17th Lesson - 1st Solo!

Woohoo, I did it! Winds were 4-6kt today, out of the south. This gives a slight crosswind on 13, but not much. Jim and I spent about an hour in the office today going over my aircract checkout sheets, and my pre-solo knowledge test. Then, I signed the rental agreement and we went out to practice some landings. First, I flew a couple of normal laps through the pattern - all went well. On the next lap, everthing was as usual, but RIGHT before I was about to start my flare, Jim said "Do a go-around", which I did. On the next downwind, Jim pulled the power and said "Pretend your engine just died. I want you to land the plane." So, I tightened my pattern, and planned to come in a little long. Better to be a little high than a little low. It went great, and I got the plane on the ground just like I would have with a normal landing. On the next downwind, Jim said "Pretend you've just had an electrical failure and you can't use your flaps. Land the plane with no flaps." And, I did just that. I extended my downwind a little, and basically flew the pattern as I would have with flaps, just using less power and pitching for the appropriate airspeeds. Landing went great.

On the back taxi Jim asked "Are you feeling comfortable to try this on your own?"
"I think so..." I responded.

Then Jim asked me to taxi to the office and drop him off. He warned me that the plane would perform a lot better without him in it. His last minute advice was to keep doing just what we've been doing. And with that, Jim exited the running airplane, and went and sat on a jersey knee by the fuel pumps with a hand-held radio.

So, there I was, by myself, taxiing to the threshold for 13. Check carb heat off, mixture, fuel selector. Add 10 degrees of flaps. Announce "Forest Lake Traffic, Skyhawk zero zero hotel, departing one three to remain in the pattern, Forest Lake". Full power, and off I go. The plane really DID perform a lot better with less weight in it. Before I knew it, the wheels were off the ground, and I was climbing out on departure. Now I'm committed. I briefly glanced at the empty seat next to me. Then, I just talked myself through the procedure like I have done many times. 200ft up, flaps up. Pitching for 80. 500ft up, turn crosswind. Wait, then turn downwind. 1000ft up, there's my altitude, there's my airspeed, set my power. Pre-landing check, carb heat on, mixture rich, fuel on both, fuel in both. Announce my downwind on CTAF. There's the threshold, reduce power to 1500, and add my first notch of flaps. Slight pitch down to maintain 90. Wait, then turn to base, second notch of flaps, announce my position. Check for traffic coming straight in or right-hand traffic. Wait, turn final, announce my position. Track the runway center, and correct for crosswind. Keep her at 70. At the runway, reduce power to idle, let her come down, and flare. Nice landing. Woohoo, I did it! Then I back taxied and did it two more times. Everything went really well. On the second time around I wasn't able to call my base on the radio because there was too much chatter from nearby airports. On my third time around, I plain forgot to call my final, but no biggy. All three landings were very good, so I couldn't be happier about my performance. I pulled her up to the gas pumps to fill her up. Jim met me at the plane and congratulated me. He snapped a couple of pics of me beside the airplane, and I'll post them when he sends them to me. After refueling, we went inside and Jim endorsed my logbook and student pilot certificate for solo flight. He also cut my t-shirt back off and had me write the details about my first solo on it with a Sharpie, and he pinned it up on the wall in the office building. So, I've conquered a big milestone in my flight training!

Just to give you an idea of where I'm at: Including my solo flight today, I've had seventeen lessons, flown 24.2 hours and I've done 92 landings. Jim says we'll do one more supervised solo around the traffic pattern like we did today, and then I'm free to take the plane out by myself whenever I want to. So... enter the cross country phase of my training. It sounds like Monday afternoon, we're going to do our first cross-country to Buffalo airport, then to another nearby airport, and finally fly out and look at a specific lake on the sectional before returning to Forest Lake. He gave me a planning sheet and asked me to do the flight planning for the trip this weekend. I'm really looking forward to doing some cross country flight!

Thanks for reading, Mathias