i believe i can fly!!!!

"i believe i can fly".... its not just a song anymore... i can fly... and its an awesome feeling... its taken me close to 7 months to get to this point... way more than normal... but heck!!! who cares???? I'VE SOLOED!!!! sighhhh.... wat an awesome feeling... "on top of the world"... makes so much more sense to me now... i still envy the birds... but then again,,, im as close to doing wat they do as anyone ever will be... :D for anyone who choses to read on, i will elaborate...

the week before the solo: it had been 20 days since i had last flown... weather had played spoilsport for a while and then it was the maintainence issues... wen i finally got to fly, it was only to find out i had gone from good to really-bad... i seemed to have forgotten how to fly!!!! very depressing... emoted quite a bit... tears ran free... wondered why i ever thought of flying... wondered more if i wasnt good enough... (i hate that thought!)...

here's where my instructor comes in... asked me to stop-being-a-girl and adjust my attitude... Ron, the credit seriously goes to u!!! ur the best!!! well, ron felt there was one basic criteria i had to satisfy if i had to solo - i had to be able to land the plane... simple huh??? easier said than done... hour after hour of traffic patterns... radio calls... stabilized approaches... extending downwinds... and yes... how could i forget... touch n gos... each landing was an adventure on its own... i bounced... i ballooned... i did things which made me think id never ever be able to land... and i said so aloud... n got lectured for it... :D

the week progressed... but as far as i was concerned, i didnt... :D friday came... n the 17th touch n go in succession... for the first time ever,,, i did all of it... ron chose to remain quiet... well... to cut a long story short... it wasnt so bad... i was ready for my solo...

eve of the solo: it was my friend's bday... stayed up waiting for her to get back from her flight... didnt happen quick enough... had to sleep... was terribly sleep deprived... fell asleep,,, but i just couldnt sleep soundly... had only one thing in mind - had to come back alive! ;)

solo day: woke up in time... (not a big thing really.... sleep evaded me after dawn)... walked to school... preflight prep all done... walked to the plane for the preflight inspection... turned on the master... nothing happened... no fluctuating gauges... no noise from the gyro... no nothing...

this was so incredible it actually made me smile in disbelief... was it a sign from above??? well,,, apparently not... just some idiot leaving the master on all night... S-O-S called ron... we got another plane,,, i rushed back to preflight the new one (sprained my foot in the process)... also got to see some hand-propping... finally... we started taxiing... n guess wat,,, the airplane stopped on the taxiway... hah! wat did i do then? just wat my instructor asked me to do... start the plane again n carry on... :D well, throughout the taxiing i was briefed on wat i should do... each plane handles differently... n i did so want to solo on 733AD... well... certain things r not meant to be... so 9737V it was...

i did 3 touch n gos with ron... thats all he wanted... 3 reasonable landings n i was good to go... well... i must say... ron is a man of his words... we taxiied back... he jumped out... signed my solo endorsements n walked off... i was all alone... gleep!

the solo flight: words cant describe wat one feels during the fist ever solo flight... i can try though... its by far the most exciting thing ive done all my life... the winds that day were calm too... the airplane seemed to be having as much fun as i was... it was like i was out for a walk with my dog... i couldnt help telling myself "i love this",,, over n over again... it was beautiful... just too good... n better still,,, it was true...

the time came for my first solo landing... ive never concentrated so much on anything else ever in my life... to my joy n to a certain degree, surprise, it went off well... a pretty good landing i would say... ron's voice on the radio : "that was easy"... i was so thrilled, i giggled.... after that the frequency of "im loving this" increased... the second landing was a bit bouncy, but who cares... :D the third was pathetic... but still who cares??? i had accomplished something... i had proven to myself i could... I HAD SOLOED!!!