Solo!

Today 40TP and I went out for the first time without a chaperon. I flew solo for the first time!

After a couple of pattern circuits with Joel just to make sure Thursday's landing successes weren't accidental, he asked me to take him back to the FBO and do three more on my own. He wrote the necessary endorsements in my logbook to make it legal, and I taxied back out, alone. It was a strange feeling, but I was confident and happy that my training has carried me this far.

Joel told me that TP would have an extra bit of power without him, and he was right. She reached 55 knots and lept off the runway with a little extra spring, and I reached the 1000' pattern altitude noticeably faster. Other than that, it was pretty much the same routine I've gotten used to.

Though it wasn't without its challenges. The winds were shifting quite a bit at Olympia today. When Joel and I were up, the winds were basically out of the south, meaning we were using runway 17. They were calm when I taxied out solo, but by the time I had turned around into the downwind, they had shifted almost 180 degrees. Listening to the radio, I heard the tower controller start to "spin the boat" and direct traffic to 35, though he cleared me to land on 17 since I was already well into the pattern. The wind was 10 knots on my tail. That was not something I felt ready to handle yet, so I asked to fly around to 35, which he approved--not only was it more comfortable for me, but it helped him get things shifted to the new flow.

My first landing was not my best, but was acceptable. The second and third were pretty good. As I was rolling out to pick up Joel at Glacier for our cross-country trip to Paine Field (north of Seattle), I thanked the controller for being part of my first solo flight. He congratulated me as I turned off the runway. All in all, a great experience.

I'll blog later about the cross-country flight, which was terrific.

Here is a link to a recording of the Olympia tower frequency during my solo (I've stripped out a few long periods of silence, so the timeline is a bit compressed...the mp3 is 12 minutes, but the elapsed time was just over 20.) Listen for "Cessna 40TP" or just "0TP". The wikipedia article on traffic patterns is pretty good if you need some orientation to the terminology.

At some flight schools, there is a tradition of "ripping the tailfeathers" of the student by cutting major chunks out of his or her shirt. Glacier doesn't do that, which is just fine with me...Joel and I had a picture taken instead.


Joel has authorized me to solo in the pattern at Olympia, the pattern at Shelton, and to fly in between. So in upcoming posts expect to hear about more solo flights, as well as dual lessons (next one is Tuesday).