My Solo Flight

The day was Nov 4, 1984 and I had been doing touch and goes with my flight instructor, Alicia Sykes. After one of the landings she said, "OK, you're ready. I'm getting out and you're going to do your solo." Those words caught me completely by surprise because I didn't think I was ready yet. I knew that I was getting close because I had 13 hours flight time and most of that was touch and goes. But I really didn't think that today was the day.  I asked Alicia, "Really, you think I'm ready?" She said, "Yes."  I said, "Why don't we wait till the next lesson, just to make sure, by then I'll be ready for sure." She said, "Nope, you're ready now. Just go up and do what you've been doing, watch your airspeed and you'll be fine." I realized I had no choice, she was not going to let me off the hook (she was a very firm instructor). She got out of the plane (a Cessna 150 aka Midlands 10) by the runway and a feeling of doom came in the pit of my stomach. I felt I was in a dream and this could not possibly be happening to me. I wasn't sure I was ready. I had to land the plane, or possibly die.

I taxied to the end of the runway. The plane seemed so empty and lonely without Alica next to me. I got to the runway and went thru my checklist. No other planes coming in to land so I had a window to go. I pulled onto the runway, gave full throttle and started rolling down the runway. I said to myself, 'Watch the airspeed, always watch the airspeed.'  When the airspeed hit 60 knots I pulled back on the yoke and the plane lifted off same it always has. All of a sudden it hit me. I was going to do this. I knew what to do. There was no way anything bad was going to happen, I had this. I don't know why but once I was in the air all sorts of confidence came over me. I went into the landing pattern, upwind, turned downwind, carb heat out when I was even with the runway, throttle back to 1500, pull up nose to drop airspeed to 60 knots, flaps down 10 degrees, turned base, airspeed ok, flaps 20 degrees, altitude looked ok, airspeed ok, turned on final, not too high or low just right, airspeed ok, the runway was getting closer and my altitude was dropping just right, airspeed ok, there was no cross wind, got to the runway maybe 20 feet above it, killed the throttle, the plane started dropping, just before the plane touched the ground I pulled the nose up gently and made a smooth landing. Yeah Baby, I got this!

So I was able to cross something off my bucket list.  I often dream that I can fly. I had always wanted to fly. I wanted to join the Air Force as a pilot but I couldn't because I wear eyeglasses. I went on to get my private pilot license and fly for fun for years until health, vision problems and finances got in the way.  What an adrenaline rush to land a plane, especially in a crosswind! Below is the back of the shirt I wore that day, which by tradition, the instructor cuts out the back of the shirt and writes their name, the name of the person who soloed, the date, the plane's type/number, and the airport and runway number.