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Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 09:36:32 -0500
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Subject: Re: 7.2 hours-how do you guys solo in 9 or 10
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Fox F/X wrote:

> Everyone makes such good points about progression and getting on with > it. But I'd like to add my 2 cents to support the frame-of-mind that 
> it isn't how fast you get there, it's how well you get there.

I think there's a balance.

There's a fellow on this group (doesn't post much now) who flew
"the solo heard round the world".  His CFI kept him practicing,
and practicing, and practicing, in search of the perfect taildragger
landing.  50 hrs went by, 60, 70...finally he switched CFIs and
soloed almost immediately.

Now never having flown w/ him there's no doubt in my mind that he
lands very well.  Extremely well.  He got there well, all right.
But it was a bit much.  I think the gentleman in question is a gem
and few of us would have had such persistance.

As long as it isn't carried to extremes, though, I think there's 
a lot to be said for your viewpoint.

By the time I soloed, I'd landed regularly on 7 different runways
at 5 different airports, flown in all sorts of gusty conditions,
landed in 20-25 kt winds.  Funky ATC maneuvers in the pattern and
pattern entries from all directions were no big deal, in fact they
were assigned during my first pattern solo. I was signed off with 
a 12 kt xwind limitation and turned loose outside the pattern
immediately. 

I was very comfortable in the plane, very comfortable in bumpy,
turbulant conditions, very comfortable with slow flight and
recovering from stalls. I'd had spin training and a couple 
hours of basic aerobatics (loops and rolls and the like).

For me, that was the way to go, much better (for me) than being 
solo while bumpy days still shook me. For another personality, 
eager to feel a big accomplishment at solo and how quickly it 
came for them, maybe it would have been wrong and they would have 
given up. 

Snowbird


