| Lesson 14 | |
| Flight time logged: | 2.0 hours |
| Total flight time logged: | 19.7 hours |
| Total takeoffs/landings: | 69 |
| Total cost to date: | $3233 |
Well, the day finally has come! Today I finally soloed! The lesson started out strange though. I was assigned to another plane, 62X, because "my" plane (81J) was just back from maintenance and was rented out to someone else.
I went out to the plane and started the preflight. After checking the circuit breakers, I turned on the master switch, lowered the flaps, turned on the lights, checked the annunciator lights, and then checked the fuel gauge. The annunciator lights looked like the "FUEL" light was out, and the fuel gauge reported only 10 gallons of fuel in each tank. I quickly walked around the plane to check the lights. The taxi light was out, but the strobes, beacon, landing, and nav lights were working. I turned the lights off and master switch off. I figured that I had better call the fuel truck, so I walked back to the office and called for fuel.
After returning back to the plane, I remembered that sometimes the fuel gauge can be faulty. I checked the fuel by looking in each tank. It was full! "Strange," I thought to myself. I quickly called the fuel truck to cancel my request. I finished the rest of the preflight and entered the cockpit with my instructor. I mentioned my findings to the instructor. I then prepared to start the engine. I turned the master switch on but heard nothing. Normally you hear the gyros spinning up. We tried the avionics switch and again heard nothing. The battery was dead. Apparently it had enough power to extend the flaps and burn the lights for a few minutes.
We secured the plane and returned back to the office. It turned out that "my" plane, 81J, was on the ramp and available to fly. I picked up the flight bag from the dispatcher and proceeded to preflight the plane. I suppose I was meant to fly 81J today.
I flew over to Winder to practice touch-and-goes with my instructor. My second landing was awesome, and my traffic pattern transitions were so smooth that my instructor gave me great compliments on how it felt like a pro was flying. I was really feeling better today about my abilities and was more confident.
On the fourth landing, my instructor asked to be let out, that he did not need to be there anymore. I asked him to show me the proper technique for a taxi-back before leaving though since I had to do three taxi-backs for my solo. I taxied back around to the runway, communicated my intentions on the CTAF, and then started to take off. After lift-off, my instructor pulled the power stating "engine failure". I immediately set my glide speed and floated back to the runway. He was impressed and told me I was ready to go solo.
I taxied over to the main building at the airport, shut down the engine, and let my instructor out. He endorsed my logbook and student pilot certificate making me legal to fly by myself. After he walked inside, I performed my startup checklist and taxied back to the runway. My instructor warned me about the airplane taking off and climbing faster since it was lighter. He wasn't kidding! I was up to 500 feet AGL in no time.
Everything went well during the solo flight. I had a few other planes in the pattern, but they did not bother me at all. I followed the process that was drilled into my head. My landings went well. It was a great experience. I taxied back to the main building where I secured the plane and met my instructor at the on-field restaurant for some lunch.
At lunch, we talked about the next steps: short and soft field takeoffs and landings, navigation, night flying, and the cross-country flights. I'll be working on short field takeoffs and landings at my next lesson. I'm looking forward to the cross-country flights. I think everybody does when they are learning to fly.
After lunch, we got back in the plane. My instructor sat back as a passenger and let me fly the two of us back to LZU. As usual, we received a straight-in final approach from the control tower. It was a hot day (95+ degrees), so it seemed like we could not descend at all. We ended up coming in high and having to forward slip to lose altitude. I made a good landing and taxied back to the ramp.
After securing the plane, my instructor took my picture next to it.
As with tradition, he cut the tail off of my t-shirt and wrote the info about my solo on it.
I'm required to fly solo for at least five hours, so I'll be heading out to practice alone in the future. It is great to finally achieve a grand milestone along the way to my Private Pilot License!
Thanks to everyone supporting me, especially my wife Brandy!
