Great weekend for a beginner

Over the weekend I did my first complete takeoff and landing. We were
flying a Super Blanik, and the take off went just great. Then after he
tow, release, and flying around for about 30 minutes demonstrating
some stalls and forward slips and doing some thermaling, my instructor
told me to go ahead and find my reference point and start my pattern.
This was exciting because he had not mentioned letting me land this
day. I ran through the landing check list, found my aim point, made
my downwind, base leg, and final, used the brakes to maintain my glide
slope, flared... (holding my breath)... touchdown.

My instructor said I could just stay in the cockpit and he'd spin us
around... instead I requested to get out. He said 'um ok' sort of
puzzled. I got out and started doing cartwheels and jumping up and
down! Yeah I was that excited I had just completed an entire
flight without my instructor taking back the controls!

After that we did three more pattern flights ... what a big day for a
newbie!

Cartwheels???

What are you going to do after your first solo flight? Can we get it
posted to YouTube?

Ah, the exhileration!! Congratulations, and we'll hope you are
thrilled by all your flights.

"vic20owner" wrote in message
...
I had just completed an entire
flight without my instructor taking back the controls!

My compliments to your instructor! You don't know how lucky you are. I
had two instructors who did not understand the virtues of keeping their
hands off of the controls. Certain things MUST be demonstrated by your
instructor, and sometimes your instructor must take control for safety sake,
but allowing students to make full "virtual solos" whenever possible is a
real confidence builder.

When it was obviously time for my to solo, I finally had to ask to be
allowed to do that. I did not want to go up my myself without ever once
being allowed to fly a flight from start to finish.

Vaughn

In article ,
"vaughn" wrote:

"vic20owner" wrote in message
...
I had just completed an entire
flight without my instructor taking back the controls!

My compliments to your instructor! You don't know how lucky you are. I
had two instructors who did not understand the virtues of keeping their
hands off of the controls. Certain things MUST be demonstrated by your
instructor, and sometimes your instructor must take control for safety sake,
but allowing students to make full "virtual solos" whenever possible is a
real confidence builder.

When it was obviously time for my to solo, I finally had to ask to be
allowed to do that. I did not want to go up my myself without ever once
being allowed to fly a flight from start to finish.

Definitely a good thing to do. My instructor insisted on a couple of
what I think he called "ghost flights", where we'd fly and he'd say and
do nothing at all, so that by the time I did it for real it was just
more of the same (albeit with a very different feeling!).

Many congrats to the original poster. It's certainly a a big
accomplishment, and no doubt with more to follow soon!

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

"vaughn" wrote in message
...

"vic20owner" wrote in message
...
I had just completed an entire
flight without my instructor taking back the controls!

My compliments to your instructor! You don't know how lucky you are. I
had two instructors who did not understand the virtues of keeping their
hands off of the controls. Certain things MUST be demonstrated by your
instructor, and sometimes your instructor must take control for safety
sake, but allowing students to make full "virtual solos" whenever possible
is a real confidence builder.

When it was obviously time for my to solo, I finally had to ask to be
allowed to do that. I did not want to go up my myself without ever once
being allowed to fly a flight from start to finish.

Vaughn

As an instructor, the hardest thing I had to learn was to shut up in the
pattern and let the student go "un coached".

BT

I had just completed an entire
flight without my instructor taking back the controls!

My compliments to your instructor! You don't know how lucky you are. I
had two instructors who did not understand the virtues of keeping their
hands off of the controls. Certain things MUST be demonstrated by your
instructor, and sometimes your instructor must take control for safety sake,
but allowing students to make full "virtual solos" whenever possible is a
real confidence builder.

When it was obviously time for my to solo, I finally had to ask to be
allowed to do that. I did not want to go up my myself without ever once
being allowed to fly a flight from start to finish.

I have to say both of the instructors I have been with have been
great. The 1st instructor let me land on my 1st and 2nd lesson,
although he handled the air brakes and told me when to turn, and when
to flare, etc. This was a huge confidence builder and got me over the
fear of landing. Now I am flying with the full time instructor and
he is just great also.. although a bit more careful. He says very
little unless he feels he needs to which at first was worrying but
I've learned that it's actually a good thing because it forces me to
think for myself.

I regularly practice in Condor (simulator) and i think this has made a
huge difference.

Thanks,
-tom