Hey there! Did ya miss me? In case you don’t remember, I was once a Regular (mInimOD 🥴) here and was and still an all-around aerobatics geek. Anyway, let’s just send it.
I’m just back here to say that just yesterday, I went up on my first solo aboard a Van’s RV-12 out of Virginia Highlands Airport. So I’ll probably give you guys a run-down of how it went leading up to and during the flight, just so you aspiring pilots out there can get a feel for it.
After 2 weeks of non-stop “wind bag” thunderstorms from a stalled jet stream over the area, and after lots of studying, I would take a written test covering material from the POH (Pilot’s Operating Handbook), the FTS (Flight Training Supplement) and the Maintenance Manual for the RV-12. Sounds like a lot of pages, right? Here’s the good news: it’s open-book! But take this advice: Study as if it wasn’t. This is safety-critical information. Storms can be both a blessing and a curse when you’re grinding it out in between semesters of hard engineering classes. It can put you back a while on flight hours but it makes it up for study time. I was fortunate to know most of the required info before going in, so that part went well.
Next up was the stage check. Basically it sees where you are on the flying side with a different flight instructor. We covered the four fundamentals (climbs, descents, turns, straight and level), steep turns, power on/off stalls (simulating accidental stalls on takeoff and landing), slow flight and ground reference maneuvers, like turning around a grain silo or weaving S-turns around a railroad. I was rusty on those because I haven’t done them a lot. Emergencies were also covered, such as an engine failure at cruise. This meant that I had to maintain the glide speed (60kts), “starve the engine” and look for a good place to land, whether it be VJI, scary looking mountain fields or Interstate 81 even.
2 days later, it’s solo day. Remember the written test I did earlier? I sat with the CFI and we went over every question. The CFI will correct your understanding to fit a 100% on the test, so it’s not numbers like in school. It’s a pass/fail thing. If you’re ready, you’re ready, and I was. Now, I fly a lot of virtual airshows on DCS World, and I was feeling the same jitters I got before every live show with my team (follow @virtualraptordemo! Shameless plug). The plan was simple. 3 or more laps around the pattern with the CFI and then I get to kick him out. We got our laps in, with a couple go-arounds on the side… Aaaaand then the winds and those bumpy thermals picked up. Some very visible rain shafts were appearing off to the south, so we waited a bit. The suspense was nearing the redline. Then, I heard my CFI call out “090 at 7.” It’s happening. And I had my very supportive dad and a coworker (she’s the “store mom” to say the least 😅) here to watch.
After getting the solo endorsements, it was off to good ol 442WG for two solo full-stop loops around the pattern. Starting up and taxiing were easy enough. I still felt a whole lot of pressure and building adrenaline that screamed at me not to die or do something utterly stupid. Run up’s complete, we have a good engine and good ammeter, and I announce over VJI Traffic the takeoff into the left closed pattern with an added “Strength and Honor!” at the end as a nod to my inspiration and good friend “RaZZ” Larson of the Raptor Demo Team. Here’s the best part. When you get up in the air, there’s this indescribable release. The pressure you felt when you had a CFI sternly lecturing you on your right was no longer there, and flying felt just like you were adding on to the thousands of hours you did in various flight sims including Infinite Flight. You can bet landings felt easy now. They were once the hard part.
The second pattern had a plot twist in it. A Cessna appeared out of completely nowhere a quarter mile off my nose entering the pattern, startling the crud out of me. Quickly remembering the right of way rules I looked over a couple days back, I swiftly veered to the right. I didn’t even hear his calls at all. I later found out he likely had a mic issue, but even though the CFI didn’t say it, I knew I did something wrong too. I forgot to stay vigilant outside the cockpit. There will be times like this again, and I can’t be too focused on the screen or my sight picture. But overall, another easy landing and I was more alive than I was the hours before.
Then, you get your shirt cut. This is an old tradition dating back to the early days of flight training. Instructors would tug the back of your shirt tail to tell you where to turn. Now that you’ve soloed, you don’t need it anymore. You don’t need the Instructor bugging you from the backside. And that’s what happens when you put a flight sim like Infinite Flight, MSFS or whatever you got to good use.
Thanks to all who I’ve flown and learned with all these years ago, this means you IFAE Team and my GAF Bros! You’ve got a new pilot in the pipeline.
