A Student’s First Solo Flight

As a flight student, your first solo flight in an airplane is a huge accomplishment. Many pilots can recall that day like it was yesterday.

A typical day in the life of a student pilot leading up to their solo flight includes a series of monotonous take offs and landings in an airplane with your flight instructor, which you’ve spent a number of hours perfecting (in your opinion, of course!) Typically on the day of your solo, you’ll have done a number of “touch ‘n goes” and after the third or fourth landing, your flight instructor turns to you and says, “Ok, take me back to the ramp – you’re going to solo today!”

That’s right – when you least expect it, your flight instructor wants to send you up in an airplane by
yourself today.

You taxi the airplane back to the ramp, where your instructor opens the door on the airplane and says, “Do you have any questions?” Of course you say no, but a boring ‘ol flight lesson is now going to turn into one of the more memorable days of your life. The actual solo entails three takeoffs and landings to a full stop, all on your own. 

Sporty’s recently shared Mark’s first solo flight video with us and we absolutely had to share it! Mark used VIRB Elite to accompany him on his first solo flight, so he has the opportunity to share his experience with everyone – friends, family and even all of us at Garmin! To add to the experience, he incorporated the headset cable so you can hear air traffic control in the background, which is provided in aviation-specific VIRB bundles including the Aviator Action Pack and VIRB Elite for Aviation. Be sure to check out the cool overlays within his video, which include airspeed, altitude and even ground track. And if you watch just long enough, you'll catch Mark's celebratory fist pump at the end!

Congratulations Mark on your first solo flight!

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