Anything about first solo?

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kfly

Filing Flight Plan
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Skylar
I have been staying in the pattern for a while, I am too nervous to do my first solo. I feel as though I will mess up and if I do everything will go wrong. Are there big differences in the aircrafts performance if the instructor isn't there? I just honestly don't know what to expect and that's what is making me feel so nervous about the whole thing.
 
The plane will feel a bit more spirited without the weight of the instructor in it. As for me, I had a bit of trepidation until the wheels left the ground and then I realized that I had done this enough that doing it by myself was not a problem. Fly the airplane and relax. It is a great experience ...

Enjoy the ride!
 
Consider that you may not be ready for solo. You gotta be comfortable in your training that you already know what to do so you won’t “mess up”.

I looked at my instructor and told him that he was expensive company. He told me to land and let him out.
 
Your situation is not uncommon. I assume your instructor offered to let you solo instead of sending you out to solo. Some of us need a little push, we must be sent.

Tell your instructor to, sometime in the next couple of lessons, just have you pull over on the taxiway & “step out.”

“Give me three touch & goes. I’m gonna stand here & watch.”

And then go do them.

I’ll tell you a piloting secret for free. Almost all of us, regardless of the hours in our logbook, have the same thought the moment we take off:

“oh, ****. now I’ve got to land this thing.“

Frankly, it is a healthy response. Takeoffs are always optional, landings are not. But flying is about self-confidence as much as anything. Make up your mind now to “screw your courage to the sticking point” when your instructors tell you to “give me 3 quick laps.” Then, welcome to the club! You have mastered your fear & your airplane through self-confidence & training. You are a pilot.
 
If you can do three take offs, patterns, and landings with out the instructor saying a word, they are not a value added and should be removed from the airplane. :D
 
Emotions don't like to listen to logic. So break it down a bit. Can you taxi out to the right spot, and do a runup? Are you sure? Can you setup for takeoff and not miss anything? Sure? Can you takeoff and climb out to pattern altitude? Can you fly the pattern? Can you get setup for landing? Can you fly the approach? Can you land the f*ng thing? Instructor said yes to that or they wouldn't have said yes. So work through it in your own head. If one part bugs you, think about it, talk about it, or work on it.
 
Soloing will be very easy! Line it up on the runway and pour the coal to it. Keep it straight for about 15 seconds. The hard part is everything after that ... :biggrin:

Seriously, your instructor will know when you are ready and if they are worth their cost they will not send you up until they are absolutely certain that you will return to terra firma and be able to use the aircraft again.
 
The airplane will climb faster, but otherwise everything else will feel the same. Like others said for me I thought " crap... I now don't have anyone to prevent me from screwing up " but right after that I thought " I've done this so many times... Just do like you practiced and you'll be fine".
 
Albany Tom said:
Emotions don't like to listen to logic. So break it down a bit. Can you taxi out to the right spot, and do a runup? Are you sure? Can you setup for takeoff and not miss anything? Sure? Can you takeoff and climb out to pattern altitude? Can you fly the pattern? Can you get setup for landing? Can you fly the approach? Can you land the f*ng thing? Instructor said yes to that or they wouldn't have said yes. So work through it in your own head. If one part bugs you, think about it, talk about it, or work on it.
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What he said. Seriously, think it thru just like that.

When you break the flight down into specific segments in your mind, it can help you focus on the task in front of you.

Each task leads to the next one. And you know how to do each task in a flight. It's your mind trying to absorb the whole flight at once that can cause the uncertainty or self doubt.

I've been flying for 30 years and I still do this to reduce angst before each flight.
 
Some of what to expect depends on how much your instructor weighs relative to the aircraft's performance, but don't expect it to be much different.
kfly said:
I feel as though I will mess up and if I do everything will go wrong.
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Don't be such a fatalist. You've been trained to handle the task.
 
Until you do it, it's hard to imagine the sheer joy of that first flight without that dead weight in the right seat.
 
I still remember my first solo from over 30 years ago. It was awesome. I was nervous too but knew I’d been flying solo with the instructor just sitting there anyway.
 
kfly said:
Are there big differences in the aircrafts performance if the instructor isn't there?
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I would burn more fuel weight during training flights than the difference in weight from one of my initial instructors.

On the other hand, for my [very large] DPE, I would add ballast in the rear cargo area to balance the aircraft.
 
My first solo was very casual. I took my pulse when I taxied out and is was very low. On my second solo I held short for landing traffic, heard a whining sound and looked behind me to see a 737 who seemed like he wanted to push me onto the runway. I took my pulse that time and it was more or less racing compared to the first one. :oops:
 
Remember, literally hundreds of thousands of people have done this same thing.
You can too.
 
My first solo was awesome. Took off, got onto downwind, started my pre-landing checklist, then glanced over to the right seat. That was the first time in all my hours where it was empty. I had to look twice to believe it. Then I figured, well, this thing isn't going to land itself. So I landed it, taxied back, and did it a couple more times.

Don't overthink it. If you have enough hours, you've flown and landed in all sorts of wind, turbulence, fuel loadings, density altitudes, and other situations that will make a bigger difference to performance than the loss of a CFI during pre-flight.
 
I had two “first solos”
Well sorta. Did almost everything needed for PPC in ‘92, then had to stop flying till I picked it up again over a decade later

Agree fully with @dbahn - in most training aircraft, in most places/times- pattern work isn’t so different than with instructor present that you’ll need to change what you’re doing much when he/she steps out and sets you free.

Enjoy! It’s an experience most don’t have. And ask them to take your picture (and post it here, svp)
 
SFDukie said:
I had two “first solos”
Well sorta.
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I sorta did as well. I had been flying for over 30 years when I started towing gliders in the Pawnee. There's only one seat in the thing, and it has a distinctly different look than most aircraft. It feels like you're flying behind a long cowling that resembles a long dining room table. So there is no dual check out. You just try to anticipate what might be different and and go for it. I took off, thought to myself, "well, that was no big deal" then wondered if could land the thing without damaging it. It's a strange feeling, but you just say, "here goes" and the rest in uneventful.

I suppose I could consider a third "first solo" when I took off from a cart in a floatplane. No sense in having someone along that just adds weight.
 
As interesting as first solos are, my trepidation was a bit higher when doing first flights in airplanes that I had built ... :eek:
 
My first solo was the day the local bank was robbed. The guy took hostages, got into a rolling shootout during the getaway, then tried to hijack a 172 before the cops shot him. I got to solo in front of all the news crews. That plane in the pattern over the shoulder of the news guy at the airport doing the remote for the 5 o’clock news? That was me.

You’ll be fine.
 
Daleandee said:
The plane will feel a bit more spirited without the weight of the instructor in it. As for me, I had a bit of trepidation until the wheels left the ground and then I realized that I had done this enough that doing it by myself was not a problem. Fly the airplane and relax. It is a great experience ...

Enjoy the ride!
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Spirited? Is that like haunted or possessed.

Seriously, the plane will lift off sooner, climb a bit better and touch down a bit farther down the runway. Maintain airspeeds.
 
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