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First solo...

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unreal

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 28, 2004
Posts
574
I'm a basketcase! I'm soloing my first student tomorrow. The weather is forecast to be great, and there's usually light traffic around here on sunday afternoons. He's more than ready, but it's still a very nerveracking prospect. So far I've come up with a list of things I need:

Binoculars
Transceiver
Pack of cigarettes (I don't smoke :laugh:)

Okay, I guess it won't be that bad, but damn! I'm more nervous now than when I did my own first solo. :D
 
After the first one it's not as nerve racking. I would say it's like a right of passage. I think I have soloed about 30 people. Now I watch the first landing and then go lay on the couch inside and take a nap.

Don't talk to the student on the handheld. Let them sort it out. We have someone at my airport that coaches their students while they solo. It annoys me to no end. Good luck.
 
joepilot29 said:
After the first one it's not as nerve racking. I would say it's like a right of passage. I think I have soloed about 30 people. Now I watch the first landing and then go lay on the couch inside and take a nap.

Don't talk to the student on the handheld. Let them sort it out. We have someone at my airport that coaches their students while they solo. It annoys me to no end. Good luck.
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Thanks! Nice to hear it gets easier. :)

Actually, I shouldn't have said "transceiver." Just a scanner, really. We're a towered airport.
 
Have your student tell the tower controller he or she is on their first solo. Hopefully that will clue the controller into watching your student in the pattern and not sending them on a 10 mile downwind for traffic.

Always seemed to help when I instructed.
 
good luck man. that is one of the reasons i am thinking of bi-passing the CFI route, im kind of weary of handing my license off to a student on their first solo or cross country.
 
epic! said:
good luck man. that is one of the reasons i am thinking of bi-passing the CFI route, im kind of weary of handing my license off to a student on their first solo or cross country.
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Well, don't get me wrong. I'm nervous, but I'm not dreading it one bit. In fact, I'm very excited. It's awesome seeing one of your students you built from scratch do well.
 
Well, that's two flightinfo.com basketcases today then. You are not alone.

I'm soloing my first student in a little bit as well.

I guess I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue. :-)
 
epic! said:
bi-passing the CFI route
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What? Is this a clever way of saying you're getting in to 2 on 1 po(r)n instead of flying?

And do things the old fashioned way.....the suspense of not knowing what(or how) the he!! your student is doing until he crashes or comes back is half the fun. But not all are a purist as I.
 
Ugggh...

Winds when we got into the plane: Variable at 4
Winds after run-up: 120 at 14 on runway 21L.

We're not authorized to conduct solos over 10 knots of wind or 5 knots of crosswind, so that's that. I can't solo him on runway 12 either. BAH. I'm an idiot for scheduling him at 1300. :angryfire
 
You think you're nervous now? Wait till you're first solo X-C sign off. On the first solo, everything is pretty much under control. The first solo X-C you just know that everything is going wrong...
 
Just wait till the student's second solo. They seem to regress to their old habits. I had a student hit a "porpoise" on his second solo. I saw my medical flash before my eyes with the near heart attack I almost had. He got out of it and did a go around after the second cycle. One more week of being a CFI. Been a very rewarding and challenging expierence.
 
joepilot29 said:
Just wait till the student's second solo. They seem to regress to their old habits. I had a student hit a "porpoise" on his second solo. I saw my medical flash before my eyes with the near heart attack I almost had. He got out of it and did a go around after the second cycle. One more week of being a CFI. Been a very rewarding and challenging expierence.
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Had a student on a "stage check" freeze up on the controls on the check instructor.

That always makes ya feel good...a check instructor telling you that your student, in the flare, froze up and almost stalled it after ballooning it to 50'.

Students do the darndest things.

-mini
 
Stage check.......jeez. How I long for the good ole days. you know, "back then". Before all of ____. Once upon a time. Back when an instructor could teach how he saw fit.
 
Well, my guy did just fine this morning.

We went around the patch together once, told the tower we were going to taxi back to parking for a minute so I could hop out and off he went.

He did a great job and made three of his best landings yet. Me, I paced in the cold chain smoking. Once I saw how well the first approach and landing went I was able to relax and enjoy the moment.

I'll tell ya, it's a weird feeling watching a student climbing out after takeoff on their own for the first time. It's a rush, that's for sure. Makes all those hours rattling around the pattern so worth it.

And yes, I cut his shirt tail and signed it. I guess I'm just old-school that way. :-)
 
woutlaw said:
Well, my guy did just fine this morning.

We went around the patch together once, told the tower we were going to taxi back to parking for a minute so I could hop out and off he went.

He did a great job and made three of his best landings yet. Me, I paced in the cold chain smoking. Once I saw how well the first approach and landing went I was able to relax and enjoy the moment.

I'll tell ya, it's a weird feeling watching a student climbing out after takeoff on their own for the first time. It's a rush, that's for sure. Makes all those hours rattling around the pattern so worth it.

And yes, I cut his shirt tail and signed it. I guess I'm just old-school that way. :-)
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Congrats!

