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What to expect on your first solo flight

The first solo flight is one of the milestones that a student pilot will encounter in the course of his private pilot training. Simply put, the solo flight is the first ever flight done by the student under his own supervision. There would be no flight instructor in the right seat; it is simply the student alone who is in charge of the aircraft.

When can a student expect to go solo for the first time? The circumstances vary.

Technically, an instructor will endorse the student for a first solo after the trainee shows that he or she has earned enough mastery in the basics of flying. The actual timing would vary from instructor to instructor, since some instructors judge students differently.

As a pilot trainee, you should half expect the instructor to just tell that it’s time for you to take on your first solo flight.

A student pilot’s first solo is usually done in the early morning since at this time the weather is usually calmer and there are fewer pilots flying. This is to ensure that the level of difficulty for your first solo will not go out of hand. It also starts routinely, with the instructor telling the trainee to demonstrate a few landings and takeoffs. When the instructor is satisfied, he’d ask you to stop and then he’ll get off the airplane. At this point, the aircraft is yours!

Now it’s time to bust the myth: there’s nothing fancy about your first solo flight. You typically are instructed to demonstrate at least three take-offs and landing.

Before you know it, your first solo flight is over. You exit the airplane as a student pilot.

Greeted by your instructor who’s ready to cut your shirt.

What’s with the shirt cutting?

Typically your instructor will cut your shirt tail after your solo. How did this aviation tradition come about? Well back in the old days flight training was conducted in tandem seating aircraft. (seating front to back) The flight instructor would sit in the rear seat and since radio intercoms weren’t around just yet the instructor would pull on the right or left side of a students shirt tail to tell them when to turn and help direct them back to the airport. Hence, cutting your shirt tail shows that you no longer need any direction.

Perfecting your flight maneuvers

As useful as they are, maneuvers are also difficult to learn especially for students. It is only normal to get frustrated finding that you may not get a specific maneuver done correctly the first time you are taught it. You’ll always find that you may make some sort of error at the early days of learning the maneuver. Don’t worry, that is very normal.

However, it is also imperative that you learn to execute maneuvers correctly as soon as possible.

Here are five tips for improving your flight maneuvers quickly:

Familiarize Yourself With the Procedure

Though at first glance a maneuver looks like a single move, it is actually a routine. As a routine, it is made up of procedures that the pilot follows closely in order to execute the maneuver. Thus, the first step to improving your flight maneuvers is to understand the step that precedes it. Take some time to sit down with your instructor, and have him discuss with you the necessary procedure for executing the maneuver. Discussions can also help you establish your own, customized procedure for the maneuver.

Prepare a Pre-maneuver Checklist

Each maneuver requires preparation before you can execute it. Thus, you have to make and take to heart a pre-maneuver checklist that you will follow before and after the execution of the maneuver. A pre-maneuver checklist consists of specific settings within the aircraft itself; this information can be found in the POH that comes with your aircraft.

An example of this is doing the PARC checklist:

Premaneuver checklist (fuel selector valve both, lights on, mixture rich, primer locked) Area to land (choose an emergency area to land in the event of a mishap)

Radio call (Make a radio call to announce your position in the practice area) Clearing turns (perform your clearing turns)

Understand the Purpose of the Maneuver

In martial arts, every technique and form that is taught to every student has a purpose.

They may look like pre-determined set of movements but each movement has an application in combat. Thus, understanding the reason for such a movement will certainly help a student execute the move correctly.

The same is true for flight maneuvers; in order to perfect them, you would need to take to heart the purpose of such a maneuver. For example, pilots don’t practice stalls to introduce one during flight. Instead, the practice is designed to rehearse recovery from a stall.

Be Able to Recite Your Maneuver Procedures

The mark of mastery is when you can both execute the maneuver and describe them verbally. You need to be able to memorize the procedure enough to discuss it in front of your instructor and fellow students. You should be able to explain each maneuver to your instructor. Gain a mastery of what to do and when. This is something you can practice driving, while at work, or instead of singing in the shower!

