Anyone else have no "traditional" pilot mementos?

denverpilot

denverpilot

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DenverPilot
Realized this after the Comm/Multi ride the other day:

- Never had the shirt cut after solo.
- Never had the traditional happy shake-hands photo from Private, Instrument, nor Commerical ratings.

Reasons:
- Solo: I don't know why. Instructor probably thought I was broke enough back then that I needed every shirt I had. Ha.
- Private: I had a solo endorsement to fly to a different airport for my Private checkride with the CFI joking that if I didn't pass, I couldn't come home. Haha. Nobody other than the DPE and me there and he typed up my temporary cert on his typewriter and said congrats and "have a safe flight home", and tossed me out of his office he either rented or borrowed at that airport.

- Instrument: I extended my stay in Lincoln a couple of days after a discontinuance for insane winds that came up and needed to safely head home after the ride, pass or fail. So I shook hands with the DPE and @jesse and said thanks, and settled up my fuel bill with Silverhawk and headed out to preflight to fly home. (I think I decided to file IFR for the hell of it, but it was severe VFR all the way home.)

- Commercial/Multi: DPE did paperwork, we got done a little late, Instructor had a nice certificate printed up for finishing his course also, and we all shook hands and Instructor's wife was waiting outside in her van to take them both to a pre-planned dinner they were about to be late for.

Not a big deal. I have the certs and that's what counts. I just thought it was interesting.

I thought: I wonder how many others don't have any of the "traditional" shirt tail or photos or anything after checkrides? Can't be all that uncommon.
 
I have the shirt tail from my first solo. My dad (who's also my CFI) insisted, despite it being my favorite shirt. (My wife later had it framed.) And I still have the pen I "stole" from one of the FBOs from my long solo cross country.

Otherwise, I have photos with my wife, who was my first passenger post-checkride for private and instrument. For my commercial, I have a copy of the bill... does that count?

But I know a handful of people who, like you, have no mementos.
 
I wore a shirt that could be sacrificed just in case...I get done and my CFI looks at me and says "You want your shirt tail cut?"..."No, not really"..."I didn't think so" he replied!

I did get a flight school T-Shirt shirt with all the other student and CFI's signature after solo however...that was much better than destroying a shirt for me.

No post PPL photo here either, we were running late for the plane to get back for the next student's check ride. ...but have a lot of other cool shots that were great memories along the way.

My CFII was gone when I did my IFR check ride and though the DPE was kinda a Delta Bravo so did not need a pic with him!
 
No shirt cutting around here. When I asked about that later, people looked at me like they'd never heard of any such thing. No handshake pics... I do have some fairly crappy video of my first solo flight. Somewhere there was once a picture of me standing next to the tired old Cherokee I soloed in, but it was tacked up on the wall for a while and I never got a copy.

But I have an airplane... I'm OK with that. :)
 
DaleB said:
But I have an airplane... I'm OK with that. :)
Click to expand...

Gotta admit, that one is pretty cool, and I'll take it over a wall full of memorabilia. I still shake my head at times that I have a set of keys to a hangar and an airplane.

If you'd have asked me in my twenties if that would ever happen, I would have laughed out loud at you.

Sometimes I wish our hobby was just a touch less expensive so more folks who enjoy flying could feel that weird feeling that they could just go to the airport *right now*, open the hangar door, and go up, for no particular reason at all.

With all the twin training lately, I need to go do just that in the 182 soon. We're on a break on the training for a little bit, so it shouldn't be too hard, but I have been neglecting some home projects and maintenance.

What's new? I neglect home stuff all the time to go flying. Haha. Who am I kidding?! ;)
 
I have my solo shirt tail, pics with my ASEL & ASES examiners but not my AMEL examiner. I also have lots of other pics.
 
denverpilot said:
Sometimes I wish our hobby was just a touch less expensive so more folks who enjoy flying could feel that weird feeling that they could just go to the airport *right now*, open the hangar door, and go up, for no particular reason at all.
Click to expand...
Whaddaya mean no reason? I left the barber shop this afternoon and headed to pick up dinner. Well, it's only 4:30, and we're not old enough to eat at 5 yet... sunny day, scattered at 5K, 40 degree crosswind at 8G15. Good enough reason to detour to the airport...

I had to return to the hangar after my first ever squawk. Failed mag check. Pulled the top cowl, found an un-seated plug wire, seated it, cowled up and took of. A couple of T&G, half an hour of yankin' and bankin', back to the airport, tuck the plane in (we'll get the bugs off later, need pizza) and still made it home by 6:30.
 
The day I soloed. I wore a t-shirt I got with a flight sim. That was the day it got retired. I wrote the date, time, location, and aircraft in black marker. The other memento I have was my first solo to another airport. The CFI signed me off to fly to a local airport and I got a belt buckle from the Airplane shop there. It was also the same shop I bought my first headset from.
 
Nada.

Although I cherish the Jeppesen spork/spife/ice tongs swag I got on my first trip to Oshkosh this year.
 
The only momentos are the cancelled checks or credit card receipts that paid for the lessons and checkride, etc. And the keys to the cherokee in the glove compartment so I can head over to the airport any time.
 
