The shirttail...

For student pilots, the first solo is a momentous occasion. Mine was momentously bad, but the re-solo was super. I've talked to a few folks over the past couple of days about their first lone flights, and they spoke of exhilaration and being weak in the knees afterwards even when everything went great.

There's also a tradition with earning a solo endorsement that many flight schools observe: The cutting of the shirttail. After a successful solo, the student's shirttail is cut off, signed and tacked onto the flight school's wall. It's a trophy, a memento of progress.

Chuck had Husband cut it off on Saturday, and we unfortunately didn't have a working magic marker. But that ended up good, because I got to take it home and decorate it. There are the elements of my first solo: crosswind, landings on 31, the swamp monster, the dirt hills off the end of 13, and the turkey that was hanging out by the runway (he didn't get a mention in my earlier posts, but there he was and his 4-5 brethren were undoubtedly nearby).

Mine is the first one for Colonial Flight School, and I made sure it would be a girlie one!