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.