Solo (not Han)

Can you remember the first time you took a drive in a car...without one of your parents in the passenger seat? The feeling of freedom and shear terror as you release it's all you. I can remember those early first days....pulling into the gas station and worrying about somehow causing the place to explode...or the dreaded parallel parking. I think the worse thing for me was driving in downtown Portland (I still get a little nervous). Ok, so think about that for a minute.....keep thinking....now, imagine you are 700 ft off the ground moving at 75mph and you need to hit a target on the runway...and there is no one in the passenger seat to help you if you panic or for some reason forget what you are supposed to do. Yikes! With respect to flying, this going it on your own for the first time is called soloing.

From a legal standpoint, Federal Aviation Regulations say that the term "solo flight as used in this subpart means that flight time during which a student pilot is the sole occupant of the aircraft." A common industry definition says, "solo is any flight time during which the pilot is the only occupant on board;" the difference is that the regulation specifies student but the term really applies to any certificated pilot. Definitions aside, your first solo flight is an important milestone in your training and a moment worthy of celebration. It's an experience you'll always remember as among the coolest things you've ever done.

To make sure the soloing flight is successful, you have to train and practice a lot. Think about how much you have driven car since you started back in the day...how many of the actions you need to take to drive are down automatically with you really having to think about it? (Most of them probably) Using Microsoft Flight Simulator and spending lots of time in a real airplane with a trainer is the only way to gain this flying "instinct".






Anyway, it is a day I am looking forward to. In the mean time I’ll be spending my time in the simulator. My next purchase is going to be something like the CH Yoke and Rudder Pedal controls. With these I can get extremely close to what it is like to really fly an airplane.