The Scariest Solo Flight Ever

I have another really exciting day of flying to share with all of you.  Today is just a story – no pictures – because I was too overwhelmed to take pictures while flying (not surprising, right?) and too excited after landing.

So just picture this.  Two enormous airliners lined up on the taxiway, ready to take off.  Then picture me, all by myself, in a little four-seat Cessna airplane lined up right behind them.

You don’t have to scream or panic or anything.  If I’d really thought about the magnitude of where I was on the taxiway the other day, you can bet I would have been freaking out enough for all of us.  I felt like my entire plane could have been sucked into one of their engines.  But I just held my brakes and waited. 

Soon one commerical airliner took off.

Then the next.

I puttered up to the runway, and the man in the tower gave me the okay to take off… with a giant warning for quakes formed by those two airliners.

In the corner of my eye, I saw another large airplane taxiing up behind me.  I knew how to take off.  That part was easy.  The problem was everything that followed…

My voice must have been wavering.  When I was up in the air, everyone was talking so fast.  The tower would say something to me, and I wouldn’t know what they wanted.  I had to ask them to repeat most of the time.  I heard other Cessnas, a Twin Star,  airliners, and so many other planes (I don’t remember what they were).  It took all I had to fly my course as the tower directed me.

To be honest, I felt like everyone could have been speaking German to me.  Pilot talk is such a foreign thing.  I have to translate it bit by bit.  This learning isn’t a problem when I only have one other airplane to contend with at the gravel runway where I’m learning.  They’re quite forgiving.  The problem with airports so busy that they need towers to control the air traffic is that they can’t be so forgiving.  There isn’t time.

With so many voices all around, I’m sad to report that I was still the only female.  You all know that with only .025% of women carrying pilots’ licenses, I’ve never met a female pilot… and I’ve been hunting!

Around the flight pattern I went.  Next to the runway, behind the runway, and finally lined right up with it.  The tower kept instructing me the entire way.  I landed.  (Thank goodness!)

Except I was far from over.  One of many requirements for earning a pilot’s license is flying in an airspace with a tower for three complete landings.

So I took off again.  I felt a little more relaxed.  The houses that slowly shrank as I rose into the sky gave me comfort – like they were part of the world I was comfortable with.  Maybe ten minutes later, the tower granted me permission to land a second time.  So I began my approach for a second landing.  Another airliner was holding short; they were ready to enter the runway and take off.

But the tower made them wait.  Can you imagine an airliner ever waiting for you?  I couldn’t believe my eyes.

I knew I’d never see something like that again.  The tower gave me top priority as a student pilot during their “airliner rush hour”.  

Then they gave me priority the next time I took off and landed, too.

When I parked the plane and walked into the general aviation terminal for small planes, two women walked up to me.

“Good job!” Martin cheered as he approached.  The women held out their hands.  They both asked with eager voices, “Was that your first solo?”

“My first solo with the tower,” I said.  Everyone was beaming.  They shook my hand.  They patted my back.  

(That was when I realized how covered in sweat I was.  I didn’t even realize how hot it was in the plane and never opened the vents.  I didn’t want to miss a call from the tower, you know!)

The women said they were both flight instructors, too.

I froze.

Two great victories in one:  my first solo with a tower and commercial airliners… and meeting female pilots for the first time ever.  I never knew flying could feel so good.