Cutting Shirt tails

[EMcx2]

Can someone tell me the origin of cutting the shirt tail after a students first solo.

 

[rumpletumbler]

It was the instructor trying to cut the students wallet out of his pants with a box cutter and then when the student felt the pull he thought fast and zipped up across and down the shirt and made up the story as he went.

RT

 

[Dep676]

I think if you do a search here. You might find the answer. I think that there was a thread on this a while back.

 

[ILLINI]

There was a thread on this a while back. But to answer your question I believe this originated back to when training was done in tandem, open cockpit aircraft. The student sat up front and the instructor sat behind him. It was often very noisy because of the open cockpit so whenever the student was screwing up the instructor yanked on his/her shirt tail. After the student soloed, their shirt tail was cut off to signify that they didn't need their instructor yanking on it anymore.

I'm not 100% positive on this explanation, but it's the one that i've heard the most and the one that makes the most sense.

 

[TurboS7]

Shirtail when you solo and your tie when you finish your first 121 trip as a captain.