Originally this weekend was to be my first solo flight. Sunday I showed the instructor 3 takeoffs, 3 landings, and got signed off to fly solo. Just as we taxied back to the ramp to let the instructor out though, the weather report changed and exceeded the limits that I’m signed off for (12knots total wind, up to 5knots crosswind component). Because of this, we delayed the actual solo until this evening after work.
So today I was back at the field and everything went well. There’s a tradition in aviation that when a student first solos the instructor cuts off the student’s shirt tail; supposedly this dates back to the early days of biplane aviation when the instructor sat behind the student and pulled on the student’s shirt tail to get attention. When I taxied back to the ramp my instructor was ready with scissors…
I’m told it goes relatively quickly from here but I know there’s a lot left to learn; I’ll now do some practicing on my own and then we’ll get into cross-country flying and procedures for ATC communication.
