First solo...

[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.