Grab a Copy of Your Practical Test Standards

In aviation, each level of training has a set of standards that govern their instruction.

When up in the air, the pilot is bound to these standards for both safety and practical purposes. For example, private pilot slow flight standards are plus or minus 100 feet plus or minus 10 degrees of heading and plus 10 knots of airspeed. It is your responsibility as the pilot to know these standards so if you don’t have a copy of your PTS grab one now.

Improving on your steep turns

Steep turns can be a nightmare for most student pilots. When not properly practiced, a pilot can end up in the wrong heading than intended. That is entirely normal for a student pilot, and they have their flight instructors to guide them through the process. Of course, as we mentioned earlier, it is not enough to just take the instructor’s word for it.

You need to find ways that you can improve your steep turns and building up on the knowledge that your CFI has provided you.

One thing to remember when trying to improve your steep turns is that these turns are entirely visual. You have to be able to acquire the ability to judge your angles via VFR.

Relying too much on instruments can be a bad habit to get into, while performing VFR maneuvers. It is actually easier to build up on your visual skills for our steep turns if you just know how to do it.

When practicing visual flight rules, we always find that there is a straight horizontal line right in front of this. This is the horizon, and this is the main point of reference pilots have for their banks and turns aside from the instruments. If you know how to take advantage of the horizon, you won’t have to rely on your attitude indicator unless the need really arises. The more things you can do visually, the better.

Here is a tip that you can make use of when performing steep turns visually. While flying straight ahead, note the horizon in the distance. This is a 90-degree horizontal line.

Imagine it as the bottom of a protractor. When looking at a protractor, you can see the markings for 30 degrees, 90 degrees, 45 degrees, so on and so forth. Steep turns are always at an angle. When determining your turn visually, keep your eye on the horizon and pick out the angle that you want to take for your turn. With that line, you simply maneuver the plane towards that angle using the centerline of your cockpit as a reference. You simply align the line of the horizon to that angle and you’re done.

So, if you’re taking a 45-degree bank for a 360-degree turn, simply gauge out 45 degrees and bank the aircraft until the visible line of the horizon takes a 45 degree tilt with respect to the centerline of your cockpit.

Last but not the least, when you roll out level, make sure to give the nose a slight downward attitude to prevent climbing up.

Perfect Crosswind landings

Another example of a maneuver that a pilot, whether private or commercial, needs to master is the crosswind landing. It is necessary because airports all across the world have runways that are positioned perpendicular to the direction the wind is playing thus forcing a pilot to make a difference approach.

Crosswind landings, though, are difficult to master and can be dangerous if you have some passengers aboard. Ask any CFI, or any flight student, which maneuvers or techniques that they find difficult. There would be many different answers but if you run a tally, you’ll find that the crosswind landing has the highest percentage among all the other replies to the survey.

As difficult as it is, it is also a useful skill to have when you are flying on your own. How can one master a perfect crosswind landing? Here is a procedure that you might find useful:

Ascertain the Direction of the Wind

The most important part of performing a crosswind landing is to determine the direction of the wind. Without knowing the direction of the wind, you will not be able to perform the landing because you don’t know where it’s coming from and how it can affect your landing approach. There are a variety of ways of ascertaining the direction of the wind and that would include calling in for information from the tower or listening to the

automated weather. The wind is sure to affect your heading a little bit as it blows from the side.

Take your time with the approach. You would not be able to get a most accurate feel for the wind direction without having to try several different approaches first. Once you get the hang of it, you’re ready for the next step of the procedure.

The Crab

When you’ve got the wind figured out, the next thing you need to do is prepare your crab approach for the final. To perform a crab, you would need an angle. This angle will be determined by wind direction and speed, which is why again you need to get a very good feel for the wind direction. Hold your crab angle as you descend to about 50 to 100 feet above ground level, and start the sideslip.

