Part 61 Flight Training

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Lesson 12, To first solo

First solo

Flight: Home pattern

10 NM 10 NM
FAA Detroit sectional, 29 OCT 2026 edition. For briefing, not for navigation: fly from the current chart. Tap the chart to open it full size.

Today's flight

Your first flight alone. We fly a few patterns together at KARB so we both see what the day and the airplane are doing. Then we taxi back, shut down, I get out, and you fly the takeoffs and landings we agreed on, alone: usually three, the last a full stop.

You can call it off at any point: before the engine starts, at the runup, after one landing, or in the air. Calling it off for a reason is a good call, the same as any go-around.

Every flight

Before every flight

  1. Pilot. Am I fit to fly today? IMSAFE:
    • Illness
    • Medication
    • Stress
    • Alcohol
    • Fatigue
    • Emotion, and eating
  2. Aircraft. Is this airplane ready, and right for today? Documents, inspections and open squawks; fuel and oil on board; weight, balance and performance for today's load.
  3. Environment. What will today's flight meet? NWKRAFT, what 14 CFR 91.103 asks you to know before every flight, then the airspace and the route:
    • NOTAMs and TFRs
    • Weather, against your minimums
    • Known ATC delays
    • Runway lengths
    • Alternates
    • Fuel required, with reserve
    • Takeoff and landing distances
    • Airspace: the Class B limits from the current chart
    • The trip: heading, time, landmarks, wind and runway
  4. External pressures. What is pushing me to go today: a passenger, a schedule, a plan I don't want to cancel? Would I go without it?
  5. If it goes wrong. The takeoff emergency brief, out loud: an engine problem on the runway, after liftoff with runway left, and after liftoff without.
  6. Who flies. Who does what today, and how we hand the controls back and forth.

Who runs it today: You, alone. I check it before I send you off.

Deeper today: Pilot and Who flies. Nerves are normal on a first solo; nerves that rattle you are a reason to wait for another day, and you are the one who says so. And for Who flies, today the answer is you: no one to hand the controls to, so you brief yourself on what you will do if anything goes wrong.

Recall

From earlier lessons

  1. What are your solo limits, and where are they written?

    Reveal answer

    In your logbook endorsement, set for you within the club's limits. Say yours from memory.

  2. Your radio goes quiet in the KARB pattern. What do you do?

    Reveal answer

    Work through the club's lost comms steps, squawk 7600, and watch the tower for light signals. Steady green means cleared to land.

  3. A gust on short final pushes you off the centerline. What do you do?

    Reveal answer

    Aileron into the wind and rudder to stay lined up. If it isn't back under control, go around.

  4. The tower tells you to go around. What do you do?

    Reveal answer

    Full power, climb attitude, flaps up with the club checklist, fly the runway heading or as told, and read back.

Why Without me in the right seat, the airplane weighs less and flies a little differently.

A lighter airplane

  • It climbs faster. You reach pattern altitude sooner, so be ready to level off.
  • It floats longer in the flare. Be patient and keep flying it down to the runway.
  • If it floats past where you wanted to land, go around.

Why The go-around is what saves a first solo landing.

Go around, any time

  • Not stable on final: go around. Bounce: go around. Not sure: go around.
  • Full power, climb attitude, then clean up with the club checklist.
  • Tell the tower "going around." They will fit you back in.
  • A go-around on your first solo is a success. It shows you are in command.

Why Today you are pilot in command, alone in the airplane, and the decisions are yours.

Calling it off

  • You can stop at any point, for any reason that feels real to you.
  • The wind picked up, something feels wrong, you're tired, you're not sure: each one is enough.
  • To stop: a full stop landing, taxi back, and tell me. No one will ask you to justify it.

Why The tower is there to help, and it works with new solo pilots all the time.

Talking to the tower alone

  • The same calls as every flight. You are just the only voice in the airplane.
  • If you don't understand an instruction, say "say again." If you can't do it, say "unable."
  • If you want a full stop instead of a touch-and-go, ask for one.

