Solo!

What a great day! Winds out of the north at 5kts and scattered clouds at 10,000ft. We took off and went around. The first landing was perfect -- "dead nuts on," as Tim said. The second one was a little less great, as I turned to final late, but I corrected it and landed smoothly. On the third go-around we talked through engine-out scenarios at various points in the pattern. After the third landing, Tim asked for the controls and taxied us off at Delta.

We stopped at the main terminal in front of Joe's Landing Cafe, and Tim gave me some last minute instructions. I was to call ground control, tell them that I'm at the main terminal, and then taxi back to 5. I taxied over and called in "Lawrence Tower, Cessna 13081, ready at 5, student pilot, first solo." "081 hold short of runway 5, traffic on final." "081."

Then I waited a few minutes and watched another student pilot on a solo landing. "081 you are cleared to take off, runway 5." "081." I taxied out onto the active runway, lined up, and pushed in the throttle. I'd been told to expect very different performance, but in some ways it was subtle. The roll was about the same, as was rotation. Once I got up in the air, it wanted to climb well over 1000ft/min. When I got to the 700ft AGL turning point, I wasn't very far from the airport, but I turned anyway. I made it within 50ft of pattern altitude midway through the turn and had to pull back the throttle. I ended up about 100ft high in the downwind.

I called in "Lawrence Tower, Cessna 13081, reporting midfield, full-stop, taxi back." That's when he tried to throw me for a loop: "Cessna 081, you are number 2 behind right traffic, extend downwind." I pulled it back to 1900RPM, put in 20 degrees of flaps (much easier to see that indicator without someone in the right seat), and ended up at 70kts as expected. I looked for the other guy, and found him easily. "Extending downwind, traffic in sight, 081." I waited and waited. It seemed to take forever for him to turn final. Then I waited for him to pass me. Once he did, I turned base.

Probably because I was doing so much thinking about the whole procedure, I ended up with a really nice descent into the airport. I didn't have to fool around very much. The only problem was that I was a little fast and had to brake more than I wanted to make the taxiway. "Nice landing, 081, depart the runway at Delta and stay with me to taxi."

Tim waved, and I went around again. Then once more and asked to taxi back to the ramp. Tim guided me into a tie-down spot, and I went through the shutdown checklist. He took a few pictures, and then it was off to the office to record my first PIC log book entry. That's me below, with my goofy "first solo" grin.

Posted at 11:27AM Nov 09, 2007 by carlson in Aviation  |  Comments[6]