Solo!

September 25, 2009 (delayed post)

I soloed!! What an experience! The morning was filled with doubt as it didn't get off to a good start. I was scheduled for two flights that day, and was supposed to fly solo the first flight at 8 in the morning. The day was looking promising, clear skies and minimal wind. But when I got to the airport, I realized that I hadn't brought my medical certificate along... which means no solo. All pilots are required to have a first, second, or third class medical before they fly. This is a specific aviation medical given by an FAA (Federal Aviation Administration approved M.D. The classes pertain to which certification or rating you have, for example a private pilot is only required to hold a third class medical, while an ATP (Airline Transport Pilot) is required to have a first class medical, which needs to be renewed every 6 months.

As a student pilot, my second class medical dubs as my student pilot certificate (validating me to fly as a student with an instructor or solo) , so without it I am not legally allowed to fly solo. As you can imagine, Amy (my instructor) was not very pleased. But we shrugged it off because we had a dual flight (flight with student and instructor) that we could do instead of my solo. As I preflighted the plane, I discovered the battery was dead. So we had to take the cowling off, and charge the battery. 45 min later we headed down the taxiway in N909HC, a Cessna 172N.

In all small planes, a run-up is required before takeoff. This is when you turn the plane around on the taxiway facing into the wind and make necessary engine and equipment checks. The procedure is nosewheel straight, brakes set, flight controls check (make sure that all control surfaces are free and operational), mixture rich (the air/fuel mixture control), throttle 1800rpm (full throttle is about 2600 rpm), Engine Inst/Fuel quy green arc, Ammeter check (to make sure that the electrical system is working properly), magnetos check (turn it to L magneto, watch for drop in rpm, and then do it to the right and watch for drop in rpm). The checklist goes on after that but this is where I will stop for now, because that morning, that is where we stopped.

A Cessna 172 has two magneto systems in the engine. A magneto is basically what causes the spark to fire in the spark plug, enabling the engine to run. There are two for redundancy reasons, in case one fails in flight, you can run on the other one. No magnetos working=probable engine failure. When I turned it to the left magneto, I didn't notice a drop in rpm. That was funny I though, so I turned it to "R" (right). The engine died instantly. I quickly flipped it back to "both" and the engine picked back up. I looked at Amy. "Looks like we have a bad mag." she said in a disappointed voice. I was dissapointed as well. After all that hastle, we still didn't get to fly. But I had a valuable lesson in the importance of checklists. Had we not done that and the Left mag had quit working, we would have turned into a glider.

Later that afternoon I showed up with all the necessary paperwork. After preflighting the plane, now in N959HC, Amy and I taxied to the runway. This time on runup, nothing was amiss. We accelerated down the runway and took off. After running the pattern* two times, Amy said "Okay, drop me off at the hangar." My pulse quickened. Its solo time. I thought.

Dropping Amy off I turned the plane around and taxied to the runway 17. Wind was 200 @ 5 so I had a slight right quartering crosswind. "Newton traffic,Cessna niner five niner Hotel Charlie is departing runway 17, closed traffic, newton." I announced over CTAF, a designated frequency for air traffic at an uncontrolled airport. I taxied onto the runway and accelerated to takeoff. It was exhilarating. I turned onto the downwind leg and announced my position. On base and final, I was feeling pretty good. I had been landing by myself, without Amy's help, for a while so it was all muscle memory and routine. Adjusting a little for the cross wind, I touched down smoother than I had ever done. Coming to a full stop, I cleaned up (raise flaps, carb heat off, trim set) and took off again. After landing a second time, I decided to call it a day as I eyed an approaching rain front.















It was one of the most exciting days of my life. Now I know why I got into aviation.

*Attatched is an image of "the pattern". You'll hear me refer to it numerous times in the future. It is basically the traffic flow to a certain runway, used on all VFR (visual flight rules) flights.