What fantastic responses. Thank you. You've all made this great gift even better. I will go to the airport next week (I'm on vacation this week) and start all the arrangements. I guess there's some Ground School to do first. I enjoyed reading all your experiences, and obviously, that SOLO seems to be "right up there" with the one thing that sticks in everyone's memory.Thanks again. Very, very enjoyable reading.

Once you start, you will be hooked. If you can afford to finish your traning without any money interruptions, Great, if you can not, then start putting money aside now so it will be there when you need it. When the flying stops because of lack of funds, It will cost you more in the long run......Don't rush! Take your time, but "spend" your time wisely.Don't stop learning! A good pilot is always learning.Most of all, HAVE FUN!You lucky man!Oh, and to stay with the subject of this topic, I got an:Icom IC-A24 Transceiver (You never know)H10-13.4 David Clark Head set.FSGenisis Mesh sceneryGround Enviroment

I got one of those personal USB fans to go on the back of my computer. I tried it but was not "blown away by it". Please don't laugh!Chas.

>What fantastic responses. Thank you. You've all made this>great gift even better. I will go to the airport next week>(I'm on vacation this week) and start all the arrangements. I>guess there's some Ground School to do first. >I enjoyed reading all your experiences, and obviously, that>SOLO seems to be "right up there" with the one thing that>sticks in everyone's memory.>Thanks again. Very, very enjoyable reading.>Hey StanWell, we're all thrilled for you. All of us are here because we love flying whether it be on the computer, or, even better out there in real life. I began training years ago, but could not finish my PPL because of financial reasons. I'm hoping, this year, to finally "start again" and complete it. Of course I will need a new medical (lol), and will have to take the ground test again. I think it's great these days you can do that on your own--when I trained ground school was part of the "pilot course" and you had to go to cloass on weekends. ugh. For my flight training I logged about 35 hours in a 172. The 152 was too small for me (I am tall and fat), and as another person stated, I didn't like the Piper trainer-level aircraft, (Cherokee?) because there's only one door, and it's on the right. Meh. As to the first solo, here's what happened to me (and I understand that most of it is traditional, i.e. they pull something like this on all the students-going back many years, so you can probably expect somthing similar):One thing I remember is for some reason, I had some trouble with climbing turns. My instructor and I spend quite a bit of time practicing them, and oh man I almost forgot, I HATED practicing power on stalls-but I'll leave you to discover that pleasure for yourself :) Anyway, one afternoon, after what I thought was a horrible performance by me in the lesson, we were up there over 2 hours, and it seemed, suddenly, I could not do anything right, even things I was perfect at before, but my instructor, patient as uusual guided me through more practice, till finally we headed back, I made a (fairly) smooth landing for once, and we started to taxi back to the FBO. At this point he said, "oh, stop here a minute, I forgot something," so I brought it to idle, stepped gently on the toe brakes and looked at him, thinking, dang what did I do? And he's rummaging around, like he's looking for a chart or somthing, then says something like, "Oh yeah that's right; I need you to go ahead and taxi back to the apron, request pattern, and make three landings to a full stop." I started to say, "OK," until he got out of the airplane and stood outside! WHAT? WHAT? You could hear the gears grinding in my head, I think, lol. He just sort of waved me back toward the tower, and I thought well, I guess he wouldn't be doing this if he didn't think I was ready....so I dialed ATIS in, and to be honest, somehow didn't hear anything it said until, "notify you have information Mike." I have to admit my hand was shaking just a little when I changed com1 back to 120.100 (tower also handled ground back then at that airport) (gee I still remember that freq, ha) and in a just a little bit squeaky voice, made my request, and heard, "Cessna 33 Golf, approved. Good Luck." And at that point, I thought, "Dang, did he tell everybody but ME?" Anyway, I moved out to hold, got cleared for my first take off, and I admit, I was sweating, but I did it, climbed to pattern altitude, BOUNCED my first landing, (sigh), did a little better on the second one, and finally, finally, on that last one, smooth, soft, landed on the numbers (21). And I thought, my gosh, I did it! I'm alive! Someone else's hundred thousand dollar airplane is OK! Woot! Then, like a seasoned pro, I was all, "Cessna 33 Golf, taxi, FBO. And heard, "33 Golf. Good job." And Stan, I can tell you, this experience will be like none other in your life, except for MAYBE when your kids are born. (lol). So, I taxied back to pickup my instructor, still waiting patiently where I left him and he just gave me a "well you made it back in one piece, huh, guess you did OK then." And we got back to the FBO, where for some reason I still don't understand, they made me untuck my shirt, cut the tail off, and put my name and the date in marks-a-lot on it. (What is up with that anyway)?So, get ready bro it will come when you are not expecting it :0)

Whoa....great story. Thanks for sharing that one. Can't say that I look forward to a "surprise solo" experience, but I don't think that most instructors would let you go it alone unless they really thought you were ready.I'll bet your heart was pounding after he got out of the plane!

Yes, it sure was..after that, to say youre "elated" would be an understatement, and yes, although its scary just talking, or writing about things like soloing for the first time, and your solo cross country, you can be sure the instructor would not sign off on these if he/she was not absolutely sure you are ready-remember they always have in mind they're liable for your life, the lives of others, not to mention that expensive equipment (LOL).As far as your first solo it depends on the instructor, but everyone I have spoken to, their instructor did like mine, i.e. it was not announced; I think though part of that is to see how you handle it, i.e. they are sure you have the skills necesary to get it off the ground, fly around without hitting anything and land safely. (SAFELY does not always equal SMOOTHLY as you will find out). But I think part of it is they want to see how you will handle the situation; I would guess if someone got hysterical about it outwardly, they might postpone the event a bit (LOL).Lastly I have tried to find out what the deal is with the tearing of your shirt and posting it on the wall, but nobody knows! I guess my tip would be, when you think you're getting close don't wear your favorite shirt ;0)