Ahhhhh Yes… I’m 63 years old and I solo’d on my 16th birthday… My dad was my flight instructor… who was also a USAF Test Pilot in the 60’s. After I solo’d… My dad drove me to the Bureau of motor vehicles for me to get my driving temps. I left the DMV driving my dad back home… It was the first time I had ever driven a car. I flew a plane, before I ever drove a car!
Congratulations brother! This was truly inspiring to watch as a 16 year old myself. I wish you a very good luck for your training and the future. Keep it up mate.
What an amazing flight! I’m 12 and did a trial flight on the Piper PA 28 and can’t wait to go into training when I’m 14. Never forget this, it’s an experience for life.
I’m currently 17 years old and looking heavily into Aviation as either something to do or as a career. The idea of accelerating down a runway and taking off has always been a dream of mine. You make it look easy!
Hey, I’m 16 as well and just did my first solo 3 days ago, so I totally feel what meant your “wow” :) Did you knew beforehand you were going to do your first solo ?
Congratulations on the day you will remember for the rest of your life. Clearly you will make a very good pilot, so if I may, I would like to offer a small but important point to help you be a great pilot. Have yet another look at the video (I'm sure you've watched it a few times) and look at the amount of aileron "jiggling" going on and look at the response of the aeroplane. It's hard to see a reason for most of the inputs, but if you look carefully you will see the adverse yaw that occurs, especially on short finals. My point is, don't make any control input unless you are prepared to ask yourself why you did it, and if you need to apply aileron in particular, use a little rudder to counter the yaw. Wishing you a long and happy career in aviation.
Thanks for the comment, Alan. Totally agree with your point and was having a think about this the other day! Now just need to work on slowing things down a bit and, as your say, reducing the amount of inputs especially to the ailerons. Good advice! Glad you enjoyed the video :-)
Probably a bit of nervousness going on here! I know the feeling being alone in a moving airplane for the first time!!! It will all smooth out with time as you gain confidence flying alone! You also flying one of the best training aircraft you can ask for! It's what I trained in and it's a very solid and docile aircraft. Stay safe and happy landings!
This is a really wonderful thing to see. Thanks so much for letting us all be witnesses! You brought back so many fantastic memories of all of the "firsts" we get to do as aviators.
only 10 hours and you've already soloed? jesus. i have around 30 hours and im still struggling with my landings. you have a great career ahead of you man. also do you fly in the sim at all?
Beautifully done. Soloing at 16 is very cool, but what's really impressive to me is the under 10 hours of dual. That's amazing. I recently soloed at age 32 with a little over 20 and I was proud of that :D. My question: You have almost 600 subscribers and currently this video has over 60k views. Sounds like you could get a pretty good following if you crank out more content. Are we going to be seeing more videos?
That "Wow" on takeoff... I had exactly the same reaction on my first solo. Very confident looking circuit, too. If you were nervous, it didn't show. I still speak my checklists out loud, too. Nice work.
Where are you in your career now? I started back In august of last year but didn’t solo untin October. I’m currently onto my commercial rating right now
Hey i’m definitely not 13 (yt guidelines ) How many hours did you get in before doing this solo? and if you don’t mind me asking, How did you get funding for this? wether you worked a job or your parents helped.
Great video man! I have my first solo in a couple of months when I trun 16 and watching this just makes me even more excited but a little more nervous 😬 Nevertheless great vid 👍
Nice flying! Glad to see your head very active, looking out all sides. Also like your saying checks out loud. Helps a teeny bit to make you actually do them. Well trained. Good instructor. Keep doing "fanstops" every few flights; when it does happen, it will be easy....look out for smoke to tell you which way wind blowing. Now you can move on to aerobatics, formation, and low level, even Instrument flying........in the RAFVR, doing PAR GCAs to RAF Wharton, the controller talking you down - always supportive; nice to be part of a strong team. CAVU skies to you and all aviators. I built C-IAVW, an aerobatic biplane.
This. Is. Amazing. I’m 20 years old and I haven’t yet done this. One day though … one day. Well done for doing something like this at such a young age. I have one question though, what’s it like to fly a plane if you were to explain it to someone that’s never flown before?
Nice video, congratulations. Without doubt the best age to learn to fly in the shortest amount of time is early to mid teens. Verbalising intentions is a good strategy. One small point I thought 'take off' had been replaced by ‘departure'. Related to a misunderstanding in the Tenerife accident I believe.
Excellent job! I’m sure it was quite a thrill. Such a wonderful feeling it must have been. I’m hoping to solo soon. Taking lessons now. All the best to you!
Very good work on your first solo! I hope that you are getting closer to finishing up training for the private pilot. You'll enjoy having this hard earned privilege, whatever you choose to do with it. I like that you stayed alert during the ground and pattern phases of the flight. You seemed to have had a good instructor teaching sound habits. This brings back fond memories of my first solo more than thirty years ago. My training was in a 1977 Cessna 150. I hired an experienced instructor here in Texas and was one of the best teachers I could find. I like that we had a solid ground school syllabus and meaningful flight lessons. After all of these years I can still remember the techniques taught to me. Since then I moved on to instrument, commercial and multi ratings. It became an advocation next to my day job at the time. Now after retirement, I don't fly as much but try to get a flight in whenever I can. Good luck to you and blue skies!
Soloed and got my drivers license on my 16th birthday. I was so excited to get to the airport that I ran a yellow light at end of driving test and the examiner made me wait about an additional hour to re take the driving test. Lol , a day I’ll always remember.
Spent a few years as an FI and I must say, very good, your airmanship was superb. To many forget the situational awareness and keep their heads inside. You have a good career waiting
