High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr

With the amount of daylight peaking at this time of year, I've managed to make a number of bookings in the evenings at 7 PM. My intention has always been to either work late and go directly to the airport, or go home a bit early, get the kids ready for bed and then head out. On this particular day it was the latter and as a result I was rushed and showed up nearly 20 minutes late. It had been a long day of family and work for me, and on the way there I wondered if I was 100% in the zone for a day when I potentially really needed to be there.

The winds had been swirling around much of the day and when I showed up there was a definite crosswind. I was fully prepared for I5 to tell me I was too late or that the winds weren't right, but instead he asked me if I thought the solo would happen today. After a few seconds of thinking I simply responded that there were three variables at work here - the weather, his perception of my ability, and my performance. I only had control over one of them and would do my best.

We departed to the north today for left traffic and I felt great during the first circuit. I pooched my power control on the base and ended up being pretty high on the base. Without waiting for any prompting I went full right rudder, left aileron and put us into a forward slip which soon transitioned to a slipping turn. I had to hold it almost to the threshold and did a gradual transition into some sort of a sideslip for the crosswind which was blowing from my left. I held the centerline with a combination of rudder and aileron, put it down smoothly and held the nosewheel off, calmly put the flaps up, stood on the right rudder while I went full power and we took to the skies again.

During the climbout I asked I5 for some feedback and he simply said "that was a great slip and an excellent crosswind landing. You held the centerline. It was well done". The second circuit was much better on the power control and again we got down on the centerline. It was then that I realized I5 didn't plan on saying anything at all unless he needed to - and this was a good thing. On the downwind he asked me if I felt ready to solo to which I replied "yep". He called the tower this time and told them we were for a full stop, would drop off the instructor and "I'm going to send this student solo". After landing he took control of the aircraft and taxied to the tower apron where he shut everything down and popped the canopy open.

He pulled out a sheet of paper from his clipboard and handed it to me. It was my student permit signed and dated. He simply said "I've sent dozens of students solo and you are definitely ready. Do you feel ready?". This time I wasn't as confident and said "I guess so". As he hopped out he told me to fly a single circuit for a full stop, taxi back to the club, and good luck. With that he closed the canopy and smiled.

This was it. The moment I had been waiting for...

I popped open the window and realized I was nervous. I took a swig of the bottled water I had taken aboard, pulled out my checklist and started going through it. The engine fired up nicely and I5 who was standing on the grass gave me a thumbs up which I returned and I called ground.

"Ground, Diamond 20 Charlie, fox.. um no charlie golf foxtrot foxtrot charlie on the apron for taxi and we have information November."

"Foxtrot Foxtrot Charlie it's information Oscar now - winds ........ and did you want the circuit?"

Yes, can you believe that after all of my training with nearly flawless radio work, my initial call for my solo was a complete disaster. I realized then that I REALLY needed to bear down and focus. Time to make sure these guys new who they were dealing with

"We're for the circuit and it's our first solo, please pass that on to tower"

By some magic, things all fell into place from that point on. My taxi all the way back to 34 was perhaps the best taxi on the centerline I had ever done. The days of taxiing like a 19 year old leaving a frat party at 430 am were behind me. I took my time during the runup making sure I didn't miss anything on the checklist. Two things I noticed during the runup were:

1) I actually understood every check I was doing, what I was looking for during them, and why I was doing them. All of the book work was paying off.

2) I was happy to have the checklists. They seemed familiar and really calmed me down.

I spent a lot of time going through the safety briefing. Exactly where my go/no go point was, what I would do in case we had to abort, what I would if we had an engine problem after takeoff, and where I wanted to be at every point in the circuit. Finally satisfied, I pulled ahead to the hold short line and called the tower: "Fox Fox Charlie holding short runway 34". Tower asked me to hold short for landing traffic. Then a moment later told me there would be two more landing before he could get me out. I welcomed the extra time and told him "we're not in a rush".

This was a great thing. I had some time to relish the moment. I thought about how significant this moment was in my flight training, and my life. I thought about all of the times I dreamed about flying by myself. I thought about the countless hours I spent at home on my simulator flying heavy complex aircraft, then smaller commuter props, and then finally figured out that I loved to hand fly a tiny little "flib" more than anything else. Then it finally came - I thought about my dad. It was a year and two days since he had passed away - prompting me to finally get off my behind and start the flight training which I know I was "meant to take". I didn't get emotional - I simply looked up to the skies and said "I know you are up there watching and I know how proud you are of me for this moment". I am not a religious guy and I'm generally not a believer in ghosts and all that hocus pocus - but from that moment on I truly felt as if I had him in there with me.

The moment was broken by a skyhawk crossing over the threshold and tower asked me to line up and wait. I booted it out onto the runway and lined her up. A few seconds later the skyhawk cleared the runway and I was cleared for takeoff and left circuit. I pushed the throttle ahead smoothly, stayed on that rudder, called the airspeed alive, kept an eye on the engine instruments, started my rotation and "slipped the surly bonds of earth". It was an absolute rush and I let out a huge yahoo that any cowboy from rural Alberta would be proud of.

There was a twin departing IFR behind me and I suppose for some reason tower thought it would be appropriate to ask me to turn crosswind early. As he keyed his mic for the transmission I was just coming up on 400 AGL but still replied "no problem". I brought up the flaps and switched off the pump as I made the crosswind turn. The aircraft still managed to reach circuit altitude just as I turned downwind and I made sure I pulled the power all the way back.

Downwind checks - engine temp good, fuel pressure and quantity good, oil pressure and temps good, alternator and battery good, mixture full, fuel open, master on, turn fuel pump on, mags both. "Tower, Fox Fox Charlie downwind for a full stop."

I did what I had been trained to do the rest of the way in - talking myself through it the entire time. It wasn't until I turned final that I remembered again I was on my first solo. What if I lost an engine now? Would I make the runway - yeesh - let's just focus again.

I kept adjusting the power to keep the numbers centered in the windscreen. 60 knots, compensate for the crosswind - number, airspeed, windsock... numbers, airspeed, windsock... numbers, airspeed windsock.. reduce power and a bit of nose to bleed speed, power off, stay on the centerline, wing down into the wind, bleed of the speed, in the ground effect, hold the position.. hold it hold it hold it hold it - still floating... and then the magic happened - left wheel slightly touched down but I held the nose off - right wheel touched down, and then rather than dropping the wheel I continued to hold it off until it came down nicely. I put on the brakes - pulled off on the taxiway just as tower said "Ground on 121.8, nice work".

I thanked ground on the way in and asked him pass it on to tower. As I parked the diamond on the ramp, I5 and another made their way out to congratulate me. They took a few photos of me in the aircraft, then a few of me standing next to the registration numbers. Then they dumped a 5 gallon pail of water over my head!! As I walked back into the club soaked from head to toe I received many congratulations from everyone in there.

I5 asked how it went and all I could of were two things:

1) I lived.

2) It was too short.

The best part at this point was filling out the journey log with only my name as PIC and being able to sign the book with my initials and license number.

A huge milestone in my journey has been reached and I'm glad that it is now behind me so that I can get back to focusing on flying rather than focusing on the solo. It was only a taste for what was to come, but like a young adult tasting champagne for the first time, or better yet - a one year old eating cake and icing for their first time on their birthday - I liked it.

I liked it a lot!

21.7 hours and counting...