Today is a nice day Weather is collaborating, it is shinny out, temperature is mild for the season and the winds are pretty low. My fiancée took the day off and I was trying to convince her to come for a flight. She agreed a little reluctantly. The flights are, of course, more fun for me than for her sitting in the back of the plane, which I can fully understand.

What are we putting on the menu today?

So we headed down the flight school to get that extra lessons. Probably the last one before going back to France tomorrow. I have scheduled another class for tomorrow morning but I need to check my flight time to see if it is not colliding. I still have to pack everything to get on my way. As I’m driving up to the school, I’m trying to imagine where we can go during the flight so that my fiancée gets to enjoy some of the landscape that I have discovered since I started this adventure. We’ve already been to the East Practice Area so she has already seen the lakes. I’m thinking going to Crystal Lake and see the little airport would be fun. Moreover, we pass through the Crystal Lake by car twice, while going to Oklahoma and to go see my daughter’s horse in a horse show. It should be fun to see the city from a different angle and see if she can identify some of the features we saw from the ground.

Arrival at the flight school

Arriving at the school, I can see Michael in the main building so I’m going to him to explain what I had in mind. I thought after all, that we should be able to skip a lesson and just enjoy the ride. But as he sees my fiancée and I’m starting to explain that she might come with us, his face completely changed. I felt that something was not going as planned and asked him what was going on. He told me that actually he had planned something else for today. He said: “You know the thing we talked about?”. My answer was simple: “Yes, solo?”. “Exactly! I was waiting for the correct weather and today is perfect for that. So I was planning your solo for today!”. Well, this is not something I would like to postpone as it is marking for me an important milestone. The one that says that after 6 weeks, I’m capable of performing the basic maneuvers all by myself. That includes take off and landing but also going around the pattern and communicating on the radio.

I understood immediately that the presence of my fiancée is causing a problem. What is happening is that most of the flight school do not announce the date you will do your solo because they do not want family members around the airport when it is done. It’s not that there is anything secret about it, it’s just that too many students want to do good in front of their family and tend to had pressure to themselves. The extra pressure is of course not good because it’s the first time you will be on board a plane by yourself and pressure sources should be kept to a minimum. It’s stressful enough by itself.

Personally, I do not feel any pressure from my fiancée being there or not. I’m letting Michael knows that her presence will not be a problem but he is very skeptical. She is allowed to stay but I can feel that she is not very welcome there and she will feel it a little later…

Plan for the flight

The plan for a solo flight is the following. First, the instructors come with you to do a couple of cycle to see if everything is going as planned and evaluate the student. Some students start to stress about the fact that they will be soon by themselves and tends to not do the different maneuvers properly. It is therefore important to check them before letting them go out with a plane. Once the instructor is sure that everything is ok, he will then leave the plane and the student will really start the solo part of the solo. The solo requirements are fairly simple. The student should accomplish 3 full cycles and come to a complete stops after each landing. It is pretty straightforward and this is something that we have done close to 50 or 60 times before that date. Except that Michael was always there in case of a mistake or problem…

On to going around the pattern!

So on we go with our routine, I’m checking the weather and get that the wind is 190 at 4. 4 knots is fairly low and the 190 means it is pretty much aligned with the runway (180) so we don’t have a crosswind situation and the wind would be too low to have a real influence anyway. We are continuing the preflight check up, run up the engine and after declaring our intention, we are starting to back taxi. The take off like the rest of the pattern is uneventful. Everything go very smoothly! Even the landing was pretty good. A little bubbling but nothing bad. This time, we will not go to a full stop and we are just doing a touch and go. So we are back for a second pattern immediately after the first landing.

Second pattern: Can we make the runway a little longer?

