Holy cow!!
I’m grinning ear to ear as I write this — today the day I’ve been waiting for finally arrived!
The weekend started off not so great — I had a lesson scheduled for Saturday morning, but when I checked the schedule, somehow I was booked for the wrong plane! They had me in the C172R instead of my usual C172M. That meant that I wouldn’t be able to solo, no matter how good I performed. When I woke up Saturday morning, the winds were gusting a bit so I decided to cancel the lesson and wait until Sunday, where I would be able to fly my usual plane.
That was today — winds were forecast as calm, so I was full of anticipation as I headed to the airport. Let me preface this by saying I went out for a night on the town with friends last night. We went to see the play Hamilton (which was awesome!) and I didn’t get home and to bed until 1:30am. My flight was at 8am, so I was worried I wouldn’t be in top shape come morning.
I arrived at the airport and the winds were calm — in fact, it was a gorgeous morning. CAVU — ceilings and visibility unlimited. I told myself today was going to be the day — I was going to knock it out of the park! I preflighted and loaded up my instructor and we were off to the races.
My first pattern was going well, until I turned final and was way too high. My instructor called for a go-around and I sighed internally. This wasn’t going to be the day, was it… I resigned myself to getting some landing experience and kicked myself for messing everything up so early in the flight.
The next time around, everything looked good and I took it down for a landing. I actually nailed it this time! I shifted my view down the runway, rounded out, and held off for a nice flare that put us down on the mains instead of the nosewheel.
Second pattern was good, landing was good also. Hell, I was getting the hang of this! Third time around we had traffic coming into the pattern and tower asked us to expedite. My instructor called for a short approach and taught me how to do an emergency descent. That was a bit interesting — we pitched down to dive at 90-100mph and it felt like we were going into the trees. I flared a bit high on that one and came in with a thud.
We did another short approach and this time I performed the emergency descent — I did a pretty good job and the landing was OK as well.
Next time around was a normal pattern, but I flared too high again and came down a bit hard.
OK — we do another lap, this time I’m nailing the pattern. Altitude is good, speeds are good, and I land it pretty well. My instructor says, “Screw this, you know what you’re doing. Let’s get you up there alone.” My heart skipped a beat — this was it!
We taxied back to the ramp and my instructor left to get my logbook signed up. A million thoughts were racing through my head — was I ready? Would things be so different without my CFI in the plane that I would mess the approach up? What if tower asked me to do something unusual?
I started up CloudAhoy and prepped myself mentally for the challenge ahead. After 10 minutes or so, my instructor came back to the plane. He handed me my logbook, gave me a few parting words of advice, and said he’d be listening on a portable radio. He shut the passenger door and I was ready to go — by myself!
I started the plane up and got my taxi clearance. I had just started taxiing out when I was told to hold position for a helicopter departing off the taxiway. I was treated to the very cool sight of a helicopter spinning up and taking off while I waited to be cleared.
Then came the magic words — “Taxi to runway 8 via Charlie”. I headed out to the runway, did my runup, and before I knew it, I was holding short of the runway. I called tower and got my takeoff clearance. I told them, “Be advised, student pilot” just to make sure we were all on the same page. I lined up and all of my training flashed before my eyes — this was it!
Power full, tach is good, oil pressure good, airspeed alive… rotate!
The plane climbed crisply without my CFI in the right seat! Before I knew it, I was at 1,200 feet and was making my turn to crosswind. My airspeed was good, I leveled off at pattern altitude, and turned downwind. Flaps down a notch, airspeed good, called the tower and was cleared to land.
There was a Husky departing before me and the tower advised of that. I acknowledged and extended my downwind a tad to give the other plane time to takeoff. I cut my power on the downwind and started descending. Turned base, speed good. Dropped more flaps. Turned final — shit, the other plane is still on the runway! That’s OK, I have time and they are rolling. Now they’re clear and I’m on a good approach. Keeping speed in check — altitude is good. Full flaps. Here we go!
I came down to the runway, rounded out, flared, and had a really nice, smooth touchdown. I skidded a bit off the centerline after landing — must’ve had some rudder in without realizing it — and I almost put the throttle back in for a touch and go before I realized I had to make a full stop! Caught myself in time, slowed the plane, exited the active, and cleaned her up.
Tower gave me taxi clearance back to the runway. As I taxied back, I saw my instructor out there with the portable radio. I looked at him for a sign — he didn’t call me back or wave me off or anything, so I went back out for another go.
Second pattern was good — speeds and altitude were tight and I felt in control and ahead of the plane. I came down for my second landing and it was a good one! I didn’t think it was as smooth as the first, but I kept it on centerline and landed on the mains.
As I pulled off the runway, my instructor came on the radio and said I had to head back to the ramp. Uh oh! I thought I had messed something up, but turns out I was just out of time and had to get the plane back. I taxied back to parking and lined the plane up — my instructor met me and said I did a great job (and that my second landing looked much better than the first!)
He asked if I needed help pushing the plane back — nope, I got this! “Good,” he replied, “that’s what you’re going to have to do when you are by yourself!” He went inside to log everything and I got the plane parked and tied up.
I walked inside feeling like I was the king of the world. I got some congratulations from the office staff and went in to debrief. My instructor was happy — now we could continue with the rest of the training. He said I did really well and he knew I was ready. I got my first PIC time logged and a “first solo” certificate for my trouble. My CFI told me to get a shirt I could write on, cut the tail off, and decorate it so they could hang it at the office.
So, here we are — it was a long time in the making, but I’ve finally piloted an aircraft by myself! The boost to my confidence is enormous, and I can’t wait for my next lesson where I will be going up by myself again. I still have a ton to learn, but passing this milestone is a huge load off my mind!
Here’s the CloudAhoy track for the solo portion of my flight — click the image to view the track.
I’m still in disbelief that I actually pulled this off!
Flight time today: 1.6 hours
Total simulated instrument flight time to date: 0.6 hours
Total PIC time to date: 0.4 hours
Total flight time to date: 43.1 hours
Total takeoffs to date: 154
Total landings to date: 150