I soloed today

[smitty9006]

Wow, I soloed this morning and it was awesome! I am still up in the air so to speak and can't wait until my next flight tomorrow morning. My instructor is Jack Tunstill at KSPG and I cannot say enough good things about him. Simply put, he is the best and I am very fortunate to have been referred to him by a Mooney owner that I met via Mooney Space Forums. Thanks for the referral Mike. One day I'll own a Mooney too.

[hansel]

Wow, congrats! Welcome to freedom. Enjoy the high-- it's a great place to be.

You made me think of my first solo. So focused on take-off, then just after turning downwind I looked over at the empty seat next to me and thought "uh-oh" followed by a smile. Sort of felt the same way with my first Mooney solo.

 

[The-sky-captain]

Smitty- Congrats on the solo achievement. If you think you love the feeling that soloing gave you just wait until you ace your checkride! Have fun with the learning process, I still am

[mooneygirl]

Smitty, take a bunch of mental pictures from today. What an awesome experience and a life-changing event.  My solo landing was one of the best I ever had!  Then when I transitioned into the Mooney some 40 hours later...I was on top of the world.  Congratulations! Enjoy

Photos of the T-shirt cutting???

[fantom]

Congrats.....the first step in a long and wondrous journey!

[MooneyMitch]

What a terrific accomplishment and such an awesome feeling of freedom, which you will carry with you for the rest of your flying ever............way to go!

[231Pilot]

Congratulations!  One of the best feelings ever.

[skyking]

Way to go..Thats one of the moments you will remember for life.

My first solo was almost 35 years ago and i remember it like it was yesterday..( yet i can't remember what i had for breakfast..LOL)

[DaV8or]

Awsome day! Congratulations! Next up: first solo cross country. There's some learning there to do! Back when I did it, I didn't have the option of GPS. I suggest you resist the temptation and turn off all GPS (including your phone!) and go it old school pilotage. It's a wonderful skill to develope.

[Jeff_S]

Awesome. AOPA reports recently that the number of active pilots has dropped from 800K+ to 650K+, so can you please find 200,000 of your friends and get them involved too?

Start saving aggressively. Nothing like the first solo to make you realize you need your own plane. It's certainly not the cheapest form of self-pleasure, but oh so gratifying!  (Did I just say that? I didn't just say that!) 

[ErickR]

Ah yes, I still remember the feeling of my first solo 12 yrs ago... It was kinda a somber feeling just after lift off when it hits you, now it's all up to you to get the plane back on the ground. 

Congratulations!!!

 

[smitty9006]

Thanks Mooneygirl and all for the encouragement. While we didn't take any photos, there were plenty of folks around for the shirt cutting. Also, when I was walking in afterwards, a couple of seasoned aviators said congratulations and shook my hand. Needless to say I felt really proud of how things went.

Now for today, the first part of the lesson was going out with Jack and reviewing prior lessons. After that he got out and I did some more solo touch and goes. On the second one the tower switched the pattern from right to left and I think I adapted well although the landing wasn't quite perfect with a little more float down the runway than I would have wanted. The next couple landings were not as good as yesterday due to coming in high and touching down faster than I should have and consequentially using a good amount of runway. On one of them the tower asked me to tighten up the base to accommodate traffic and I ended up higher than usual, put the nose down too much and came in hot. Since I had the option, I opted to do a full stop and then go out again. Jack and I reviewed the landings and I got some good feedback that I will learn from. When I got home I watched the landing chapters of my Sporty's instructions again because I really want to do better next time.

Tomorrow we are going to start on cross country preparation and I'm really looking forward to my first one.