I finally did my first solo flight. I could have done it earlier but was delayed for a couple weeks by lack of medical certificate and weather. After getting certificate I scheduled flight on Saturday, August 12 praying for the weather to cooperate. When met by instructor at the airport I was told that wind is pretty strong (12knots) and is not a good for the first solo. That put me down a bit. Anyways, we went up and flew to practice area to do some ground reference maneuvers hoping for the winds to calm down when we return. On the way back I checked ATIS weather and it was still at 12 knots and air was a bit bumpy. We did 4 touch and go's and all of them were good, in fact much better than last time. The wind was almost along the runway with little crosswind component so I handled it easily. After landing I observed struggle on my instructor's face. He certainly did not want to let me solo in winds exceeding 8 knots, on the other hand he saw that I handled it well and did 4 consistently good landings in a row (one of them involved distraction and changing pattern - traffic on final approach). Also we felt pressure of waiting too long on this day, so while taxiing he contacted ground control to double check wind again and ask for the last hours trends. :) The answer was the wind stays the same for the last three hours. Ouch! We parked the plane and went inside to talk about scheduling our next attempt on Monday. Feeling a bit sad I got outside heading to my car and immediately felt that wind was less than 12kts, heck I smelled it. I turn around and go inside passing by instructor and mumbling "...hmm...lemmy double check..." going straight to the computer and pulling aviationweather.com. Yes, METAR shows 8kts variable wind. While I'm staring at the screen he comes by, looks over my shoulder and asks "So-o, you think you can handle that?". The answer was: " Well, I don't want to pressure you but I think so." (while thinking: "Hell, yes! You saw that." :) ) I turn around and see him smiling and holding my logbook. "You know the drill, I'll see you back after you do three take-offs/landings." - and handed the logbook and keys over to me.
I did a quick fuel and oil check and jump in the plane, it was still warm after our flight. Yes, it does feel much roomier inside C-152 without instructor on board :). Started engine, checked weather and contacted ground for taxi clearance. Funny, first time in my practice they asked me not to use taxiway but go through the airport near fueling station. So there I went hiding behind hangars in route to runway 34R. At the run-up check I found that engine was running rough on right magneto so had to clean it up by leaning mixture and running at 2000rpm for 30 seconds. After that pretake-off check went smooth and all gauges were in green. I tuned to the tower and made that dreaded call: "Paine tower, Cessna 67991 at 34R ready for take-off for closed traffic." And mind you, they did clear me for take-off. So, taxi in position, full power, roll along and lift-off. Once in the air, I thought I'd ask myself the same classic question first-timers ask: "What the heck are you doing here alone?" But I didn't. Well, I couldn't because I was smiling to much and everytime I started thinking like that the answer hardwired in my brain popped out right away: "I'm here to fly the damn airplane!" :) Three landings were pretty consistent, one better one worse but all good so this part was sort of uneventful. The only thing I noticed it ended too fast, I wanted more. When I exited the runway and contacted tower they congratulated me and I thanked them back. I really feel thankful to controllers for their job, to my instructor, and to my wife for her support of my endeavor. I have some work to do to get the license but something changed tonight. I can fly, I can go up there and can safely go down, my dream has come true. Awesome feeling.
