my instructor hopped out of the aircraft, he informed the tower that "the guy in this airplane has never flown before so keep your eye on him." Great. Now everyone's watching me.
During my previous take-offs I had been climbing away from the runway at about 900 feet per minute, which is generally pretty good considering it was a wet day with
low atmospheric pressure outside. A
Cessna 172 would, in my little experience, generally climb out around 500 or 600 feet per minute. When flying on my own, that jumped up to 1,800 feet per minute! I was at
circuit altitude (1000 feet) before I had even crossed the far end of the runway! (mind you, the runway *is* a mile long)
I like to imagine that circuits normally take me about 8 minutes with my instructor. I haven't ever timed it, so I'm uncertain, but I do know for a fact that I did 3 circuits in "bad" weather with heavy air traffic at about 6 minutes each. I was going so fast that the
Air Traffic Controller had to extend my
downwind leg by 6
nautical miles at one point! I've never been extended much more than 2! And boy, that ground was whizzing by fast... It may have been the weather, but it felt like I was lower to the ground, too. Hmm.
I normally have a problem with landing, too. Just last week I nearly set off the
Emergency Location Transmitter by hitting the ground so hard. It's because the landing process (steep
approach,
flare,
touchdown) happens so quickly that I don't have much time to react. I'm slowly getting the hang of it... But today, all by myself, the plane seemed to float down the runway for about 10 seconds during my flare. It's a good thing it's a long runway! I slowly lost altitude (maybe half a foot per second?) until I touched down, smooth as a... smooth... thing... that's smooth. Yeah! WOO!
And gee whiz, there was noone to talk to! Usually my instructor yammers on with tips and hints and what I should do and when I should do it, and because I'm listening so intently to him it's almost like I'm following orders instead of flying an airplane. Plus, I'm not listening to the
control tower; I've tuned them out. But today was different. I actually said out loud, "This looks like a good place to start my descent, eh?*" ... Of course, there was no response. I do a quick maneuver I like to call "slap my forehead" and made the call myself. Now that I had been listening to the radio, I didn't miss a single call (a very good thing) and I had better awareness as to what was going on around me.
As I stepped out of the aircraft, my instructor and one of the Flying Club employees came outside and presented me with a nice (cheezy) certificate and took my giddy, gerbil-faced picture next to the plane. Here's my certificate:
Victoria Flying Club
FIRST SOLO
PROCLAMATION
Let it be known that on 18 SEPTEMBER, 2003
ANDY MOORE
without disruption of air traffic, this fearless, forthright, indomitable and courageous individual did venture into the wild blue yonder in a flying machine. Furthermore, this skilful individual did safely land said flying machine at Victoria International Airport incurring no significant damage to self or machine. Thus completing a first solo flight
Aircraft type: CESSNA 172
Aircraft Registration: C-GZXP
Instructor: JASON WARE
Signature: *scribble*
So, just as
Kalen's writeup above states,
- The plane climbs twice as fast without your flying instructor,
- The circuit takes half the time,
- The silence is deafening, and
- The plane doesn't want to land.
Now to whip out my
red pen and make that entry into my
logbook...
*: Yes, I am Canadian, eh?