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Video of My Solo Ride

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KHAOS:


I solo'd this past Thursday, 15 OCT 09 - what an amazing day all around, and this was the highlight.  I just started training on Sept 9th, and at the time of my solo ride I was at about 13 hours.  It felt great logging my first bit of PIC time. 

It was a traditional flight with nothing out of the ordinary.  I had been out of the cockpit for a week and a half, so my instructor and I took 3 hops around the pattern, full stop in between each.  On the descent and landing of the third hop, he signed off my logbook and endorsed me.  I dropped him off at the ramp, and continued onward to the runup area to do my runup checks before heading out.  Funny, the pattern was dead all morning until I got out. 

For the ride itself, I wasn't nervous at all.  It felt like just another ride, and that's what I prepared for.  The most liberating part of the ride came on my 2nd takeoff when I had to contend with other traffic that entered into a 45* to downwind while I was turning crosswind.  I extended my crosswind slightly, turned downwind and adjusted my spacing, preparing for a go around ahead of time just in case.  It was just me and my plane.  Nobody to help me out with what to do.  It was all me. 

When I got on the ground, it seemed like everybody made a bigger deal about it than I did, but I smiled big and was happy.  When I got home that night, my dad, a pilot himself with 20 years in the Air Force and 17 years flying MD-11's for the airlines, surprised me with a bottle of champagne.  He still has his bottle of champagne that was given to him when he solo'd in the T-37 in pilot training, and encouraged me to save mine.

The next morning when we were out and about, the topic of my dad being a pilot came up in conversation with a stranger.  "So I hear you're a pilot?"  "Yeah, I was in the Air Force for 20 years, and have been flying for the airlines for almost the past 20."  He looked over at me and said, "My son is a pilot too, he just flew his first solo yesterday."  I think that's when it finally hit me. 

Anyway, hope you enjoy the video.  I've included intercom and radio traffic.  I apologize ahead of time if the music's not to anyone's liking.  I'll probably work on making one without music later on. 

bjen9337:
Very nice video. congrats on your achievement! My only critique is that the background music is too loud. It drowns out the audio.

beginner21at:
Hi,
My name is Kurt and I'm from Austria/Europe. Just got my licence last week. I wasn't that cool on my fist solo like you were. Great video and great first solo at all!
Have fun!
Regards, Kurt

SocalFlyer1991:
That's awesome. What kind of Cessna are you flying in? I've never seen one with that cockpit before...

Switch Monkey:
Congratulations! Nice video too.

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