Monday Aug 12 (the date on the pictures is wrong) - I was at the
airport at 7am. The fog was thick so I waited. I took a few
pictures of my Hopper at the airport in the fog.
Two and a half
hours later I saw a little patch of blue sky through the fog. That
is all I need to see. I fired up my Rotax and by the time it had
warmed up the fog was mostly cleared. I headed for the runway and
stopped at the threshold to do a quick check: Controls look good,
Ignition is on, I filled up with gas and the lever points to "ON",
Instruments show heat and RPM's ok, No radio to test (that is next),
Seatbelt is on, no BRS (soon though) - I'm ready. First time down
the runway I kept up a "fast taxi".
I came around again to the beginning of runway 31. I started the
fast taxi again....but this time I pulled the stick back just a
little until the nose wheel came off the ground.....and I was
steering with the rudder. Easy as can be. I guess I pulled back a
little too much because a few seconds later my rear tires came up off
the ground. "Im flying!!!." Now, my original plan was for a few
crow-hops but...."Hmmm, still a lot of runway left - I think I'll
just go for it." (so much for crow hops). I pushed the throttle the
rest of the way up and tightened my grip on the stick ;) I kept
myself lined up over the runway, climbing slowly, until the runway
ran out. By then I was probably ~200 feet up (no altimeter, so that
is a guess). Left hand turns at this airport, so I banked left. At
that point it hit me....I was going to have to land!! "Not a
problem" I forced myself to think "I took the lessons after all...I
know how to do this." I let out a good "WooooHoooo!" because
everything felt great...and even mostly under control. I cut back to
~4500 RPM and started to line up for the landing pattern.... Looked
around to make sure it was clear. No radio, so the announcement was
only in my head - "Turning Base" as I gave it some left rudder and
came around ~90deg in a descending turn. "And turning final" I
finished the turn, lined up with runway 31 and dropped down to ~3500
PRM. Now, I know that I am _supposed to "aim for the numbers" and go
for a "spot landing".....but I decided to take it nice and easy my
first solo landing. There was _plenty_ of runway....and I decided to
use it. I touched down (feather soft!) about midway down the runway
and cut back to 2000 RPM (idle)....applied a little foot break and
took a deep breath. I did it!!
I taxied back to my hanger and found another UL pilot standing there
(I had met him at an EAA meeting). He had watched the whole
thing....and said that I looked great. He told me that he would take
pictures if I had a camera - and it just so happened that I did. So,
I took my Hopper around again and got several pictures to prove it ;)
Well, that's it. My first solo flight in my new Weedhopper. The
culmination of the past 8 months of dreaming.
