Just got back from my first solo flight. The tl;dr version is that it was pretty uneventful - but I wanted to post something anyway 
It's been about a year since I started training, and I have over 20 hours logged before my solo. I've had a long list of things getting in the way. At first, it was big stuff, when I discovered I couldn't easily get a medical certificate, and after a few months of waiting I began to doubt I'd ever get one, so I stopped flying. I also discovered, to my surprise, that I was actually terrified of flying, so that didn't help. I used to show up at the airport quietly hoping that something would be wrong with the weather or with the plane and we wouldn't be able to fly.
But eventually I got the cert. My instructor left around the same time, but after a little while putting it off, and then giving it another shot (and another instructor leaving) I was finally ready to solo. I just had to get an evaluation flight from instructor #3. My fear of flying had gradually faded to nothing - persistence had paid off! At this point, I had maybe 15-16 hours. That's when things started to go wrong.
On the appointed day of my evaluation, the nose strut was found to have collapsed, so only the instructor could safely land the plane. So I got to demonstrate my maneuvers but not landings. No worries, there was always the next weekend (I can only fly at weekends).
The following weekend the wind was all over the place, and my new instructor found a lot wrong with the way I was flying the pattern and landing. So no solo that day. He signed me off anyway, on the assumption that I'd probably be fine the next day. The next day things were much better and he was happy to let me solo. But my confidence was a little shaken from the previous day, so I decided, what's the rush? I'll wait until next weekend...
The next weekend, nothing would stop me! Nothing that is, unless something ridiculous were to happen such as a hangar door cable snapping and leaving the door stuck so that the planes couldn't be taken out of the hangar. So naturally, that happened, and I lost my last chance to solo in 2017, because I had to be away for a few weeks around Christmas.
When I got back I couldn't wait to solo. But I did wait, because someone left the pitot heater on and melted a wire so the airspeed indicator didn't work. I did get to fly the next day, but since it was my first time flying in around a month, and everyone was talking about another solo student who had veered off the runway on landing and had to be towed, I really needed a non-solo warm up. But my landings were fine so everything had to be ok for the next weekend, right?
I was beginning to think that someone really didn''t want me to solo, and I was determined to spite them. Or maybe my previous wishes that something would go wrong (since retracted) were finally being processed all at once. But there couldn't be anything wrong with the plane this weekend, I reasoned, since everything bad had already happened, so it was down to the weather. Which was perfect yesterday - cold, crisp, dry, clear, no wind...and 2 inches of ice on most the runway. "You're still fine to solo", my instructor said, "as long as you are absolutely certain you can stay on the centreline. You have 30 feet each side - go off centre any more than that, and you're off". I declined.
This morning it was 50/50 whether the runway would be cleared or not. I woke up to a news report of a passenger jet that slid off the runway in Turkey and literally came to rest halfway down a cliff face. I remembered the other student who went off the runway last weekend, and secretly I hoped that the ice had gotten worse and it would be out of my hands. I was regressing! But they must have started on my second batch of wishes - that things would stop going wrong, because the ice was cleared, the plane was working and I found that I was still able to land.
The funniest thing happened when my instructor got out and slammed the door though - all my anxiety went away. I suddenly felt in charge in a way that I never have before. I was less nervous for my 3 full stop landings that I had been with the instructor. The landings were ok but nothing to write home about. But it's been a long time in the making! Here's hoping I can pick up the pace a little and get the checkride done a little quicker that the solo....
It's been about a year since I started training, and I have over 20 hours logged before my solo. I've had a long list of things getting in the way. At first, it was big stuff, when I discovered I couldn't easily get a medical certificate, and after a few months of waiting I began to doubt I'd ever get one, so I stopped flying. I also discovered, to my surprise, that I was actually terrified of flying, so that didn't help. I used to show up at the airport quietly hoping that something would be wrong with the weather or with the plane and we wouldn't be able to fly.
But eventually I got the cert. My instructor left around the same time, but after a little while putting it off, and then giving it another shot (and another instructor leaving) I was finally ready to solo. I just had to get an evaluation flight from instructor #3. My fear of flying had gradually faded to nothing - persistence had paid off! At this point, I had maybe 15-16 hours. That's when things started to go wrong.
On the appointed day of my evaluation, the nose strut was found to have collapsed, so only the instructor could safely land the plane. So I got to demonstrate my maneuvers but not landings. No worries, there was always the next weekend (I can only fly at weekends).
The following weekend the wind was all over the place, and my new instructor found a lot wrong with the way I was flying the pattern and landing. So no solo that day. He signed me off anyway, on the assumption that I'd probably be fine the next day. The next day things were much better and he was happy to let me solo. But my confidence was a little shaken from the previous day, so I decided, what's the rush? I'll wait until next weekend...
The next weekend, nothing would stop me! Nothing that is, unless something ridiculous were to happen such as a hangar door cable snapping and leaving the door stuck so that the planes couldn't be taken out of the hangar. So naturally, that happened, and I lost my last chance to solo in 2017, because I had to be away for a few weeks around Christmas.
When I got back I couldn't wait to solo. But I did wait, because someone left the pitot heater on and melted a wire so the airspeed indicator didn't work. I did get to fly the next day, but since it was my first time flying in around a month, and everyone was talking about another solo student who had veered off the runway on landing and had to be towed, I really needed a non-solo warm up. But my landings were fine so everything had to be ok for the next weekend, right?
I was beginning to think that someone really didn''t want me to solo, and I was determined to spite them. Or maybe my previous wishes that something would go wrong (since retracted) were finally being processed all at once. But there couldn't be anything wrong with the plane this weekend, I reasoned, since everything bad had already happened, so it was down to the weather. Which was perfect yesterday - cold, crisp, dry, clear, no wind...and 2 inches of ice on most the runway. "You're still fine to solo", my instructor said, "as long as you are absolutely certain you can stay on the centreline. You have 30 feet each side - go off centre any more than that, and you're off". I declined.
This morning it was 50/50 whether the runway would be cleared or not. I woke up to a news report of a passenger jet that slid off the runway in Turkey and literally came to rest halfway down a cliff face. I remembered the other student who went off the runway last weekend, and secretly I hoped that the ice had gotten worse and it would be out of my hands. I was regressing! But they must have started on my second batch of wishes - that things would stop going wrong, because the ice was cleared, the plane was working and I found that I was still able to land.
The funniest thing happened when my instructor got out and slammed the door though - all my anxiety went away. I suddenly felt in charge in a way that I never have before. I was less nervous for my 3 full stop landings that I had been with the instructor. The landings were ok but nothing to write home about. But it's been a long time in the making! Here's hoping I can pick up the pace a little and get the checkride done a little quicker that the solo....
Congrats!