A real accident

On August 23, 1995, a student pilot on his first solo in a Cessna 152 at Willow Run (KYIP), the field you flew to in lesson 10, flew a pattern he described as good, with everything okay on final. He landed hard, bounced twice and lost control, and the airplane was substantially damaged; he was not hurt. He had 16 hours in total. The NTSB found he misjudged the flare, with lack of experience a factor. The report does not say whether he tried a go-around; the first bounce was the moment for one, turning a bad landing into another trip around the pattern. You go into your first solo with that decision already made: any bounce, go around. NTSB report CHI95LA294

Your calls

Decision points

  • Whether today is the day, from the weather against your limits and how you feel. You decide before I get out.
  • Each landing: land it, or go around.
  • After each landing: keep going, or call it a day.

The whole flight

Also on this flight

Part of the flightWho
Every-flight routineYou, alone; I check it before you go
Preflight, start, taxi, runupYou
A few patterns together to check the dayYou fly; I watch
Instructor gets outWe shut the engine down; I get out; you restart with the checklist
Solo takeoffs, patterns and landings: the number we agreed, usually three, the last a full stopYou, alone
Shutdown and securingYou
Logging your first soloYou; I check the logbook
DebriefBoth, you first

The standard

Ready to move on when

  • You have flown the solo takeoffs and landings we agreed on safely, or made a good call to stop.
  • Every approach ended in a stable landing on the centerline or a go-around.
  • Your calls were complete, and you followed every tower instruction or said why you couldn't.
  • You can tell me what you would do the same and what you would change next time.

At home, before the next flight

Chair fly it

  • Next is your first solo away from the pattern, to the practice area out west. From now on every flight gets a real navigation log: true course from the chart, wind correction, heading, groundspeed, time, fuel and checkpoints.
  • Plan the trip to the practice area around Rossettie (75G) and the Chelsea Proving Grounds: the Class B edge west and north of KARB from the current chart, your maximum altitude until you are past it, and the way home.
  • Turn fuel into time: from your measured fuel and the handbook's figures, work out your latest time home with a reserve. By day under VFR you need enough fuel to reach your first point of intended landing and then fly at least 30 more minutes at normal cruise (14 CFR 91.151); your own reserve can be more.
  • Chair fly the maneuvers we agree you may practice solo, and the call to KARB tower on the way home.

After the flight

Debrief

You go first, then the instructor. Three points at most, and you write down one thing to work on next time.

  • Your first solo: which moment will you remember, and what did you do right in it?
  • Which landing was your best, and what made it your best?
  • What would you change about how you prepared for today?

Notes for teaching this lesson

Before the flight

  • Remind the student of the reason to fly they gave in lesson 2, and how far they have come toward it.
  • Check the logbook: knowledge test, pre-solo training and solo endorsements, and the student's written limits. Check the student pilot certificate, medical and photo ID.
  • Pick a day well inside the student's limits, and say beforehand that postponing is a normal outcome, so calling it off never feels like failing.
  • Agree on the number of solo takeoffs and landings, and which are full stops, before the engine starts. Three, the last a full stop, is common.
  • Decide whether to tell the tower it is a first solo. Telling them lets the controller keep things simple.
  • If the dual patterns aren't consistent, don't send the student off. Fly more dual and solo another day; say so as a normal outcome.
  • Shut the engine down to get out, every time. Lesson 11's accident is why, and it is the club's rule: nobody gets in or out with the engine running.

In the air

  • Watch from where you can see the whole pattern, with a handheld radio on the tower frequency if you have one.
  • Common errors: missing the level-off in the lighter airplane; floating long and forcing it down instead of going around; skipping the checklist after a go-around; calls getting short and unclear.
  • If the weather changes while you watch, call the student on the handheld, or ask the tower to bring them in for a full stop.

Curveballs

None during the solo itself. Use the dual patterns before you get out, all briefed:

  • A go-around called on short final, so the first solo go-around isn't the first one in a while.
  • A full stop and taxi back, as the student will do alone.
  • A landing with the instructor's hands in their lap and no words, to show it's ready.

After the flight

  • Mark the first: it is one of the course's milestones.
  • Debrief with the student first, and end on what they did well.
  • Note the date of the solo endorsement. It is good for 90 days, and must be renewed by an instructor who trained the student (61.87(p)).