Solo

I've been taking flying lessons for about two months. Today I soloed. It took me a while to get that landing thing down, but I finally have it. Kerwin and I did a few times around the pattern today, then he asked if I was ready to try alone. Oh yes, of course I was. So I dropped him off so he could watch and I did my three solo landings. I was sorry he was not there to see, those were my three best landings! I'm sure I will have more good ones though.

After dropping of Kerwin, I taxied back out to the runway, then got the go ahead from the tower to take off. Everyone says that your first takeoff alone goes faster because you don't have the weight of the instructor holding you back. I didn't notice. I flew around the pattern, nice and easy, then brought it in to an excellent short field landing. I didn't mean to do that, but it was great. But I opted for the first taxiway to turn off the runway, which in hindsight was a mistake. I made it OK, but I know that I was going too fast to make that turn. I won't do that again. Then I taxied around for a second takeoff. This also went well, but on final approach the controller told me to do a go around because there was a jet coming in on the parallel runway. We practiced go arounds, so I knew to go to full throttle, carb heat off, then raise the flaps gradually. No sweat. I flew the pattern, landed fine, but this time rolled out to taxiway C. Easy. The third time went fine as well, then I picked up Kerwin and we went back to the ramp. Not bad for a day when I wasn't even sure that we would be flying.

My next step is to fly five hours in the pattern alone. Then I do four cross country flights, two of them alone, and some night flying. Another few months and I will be a pilot.

Following a long tradition, the tail of my shirt is cut off and is hanging on the wall at the Skybound Flight School.