{"id":285,"date":"2010-08-27T04:00:59","date_gmt":"2010-08-27T08:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joeclarksblog.wordpress.com\/?p=285"},"modified":"2010-08-27T04:00:59","modified_gmt":"2010-08-27T08:00:59","slug":"first-solo-new-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/?p=285","title":{"rendered":"First Solo,\u00a0New\u00a0Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, this evening at about a quarter before seven, I will celebrate the 39th<\/sup> anniversary of my first solo.\u00a0 The day I soloed, it was raining hard.\u00a0 I got off work at the propeller shop and headed straight for Charlie\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Passing through Plant City, the rain started to ease.\u00a0 Then the sky began to lighten just a little; maybe it was my imagination, but I believed it was improving.<\/p>\n

I was not surprised at all when Charlie said he could fly me only in the pattern.\u00a0 The fact that he said I would not be able to solo went in one ear and out the other.\u00a0 The only thing I was interested in was perfecting my landings.\u00a0 I really didn\u2019t care about the weather, leaving the pattern, or soloing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After flying for a while, Charlie turned to me and said it was time.\u00a0 I looked at my watch and sure enough, we had been airborne the customary 30 minutes.\u00a0 It seemed as though we had just started!<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, what do you think?\u201d he asked over the chugging of the little Continental.\u00a0 \u201cDo you think you could take this airplane around the pattern by yourself?\u201d<\/p>\n

Instinctively, I said yes.\u00a0 As I did, I wondered why my mouth said that.\u00a0 I was also acutely aware my body was now turning to Jell-O!<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about the weather?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t worry about it.\u00a0 It\u2019s perfect,\u201d Charlie reported.\u00a0 \u201cNow she is going to feel a little different and she\u2019ll fly a little better without my weight in there.\u201d\u00a0 He leaned in and adjusted the seatbelt of the seat he had just vacated.\u00a0 \u201cShe\u2019ll have a tendency to climb faster and float more on landing.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he finished securing the belt, the old man looked at me and said, \u201cYou\u2019re on your own, now.\u00a0 Take it around once and bring it back to the hangar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why was I scared?\u00a0 What was there to be afraid of?\u00a0 As I back taxied along the runway, I wondered what I got myself into.\u00a0 And I wondered what the outcome would be.\u00a0 But deep down, really deep down in the innermost reaches of my being, I knew.\u00a0 I really knew…<\/p>\n

I knew I could do it!<\/p>\n

I looked around one last time for any other airplanes in the pattern and saw none.\u00a0 Then I brought the power up a little more and swung the airplane out into the center of the grass runway.\u00a0 With a deep breath, I eased the throttle all the way forward.\u00a0 I eased the tail up and I applied a little right rudder.<\/p>\n

I could feel the Cub getting light on her wheels and noticed the airspeed indicator passing 45 mph.\u00a0 I pulled on a little more backstick pressure making the load on the mains even lighter.\u00a0 A couple of more moments went by and the tires slowly eased off the earth.\u00a0 When the airspeed indicator nudged 55, I brought the nose higher and 69H and I, alone for the first time, started climbing into the late afternoon Florida skies.<\/p>\n

It was magnificent!<\/p>\n

For the first time in my life, I felt as though I had control over what was going to happen to me.\u00a0 No one else had input or a say over what was going to happen.\u00a0 It was up to me.\u00a0 Me!\u00a0 Alone!<\/p>\n

I looked down to the earth as 69 Hotel and I climbed into the sky.\u00a0 I saw Charlie standing next to the runway as I passed over his house and the sheds, and then over Wiggins Road. The western sky was magnificent!\u00a0 The sun shone through the humid air and reflected off the dust and haze making for a beautiful sunset.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Six Niner Hotel and I reached 700 feet on downwind and I looked at the ground.\u00a0 Specifically, I looked at Charlie\u2019s little airstrip.\u00a0 It was a sight I had seen many times in the past four weeks and it looked comfortable and familiar.\u00a0 All at once, I became aware my breathing had returned to normal and things were okay.<\/p>\n

Then I started laughing!\u00a0 I guess it was a nervous laugh, I was not really sure.\u00a0 Then I had the thought that, I am really alone in this airplane.<\/em>\u00a0 The seat up front seemed awfully empty and I could actually see the instrument panel and read the airspeed indicator for a change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As I turned final, I thought nothing about what I was doing, only about what I had to do.\u00a0 I could see Charlie at the far end of the runway and I looked at the sky.\u00a0 I thought of the significance of the moment one more time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The end of the runway was coming up and I could see the fenceline.\u00a0 As the fence passed underneath the wheels, I brought the stick back beginning the flare.\u00a0 As 69H slowed down, I kept it from landing by adding more and more backpressure.\u00a0 At first, she wanted to climb, undoubtedly the difference between flying the airplane with Charlie up front as opposed to alone.\u00a0 I kept the airplane tracking down the runway and as the stick reached the full back position, I could feel the wing sigh into the stall.\u00a0 Suddenly, the weight of the airplane left the wing and transferred to the wheels.<\/p>\n

I taxied up to the shed where Charlie was standing. \u00a0The little Continental ticked over evenly at 550 rpm and after I stopped the airplane, I sat there for a moment.\u00a0 Then I raised my hand and cut the mag switch off.\u00a0 The propeller whirled to a stop and the cylinders began making tinkling and crackling noises as they cooled down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My solo was over. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, I am only 39…\u00a0<\/p>\n

-30-<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2010 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, this evening at about a quarter before seven, I will celebrate the 39th anniversary of my first solo.\u00a0 The day I soloed, it was raining hard.\u00a0 I got off work at the propeller shop and headed straight for Charlie\u2019s.\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,8,9],"tags":[79,989,1422,1906,2002,2136,2528,2753,2806,3118,4247,4366],"class_list":["post-285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation","category-flying-2","category-life-in-general","category-personal","tag-39th-anniversary","tag-control-over-my-life","tag-first-solo","tag-i-knew-i-could-do-it","tag-it-was-time","tag-late-afternoon-florida-skies","tag-new-birthday","tag-perfecting-landings","tag-piper-j-3","tag-safe-landing","tag-what-was-there-to-be-afraid-of","tag-youre-on-your-own"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joeclarksblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}