Sideslip

Most pilots think that to complete a crosswind landing, they need to maintain the crab approach until touch down. This is wrong because the objective is to to touch the upwind wheel first, and that can only be done with a sideslip. This is achieved by dipping (turning) your wing into the wind and using opposite rudder to help maintain centerline. By doing this, the main upwind wheel will touchdown first. The others will then follow as a result of airspeed loss. All you need to do afterwards is just to apply proper crosswind correction for taxiing.

Stalls

What are stalls? These are simply stalls that are induced by pilots in order to practice recoveries. Power on stalls are used for simulating stalls that arise out of any situation, for example a stall caused exceeding the critical angle of attack after rotation.

For student pilots, it is a must to learn how to practice stalls because it gives them an idea about what the real deal brings to them. The goal is to get them used to the scenario, thus preventing them from having panic attacks and be able to react accordingly to the situation. This will teach them to recover quickly and safely from the stall.

Everything always begins with the premaneuver checklist. After that is completed we can continue to our maneuver. In this situation we’ll simulate a power one (departure) stall. The first thing do is to slow down the plane, since planes are not that fast when on the ground. The goal is to reach rotation speed. When that happens, you apply power and back pressure on the yoke just like takeoff. What results then is a significant and rapid drop in airspeed due to the extreme nose-up attitude. Under these conditions, you can stall at any moment.

This is the most important part of the test: the recovery. The first thing that happens when you are stalling is that you start losing control of the plane. It will break either to the left or right. Since we already have full power, the best thing is to get the airspeed stable and get enough separation from the ground. There is enough separation in this exercise, but theoretically, there isn’t. What you need to do is get enough airspeed to prevent the aircraft from slamming down to the runway.

To correct breaks or horizontal directional changes, use a little rudder. At the same time, lower down the nose down attitude so the climb becomes shallow rather than steeply inclined so that you can slowly recover airspeed AND cruise away from the ground. If you get it right, you can see your airspeed start to recover and your altitude stabilize.

Flying under the hood

All pilots are trained to fly visually. Most of the times VFR is the chosen method of flying.

However, even private pilot applicants are required to have a minimum of 3 hours

“under the hood” before they can take their checkride.

Let’s look at a few instrument scanning techniques that can make your time under the hood easier and more enjoyable as a student.

The Wagon Wheel Technique

One of the most common techniques in reading the instrument panel is the wagon wheel technique. This involves looking at the instruments using a pattern that imitates the wheel of a wagon. Instead of using a clockwise pattern to read the instruments, you can simply refer to each of the instrument as a reference point in the wheel. Since we are dealing with a circular pattern here, we need a central point to orient himself. Pilots need to keep a horizon in their eyes and, without a horizon to anchor himself, what results will be disorientation or vertigo.

In the wagon wheel technique, Think of you attitude indicator as the central hub and you other instruments as the spokes. Each spoke leaves the hub to its destination and comes back to the hub. This is exactly what your eyes should be doing. Using the attitude indicator (your “artificial horizon”) and cross checking by looking at your altimeter, then back to you AI, double check your heading then back to your AI, so on and so forth.

The T-Scan Method

The T-scan method, like its name suggests, use a T-shaped pattern with the middle of the topmost portion of the T acting as your reference point. In this manner, it is the airspeed indicator that functions as your artificial horizon in this method. Now, starting with your airspeed indicator, you scan horizontally across checking your attitude indicator and altimeter. Then from your attitude indicator you scan downwards checking your heading indicator. With all of that information digested, you can use your turn coordinator and vertical speed indicator as supporting instruments.

While they may look simple, both the T-scan and the Wagon Wheel methods of scanning the instrument panel can still take some time to master. You should master these as early as you can in your private pilot education, and to do that you would need to take a lot of practice. The best time to do that is when you are sitting inside your cockpit in preparation for take off. It is much safer to rehearse than when you’re up in the air.