Pilot September 2017

African Skies | Going Solo

http://www.pilotweb.aero Pilot September 2017 | 77

I have no idea if this was good training,
but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Madam tried
to teach me sensible stuff but generally
despaired of me.
For contrarian reasons I decided not to
solo until as late as possible−the idea was
for me first to accumulate enough hours
for a CPL which I would do
in the USA. This meant I
put off going solo until
about 200 hours if I was
also to get the requisite
PIC hours before heading
Stateside.
My first, late, solo
caused some consternation
to Madam who had, weeks
before, signed my logbook
authorising me to fly
alone. Flashheart was aloft
in a Fuji with one of our
new directors−also an
aerobatic enthusiast. I was

in my office, bored. Madam was in her

office, hard at work: situation normal.

Sitting outside my office window was

another perfectly good Fuji. The sky was

blue. There was no traffic. I sneaked

outside, preflighted very quietly, strapped

on a parachute and started up. Soon I was

Not exactly a

timid first solo!

airborne. I called up Flashheart and

explained my intentions. I climbed a

couple of thousand feet above his Fuji and

with his energetic vocal encouragement

started playing in the sky. Yaroo! I was

rolling! I admit to being a little timid all on

my own but what fun. So, a rather late