First Solo

I had been working with Brad for several weeks. We had taken the little Red on white Cessna up several times. I had logged about 12 hours with Brad in the air. Many more on the ground learning about what makes a plane fly and the laws that govern General Aviation.

In our first lesson, Brad took me on a guided tour of the cockpit. Explaining what each instruments on the panel meant. What to do if any of them failed. He taught me how to make radio calls, both to the control tower and at uncontrolled airports.

I learned what a traffic pattern is and how to approach an uncontrolled airport for a landing.

In our flying sessions, we made many practice landings at two airports about 25 miles from our home airport.

"Enter the pattern on the downwind leg at about 1,000 ft agl (above ground level). Check your airspeed and add 10 degrees of flaps. You'll need to pull back on the yoke to maintain your altitude. Look at the runway over your left shoulder. When it is at about 45 degrees behind you, turn into the crosswind leg. When you are almost parallel to the runway, turn onto final. check your airspeed and add more flaps if you need to. Line the plane up on the center stripe."

"How the hell am I going to remember all of this?!?"

"Kevin, it's like trying to walk, talk, and chew gum all at the same time. You can do that right? Let's go over it again."

Well, after about 30 landings, I finally was starting to get the hang of it. The only problem was I kept the airspeed too low on the crosswind leg. Brad thought he'd better teach me about stalls.

A stall in aviation has nothing to do with the engine. It is about the angle of attack of the airfoils - the wings. If the angle is too steep, the airflow over the wing is broken and the wing will quit flying. This happens most often on take-off or landing, but can happen any time to any aircraft.

We flew out over one of the lakes in the area and climbed to about 3,000 feet. Brad told me to pull back on the throttle, add flaps and not lose altitude. I complied. When we began the manuever, we were travelling at about 95 knots. Then I pulled back on the throttle. We slowed. When We were doing about 75 knots, I put extended the flaps and pulled back on tht yoke.

The plane slowed almost to nothing. Suddenly, there was some buffeting and the wings dipped down. This was what Brad had told me to recognize as a stall.

"Pitch! Power!" Brad yelled.

I quickly pushed the throttle to full in, and pushed the yoke forward. Soon I had control of the plane again.

That was my first stall.

"We practice that, so you'll know what they feel like and you'll know what to do if it ever happens." Brad told me.

We practiced several more stalls, each time I became more comfortable with the plane falling out from under me!

"That's it for today, let's head back home.", Brad said.

We landed at Addison a few minutes later and taxied back to the parking area.

A few days later, after several more practice stalls, Brad told me to fly the plane out to Denton. This is one of the airports that I used for practice. We flew into the pattern and made a couple of touch-and-go landings. On the third pass, Brad told me to land and bring the plane to a full stop.

I stopped about one third of the way down the runway and exited to where the hangers were. Brad instructed me to stop the plane at the end of the row, but not kill the engine. After I stopped, Brad asked me for my flight log. I thought I had really screwed something up.

"What do you need that for", I asked.

"For your endorsement. You can't fly solo without it."

"Solo??!!!, Do you think I'm ready for it?"

"Kevin, If you aren't, it's my ticket that will get pulled. You're ready. When I get out, do two touch-and-go's then make the third to a dead stop and pick me back up. Do it just like we practiced."

With that, Brad got out of the plane, closed the door and gave me the thumbs up sign.

Slowly, I pushed in the throttle and began the trip to the end of the runway.

After my engine run-up and pre-takeoff checklist, I moved to the hold lines and waited for a Beechcraft to land. The Beechcraft passed by me and I watched at it contacted the runway and move toward the taxiway. Since Denton was not controlled, I looked back up final approach and seeing no other aircraft, I announced, "Denton Traffic, Cessna 01Foxtrot taking the active."

With that, I moved the plane into position on the center stripe. A few moments later, I pushed in the throttle and began increasing speed. At 75 knots, I pulled back on the yoke and I was airborne. 01 Foxtrot climbed so much faster without Brad in the seat next to me!

"Well, now you have no choice but to land this thing", I thought to myself.

I increased altitude, announced my position and intentions to the rest of the traffic and soon I was lined up on final again. I slowly lined the plane up with the center line and watched as the ground approached. I touched down about halfway down the strip, retracted my flaps, increased power and soon I was airborne again. My ego bolstered by the fact that I could now fly a plane by myself!

Two more times around and finally a stop to pick up Brad. That idiotic grin was on my face again!

Brad critiqued my landings on the way back to Addison. He told me about what I did right and what went wrong.

I called Addison tower to report our position and get into the queue to land. Brad sat back and watched. This time, he barely said a word as I guided the plane in for a smooth landing.

Afterwards, we went out for a couple of beers to celebrate. We chose a place near the end of the runway where we could watch planes take-off and land.

I sipped my beer and listened to Brad. I was now well on my way to becoming a licensed pilot.