Burn My Time
~Josh Houghtelin
I Flew Solo!
Ooh yeah, my FAA medical, now signed for solo flight.
After practicing a couple landings with Leroy he told me he didn’t see any reason for him being in the plane since I was flying well on my own. He directed me to let him out so he could stand just off the taxiway & watch. I was to run three landings. I let Leroy out & waited for the other plane to take off before I took the runway. I was stopped on the taxiway when the other plane took off and after announcing his intentions he said “Cessna Echo Zulu good luck on your solo”. I muttered “thank you” back at em as a chill of excitement rolled up my spine. A rush came over me tied with an immeasurable amount of excitement as I took off for the first time solo. It was very strange not having Leroy in there helping me fine tune my judgment. Never the less, when I got in the air, I screamed “HELL YEAH!” about as loud as I could. lol.
The first solo patern was very easy. I took off quick and adjusted for the slight crosswind we had. Echo Zulu flew noticeably faster. It was lighter. I was SOLO! I turned to head toward down wind & half way into my down-wind turn I realized I was already at 1800 feet which is 100 feet above traffic pattern for this airport. I just pulled the carb heat on and took out a little bit of power early to bring me back down. Once I hit 1700 I announced my existence & turned based leg. Everything was flawless. The plane took itself down as if it knew I was giddy with excitement and wanted to do everything perfect. I came down quick and didn’t balloon so the landing was a teeny stiff but I did it. My first traffic pattern solo.!. Leroy applauded my performance and waved me on to another attempt. I was sweating with excitement.
The second landing I cut base a little short so I pulled 20 degrees of flap and came down quick for a pretty soft landing. Flaps make the plane come down at a greater angle of decent without gaining speed. They also make it easier to land softly with a nice slow balloon. More applause so I went at it again.
The third landing I came in short so I used a little power. Most of the time I just glide in with the engine idling. It’s all about judgment. I’m starting to get the ‘feel’ for flying.
Leroy had previously given me instructions to taxi the plane back to the hangar when I was done. We swapped out some planes in the hangar & moved SJ to the front & put EZ in the back while exchanging a bit of excited conversation. I showed Leroy the short video of landings I put together on my laptop and called it a day.
Leroy said I was learning well & although it may not have been the ‘perfect’ day for me to solo he didn’t know if we would have weather conditions this nice anytime soon so he took advantage of it and let me Solo with roughly 14 hours of flight logged on my books.
Thank you Leroy!
6 comments
Yeah!!!!! Great job Josh!!!
Posted by MHoughtelin, on January 19th, 2006, às 10:37 pm. #.
awsome work fella! big congrats man!
Posted by Garf, on January 20th, 2006, às 6:43 am. #.
now it’s time to learn to parachute
Posted by Tiller Stevens, on January 21st, 2006, às 4:50 am. #.
[…] Last Thursday Liquid flew solo for the first time. His flight instructor, Leroy, signed off on his FAA medical paper after a few great landings. Read all about it on his blog post. Flying is awesome, I can’t wait until he’s fully licensed so just him and I can go up. Hip Hip Horray to Liquid for bein’ so hip. […]
Posted by Weblog of Zippy : Virtualdistortion » Liquid is a PILOT, on January 22nd, 2006, às 5:44 pm. #.
That is so funny! I was taking a flight when this plane came up next to us and it was flying up side down. Could it be you????? Great job dude!!!!
( By the way I think I was dreaming a little during that flight but it was a good thought…)