No shirt cuts or cheesy handshake pictures. They did take my picture in front of the plane after my first solo and after the checkride, and of course the DPE did shake my hand in the plane when he congratulated me on passing... that memory alone is a great memento.
Otherwise, I created my own memento by publishing my first solo xc write up in AOPA magazine.
 
Did the shirt cut but was hanging in the flight school office with the rest of them and they have since moved. Guessing they are no more. No handshake pictures or any of that sadly.
 
I think it is sad that things which were pretty much universal traditions in aviation are going by the wayside. Aviation used to have a pretty strong culture about it. That seems to be fading fast.
 
I don't have any of the traditional things either. No shirt tail etc.... I'm not really sure why, but I was young and didn't ask. I was just excited that I made it back by myself! ha
 
No shirt cut on solo. The best acknowledgement I got was after turning crosswind on my first solo flight tower called and asked if it didn't fly better without that fat guy in the right seat.

No handshake photo after I got my Private. In fact, I didn't even realized I had passed until this exchange with the examiner:

EX: You should practice your touch and goes a bit.
ME: They don't let us do touch and goes solo.
EX: That rule is for students, you're a private pilot now.

Anyhow, I just put things away and went home, kind of anticlimactic.

The PIC instructor was standing by to take the happy picture when I came back from in instrument ride, though I'm darned if I know if I kept it or not.
 
The shirt was cut, still have it, but other than that, nothing. IFR cert noting but a slip of paper telling me to go fly in the rain.
 
I was fortunate enough to have my shirt-tail cut and I still have it hanging up in the house. The cheesy handshake and picture with the CFI just went along with it. :D
 
I have had absolutely no custom exercises or memorabilia placed on me after my PPL or IR. I wasn't even aware of the shirt tail cutting practice until I joined POA.
 
Solo: Instructor lost my shirt. So he gave me a signed Landing Humor Plaque.

Inst, Comm, Multi: A firm hand shake with my DPE friend and the traditional Buffalo Wild Wings dinner w/ school friends.

ATP: A swift kick in the a$$ and a fun Gastons weekend via @EdFred @SixPapaCharlie @timwinters

Training Line Check: A "Good Luck Getting Home" goodbye from my Captain.
 
I didn't even know about the shirt cutting until my CFI apologized and said he didn't like to cut people's good shirts. I had no clue what he meant and he had to explain it. So much for knowing about aviation popular culture.

No photo of solo or any checkride.

I do have a paper flight plan form that my CFI put in my under my windshield wiper after my checkride that says "Congratulations Private Pilot". I did the ultimate faux pas and forgot to call him, then flew to dinner with some other pilots I happened to meet at the airport. He ended up calling my home and asking my mom. I had told her because I called her saying I wouldn't be home until late. Life before cellphones and cellphone cameras...
 
First solo, PPL, Commercial, IR and Multi rides, nothing. The solo was a surprise done by a CFI I had never flown with before or again after that. My regular CFI was out of town so I scheduled with this guy. No mention of shirt cutting. Regular CFI was not happy about that. For PPL I flew over to have it done by the FAA at the GADO[fsdo] at MYF. No scissors, cameras or even a handshake if I remember right. Commercial and IR were done by a DPE at the school I was flying at. Handshakes and pats on the back but nothing else. Maybe they took a picture, I don't remember. If they did they never sent it to me after they got the roll developed. Multi I did at SBA. An FAA guy flew in from the VNY GADO to do it. He shook my hand. Next solo was in a Glider many moons later. They mount a Go Pro on the wing tip pointed at the cockpit and it clicks off a shot a second. More shots on the ground with handshakes and hugs. I wouldn't let them cut the shirt but promised to bring one in next time I came out. That of course stayed there up on the wall with all the others. They gave me a CD of all the pics. But I can't find it.
So the short answers is No, I don't have any memorabilia.
 
My shirt tail was cut off and signed. My mom had it framed, I am sure it is still around somewhere.

Most people that come to my house would never guess I fly for a living. I don't have anything aviation related around the house.

I used to have a couple of pictures of me next to some bush planes from northwest Alaska, but even those have been put away.
 
This might not be the kind of memento you mean.

This is the first prop from my plane.

I don't have the t-shirt or pic.
 

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Shirt cut after solo and added to a pretty big collection in the Aero Club (now defunct).

Cheers
 
Ex wife took all my sh#@ ! small price to pay for a life worth living now. By the way, that blue angel crash was trying to aim for her house(in smyrna) but he missed.
 
Shirt cut on solo. Handshake/pic with dpe after checkride. Now I create my own shenanigans after milestones. Unfortunately I haven't had any milestones since then.
 
The only traditional memento on the GA side I have is the fact that I let out a pretty good war cry on my solo take off, and my Dad asked me if I did when I got home and I was able to say "Yes!"

On the Navy side, I have a T-2 hold back handed to me by an Aviation boatswain's mate on the USS Forrestal. I got to share that one with Dad as well.
 
My whole fam damily was there when I did my first solo at the age of 16. Still got the shirt tail somewhere, but that was the last one - other than getting thrown in the big dunk tank for my solo in the T-37.
 
Lots of traditional and non-traditional mementos.
Love mementos, especially when you put them in a bottle of Coke.
 
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