Wife's First Solo!

Thats awesome. Congratulations to her.

Mine finally told me she would get her license.....in a helicopter. Not interested in the airplane at all, unless I'm flying it somewhere she wants to go.
 
Congratulations! My wife, Mary, (a pilot since '98) passes along her congrats as well.

Your wife has joined an exceedingly small group. We need more, just like her! :)
 
Congrats,looks like a very confident pilot,liked the giggle on take off.
 
Just an aside: This video needs to go viral! We need to show the world -- and women, in particular -- that flying a plane is not only doable, it's fun.

I've linked to it on my Facebook page. If we all did that, we will have this video seen by more people than any AOPA ad could ever reach!
 
I want to watch this video, I really do, but that music is unbearable. anyways, congrats to your wife!
 
Well done. Lots of aileron on take off. Seemed a bit gusty for first solo.
 
Sure, but part of the fun of watching solo vids is hearing the persons excitement and funny/crazy sht they say. Can't hear that on mute.
 
Congratulations to your wife, she certainly did a great job.

Along the line of Jay's comments, more female pilots would be wonderful. My EAA Chapter holds a week long Summer Camp that has three levels. Last year was our first for the third level, for 16-18 year olds and is comprised wholly of flight training. We had young folks in that level of camp and as it turned out all three were young ladies.

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As you can see we gave them a nickname. We have one young lady signed up for this years level three camp.

We also recognize a need to get young folks in general interested in aviation and are working hard toward that end.

Again, hardy congratulations to your wife!!
 

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Neat, nice looking 150/152. Great to see the small Cessnas are still teaching people how to fly.
 
eman1200 said:
I want to watch this video, I really do, but that music is unbearable. anyways, congrats to your wife!
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This....

haha, great video though!, I'd recommend at least setting that music to 20% volume(compared to the radio etc.)
 
Congratulations! I can't get the video to load (on the road), but I'll watch when I'm back home.

I assume the next one of these we'll see will be Eren's? ;-)
 
Awesome! That was so fun to watch. Huge congrats to her. I too loved that big grin at take-off.

mjburian said:
I assume the next one of these we'll see will be Eren's? ;-)
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:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Not gonna lie, this video got me psyched for mine. I have a ways to go. My birthday is in September; my goal is to solo before then.
 
I will never get tired of the face people make when they take off the first time by themselves! That's one of those memories you get to keep forever.

Thanks for sharing this. :)
 
Pass along a CONGRATS!!!!

I never get tired of reliving that first solo flight.....always fun to see and hear the excitement as they do it on their own for the first time.
 
CONGRATULATIONS! That is awesome to watch. Back in the day when I started we had those big briefcase sized vhs camcorders so no solo videos but I think that excitement and grin are universal.
 
Congratulations to your other half. Got my wife to taxi and fly straight and level. Baby steps.
 
Thank you everyone for the congrats! She read them with me and that put another smile on her face... although I think was easier for her to solo than sign up herself on a forum!

On the "you can do it, too" side, she is a business owner and mother of 2 youngin's. She was too busy with both and I made her find something else to do to get away and recharge her mind. She is much happier now that she found an activity outside of work and family.

Her words posted on Facebook:
"Thank you all! I never gave flying a thought as a little girl. Now, I'm enjoying the ride! I was brought up that you can do anything that you put your mind to. It was such an amazing time and technology is so cool to be able to capture it in video."


MotoFlier said:
If you don't mind me asking why is this an inspirational story for girls? Sorry Im new so I'm assuming there is a back story.
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No, poor wording on my part. No back story here. Just the fact that many girls think flying is a "guy thing" and never thought they would want to do it. She was one of them. She loved flying with me but never imagined she would enjoy doing it... until she took an intro flight and discovered how much fun it can be.

Tarheelpilot said:
Mine finally told me she would get her license.....in a helicopter. Not interested in the airplane at all, unless I'm flying it somewhere she wants to go.
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Lol!

eman1200 said:
I want to watch this video, I really do, but that music is unbearable. anyways, congrats to your wife!
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Yeah, sorry about that. She was a huge Michael Jordan fan back in the day and so I thought it was appropriate. It is a pretty sappy song though.

docmirror said:
Well done. Lots of aileron on take off. Seemed a bit gusty for first solo.
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It really wasn't that bad. Winds were 240@8 on a 18 runway. She has been trained to go full ailerons in any wind. One thing that is really important to me is that if she is being trained differently than I learned (which a few things are different) I am not interfering with her training. If she notices me do something different in the cockpit, I explain why I do it, why her instructor is having her do it differently, and why she needs to do it his way.

