CFI cuts your shirt after your first solo?

[Savate]

I read somwhere that when you do your first solo (or is it x-country) your instructor cuts the back of your shirt out.

What is the origin of this tradition?

 

[MarineGrunt]

I once heard that it dates back to the days when students were doing initial solos in a J3 Cub (or other tandem airplane) and while the instructor was with the student, doing their 3 touch and goes before the solo, the intructor would discretely cut the students shirt around the outline of the seat. The student wouldn't figure it out until they were done with their solo and out of the plane.

So I hear.

 

[UnAnswerd]

It goes back a while. In the old-school days, trainers were in a tandem configuration, with the instructor sitting behind the student. This was also before the days of headsets. The only way the instructor could sometimes get the students attention was by reaching forward and tugging on the back of the students shirt. Cutting the back of the shirt off after solo was to signify that the instuctor no longer needed to do this.

 

[100LL... Again!]

You think that's bad? On your first IFR solo they cut the seat out of your trousers.

 

[urflyingme?!]

Bahahah!

My instructor did this, but I went out to the car and changed shirts before I'd let him(I had a date!)

 

[jtf]

The craziest after solo thing I saw was the Panamanians at the flight school I went to in OK. After a first solo they would dump a coffee can full of cigarette butts and urine on the first timer and then they would all get to give him a kick in the back side. I tended to stay away when one of them would solo since there was usually some nasty splashing.

 

[urflyingme?!]

wtf!!!!

 

[Typhoon1244]

You think that's bad? On your first IFR solo they cut the seat out of your trousers.

When you get your ATP, they shove broomstick up your as_. Most of us remove it later...

 

[urflyingme?!]

I hear they put it back in on your first furlough

 

[Hugh Jorgan]

Try crossing the equator on a US Navy ship for the first time.

 

[qmaster3]

These Pollywogs haven't a clue.

 

[urflyingme?!]

not so. Sounds like we have some shellbacks here?

 

[falcon20driver]

Never on a Navy ship but deployed to Iwakuni with the Blacksheep Squadron back in '91, I miss those days in the big green machine, lots of good times.
If I could only go back and relive some of those days.

 

[minitour]

When you get your ATP, they shove broomstick up your as_. Most of us remove it later...

some

...there's still some of y'all out there that seem to have it...I can think of three check airmen right off the top of my head...

 

[s0ldier93]

Go Navy!! . . .. Oh wait, I was on the wrong ship for the crossing thing. . . . . . . But my cruise jacket looks cool!!!

 

[CDVdriver]

Aha the aviation myths......
Back in the good old days aviation was an enterprise for Gentlemen only.
Not the riff-raff it is nowadays.
Anyway since true gentlemen wear jackets with tails the original ceremony was cutting of the tails indicating the Instrcutor no longer needed to reign them in by their "tails".
Cutting the "tails" is now replaced by the shirt cutting.
In modern lingo ; "this flying is gonna cost me the shirt off my back.."

 

[aeronautic1]

International Date Line

Golden Dragon in the "Houligan Navy" in '75

The piece of shirt with your name and solo date hanging on the flight school wall was also refered as "the tail feathers" of the student.

 

[Jet_Dreamer]

i was able to convince a few female students i had that it was traditional to cut the front off their shirts after they soloed.

 

[Phoenix45]

Shellback

not so. Sounds like we have some shellbacks here?

Ever suck a cherry out of a fat man's belly?

 

[falcon20driver]

That doesn't sound like the Marine Corps that I was in, I would've made dam sure that it was a hott wave's bellybutton, not some dudes.
That don't tell don't care policy or whatever it is sounds like they let to many fags in.

Don't let them squids push you around!

 

[freddriver20]

Ok, not as cool as a shellback crossing the equator, but at UPT, after your first solo your classmates would chase you down and throw you in a big kiddie pool type thing no matter how cold it was. A couple of times we actually chopped through the ice to throw a guy in... If the new soloee could make it back into the classroom everyone owed him a CASE of beer...

We also convinced a new LT in my unit that your first time across the equator you had to sit in the seat naked, he actually did it too...

 

[urflyingme?!]

Did anybody think of requesting an alternate parking spot on the ramp ahead of time?

 

[Flyin Tony]

Try crossing the equator on a US Navy ship for the first time.

Hugh Jorgan, why dont you tell us about it

 

[Savate]

Getting back to my question....

How Ironic! There's an editorial in this month's AOPA FLIGHT TRAINING magazine about this very subject!

Check it out....

 

[darkvw]

all my flight school did was take a pic of you by the plane, but I do have the shellback "diploma"

 

[comander]

next time he cuts yours shirt grab his wings and pull them off and place them into your shirt

 

[dkelly]

I always heard that the myth was like a baby bird learning to first fly. Although the bird had flown, there was still much to be learned, so the mother cut their tail feathers out. Hence the instructor cutting a student pilots shirt tail.

 

[urflyingme?!]

I heard that most pilots get sauced after their first solo!

 

[troy]

Golden shellback here, Kitty Hawk, '96!!!

 

[comander]

what happened to me was I got carried out of the plane, and they let my back touch the floor a couple of times like pretending touch and goes, and then they took me to a backyard where there was a a bathtub in a yard with water and threw me in there and it was so cold and then they helped me out and gave me a tequila shot and a beer and It was one of my best moments in my life!