Afraid of first solo?
 

Guys I have a question about this topic.

What do you think about forcing students doing solo like after 10-15 hrs? There are some people who are really good, or were even gliding before, but is it really enough? And what's with people who are not confident after these hours?

How to get through solo-stress, when you know you are forced by the FI?

Never heard of student pilots being forced to solo.
Rather the other way around: A day of joy.

Depends on the individual student and his reasons for taking flying lessons.

If they're young and have professional aspirations, then clearly this is a confidence problem that needs to be dealt with. Best scenario is putting the student in increasingly challenging situations with little to no assistance from the CFI. Again: build confidence.

If the student is older and is just taking lessons for recreation, then why pressure him to perform to a standard he's not interested in? I've seen older students who simply like to go out and "play" in the airplane with a CFI but they literally had no intention of ever taking a checkride and earning the private pilot certificate.

The student and CFI need to sit down and discuss goals and objectives for the lessons.

Good luck.

Forcing a student to solo? Sounds like an incredibly bad idea. Saw a guy burn himself to an inch of his life in a crash because he was forced to solo.

Never force anyone to solo! Also ask student if they are ready before you get out of the plane. If they say yes; ask if they are sure. Also don't tell the student in advance, especially as they might invite friends or family to watch. I know this has been done, but another bad idea. Most of us had some degree of anxiety about the first solo, though the instructor must determine if the student is truly prepared. No amount of hours should play a part in the decision to solo. Hours might factor into assessing a students progress and other issues, though flight time alone should never be used as a factor in determining if a student is ready to solo.

When you solo you are assuming the ultimate responsibility and authority of a pilot. You should never be forced to solo. If you are uncomfortable about doing it sound off and reschedule it for another day or after a few more lessons.

I was taught the ABC’s of of air traffic control and also interacting with your CFI


Never let them

Abandon you

Bully you

Or

Confuse you.

I’m sure you will do great on your solo or whomevers solo you are talking about. Just know every student and instructor are different. That 10-15 hour formula doesn’t work for everyone regardless of the amount of time your instructor said they soloed in.


It seems by questioning it and asking you have a good head on your shoulders. Continue to use it and keep the blue side up!

Good luck!

There is significant liability for the CFI that is endorsing the student pilot for solo. If there is ANY doubt, DON’T sign them off!

Happens everyday at UPT (USAF Flight School). If the Instructor and syllabus say its time for you to solo, you solo....or you're shown the door. The T-37 wasn't so bad because it was forgiving, but initial solo on your 8th sortie in the T-38 was little more attention getting, that thing could kill you.

Before the days of 141. 4 hours and more spins and stalls than landings. My instructor had me stop on the runway, asked for his lesson payment, jumped out and said don't kill yourself kid. Was I ready? He thought so, and I didn't care. I was going to fly an airplane ALONE! Very cool day indeed.

Forcing anyone to solo is a bad idea. If your instructor is doing this, find another instructor.

Now having said that, at about 13 hours I'd suckered my CFI into a false sense of security and he decided I could be safely soloed. The aircraft actually performed a lot better without his extra weight, and the first two TOs and landings could not have gone better.

As I taxied for takeoff for the third time I wound up behind some dude in a V-tailed Beech. At the small uncontrolled airport where I was being soloed, there was no way to get around him, so I sat back there for forever as he did his run up and - as I later found out - copied his IFR clearance.

It seemed to take him forever, and there were big drops of rain occasionally hitting the windscreen, but I only needed to go around the pattern and land once more to be officially soloed, so I wasn't stopping now. I was lining up behind him even before he had broken ground. When he was airborne and it was obvious there wouldn't be any possibility of him aborting the takeoff, I pushed the throttle forward and was off the ground before he turned downwind.

By the time I was back on downwind, the rain was a lot heavier and I had essentially no forward visibility and a Bonanza out in front of me ... somewhere. I told myself a Cessna 172 could out slow-fly a Bonanza any day of the week, put on partial flaps and slowed up to about 80mph, which I still used instead of knots back then. Then I waited to see him turn crosswind or final out the left side window. And waited. And waited.

By the time I was five or six MILES from the field on downwind, and the Beech was probably established enroute IFR a VOR or two further along, I decided to head back to the field and land since the ceiling was getting down to about 1200 feetAGL, and visibility was down to about 5 miles (except in front where the raindrops on the windshield still gave me essentially no visibility whatever), and it definitely wasn't the sort of day when someone with 13.5 hours, only about 0.4 of it PIC, ought to be flying.

The new problem, however, was that the weather was continuing to deteriorate and there were power lines on the northern end of the field that I wouldn't be able to see as I made my approach until they were out my side window.

And, not that I had noticed, the wind had also reversed itself and I was now landing downwindwitha ten knot or so tailwind. So actually I stayed at pattern altitude - 800 AGL - forging ahead blindly, my spirits buoyed by the thought that I couldn't be about to run into anybody because their couldn't actually be TWO people stupid enough to fly around in weather like this.

I saw the power lines under me fairly late and then dived at where I figured the numbers would be. I was right, too, because I got right over the numbers where I wanted to be despite the rain-spattered windshield. But even I, a guy with a grand total of now maybe 0.45 or so hours of PIC realized that you do not land a Cessna 172 on a runway that had a half inch of standing water on it at 150 mph - not successfully anyway, so without even a wave to my CFI who was standing drenched out at the gas island and pale as a ghost, I went around. After that first aborted landing, things got worse

It took me two more approaches with the weather continuing to deteriorate forcing me first to fly a six hundred foot pattern to keep the rudder out of clouds with no better result, then a final pattern at 400 feet with visibility down to about a mile in the side windows I could actually see out for me to find the numbers again.

In truth, that approach hadn't set me up much better than the previous two.

I was still landing downwind, and carrying about 130-135 mph, but it occurred to me from my vast (well, have vast) experience as a PIC, probably damn near 0.7 by then, that departing the far end of a 3000 foot rain slicked runway at 30-40 mph was probably a better idea than trying another approach THROUGH the north end high tension wires at 120, because the ceiling was getting lower and the visibility was getting worse.

To my surprise, the inch or two of standing water didn't make me hydroplane but actually did a fairly good job of slowing me down, good enough anyway that I was able to pull off at the intersection and taxi back to the fuel pump where after a few moments standing there in the deluge looking up at the sky (I'm not sure if he was saying a prayer of thanks or cursing) my thoroughly drenched CFI climbed in to the right seat.

He didn't say anything or do anything either - other than dripping - until the squall line passed and the blue sky came out about 15 minutes later. He then told me to take us back to the smaller field where the flying club was based. By the time I got there - ten miles away - he'd signed me off for solo. My hunch is he simply didn't want to risk having to fly with me again.

So no, don't let an instructor push you into soloing if you don't feel ready. You can get into all the trouble you could ever want without anyone pushing you.