Friday, April 12, 2013

First solo flight and my quest to become a private pilot for fun!

This year I started my journey to accomplish a childhood dream of earning my private pilot license to have the freedom and skill to fly aircraft in my free time. This past week I completed my first solo flight successfully at KPAO airport in Palo Alto! It was exciting when my instructor, Gordon Reade at Sundance Flying Club stepped out after signing my logbook to solo and wished me luck before I taxi and took off from Runway 31. After the tower granted me clearance to take off, I lined up and used full throttle to rotate (Vr) at about 55kts in the Cessna 172SP aircraft (837SP) to complete my first solo flight of three takeoffs and landings in the traffic pattern over the bay at KPAO airport. It was fun and best of all I was relaxed and confident in my newly acquired skills. All three landings were smooth on touchdown and my instructor congratulated me on a solo flight well done. Now I look forward to completing my cross country flights and passing my checkride to receive my private pilot license!

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