SOLO! Third one, finally. My last solo was over two months ago because I ran out of money last semester, and because the weather hasn’t cooperated this semester. Before going to the flight center around noon, 1700 zulu, I was unsure about the weather; the clouds were starting to roll in for an afternoon snow storm. The morning was sunny and cold, perfect for flying. Winds were coming out of 320, right down the runway, at only 4 knots. I was thinking that if the clouds hold off for a little bit, I’d be able to solo for my third time.
I got to the flight center and checked the weather. Winds 32004; visibility 10SM, ceiling OVC050 (5,000 ft); and an altimeter setting of 30.12. I met with my instructor and he told me it was good for a solo. He told me I needed to be up there for at least 1.6 hours. This is because I already had 2.5 hours solo so far, and need at least 10 solo hours to get my private pilot license. With the 3, 2 hour each, solo cross countries in stage 3 of the course, a minimum of 1.5 today would ensure I would reach 10 solo hours.
I did the preflight paperwork, and realized that without my instructor in the plane with me, the takeoff and landing distances were much shorter than I’m use to. This wasn’t a problem, in fact, I prefered it. Once he signed my logbook and student pilot certificate, I went out to the plane and did the preflight inspection. During the walk around, I found a missing nut and washer inside the air intake, on the engine cowling. I was hoping it wouldn’t stop me from my flight, but I told the air boss anyway. He had a mechanic come out within minutes to fix it. I checked his work (after all, I would be flying the plane alone. I wanted to make sure the plane was perfect). The oil was fine, fuel was just put in both wing tanks, and the brake fluid was at the correct level. I hopped in and started the engine. Once I was ready to taxi, I cleared myself with the Airboss, “State 66 outbound” and taxied to the edge of the ramp.
The taxiing went alright and I got to the run-up area without any problems. Every time I looked to my right at the empty seat, I felt a little rush of adrenalin. At the run-up area, I checked the magnetos (the magnetic batteries which are responsible for turning the engine crankshaft), set the flaps to 0, and prepared the plane for takeoff. I taxied out of the run-up area, and stopped at the runway threshold hold line. As I turned to tower frequency, I was already being called from the tower. They saw that I was number one on Bravo side (the name of the taxiway) for runway 32. I responded “Farmingdale State 66 number 1 on Bravo for runway 32.” The tower told me to line-up and wait. I increased rpms to taxi speed and lined up with the runway centerline (line up and wait means that I line up with the runway’s centerline and wait for a takeoff clearance). As I was lining up, I got the clearance to takeoff.
The plane started rolling and got to rotation speed. I slightly pulled the controls back and the wheels left the ground. Since I do most of my training between 2000 and 3000 feet, I wanted to climb to 5000 feet. So I climbed out and did the climb checklist. I was headed for a VFR waypoint, Captree Island. I looked at my frequencies to make sure they were correct, and when I looked up, I couldn’t see anything. I looked all around, out every window but everything turned white. I had flown into the clouds by accident. The clouds had lowered from 5000 ft to about 2900 feet. I immediately took the power out to descent power and pitched the nose down 3 degrees. I was probably at 3100 feet when everything went white, so I didn’t have far to descent. After 50 feet, Captree Island started to come into view, out of the white haze. I decided to stay at 2500 feet until I got to the practice ground.
This was the first time I was out of the airport traffic pattern by myself. I knew right away that if anything goes wrong, it was me only me who could solve the problem. This thought got my heart racing a little more, but also made me smile. I was out over the Atlantic Ocean, in an airplane by myself, and I was the only one flying the plane! It made me feel amazing at what I have had accomplished so far, but also made me realize that I had a lot of work still to do.
In the practice area, I did some slow flight, and stall recoveries. My instructor told me to do whatever I wanted, since there wouldn’t really be anyone to tell me what to do. I also made my way down the southern coast of Long Island. I made it to east Hampton, and could even see Montauk point. By the time I got out there, I only had enough time to get back home. I was aiming for 1.5 hours, so I knew I could get at least that.
After the 10 minute flight back to Captree Island, I got the weather report and was ready to call tower for a landing.
“Farmingdale State 66 is at Captree with Charlie, requesting touch and goes”
-nothing
“Farmingdale State 66 is at Captree with Charlie, requesting touch and goes”
-nothing
Again: “Farmingdale State 66 is at Captree with Charlie, requesting touch and goes”
-again nothing
I thought right away, not again. My last solo, almost 2 months ago, I had problems with the communications. I circled back out over the ocean because I was getting too close to Republic’s airspace. Again I called out “Farmingdale State 66 is at Captree with Charlie, requesting touch and goes” but again nothing. Great, a communication failure while I was in flight, alone. I was trying to think of the transponder code for a communication failure, when I remembered what I did last time. I switched my headset to comms 2, the communications the co-pilot uses. This time I said, with a little urgency in my voice,
“Republic tower, Farmingdale state 66, inbound for a landing”
“Republic tower, State 66 report to final”
Finally, after 8 minutes of thinking I had a real problem, I was in communication with the tower. From then on, I had to press the button on comms 2 instead of 1, but I had avoided a situation on a solo.
The approach and landing went fine, and I taxied to Echo ramp to tie the plane down. I met with my instructor and we went over my flight. As I walked out to my car, my heart started to slow down to a normal beat and I thought how much fun I just had.
