SOLO!

It was great!

I had original planned a cross country to Shenandoah Regional. It was good for my second cross country. I had already filed two SFRZ flight plans, egress and ingress the SFRZ. My instructor did not mention soloing. He wanted to work on ground reference maneuvers, something I had not done yet.

We left Manassas and headed south to our practice area. We practiced a simulated go-around and then proceeded to find an object to circle around. I found an old silo. I had some trouble with this maneuver. I had been reading about the Eights on Pylon maneuver (a more advanced maneuver not required for a private pilot) and had it in my head. The techniques are different, so that created some issues. A constant radius is not necessarily maintained around a pylon. It is also more difficult to maintain altitude and airspeed in the pylons maneuver. “Turns around a point” does not require a constant bank angle. It does require a constant radius, altitude and airspeed. It is critical in turns around a point to adjust the bank angle to compensate for wind. In the pylons maneuver, the adjustment is to the radius to maintain a pivotal altitude.

Consider that Pivotal Altitude = (Ground Speed2 /11.3) + Field Elevation. Speed is Va. Ground speed changes require adjustments in pressure: Ahead of the pylon, back pressure to tighten the turn; Behind the pylon, forward pressure to widen the turn (decrease pitch resulting in decrease pivotal altitude). Bank angle can change per pivotal altitude based on how close a plane is to the pylon. The pivotal altitude is maintained, but the altitude for the entire maneuver changes.

The next maneuver I demonstrated was S-turns along a road. I did not make the same mistake, so that went fine. At this point, I wanted to go back and correct my mistake in the ‘Turns around a Point’ maneuver. It is the musician in me that will practice the same pattern forever until near perfect. My instructor had other plans.


He wanted me to take him to Culpepper. In the back of this mind, he was thinking if I could not land the plane without assistance I was not ready for solo. I had no issue. My instructor shook my hand, signed my log book and medical certificate, and off I went, three times in the pattern at Culpepper.



Here are my observations in this grand occasion. First and foremost, I was not nervous. Not a butterfly. My first time around was not very square but the landing was fine. I noticed immediately that plane felt different. It is amazing how one less adult in the cockpit can change the dynamic of a small plane. The plane felt more responsive and more unstable at slower speeds. My second time around, my landing was a little fast but I nailed it. Third time around, same issue and I ballooned. I was going to apply power and adjust. I decided that the balloon was too high and a go-around was in order. The fourth time, again, no problems. Had it been cold, I am sure my instructor would have given some sharper jibes about the go-around (in jest, I assure you). He just chuckled at me and said that he did not see any issue with the landing. He and I both knew that I could have put that plane on the ground. I just wanted to put it down gently and I was not in mood for a mishap on my solo flight. It was my first unassisted go-around in an actual landing…good practice.


At this point, it was time to journey back. I took breather, grabbed a candy bar at Culpepper and returned to the plane for the flight back. I said I was not going to stress about flying through that 8 NM wide 500 foot corridor back into Manassas, but I stressed anyways, slowing my response time. The result is my landing at Manassas was off center due to slow compensation to a cross wind. I got “behind the plane”. My instructor made comment on this to me. I have a love/hate attitude toward such comments. A student pilot sometimes gets behind the plane, and we know it. So is the comment necessary? You bet it is. The day when my instructor does not make comments is the day that I start feeling like I can fly safely. It is a gage and a damn good one. The musician in me responded as expected: I requested a dedicated flight lesson to cross wind landings where the crosswind component is close to but not over 10 knots. Practice, practice, practice.


There are probably and handful of traditions on first solo flights. The celebration was losing the back of my shirt to scissors and marker, and then a celebratory meal of McDonalds (first time in 6 years for me…and the last time, I hope). I was wired the rest of the day from all the excitement!