According to my logbook, as of this morning I have completed one hundred and four landings and received 28.5 hours of dual instruction. It is right around this time in a student's career that their instructor must take a deep breath and let them leap from the nest, unassisted.
I'm told that your first solo is when you realize what this flying thing is really all about. I'm nervous, of course, but confident in my ability and thrilled to be at this first milestone. Flying an airplane alone makes you the PIC (Pilot in Command). Previously, if anything went sideways, I could hand over the airplane to Fiona, and she could could ably save my bacon. When I'm up there alone, it's all up to me to make the mistakes and recover correctly before they kill me. I can't wait.
I've learned a lot up to this point -- crammed quite a bit of knowledge and skills into my (abnormally small) head in a short amount of time, but nothing teaches a lesson like making dumb rookie mistakes and having to fix it yourself. I taught myself engine mechanics using exactly this method.
Of course, just as I've reached this important step in my flying career, Real Life™ conspires to put a hold on flying for four months while my wife and I hike the Pacific Crest Trail. You can follow along on our epic hiking adventure over at our PCT blog at www.asinglestepPCT.blogspot.com
Until then - straighten up and fly right.
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