Time to Solo

[cletislj04]

How many hours did you all have when you first soloed? Thanks

Tyler

 

[chawbein]

I soloed at 9 hrs.

 

[tcoll777]

8.5

 

[Andy Neill]

I'm pretty certain it was more than 10 hours - but most of that time was trying to figure out how to HOVER that little beast (TH-55).

 

[cletislj04]

What is it like to solo? Will the instructor tell you when? Mine told me in about 2 weeks.

 

[TMMT]

I think it was around 15 or 16 hrs as I was in high school at the time and was unable to take lessons everyday or every other day.

As far as your solo goes you is the final authority as to when you solo once your instructor feels he or she is ready to sign you off.

If you feel uneasy about it or have any apprehension at all speak up!

It’s okay to be jittery or even a little scared, but if you have genuine concerns about your skills tell your instructor. Find out why and if they are really founded.

When time come you’ll know well head, you’ll brief the solo with your IP and you’ll go up first dual for some touch-n-go’s and some emergency review, then you’ll land and your instructor will hop out and ask you for three laps.

Actually I think I did five, but I wanted to and asked before hand. Later that day I even went solo to the practice area for a bit of solo sightseeing.


Oh yea, find and wear your most expensive shirt that day.

I still have my solo shirt tail and carry it around in a pocket in my flight case, signatures and all.

TMMT

 

[TMMT]

You is?

Geeesh.... I need a nother cup of coffee...

 

[cletislj04]

What's the deal with the shirt tail thing? Could someone fill me in on it? Thanks

Tyler

 

[bobbysamd]

Solo, et al

I needed more than 20 hours before I soloed. I wasn't training under the best of circumstances. I also was a little slow in some areas. However, I took what I learned from that experience to my tenure as a CFI and improved on my experience. Depending on the syllabus where I was instructing, most of my students soloed at 10 to 15 hours. My Riddle students soloed later than they should have due to circumstances beyond their control, i.e. lack of aircraft and taking much of their lesson time to get in and out of PRC because of heavy Riddle traffic.

I never really told my students until I was ready to solo them. I didn't want to get their hopes up, only to be bummed if the lesson on which they were to solo went poorly. I'm sure most of my students could tell when we stayed in the pattern for touch and goes that they would be soloing.

I dunno where the shirttail thing began. It is an aviation tradition, though, so wear a shirt that you don't mind being cut-up. My instructor didn't cut off my shirt tail, so a good pilot friend of mine cut it off. He told me he framed his shirttail, so I did it, too.

Have fun on your solo.

 

[cletislj04]

How much of the shirt do they cut up?

 

[bobbysamd]

Shirttail

Probably just the tail itself. You can always bring a shirt you don't mind being cut up, but pulling out your shirt to have the tail cut off is part of the fun.

 

[Steve]

I wore a T-Shirt and it didn't have a tail

 

[aero99]

Around 20 hours- when I was ready.

Don't be concerned about when you solo. If you do it at 10 hours or 50 hours it doesn't matter. What does matter is that YOU feel you are ready and not pressured by other students or instructors that you are ready.

I know someone that crashed on their solo and hit the runway lights. He was OK, but it sure didn't do much for his future career or self confidence. This will be the first test of your "to go or not to go" question. Make sure you start off on the right foot.

It will be one of the best experiences of your life.
Good luck, and come back and tell us how it went!

tmmt's advice I completely agree with.

 

[bigD]

Good luck with your solo. It's very cool. I remember being on upwind after my first takeoff and thinking, "Uh oh BigD - now you HAVE to land this thing! And there isn't a dude next to you to bail your a** out!"

You'll probably find that your solo landings are some of the best that you've ever done!

 

[mikecanfly]

Hehe, what memories!

Soloed at 16.3 hrs. Flying once every week or two in high school.

Taxied out to the runway in Winter Haven, took a deep breath, and still to this day remember how sweet it felt to push the power all the way in.

BigD was right on target. The VERY first thing I said to myself after rotation was "Guess now I HAVE to land it somewhere." And I eventually found the runway centerline...

Good Luck!

 

[navigator72]

Solo flight

I soloed at about 17 hours but I was taking the long way to get my private.
I used to attend a school that made the students get dragged through the a giant muddy ditch by the other students after a first solo. strange but true!!!

 

[Speedtree]

I flew solo at about 10 or 11 hours. My instructor and I used up too much of the block for the dual practice so when I went up for my first take-off and landing I only had a short time until the plane was supposed to be back for the next student. The tradition, or so I'm told, is to do 3 T&Gs, but I only did one so I could get the aircraft back. Looking back I wish I would have done three, they would have gotten over it.

