Saturday July 26, 2014
Today, I had two flights on my slate - an 8 AM flight with a different instructor than the one I normally have, and a normal training flight with my regular instructor in the afternoon. This first flight was my solo cross check flight, or in other words, a flight where a different instructor accompanied me up to "double check" that I was approved for solo flight.
In this early morning flight, the weather when we lifted off from Clow (1C5) didn't look like the weather that other airports in the area were reporting - the clouds were lower and seemed to be getting lower by the minute. As a result, my instructor had to deviate from some of the normal procedures that were part of a regular solo cross check. After practicing some pilotage (using local landmarks to navigate as opposed to a GPS or other navigation aids) my instructor took me to Joliet Regional Airport (JOT) where we practiced landing on a shorter runway than I was accustomed to (2900' vs 3400').
What made the landing/approach at JOT more interesting was the fact that we flew it with the airspeed indicator out. In other words, the instructor placed a circular piece of paper, similar to a post-it note, over the instrument so I couldn't see what my airspeed was and I had to rely solely on my senses/how the airplane controls felt/responded to get a general idea of what my airspeed was.
As it turned out, I overestimated my approach speed and ended up having to execute a go around because I was too high and had excess speed. Nonetheless, the instructor said that he was happy with how everything went and said that it's definitely better to overestimate airspeed, because at the low altitude we were at, it's nearly impossible to recover from a stall (more on those in a later post).
After our practice at JOT, we headed over to the Lewis University Airport (LOT) to practice a couple standard takeoffs and landings - pretty uneventful. To end the day, we flew back to 1C5 and my instructors certified me for solo flight!
After a two hour break, I went up again at noon with my regular instructor. We started the day just doing some pattern work because the clouds were still at a level where we were unable to practice any other maneuvers/procedures, like stalls.
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| The 5 Different Legs of an Airport Traffic Pattern |
Once I had stopped, he told me to keep the engine running and said "Alright, I'm gonna hop out here. She's all yours." I almost froze. I was actually going to fly solo...
It all came as such a shock to me because I thought I would be soloing when the cloud conditions were better, but he must've known that I was ready to do it and he threw me right into the fire.
On my taxi to takeoff, I kept going through the various procedures in my head if something were to go wrong - engine failure on takeoff, minimum altitude to turn back if engine failure occurred during climb, stall recovery procedures for both landing and takeoff - just to name a few. I know I know...thinking of all the things that could go wrong isn't exactly what you want to be doing when you're nervous, but when you're a pilot, it's a necessity.
I started my takeoff roll and everything was going smoothly. I was just be flying in the traffic pattern and my upwind, crosswind, downwind, and base legs were all uneventful. But when I rolled out onto final, I realized the small crosswind had pushed me a little bit off of the runway centerline and I knew I had to realign myself if I had any hope of landing the plane on the 50 ft wide runway.
Not wanting to totally botch my first landing, I decided to execute a go around, making sure not to stall the plane and performing all of the procedures that the checklist called for. My instructor actually chimed in on the radio after the go around just wanting to double check if everything was OK and of course I told him yes...I mean, what else am I supposed to think when I'm hundreds of feet up in the air by myself? I have to put the bird down somehow...
My next landing went according to plan, and after completing three more landings, I had officially finished my first solo flight. I was ecstatic - shaking, sweating, smiling - it was definitely one of the proudest moments of my life to date.
I had finally done it. I had finally flown a plane by myself. While I still had a good amount of hours to go before getting my license, I didn't care - I felt on top of the world.
It's long been tradition in aviation that after a student flies solo, the back of their shirt is cut off and they are doused with water (depending on the weather). The story behind the shirt is that during the early days of flying, the instructor sat behind the student in the cockpit and since the cockpits were loud and there were no headsets, the instructor had to pull on the student's shirt to direct him. The shirt back being cut off was symbolic in that it signified that the student no longer needed to be pulled in the right direction. As far as the water tradition, that I'm not 100% sure of...but it happened!
It's also tradition for the student's instructor to take the shirt back and draw a design on it after it has dried and present it to the student.
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| My Shirt Back Design |
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| After my First Solo |
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| My first solo takeoff |
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| My Now Back-less Shirt |
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