What I Learned:
Not every bad situation is an emergency. Often times, there is a simple solution to a problem that people overlook. Being a pilot is 50% flying airplanes and 50% overcoming situations. Today gave me a huge boost of confidence in both areas of piloting.
I got to the flight center and checked the weather. Winds 32004; visibility 10SM, ceiling OVC050 (5,000 ft); and an altimeter setting of 30.12. I met with my instructor and he told me it was good for a solo. He told me I needed to be up there for at least 1.6 hours. This is because I already had 2.5 hours solo so far, and need at least 10 solo hours to get my private pilot license. With the 3, 2 hour each, solo cross countries in stage 3 of the course, a minimum of 1.5 today would ensure I would reach 10 solo hours.
I did the preflight paperwork, and realized that without my instructor in the plane with me, the takeoff and landing distances were much shorter than I’m use to. This wasn’t a problem, in fact, I prefered it. Once he signed my logbook and student pilot certificate, I went out to the plane and did the preflight inspection. During the walk around, I found a missing nut and washer inside the air intake, on the engine cowling. I was hoping it wouldn’t stop me from my flight, but I told the air boss anyway. He had a mechanic come out within minutes to fix it. I checked his work (after all, I would be flying the plane alone. I wanted to make sure the plane was perfect). The oil was fine, fuel was just put in both wing tanks, and the brake fluid was at the correct level. I hopped in and started the engine. Once I was ready to taxi, I cleared myself with the Airboss, “State 66 outbound” and taxied to the edge of the ramp.
The taxiing went alright and I got to the run-up area without any problems. Every time I looked to my right at the empty seat, I felt a little rush of adrenalin. At the run-up area, I checked the magnetos (the magnetic batteries which are responsible for turning the engine crankshaft), set the flaps to 0, and prepared the plane for takeoff. I taxied out of the run-up area, and stopped at the runway threshold hold line. As I turned to tower frequency, I was already being called from the tower. They saw that I was number one on Bravo side (the name of the taxiway) for runway 32. I responded “Farmingdale State 66 number 1 on Bravo for runway 32.” The tower told me to line-up and wait. I increased rpms to taxi speed and lined up with the runway centerline (line up and wait means that I line up with the runway’s centerline and wait for a takeoff clearance). As I was lining up, I got the clearance to takeoff.
The plane started rolling and got to rotation speed. I slightly pulled the controls back and the wheels left the ground. Since I do most of my training between 2000 and 3000 feet, I wanted to climb to 5000 feet. So I climbed out and did the climb checklist. I was headed for a VFR waypoint, Captree Island. I looked at my frequencies to make sure they were correct, and when I looked up, I couldn’t see anything. I looked all around, out every window but everything turned white. I had flown into the clouds by accident. The clouds had lowered from 5000 ft to about 2900 feet. I immediately took the power out to descent power and pitched the nose down 3 degrees. I was probably at 3100 feet when everything went white, so I didn’t have far to descent. After 50 feet, Captree Island started to come into view, out of the white haze. I decided to stay at 2500 feet until I got to the practice ground.
This was the first time I was out of the airport traffic pattern by myself. I knew right away that if anything goes wrong, it was me only me who could solve the problem. This thought got my heart racing a little more, but also made me smile. I was out over the Atlantic Ocean, in an airplane by myself, and I was the only one flying the plane! It made me feel amazing at what I have had accomplished so far, but also made me realize that I had a lot of work still to do.
In the practice area, I did some slow flight, and stall recoveries. My instructor told me to do whatever I wanted, since there wouldn’t really be anyone to tell me what to do. I also made my way down the southern coast of Long Island. I made it to east Hampton, and could even see Montauk point. By the time I got out there, I only had enough time to get back home. I was aiming for 1.5 hours, so I knew I could get at least that.
After the 10 minute flight back to Captree Island, I got the weather report and was ready to call tower for a landing.
“Farmingdale State 66 is at Captree with Charlie, requesting touch and goes”
-nothing
“Farmingdale State 66 is at Captree with Charlie, requesting touch and goes”
-nothing
Again: “Farmingdale State 66 is at Captree with Charlie, requesting touch and goes”
-again nothing
I thought right away, not again. My last solo, almost 2 months ago, I had problems with the communications. I circled back out over the ocean because I was getting too close to Republic’s airspace. Again I called out “Farmingdale State 66 is at Captree with Charlie, requesting touch and goes” but again nothing. Great, a communication failure while I was in flight, alone. I was trying to think of the transponder code for a communication failure, when I remembered what I did last time. I switched my headset to comms 2, the communications the co-pilot uses. This time I said, with a little urgency in my voice,
“Republic tower, Farmingdale state 66, inbound for a landing”
“Republic tower, State 66 report to final”
Finally, after 8 minutes of thinking I had a real problem, I was in communication with the tower. From then on, I had to press the button on comms 2 instead of 1, but I had avoided a situation on a solo.
The approach and landing went fine, and I taxied to Echo ramp to tie the plane down. I met with my instructor and we went over my flight. As I walked out to my car, my heart started to slow down to a normal beat and I thought how much fun I just had.
What I Learned:
Not every bad situation is an emergency. Often times, there is a simple solution to a problem that people overlook. Being a pilot is 50% flying airplanes and 50% overcoming situations. Today gave me a huge boost of confidence in both areas of piloting.
