The day of your first SOLO?? How well do you remember it? Was it The Good , The Bad , or, The Ugly? [Clint Eastwood, need not have been with you.... ] Describe to us, if you will, your recollections. Mine being less than a year ago, and documented here somewhere... doesn't count... .
I remember mine, it was on May 5th of last year. What good fun it has been since then. It was a nice day out probably mid 60's with the chance of gusting winds towards that later part of the day. We took two trips around the pattern then my instructor says make this one a full stop. We taxi to the north ramp, he grabs the ATIS before we shut down and then he hops out. He says to me "have fun and call it a day if it starts gusting above 14kts". I start back up and taxi out to 21L and take off. The First landing was weird, it felt funny since i was so use to having some one else in the plane. Since i was doing full stop taix backs on the last one i hear ground call 14kts just as i switch to tower and call up "holing short". I take off come back around put in the wind corrections and had a good landing. I then head back over to the north ramp to prick up my instructor. He hops in and says "Nice landing, how was the wind?" I smiled and said, "it was fine". It was one of the most exciting days in my short flying carrier.
January 26, 1992: My first solo started out with myself, my instructor and my dad and his video camera taping(from the rear seat) my dual practice 3 takeoff and landings in my 1976 Grumman Cheetah 9744U. My instuctor had me stop on the taxiway and he my dad deplaned and he turned me loose for 3 solo touch and go's(I actually did 4). My dad videod the whole thing and somewhere we have the tape. I really liked that Cheetah...really wished it was a Tiger. I am very pleased with the Mooney Ranger(of course I would be happier with an Ovation). N Dennis
I can't actually say I remember that day but I know I did a few full stop taxi backs and some touch and go's. It was in a 172 April of 1997. I have flown so many hours since then. Now that day is just a distant memory. I do remember the first time I flew a turbo-prop and the first time I flew a jet. I was a 600 hr pilot the first time I flew a turbo-prop. I only had about 200 multi-engine all of which was in Piper Seminoles. I could not have been less qualified at the time but I was hungry for a real flying job. I did initial training at Flight Safety before I flew it, but had no stick time at all since the training was all done in a sim. Once I completed initial I was flown down to Tampa International Airport to pick it up and bring it back to Atlanta. I had never been that scared before so it was quite memorable. Believe me when I tell you that it was a big jump to go from flying 172's and Seminoles to flying a 1500hp turbo-prop. The performance increase is astounding to say the least. I will never forget pushing those throttles forward and praying that somehow I would survive the flight. I remember thinking that all I had to do was get it airborne then I would have no choice but to figure it out. As you know landings are not optional. What a rush!
July 3, 1983 (easy date to remember). Brown Cherokee Warrior, 8142K I believe. It was a beautiful day, and the main thing I remember is thinking "Wow, I can't believe I'm up here all alone!" 24 years ago? I'm getting old!
Picture a grass strip in Florida about 1800 feet in length. At the west end a 1937 Cub, blue fuselage, yellow wings. It makes a 180 degree turn by increasing power and lifting the tailskid out of the sod by forward stick. It's lined up a bit to the right of an imaginary centerline. Mags are quickly checked as the Cub accelerates down the strip because it has no brakes and then full power is applied. In a few hundred feet the craft smoothly lifts off and climbs away leaving the instructor standing at the end of the strip. Four " Carrier type " landings were made because of the lighter weight (no instructor aboard) but they were all good. That happened well over 60 years ago. Ol' Switches
At Napa Co Apt in California June 1967: The tower had just gotten into operation and I was spooky of the coffie grinder radio thing anyway. Was turning base to final for 27 and the dreaded tower...'Cessna 51 Sierra make an immidiate 90 deg right turn'. What the hell....are they talking to me? "Cessna 51 Sierra this is Napa Tower...make an immidiate 90 degree right turn'. Yep....talking to me. Made the turn and they told me to make another right turn to the downwind and continue with approach. After landing I picked up my instructor at the intersection and asked him what was going on. Seems a no radio 172 was on a long low approach to 27 over the rr tracks and no one, including me, had seen him. This new radio thing wasnt as bad as I had thought, afterall.
Yeah, them radyo's is a good thang, Sparky. Ah listen ta mine all the time, 'specially when the Grand Ol Opery is on. Ah have one out by the still, too. Switches
PA-18---150 hp...a caddy. I had a lowly c-150 with just barely a 100hp. Still fun though. Wonder what Switches drove around? B4 radios I bet.
A 1937 Cub with no radyo, no brakes, no tail wheel, and a 55 HP Lycoming turning a wooden prop. Not much of a pilot neither. Went from that to a newer Cub aith a great big engine, 65HP. Then there was a Rearwin with a 90 HP LeBlond, a Cessna 120, Stearman PT-13, Fairchild PT-19, PT-23, PT-17,PT-22, Cessna 140, Champ 7AC, L-3,Waco 10, Bird, BT-13, PA-11, PA-15, UPF-7, Clipper, Milkstool, Stinson 108, Lockheed 12, Husky, Cessna 310 and a bunch more. Wasn't really good at any of them.
I thought they grounded that airborne Mafiosi. We didn't need radyo back then in Florida until maybe 1948. Some airplanes had 'em but there wasn't hardly anybody to talk to . When I did get to fly one that had a radyo in it , I jes listened to the A until it turned into an N. Then I turned around and did it all over again.
PA-28-161 (Warrior). Nothing special. I came in for my scheduled lesson and was told, "this is your solo, give me 3 and come in". All I remember is that the plane took off faster and was a bit bouncier on the "touch-n-goes" but that everything worked out OK. If I think about it, the instructor was probably pretty quiet the last couple of times out, so it was a clue that he wasn't having to intercede and that he was preparing me for not being there.
