Ok, so it finally happened! This morning, I arrived Gulf Atlantic around 8am or so. Paul and I had a minor technical difficulty early on. He grabbed me a headset out of the cabinet and after we had gotten the engine going and the plane fired up, we discovered that my headset did not work. We had to stall the engine, and I had to run inside and get a different one. That slowed us down a little, but to no harm.

He and I performed 4 landings, and one go around. Then I dropped him off and soloed!!!!

I made three full-stop landings consecutively. Each time taxiing back to runway 24 and doing the whole thing again. Each landing was acceptable, but the first one was the best. I have a tendency to come in low on landings. What I end up doing is getting low early and having to increas power to make it to the runway. What it looks like is me gliding down and then flying straight to the ground from about 30 feet out, then touching down on the runway. I should be gliding down straight onto the runway and then flaring out after I'm on the numbers.

Oh well. It was really neat. I wasn't at all nervous. The tower and local traffic were very friendly on the radio and understanding. On my final landing, a Beechcraft was waiting for me to land in order to cross my runway. After I landed, the tower congratulated me on my landings and initiatory solo. Then the Beechcraft followed with its own compliment. It was very nice.

In fact, I was thrown a few curve balls. On my first landing, there was a helicopter flying below me that wasn't as much of a problem, but just something to contend with, and another aircraft landing below me on 28. Then, on the last landing, the tower had me back taxi on the runway. None of those things were tough, but a twist nonetheless.

The whole morning went on without a hitch! Next, I have to complete a Stage I review with the big boss guy... Paul assures me it isn't something to worry about.