SOLO!

The wait is finally over. We found our crosswind on Tuesday 12/23 and were able to get the crosswind training that I have been waiting for. After what seemed like an eternity, I finally soloed on Christmas Eve.

It was a great day for for flying. The wind was calm, the air was cool, and there was not much traffic at Henderson. I was a little worried earlier in the day that we may have had to cancel because the sky was completely overcast and there was a good chance for rain (which, it did start raining about 1hr after we finished). I arrived at the airport around 2pm and did a preflight on the plane. My CFI, Bob, signed my logbook and student pilot certificate authorizing me to solo. After that, we did 3 touch and go's and then Bob got out of the plane. It was rather strange shutting the door myself and not asking my passenger if he was ready and secure. I called the tower and taxied to the runway. After receiving clearance, I slowly moved out onto the runway and applied full throttle. As I had read so many times, the plane accelerated much faster and got airborne much quicker than with my instructor in the plane.

As I was flying the plane by myself, all the things that Bob had said to me over and over were in my head. I was looking for emergency touchdown points, scanning the gauges, checking for traffic. It was just natural. The plane was flying different, though. I was climbing so much faster and got to traffic pattern altitude in record time. I had to push the plane down and pull back on the throttle to keep pattern height. I ran through all my checklists and contact the tower to come back for a landing. What a landing it was. Probably one of my best. Even Bob noticed that I "greased" it on, holding the plane off the ground as long as possible and touch the main wheels down gently and then the nose wheel after rolling for a bit. I then taxied over to meet Bob, and with a congratulations, he ushered me on to two more take-offs and landings.

When I finished, I taxied over to the fuel pumps, where Ruth, Natali, Noah and Kate came to greet me and take pictures. It was really a wonderful day, long awaited.

Searching for wind

Another week has passed and I have not been able to solo, although, we had a chance to practice some other maneuvers that are very important. We started out the week by venturing back to Jean to do some more take-offs and landings on Monday. Things were going well and the plan was to solo Tuesday afternoon. Unfortunately, turbulance picked up and made it difficult to get much out of the training other than dealing with the turbulance. We also needed a good crosswind to practice side slips and correction for drift on landing, but the wind was right down the runways at both Henderson and Jean, so there was not way we could practice it.

I really thought I would get the chance on Wednesday afternoon, but the winds died down and the sun set too fast, so we didn't get a chance to practice crosswind landings. I honestly was very frustrated after that. I really felt like we were searching for something that wouldn't come and we had stalled in training. That was all the training that I had scheduled for this last week, so I was done until next week. That night, I determined in my mind that it wasn't a big deal that I hadn't solo'd yet, and thought that I really needed a day to get out there to practice some more to not dash my hopes. I scheduled Friday morning.

There was some wind on Friday, but it was relatively down the runways again, but we just stayed at Henderson and practiced touch-and-goes. Doing a touch and go is so much different than a full-stop landing, because it requires alot of things to happen all at once to make sure it goes off ok. First, the landing has to come in at the beginning of the runway. If not, on the take off we could run out of runway. Second, if we come in with any flaps, they have to be take off quickly, while paying attention to where we are going down the runway at 50mph. Finally, full power is applied and we have to take right back off. Additionally, we stayed at Henderson to perform these and there was a bit of jet traffic coming in and out at the same time. The controllers switched us between runways a couple of times and we had to avoid a Leer jet on approach. It was a good day of flying and it got me back going and excited again.

Don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to the day that I solo, but I am just looking forward more to getting experience and becoming a safe pilot.

Preparing for the solo

The last few lessons have been concentrated around shooting takeoffs and landings. We have been practicing at Jean Airport, which is a small uncontrolled airport about 20 miles southwest of Las Vegas. The first time that we attempted these practices, I was not very happy with myself. I couldn't seem to keep the plane down the centerline of the runway on final and was making alot of corrections throughout the pattern. My landings were hard and somewhat uncontrolled.

Now, after about 4 times of going out there, it is much better. We have practiced landings with all the different degrees of flaps, and some emergency landings. My CFI caught me off guard this last Saturday by pulling the power off as I was turning base, telling me that the engine just quit. It was a little nerveracking, and I can't say it was the best landing, but we made it down safely.

We also practiced some go-arounds with varying degrees of flaps. I have to say that go-arounds with full-flaps is rather difficult. The airplane wants to do alot of things that would cause a stall close to the ground. It takes concerted effort to keep the plane under control.

I am really excited to solo the plane. If all goes well after the next lesson or two, I should be flying solo! I really feel that I have learned alot and am excited to continue learning.