Incidentally, the shirt-tail thing is from the days when most trainers were tandem, like the old T-6s. The instructor would pull on the shirt tail when he wanted to yell in the students ear. When the student soloed he no longer needed the shirt tail for his instructor to tug on so they cut it off. Now we usually use a T-shirt that the student wears and I usually cut off most of the back of it and right all the pertinent info on it.

Don't sweat the time. do your best, enjoy the experience. if it goes beyond 20-25 hours there should be a reason. i.e. busy airspace, problems in some areas, weather, frequency, tentative instructor. But don't overanalyze.

it's about one of the best feelings there is.

 

[MetroSheriff]

Just pulled out the old first logbook.

Soloed at Petaluma Airport on April 4, 1987 with 11.1 hours.

Boy that was fun a day. I haven't thought about it for a long time but I will sure never forget it.

 

[tarp]

The shirt tail tradition does indeed go back to tandem seating. The side story was the "tugging" to get attention.

But the true tradition was matched with the words - "Pilot, today you are free to fly by the seat of your pants". And the shirttail was ceremoniously removed from the owner allowing him to have "full feeling" when sitting alone in the seat. A lot of the pilots continued to fly with the "sawed off" shirt until they got their pilot's license. The tail was usually hung on display until the new pilot got his certificate.

And as Paul Harvey would say "now you know the rest of the story, Good day".

PS. The loss of one shirt to this tradition is well worth the price. I lost one of my best dress shirts since I did my solo after work one day - I have no idea what happened to the shirt but I still have the tail sitting in my locker with all my other valuables and keepsakes. Value = priceless.

 

[TWA Dude]

19.2 hours. Class C airspace and I suffered from mic-fright and I didn't like my CFI. But I made up for it when I got my CFI-A and CFI-I by 205 TT.

 

[supsup]

solo

I soloed at about 12 hours in a c-152 (heavy). As i remember the flight went perfectly. My second solo flight was not so perfect. Lets just say I learned first hand what a 737's wake can do to a cessna. I was able to recover without incident but landed with a severe case of the shakes. As a CFI I spend a fair amount of time on wake avoidance and unusual attitude recovery prior to solo.


"looks like I picked the wrong day to quit sniffing glue" -chief

 

[PilotOnTheRise]

I soloed with about 8-10hrs, dont remember exactly, I will have to look it up later. My instructor didnt tell me when. Which is probably good, so you arent nervous the whole time up until the point.

 

[CaptBuzzard]

I soloed with 8 hours in my logbook. I'll never forget that day. 90 degrees and with my instructor in the plane going around the pattern in a 150, we were getting about 300 fpm if lucky. When he stepped out and I took off, I got about 400 fpm. What a rush. I was dripping wet when I got back to the hangar. I guess I was just a little nervous.

 

[oilcanbland]

I just had my first solo about 3 weeks ago. I had 15.5 hrs and it was a blast! I was a little nervous, but not really. It went fine. I was on a bit of a high the rest of the day though.

Now I'm up to about 30 hrs, and had my first solo cross country last week. I enjoy the solo flying a little more now than I do flying with my instructor, just because I know that it is a little more of a challenge and it forces me to learn from my mistakes faster. Plus, it is very rewarding to know that I can fly a plane all by myself.

Don't sweat it. If you can fly the thing with him/her in there with you, you can fly it with him/her not in there. Have fun. (I did).

 

[Mr. Irrelevant]

Solo'd in a C172 with about 17 hours accumulated over a three and a half month period. My Instructor just jumped out of the airplane and said to give it three times around the pattern and that he'd inform the tower. Nearly ran off the left side of the runway on the first TO because I forgot about throwing in enough right rudder, bounced all three landings, but it counted as a solo. Only thing I did right was handle a runway change after my first or second time around.

It did however become much easier for the next solo. My only advice would be to have your airspeed pegged on final. Relaxing is pretty tough on the first solo. Just get the airspeed right and it'll be a cinch. Good luck.


Mr. I.

 

[wil]

Solo

Don't worry about the hours it really does not matter when you are ready your Instructor will sign you off. I had the best luck when my students did not know when they were going to solo. After bouncing around the patch I would have them pull to the runup area and I would sign them off and off they would go. I taught at a 141 school so there was a TCO to adhere to so my students pretty well knew when they were supposed to solo, my job was to elimate as much as possible the pre-solo jitters! But, this will be a landmark in your life. Of all the ratings, checkrides, stage checks, 135 rides, FAA observarion rides, 121 checkrides, Pro checks and Lofts my first solo was still the most incredible! As for the shirt You will get the back of your shirt and your instructor should get the the last 1 inch tail strip of the bottom. I have all my students tail stripes in my office. Fond memories buzzing along in the early morning hours with my cup of joe! All the best! Wil