SOLO

I can't come up with anything witty or creative to start this so I will just kick it off by saying today I did my first solo flight! This is the culmination of a lot of work and time although there is still a long road ahead of me. It is a great feeling to have the first big check mark on the list of requirements for my private pilots license. Officially I soloed after 14.3 hours of dual time and 68 landings. We started early (6:30AM) since my instructor was busy from 9-12 and I try to avoid flying in the afternoon down here, especially when it is 95-100+ and I am flying at low levels. Overall this turned out to be a great decision today when we got to the airport there was no wind and the temperature was 80. This afternoon as is normal here it got up to around 95 and right now there are some storms with some strong outflow winds moving into the Wichita metro. To start the flight my instructor went up with me and we did two touch-and-go's along and one full stop landing. During this time he was telling me what to do if something goes wrong (the common sense things of go to another airport if something happens here and come back and land immediately if there is an issue with the plane). On the third landing I taxied onto the ramp he got out and sent me on my way. While pulling onto the runway I definitely had a "holy shit I am about to do this" moment. After that I was fine and completely enjoyed the experience. It was quite interesting getting used to being the only one in the plane and not having the weight of the instructor in there. I certainly learned several lessons (more flaps to prevent floating down the runway). Climb out was also interesting with less weight as I climbed at 85-90 at around 500 feet per minute (FPM) however the 180 hp engine does help this part. Overall everything went really well and my instructor said it all looked great! I will not be flying nearly as much over the next two weeks as my instructor if pushing to finish his CFII (Certified Flight Instrument Instructor) rating before Airventure in Oshkosh which is next week. He is then going to spend a few days up there with his dad. I will take this time to focus myself on studying for the written test so when he gets back we can get mostly done if not done before he leaves for college. I have attached the picture of my shirt tail cut off (you can find the explanation to this tradition here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_solo_flight) as well as videos that my wife took, they aren't the best but you get the picture. As always let me know if you have any questions!