At 17.1 hours, my instructor said I was more than ready for my solo flight. All I needed to show him was 3 good landings. He was confident that I'd be all right. I felt pretty good, myself.

The winds were calm and the air was as smooth as silk. I couldn't believe how nice conditions were. Heavy clouds set in at about 15,000' which must have helped. We did 4 touch 'n goes, one of which he thought I was flaring a little too late, so I ended up with 3 pretty good landings. That's when I was told to taxi up to the FBO so he could complete the endorsements. I noticed my wife was there, she brought the video camera, which I said she could do if she got out of work and wanted to come up. Cool, I'd have video of the historic event!

After getting the sign-off, he said I could give him as many landings as I wanted to but that it would be getting darker soon, so I wasn't to stay out there all night. :-) Therefore, I planned on 2 landings, that would put me at an hour for today. I taxied away from the FBO and felt a little sick in the stomach. I guess that was my nerves. After starting the checklist, I felt pretty good.

I taxied up and took off. I didn't notice a big difference without the instructor being in the right seat like others have stated. Actually, I had a better view of everything, especially with a right handed pattern. When it came time to bring the power back for descent, I had to use a lower RPM because the plane was lighter and wanted to glide. Then, I made the conscious decision to land flapless. I'd been trained to do this from the beginning and did a few flap landings, but I thought I'd just stick to what I was comfortable with for now.

I stayed right on the extended centerline through final and had a great approach. Touch 'n go! That wasn't so hard! Actually, I could see my peripherals and land better without the instructor in here! OK, I'm just going to make one more circuit because now I'm hungry and the visibility is a little worse. No sense in spending more time up here since I already know what I'm doing, right? I got the power set right for descent and another really good landing!

Time to taxi and shut down, no problem. I get out of the plane, get congratulations from my instructor while my wife is still video taping and he asks me if I was nervous. I showed him that I had no sweaty palms and felt really good about flying solo. Then, as I stepped back toward the door to get my belongings organized. BONK! I hit my head on the flap! Ouch, that hurt! No dancing for me. :-(

18.1 hours and only one minor head injury. It's great to have this major milestone complete!

Click here for the video of this historic event. It is 11.4MB and can be played with Windows Media Player.