First solo...

[svcta]

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".

 

[unreal]

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.

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."

 

[stearnst]

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.

 

[unreal]

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.

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.

 

[Magic1872]

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.

If you do your job properly, you shouldn't have to worry about it.

 

[Metro752]

Magic are you from Canada?

 

[RemoveB4Flght]

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

 

[Rally]

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

 

[Rally]

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.

 

[CKJET]

And don't forget the marshmellows

 

[8inMan]

I can't say I ever got as horribly nervous as you guys are saying. Sure it was a little nerve racking watching students flying by themselves for the first time. By the time I let my students solo, both my student and I were pretty comfortable with the idea. (Usually I was more comfortable than the student.) I would wait until I could sit in the airplane pretending to sleep while the student did pattern work. (The eye that the student couldn't see was open.) If the student did just fine knowing he wasn't going to get any help from me, and made consistantly safe decisions, I knew he was ready to go it alone.

 

[sqwkvfr]

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.

I always used to take my first solo students for a tour of the tower to meet the controllers and see their perspective....then I send them down to solo.

You wouldn't believe how much of a difference it makes for the student to be able to put a face to the voice....and the controllers were always just awesome about it.

....unfortunately changing jobs came with changing towers and now it's no longer an option.

It's really too bad.

A lot of CFIs say that they were relieved after the first landing...on my first student's first solo, I was able to stop feverishly sucking on a cigarette (I'd quit smoking six months earlier) when I saw him do his first go-around.

It was then that I knew that his pride would never hurt him or the aircraft and that I had succeeded in forcing development of judgement to go along with his 20 hours worth of skills.

Good luck with your student.