Short version:
Solo-ed last night, both Kate and myself are doing fine and looking forward to a lot of togetherness up in the air in near future. Took me a long time, but at the end of the day, it doesnt matter.
Long version:
Had a sneaky suspicion that CFI might solo me yesterday. TAF predicted 06 KTS from 010. was little tensed since afternoon. went to the airport, my mechanic walked up to me and said.. you soloing today or what?.. am like ummm lets see. CFI comes in, sits on the plane, asks for my log book so that he can sign me off after 3 laps in KFAR. me: No pressure...sure.
Runup - On left mag check, 250 RPM drop and lot of shudder. tried cleaning the fouled plugs, twice, same result, may be the mag is hosed. back taxi. as i am backtaxi-ing 2 things came to mind:
-- Guardian Angel dont want me to solo tonight
-- if this was a FBO, i would have asked for 4 other cessna's on the line and not worry about anything. welcome to aircraft ownership
Mechanic steps in, does the runup and mag check, looks at the JPI and says, well your JPI is paying off already, its #2 cyl, most likely bad plug. without your JPI there is no way i could have known without taking off all the plugs. He checks the plug and looked like a lot of lead deposit. cleaned it and i am off to back taxi in 10 mins.
Reached KFAR, 3 laps around the pattern. CFI says, what do you say? you ready?
I took off again for the 4rth, as i am climbing told him 1) i dont know if i am ready, if you think I am ready, i will give it a shot 2) my landings are not perfect yet. CFI looks at me with horror and tells me: ok so we know what the problem is, we arent looking for perfect landings, we are looking for safe landings. make this a full stop and let me out, i am bored.
then also said: i have about 11000 landings.. still looking for the perfect one...
back to ramp, CFI gets out, felt odd to latch the door myself. called ground and got clearance to taxi to the longest rny. taxi-ing alone felt odd, looked around, i AM the only one in this plane!!
sat on hold short for 15 mins and saw 11 planes land and take off, even reminded the controller that I am still holding short. he said, multiple inbounds and departures, hold short. later i realized he was doing me a favor by clearing all big boys first so that i have the airspace to myself. finally got clearance for right traffic (all the previous ones were left).
as i lifted off, all my apprehensions disappeared and a feeling that i cant describe but will stay with me for a long time engulfed me. i knew the only person who can keep me alive is me and I know i can do it.
patterns went without any hitches. had to extend downwind for a landing cessna who i just couldnt find, so held my ALT until tower called my base, had to go glider for few seconds since i was high as a kite. overshot the rny once, but had enough room to correct (bank angle not exceeding 30). balooned onse, added power, set her down. i would have done some more, but i was scheduled with CFI till 8 and due to all the traffic while i was holding short, it was already 8:15, and we still had to go back to our home base.
still smiling....
couple of things i will say:
-- i have lot of time, it took me a while to train my timid brain that this thing is safe and if something happens, i am prepared to take controls and do whatever it takes to land safely.
-- while i can come up with a long list of excuses as to why it took me so long, i wont, because it doesnt matter. but i will say this for people in my shoes... i started learning rapidly when stopped being scared of flying. now i have lot more brain cells available to learn.
-- for me, the biggest challenge was not to learn how to fly, but to overcome my own baseless fear, my own daemons.
long way to go...
and before you ask... (yes i gained some weight, ssssshhh)
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