You're making me jealous. My student and I are trying again tomorrow at 9am after the wind decided to spoil our fun yesterday. Though, I did watch my student put it down with no sideload and no drift in a 14 knot crosswind yesterday. Now that makes ya proud. :D
 
Hey, good luck tomorrow.

The look on my guy's face when he got out of the airplane was priceless. I don't know if I've ever seen somebody so happy. Pretty cool to be a part of it.

Enjoy it and tell your student to have fun. Take pictures, don't forget the scissors and get some sleep tonight. (I probably got an hour last night, max. )

It's a day they'll always remember, so no shame in making a big show once it's all over.
 
I have to admit, as much as I hated instructing, I always enjoyed watching a new guy solo. And the look of confused anxiety when I told them on my way out of the airplane :"Don't crash".
 
Well, my guy soloed for real this morning! His first 0.8 of PIC time. Man, I felt like an expectant father pacing around the ramp watching his first pattern. :D

Speaking of the "don't crash" comment from the above poster, I did something similar today. My student on his last pattern before I hopped out almost oversped the flaps. My comment, to quote the line from "Fate is the Hunter": "You do that again, and I'll cut you out of my will." ;)
 
Congrats man! I'm not sure what they were talking about at the top of the thread, saying that it gets easier with time to solo students. I've had four go up by themselves now, and it just keeps getting more and more nerve-racking for me. It reminds me of when I solo'ed, my CFI hopped out and said he was going over to his house (off the end of the runway at the airport) and to give him a call when I got done. I remember asking him "You're not going to stick around or anything", to which his reply was "Well there's not much I can do while you're up there, so I'm going to go work on my garage." It's funny now, but that freaked me out back in the day, the thought of my instructor not having any input on what I was doing in the plane. Anyhow...I digress. Congrats again, bro.
 
stearnst said:
Congrats man! I'm not sure what they were talking about at the top of the thread, saying that it gets easier with time to solo students. I've had four go up by themselves now, and it just keeps getting more and more nerve-racking for me. It reminds me of when I solo'ed, my CFI hopped out and said he was going over to his house (off the end of the runway at the airport) and to give him a call when I got done. I remember asking him "You're not going to stick around or anything", to which his reply was "Well there's not much I can do while you're up there, so I'm going to go work on my garage." It's funny now, but that freaked me out back in the day, the thought of my instructor not having any input on what I was doing in the plane. Anyhow...I digress. Congrats again, bro.
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Thanks man, yeah, it was sure nerveracking. Luckily there was another IP there soloing a student at the same time, so at least I had someone to talk to. You should have seen how the other guy was reacting when his student ended up way way way extended upwind when he wasn't supposed to. Not looking forward to when a student does something like that. :D
 
epic! said:
good luck man. that is one of the reasons i am thinking of bi-passing the CFI route, im kind of weary of handing my license off to a student on their first solo or cross country.
Click to expand...

If you do your job properly, you shouldn't have to worry about it.
 
I hold this thread personally responsible for bringing back a panic attack...

Not to make this a "one-upper" post, my my first student solo became soloing two on the same day.... well i was about as nervous as a pregnant nun in confession... I soloed guy number one, then jumped in a plane with guy number two who looked at me and said "if i show you 5 good/safe landings in a row, can i solo today"... my heart skipped a beat but I said "well show me what you got first".. . sure enough he nailed them all.

In retrospect, i realized it's not about how many good landings they can string together... it's about knowing they will make safe decisions in the pattern, and be able to adjust things when the 5 other student pilots doing touch n gos start screwing up. Teach them they can go around (fuel permitting) a dozen times until they get it right. Give them real life distractions in the pattern, have them extend upwinds and downwinds, do a 360 and rejoin the downwind, if able, take them to a non-towered field and practice having them fly an extended base or final approach. I've found it's these things that tend to mess with students much more than figuring out when to begin the flare.... IMHO anyways
 
A couple keys in my opinion. They are ready when they are doing everything without command. IE they are high and they correct or go around. Don't get nit picky forgeting to set the DG on before takeoff or something is'nt a HUGE deal, they will make mistakes. Look for the stuff that will kill them or the airplane. If they get slow do they respond or sit there and wait for you to say something. Remember that once they calm down they will probably fly better without you. Don't rawl them up, and do not tell them they are soloing before you fly with them that day. If they are'nt flying well---wait. Take a handheld don't say anything unless its really important. (they might get confused) If its horrible call them back in, otherwise don't say anything until they are done with their third. Tell them to be VERY careful when parking he airplane (they will be excited) and that could be the most expensive time of the day. Anyhow. Just a little advice. First time REALLY sucks I know, it does get easier.

See ya
 
Another good tip I learned was that if they have a first bad landing tell them to fly a couple miles out do a few 360s relax and come back in. Don't express urgency on getting them on the ground they have obviously landed with you before (many times) they'll do it again if they are'nt shaken up. This goes for a any solo or flight they will do. Mess it up, take a breather and shake it off and come back and do it again.
 

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