Solo tradition

[list2002]

Hey guys, was wondering what the history about cutting the shirt after your solo came from. Do they cut the spot out of the lower back because that's where the sweat stain appears??

 

[RFtech]

not sure.

at my solo we didnt do anything. looking back i wish we would have.

what traditions do you guys practice at other schools?

 

[TEXAN AVIATOR]

I was wearing a new Polo shirt, my CFI cut the whole back out of it. It says my name, FIRST SOLO!!! congrats, the date & I signed it. It's now hanging on my wall. I will do it with all my students.

 

[Avenger]

Solo Tradition

well my solo in 1995 i got my shorts cutoff because i was wearing a black t-shirt. I also got a bucket of water over the head and back like a coach would at the end of the game. (considered getting your wings wet). It was 0 C and so it made for a chilly morning. My folks came out and watched and also took Hi 8 video of it with a handheld scanner for the radio calls. So I will be able to show it to the kids in the future.

This is something I still practice with my solo students. There will be many takeoffs and landings and hours past that solo date. Some will fade into the past but the solo never will be just one of those takeoff and landings or other hours.

It is one memory that is still vivid and easily remembered to this day, eight years after it started.

 

[generaltso]

I think I remember reading somewhere:

Back in the day when airplanes were much louder and open air cockpits were the norm, sometimes the student (sitting up front) and the instructor (behind) were unable to communicate. So the instructor would pull on the students shirt to tell him to turn. Tug the left side means turn left. Tug the right side of the shirt, turn right.

When the student soloed it meant that the instructor no longer had to tug on the dudes shirt.

I think I remember reading that once while I was on the crapper.

 

[Andy Neill]

When we soloed at the Army's Primary Helicopter Training Center at Ft Wolters (Mineral Wells), Texas, the class bus would stop off at the Holiday Inn on the way back from the heliport, we would pass under the crossed rotor blades, and toss in the day's new solos.

I heard of a story when an allied student who had soloed was protesting very enthusiastically as he was being carried toward the pool. Those carrying him thought it was the normal resistance until they tossed him in and he didn't come up. When they saw him on the pool bottom, they figured out that he was trying to tell them he couldn't swim.

 

[U-I pilot]

My instructor never did this to me...Maybe he thought i liked my shirt too much or something However at the same 141 school i saw a guy with the back of his shirt missing and caught on to the gig....and began to wonder...why not me too? I've seen some kids at the university here with a shirt that says "I first soloed at the university of Illinois!"
I guess people dont want to part with their current wardrobe

 

[flywithastick]

never have heard a really good explanation of that deal. But I do highly recommend photos. Wich I had them of myself. I try and either bring a digital camera or a disposable for pics on first solo.

 

[jamhamms]

Solo Shirttails

Wow! What cool memories! I soloed 7/31/1983 in a C150 at the Navy Flying Club in Millington, TN. Got my shirttail cut out, and my instructor took it home and wrote some stuff on it - his name, the N#, and even put my nickname and drew one of our "reporting points" on it. There was an R/C airport on the NAS, and from the air it looked like a big wagon wheel, so we always told the controllers (VFR tower) "wagon wheel inbound at (altitude)". He even drew a wagon wheel on the shirt. I sure appreciate the time he took to decorate it for me. I would have never remembered that wagon wheel, except the shirttail is framed and hanging in the "guy room" at my house. You know, that's the room that my wife lets me decorate to my taste, while she does the rest of the house.

As an aside, the flying club is still there, and so is the same plane. I guess it has a million hours on it by now, but I'm going out this July to fly it again, hopefully 20 years to the day. I wonder if I'll see anyone I knew then?

Also, I sure saw a lot of shirttails cut off at that club. Those were the days.............

 

[RFtech]

cool!

i will definitely continue the tradition with my future students.

 

[Toy Soldier]

Framed shirt tails

I always frame the shirt tales with pics of me cutting the shirt and the student standing by the plane. I do add personal remarks depending on what made the flight memorable.

I give it to the student already framed and complete. I don't like hanging them in the dirty old hanger like some schools do.

 

[English]

When I soloed, my flight instructor had me take off my shirt so he could draw a picture of my little C152 coming in to land at LGB. He drew the radio calls, the runway, and the airplane with me in it (with my shirt on, of course). I still have the shirt and I always have fond memories of those early days bumping around in the pattern learning how to fly.

 

[Traumahawk]

Someone had it about right.....
It's said to be for 2 reasons......
One is "for your wings to grow out"
But the more common reason is --like explained earlier-- that 'back in the day' when the student made a mistake the instructor would tug on his/her shirt......and of course, this was also means of communication for turns etc....but after the solo it goes to show they don't need to be "instructed or repremanded etc..."(I think my post solo lessons definately proved that wrong!)
Best regards'
T-hawk

 

[bobbysamd]

Shirtails

My instructor did not cut off my shirttail. My boss, who was a pilot and who had encouraged me to start flying, cut off my shirttail the next day at work. He wrote on it with magic marker the type aircraft (172), its N-number and the date. He told me he has his shirttail framed, so I framed mine.

I felt that I had missed something by my instructor not cutting off my shirttail. So I always did for my students. I always got as much a charge out of soloing students as they got out of soloing.

 

[LearLove]

I cut all my students shirts, I really enjoy the female solos

 

[toneal]

I cut all my students shirts, I really enjoy the female solos

You cut the fronts then right???

 

[OtterFO]

I cut every solo student's shirt that I had. One guy had just got off work I got to do a very good dress shirt. With the female students, I encouraged them to always carry a spare set of clothes just incase they ended up overnighting someware because of weather. They never knew it was comming!