Jay Honeck said:
Congratulations! My wife, Mary, (a pilot since '98) passes along her congrats as well.

Your wife has joined an exceedingly small group. We need more, just like her!

Just an aside: This video needs to go viral! We need to show the world -- and women, in particular -- that flying a plane is not only doable, it's fun.

I've linked to it on my Facebook page. If we all did that, we will have this video seen by more people than any AOPA ad could ever reach!
Click to expand...

Tell Mary thank you! YES YES YES! This is why I posted this video publicly and tried to make it inspirationally watchable for women everywhere.

EppyGA said:
Along the line of Jay's comments, more female pilots would be wonderful. My EAA Chapter holds a week long Summer Camp that has three levels. Last year was our first for the third level, for 16-18 year olds and is comprised wholly of flight training. We had young folks in that level of camp and as it turned out all three were young ladies.
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Great picture and super cool! When my life slows down a little bit, I'd love to help out the EAA camps, as well. Right now I'm a Girl Scout troop leader (yes...) for my daughter's troop and my troop girls have been to the airport twice in the last two years. We cannot do enough!

BillTIZ said:
Neat, nice looking 150/152. Great to see the small Cessnas are still teaching people how to fly.
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This flight school/FBO keeps their planes meticulous. They own them (they're not leasebacks) and they treat them as such. This plane is a 1978 152, they've owned it since new, and it has minted thousands of pilots.

Mrs. SixPapaCharlie said:
Not gonna lie, this video got me psyched for mine. I have a ways to go. My birthday is in September; my goal is to solo before then.
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You got this, Eren! She has been at it since last October. She was ready to solo about 4 weeks ago, but the weather up here in Chicago has been either snowy, stormy, windy, or all of the above. BTW, she LOVED your flying family picture! She has taken so many of those!
 
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That's great. It's always fun to see the big grin on takeoff and again upon landing.
 
Cool video. Thanks for sharing, and congrats!
 
ahkahn said:
It really wasn't that bad. Winds were 240@8 on a 18 runway. She has been trained to go full ailerons in any wind.
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It's ok with me, she handled it fine. Usually a CFI will not solo if over 5Kts xwind. But - everyone's different. Good training exercise in a light weight plane. It feels very different when the right seat is empty.
 
docmirror said:
It's ok with me, she handled it fine. Usually a CFI will not solo if over 5Kts xwind. But - everyone's different. Good training exercise in a light weight plane. It feels very different when the right seat is empty.
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Lol... you hit the nail on the head. She noticed a very different handling characteristic with the 180# CFI out of the plane. We all warned her it would be different, but she never expected it to be that different!
 
Great video. Music was just fine. It seemed appropriate.

Loved the expressions right before and after takeoff, and once she landed.

I'll have to try that aileron deflection technique next time I fly.
 
**UPDATE**

So, yesterday Julie achieved her goal and passed her PPL checkride! The examiner stated it was the first time she had ever seen an entire organized binder prepared for a checkride, including laminated taxi maps (with NOTAM markings in colored marker), legends, weather charts, performance charts, and who knows whatever else she had in there. The examiner also stated it was one of the best oral exams she's ever given, as well as one of the safest, most solid practical tests she's ever given.... considering the practical test started with the examiner's door popping open on takeoff and Julie aborted the takeoff and pulled off the runway (the examiner swears it was not planned or on purpose!)

Her primary instructor who got her 95% of the way there and a month ago left for the regionals even surprised her by showing up at the end of the checkride! What a class act guy!

Anyway, I am so proud of her. I attached a couple of pics... and no, she didn't do her checkride in a King Air... ;)

Wife, mother, business owner, and a PILOT. What a cool chick!

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Awesome! You must certainly be very proud.

My examiner's door popped open on take off on my ME checkride. He swore it wasn't on purpose either.
 
Thanks, guys! Yes, I am very proud of her.

Skydog, do you fly out of DPA? We're out of Clow, but temporarily LOT.
 
Tell her Congrats, :D
And I just forwarded this thread (link) for motivation to my wife who has just completed ground school and is trying to keep traction on this journey for PPL.
 
That's freakin awesome!
 
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