Now *THIS* is a solo!

The real learning continues with my first actual solo flight from start to finish. I'll admit now that I felt extra super cool as I walked out to the ramp to check the aircraft out. After a quick chat with the Chief instructor about a few things I hopped into the diamond and went through the checklists. I made sure that I really took my time going over everything especially during the run-up.

Before I knew it I was cleared for takeoff. It was just as I lifted off that I first noticed "the noise". WTF is that? It didn't sound like anything mechanical, but it certainly didn't sound right. I scanned all of the engine gauges, the circuit breakers, my main gauges, my controls - everything looked perfect. FFC was performing exactly as expected, but still the noise was there. I decided to hold off on the flaps and pump going off until I turned crosswind and as I did the noise stopped. "OK, perhaps it was the fuel pump" was my first thought. As I straightened out on the crosswind the noise came back again. I tried flipping the pump on and off and double checked the gauges again but everything looked good. It was at this moment I first thought to myself "Am I really having an issue with an aircraft on my first solo?"I looked back at the field to determine what my options might be if I had to perform an emergency landing and then started considering options that weren’t on the field.

During the turn to downwind the noise again stopped and of course restarted as I rolled out straight. "No need to panic, just keep troubleshooting and considering options" I told myself. I ripped off my headset in an effort to better locate the noise. I bent over and put my head in different positions to figure out where the source of the noise was. Engine gauges look OK. Throttle, mixture, alternate air, cabin heat, fuel cut-off all where they need to be. The window is closed on my side; the window is closed on the other...wait a minute! The window IS closed on the other side but there’s this little tiny window inside of it that appears to be open!! I reached across to the window (no simple feat for a man of my stature) and pulled the little window closed, pushed the lock tab in and bingo - the noise ended. I immediately let out a simultaneous sigh of relief and a chuckle at myself. "What a wonderful blog entry this will make!"

The remainder of the flight was an absolute dream. I spent a lot of time messing around with power settings to produce the perfect rate of descent on the base and final - or at least to improve on my 800fpm descent I was hitting most of the time. I focused on sticking to the centerline for the entire approach phase and I’m happy to say most of the landings were pretty smooth.

I did have one other brain fart worth noting because it was a good learning experience. I was so focused on getting my power settings correct that at one point while on base I heard the aircraft behind my call "downwind for the touch and go" when I realized that I had neglected to make that call myself. After tower told them they were #2 following a diamond I keyed my mike and simply said "Tower, FFC on right base for the touch and go, sorry about the early turn". Luckily the rest of my situational awareness was intact so I knew there wasn’t anyone else in front of me or on a straight in. Phew!

Securing the aircraft I was extremely satisfied with the flight. I realized at that point I had spent over 90 minutes in the air. My final lesson for the day was that the tow bar for the diamond was a complete POS and it was nearly impossible to steer it back into the correct parking spot.

24.8 hours and counting...