I woke up this morning to a text message from Matt asking if I had my student pilot certificate. I said yes, and he told me not to wear my best shirt today. I put on my dear old blue shirt that has been with me through thick and thin over the past few years and drove to the airport.
We boarded N9545F and took off. We made two landings and after the second one Matt told me to park on the ramp. I shut down the engine, and Matt mounted a camera in the cockpit.
When he finished, he said, "Give me three takeoffs and three landings," and began walking away.
"Roger that!" I replied, and hopped in.
"If you need anything, I'll be inside on the handheld radio."
I started up and taxiied to runway 4. After completing the run-up, I took off, flew a circle around the traffic pattern, and landed. After taxiing back to the runway, I did another 2 takeoffs and landings, then parked the plane. Matt and a lineman were waiting on the ramp, and they pushed me back into the parking spot while I took off the seatbelt and put away my headset.
I hopped out, and Matt said, "Congrats, man!"
"Thanks!" I replied.
The lineman took a picture of us in front of the plane, then we walked inside the terminal. As I stepped through the automatic door, I was greeted by a round of applause from a crowd of people from Sporty's. One by one they all shook my hand and congratulated me. Then Matt; Paul Jurgens, Vice President of Sporty's Academy and Chief Instructor; Charlie Masters, Flight School Manager; and I went into the Eastern Cincinnati Aviation office where Matt cut off my shirt tail and presented me with a solo certificate. Paul Jurgens gave me a challenge coin and explained the story behind the traditional cutting of the shirt tail.
Years ago, before the days of headsets and cockpit intercoms, many pilots learned to fly in tandem cockpit airplanes, with the instructor sitting behind the student. The instructor would have to yell to communicate with his student, and to get his attention, the instructor would yank on the student's shirt tail. Upon completion of the student's first solo, the instructor would cut off the student's shirt tail as a symbol showing that he no longer needed to be pulling on it. Even though we now wear headsets and can hear each other in the cockpit, the tradition is still practiced to this day.
Then Mr. Jurgens gave me a Sporty's Academy T-shirt to wear instead of the one that was cut and welcomed me to the Pilot in Command club.
At 4 pm, Matt had the plane scheduled again, and he said I could go by myself and knock out some solo hours. I asked if I was supposed to practice any maneuvers, and he replied, "You can do whatever you want! You can go out to the practice area, you can stay in the pattern, you can fly down to Fleming-Mason. Or you can just fly around. Whatever you want to do."
That was cool to hear! I decided to fly down to Morehead, Kentucky again, but some thunderstorms popped up on the route at the last minute, so I just flew around the practice area for a little over an hour. Then I came back to the airport and made a several landings before parking again.
The third and final flight of the day was with Matt again. We got all but 0.3 hours of the required simulated instrument time done and also finished all the night hours.
Today's flying added 4.2 hours and 13 landings to the logbook, which brings the totals to 31.6 hours and 96 landings.
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