We are on our second pattern and I’m flying downwind. Everything is going fine but suddenly as we are almost abeam the number, Michael call an (simulated) emergency on a lost engine and manage to put at the same time the engine on idle. I immediately start the ABC. A is for Airspeed and my speed is not right. I’m going too fast. I’m at 80 and I should be at 65. I’m adjusting the pitch to loose speed and the airplane reacts immediately by loosing the extra speed. I then pitch the plane down to maintain a constant airspeed of 65. A is done! I can move to B. B is for Best Field. Well this one is obvious because I have the airport right near me so I should be able to land there, banking the airplane, I’m aiming for the numbers. Everything is going fine. I’m approaching the numbers pretty quick and I’m starting the turn to align when I realized 2 things:

1. I haven’t done C!!! The procedure is then incomplete. C is for checks and it is to try to restart the engine. I mentioned it to Michael at the same time that I do another comments:
2. “I have not lost enough altitude!”. In other words, I’m coming too high and I will run out of runway.

I can’t say that these two comments pleased Michael! On the contrary, that upset him! Basically, we are in an emergency situation with the airport in front of us to land. At that moment, I should not have thought about the procedure but do whatever it takes to get the plane down. That means:

1. Forget about C, we should focus on putting the plane on the runway instead of trying to restart the engine.
2. Use what ever is takes to loose the altitude and land. This means to basically deploy the flaps totally to bleed all the speed and altitude possible in the shortest amount of time.

The touchdown happened mid field of the runway, which is technically fine but I could have touched earlier, which would have increased the safety aspect.

Michael is hinting that the presence of my fiancée on the airport might be the source of the mistakes and I went to explain that there or not I would have done the mistakes. I think my honesty convinced him because he did not mention it again. I was truly doing that mistakes only because I wanted to do too well and wanted to complete the ABC procedure. It was an honest mistakes. One that I would not do again for sure.

At that point, I’m wondering if I have not blown my opportunity for my solo. It was a big mistake before a solo: not completing the emergency procedure without the instructor intervening. For the moment, we are starting cycle 3. I guess I’m good for another cycle.

Third cycle: On for another round

I’m now downwind and I’m thinking we will redo a regular landing when once again close to being abeam the number, Michael declares another emergency. I’m surprised and pleased a the same time but now I feel the pressure of performing well. I can’t screw up twice! And the pressure is coming from Michael, not my fiancée. So here I go with my truncated ABC! A is done, B is obvious, I’m left with piloting and this time, I do not worry/bother to C but also as soon as I’m realizing that I will make the runway, I drop the flaps completely down and performed a proper landing without any intervention from Michael! Exactly what the doctor prescribed! I can start relaxing! I’m starting to like these emergencies! Of course, as long as they are staying simulated!

We are now taxiing  and go clear the runway. On the way to the taxiway, Michael tells me that it would be my turn and reminds me that the plane will act differently because he will not be inside (less weight). It’s like cars, when you are alone, you get a very different feeling then when you have people on board.

He then managed to talk about my fiancée being present. I can feel that he is not feeling right about it. It is bothering him pretty badly. It is perceived as a safety issue. I can understand that easily and remind him that it will have no impact at all on my way of piloting the plane. I’m telling him that if he feels that she has a bad influence on me, he should let me go and I will ask her to leave the airport. I have no problem with that. I want to succeed the solo flight and I know that the quality of the cycles will reflect on Michael as an instructor. So if anything the most pressure for me is to come from the flight school and not from my fiancée. I think he saw that I understood the situation and that I had enough control over the situation to do a proper job. He stepped out of the airplane and I’m now left alone in the cockpit on the taxiway ready to go in the air. The moment Michael closed the door, my memory transported me immediately back to June 1994. Precisely the day after I got my driving license and I was left by myself in the car. This very moment where you know that there is no one to help you recover your mistake and that you are fully in charge of anything that happen in and to the car! It’s not so much that you are afraid to get yourself killed or injured but more about having that little accident that would damage the vehicle. At least that’s what my impressions were at the time!

End of the flashback and I’m dismissing the idea of a accident or damage to the plane immediately. I have practiced so many landings (officially: 122!) and so many of these by myself that I can land that plane without a scratch. It might not be elegant but it will on the ground in one piece. What I’m afraid is to get the plane in a position that I do not recognize immediately as requiring a cancellation of the landing. A little bit like what happened a few days ago with the soft field landings in Turkey Mountain!

As I’m approaching the runway threshold, I’m realizing now I’m about ready to perform my first flight by myself! How exciting!