On Dec. 3, 2004 …..which, by the way can also be written as 1234, I had the most memorable time in my life. A true dream come true. I soloed my own plane, that is by myself, as Jim has said that I had soloed….it was just that he was in the back seat. To me that’s not soloing. Anyway, Jim had said, “you’ll have to ask me to get out”, I might think you are ready, but YOU must also believe you are ready. THAT is the hardest part for me. First, I have all the confidence in the world in Jim. But more so I enjoy having him in the back seat. I started on this long trip about a year ago. And as I call it I was poking it with a stick. For anyone reading this or anyone you know who is thinking about taking lessons, be honest with them and tell them not to even start until they can devote a specific block of time to taking lessons. They will retain more and it will take them a much shorter period of time.

All total, it took me 27hours. That is ridiculous for anyone. But like I said it was hit and miss, with a lot of misses……………On with the story.

 

My thoughts, as I remember them (I’ve been too excited to write them down) of my first solo flight.

It was very early, about 6AM, when I arrived at Erie to take another lesson. Jim wanted to get started early as possible to take advantage of the calm winds and cool temperature.

We sat and had a cup of coffee, visited about what we were going to do this morning. Jim said that we would go up fly out of the pattern and just enjoy the scenery. We had to wait a little bit so we would be legal and take off just before daybreak.

As the sun was just starting to break out over the horizon, we took off. Very uneventful, except that the view was breathtaking! I had never seen the sun come up before from the air. Plus I was gaining enough confidence that I could actually look away from the instrument panel long enough to enjoy the view. (Up until now the only time I would take that chance was when Jim would say “I’ve got the plane and you can relax”.) I had not had much of a problem with my take offs and felt real good this morning too.

We climbed out to 1000 ft. and leveled off. We flew around the Rock River and the town of Erie. Next Jim said let’s follow the interstate for a little while. After a few minutes Jim said “Ok, Ted, I’m your passenger take me back to Erie and land” (PANIC) The one thing Jim knew was I have a very poor sense of direction. You’re thinking…..the sun comes up in the East and goes down in the West. Right? I didn’t even know where my legs were at that point! Apparently, I don’t do well under pressure.

Anyway, I gathered my thoughts, looked at the map in my head, realized where I was in relationship to the airpark and started my gradual turn back to the airpark. (Oh yes! I double checked with my GPS just to make sure. I’m not totally stupid!!)

I flew over the airpark to check the windsock and the Tetrahedron to see what the wind was doing and the direction………….fantastic! It was calm!!

We continued over the airpark and past the pattern, made a semicircle, dropped to 800’ for pattern altitude and started my approach.

At this point all was well and I’ll skip the detail until it came time to set her down. I was too high and slow (I hadn’t adjusted my airspeed correctly), so I gave it full throttle and went around. Just before we would have broken both gear legs and landed on her belly, I suspect…………..remember, at this point Jim is my passenger.

The landing, as I remember it was somewhat anticlimactic unless you consider a little porpoise maneuver at the very end. We landed and Jim said “great job! You can do it all, you just have to put it all together. You can do it”

 

I taxied over to the club house and asked Jim “do you really think I’m ready?” Jim said, “Ted you’ve been ready for the past two weeks!” This is when I had to make the biggest and hardest decision in my life. I had to ask Jim to leave so I could solo. Jim has grown to be a very good friend of mine and I really hated to ask him to get out. I felt by doing so I was conceited or thought I was more than I was. But the time had come to cut the apron strings. It was either now or never!

Jim stepped out of the plane and made a move to walk away, stepped back in, plugged in his headsets and said “remember, Ted, GOD is your copilot.” (that meant a lot to me) He continued to walk clear of the plane. I closed the doors and secured them. Jim popped me a salute and I taxied to the end of the runway.

When I got to the end of the runway, I was still arguing with myself about my abilities, especially after that last trip with Jim. I almost backed out and then I said it’s either fly now or sell the plane. And I gave her the throttle to head down the runway.

With full throttle I lifted off with no problems. Remember that never was one of my problems. But boy did I ever lift off. I had expected to go up quicker, without Jim in the back, but this was ridiculous!!

Jim had always said not to back off the throttle while making a turn and I was turning out as I had many times before, but I wasn’t watching my altimeter. I entered the downwind leg, and was just going to stay at 400’ ft., do my approach and land. When I looked down at the altimeter, I was at 1200’! I decided to leave the pattern since I knew that the Challenger doesn’t like to come down. I flew out to the Rock River, calmed down a little and powered back. I came back down to 800’ used the radio and stated I was entering the downwind leg for runway 1-8. (previously I had trouble flying the plane and talking on the radio at the same time………..but I can walk down the street and chew bubblegum at the same time so…) I flew the pattern and used the radio …..I was proud of myself for that part. When I came to land I felt I thought I could set her down but Jim said it was good to make a pass first (to adjust air speed and rpms for weight difference) My fly by was almost like the last, with a little porpoise action, but I felt good not tooooooo nervous.

I climbed out to 400’ flew the pattern, used the radio, made my turns, lined up on the runway but I was below 300’ feet! (PANIC) So I throttled up pulled back on the stick, got back to 300’ just in time to shut her down for the landing. “Watch you’re airspeed! Keep it at 60mph! Drop your nose a little. Watch that airspeed! A little closer, a little closer…Now hold it off, hold it off, hold it off.” Jim’s voice was with me the whole time even if he wasn’t back there.

The landing was about as good as I’ll probably ever have, mainly because my mind went blank somewhere in there and I was on the ground with no “new” bent gear legs!

I made it!!

I shut her down. (I wanted to kiss the plane, I was so excited!)

Jim Robinson deserves some kind of an award for being able to teach me to fly. He has more patience then anyone I have ever met. And now I accomplished a life long dream.

If I can do it anyone can!!!