RETROSPECTIVE; THE DAY YOU NEVER FORGET.....

Over five years ago now, how time flies, but the flight leading to that little entry in red ink in my logbook is still as clear in my mind as yesterday and I guess it is for most pilots - the first solo.

Saturday 18th February 2006

I had been having a frustrating time for around three months trying to be consistent enough in the circuit for one of the club B-Cats to let me go around on my own.  A few weeks before I had flown a pretty decent set of circuits only to screw up a go-around, the instructor commenting that he couldn't let me go solo after that, dammit!!
So, I was up for a few more laps with Roger, our CFI, in C-152 aerobat, EJZ,and it was pretty busy in the circuit with CTC's Katanas buzzing around.  We did the full gamut of circuit work and things were OK, at least I didn't stuff up a go-around, in fact, I remember Roger saying, "Nothing wrong with that", or words to that effect.  We were landing parallel with a Katana which was drifting towards us and I was keeping my eyes on that, being very conscious that two planes had collided at Palmerston North recently.  Roger told that he was eyeballing the CTC guy and to just concentrate on flying and after our touch-and-go told me to make the next one a full stop.  Well, it was close to 1700 and time to pack it in I thought.
We touched down and Roger told me to taxi off the runway and stop once clear.  That done, he turned to me and said that it was all fine and I should now taxi up closer to the club where he would let himself out and get me to do, "A couple on my own".  Once I had picked my jaw up from my lap I stammered something like, "Do you think I am ready" to which Roger replied that he wouldn't let me go if he wasn't sure I would be OK.
And I was, OK, that is.  I did two circuits, the touch and go and final landing both fine, remembering the plane was a lot lighter now and didn't come down so quickly.  The tower called a "congratulations" to me which I actually missed as I was too quick on the button to reply to the taxi instruction - well, I was pretty excited!!

EJZ - pictured on 14th January 2005 - the day I took my first trial flight.  No longer at WAC but JGP in the background is still here in Hamilton

So pleased.  We were out to dinner as a family that evening as eldest daughter was off to University in Wellington the next day, the first to "flee the nest"; so we had something else to celebrate, too.