First actual solo...haha

[A4sForever]

A4s did your civy flying help you much when you went to primary? or did you find it helpful? ....

Didn't help me a bit ... we've had this discussion elsewhere on this forum.

Opinions vary ... I ONLY had @ 35 hours and a PPL when I reported to P-Cola ... no rich Daddy to buy my flight time --- only the Navy (FIP program) and their roughly 30-35 hours. It was suppose to give you a leg up on the program and automatically "boosted" you into the ACCELERATED syllabus.

Soooooooooo ... since it always took me @ 2-4 hops in stage to "blossom and overcome" my shortcomings ... I needed to fall back to the "regular" --- UNaccelerated --- syllabus and take ALL the VT-1 hops to get the GPA I needed. IF I had opted for the (designed) "accelerated" program in VT-1 ... I would not have had the GPA for Jets ....

Other guys disagree with this ... my contention is: if you are gonna' be "good" at it ... you're gonna' be "good" at it no matter what .... time has not changed that opinion.

 

[NavyLonghorn]

They cut shirts in all of the Florida IFS locations. I was wearing a shirt I kinda liked.. whoops. They also have a tradition of writing on the cut out segment.

 

[Squid]

^^ not when I went through Eglin a couple years back... exactly 2 years today. On my birthday I finished IFS. All shirts intact.

Wow, I can actually say that: a couple years back. Geez time flies.

 

[NavyLonghorn]

Im sure its an instructor specific thing, but it happened to all my buds around the same time. Shrug.

 

[Squid]

I wouldn't doubt that. We had the (in)famous Mr. Miles.

 

[A4sForever]

^^ .... When I "solo'ed" in civvie street ... for the first time ... ... it was kind of a --- "doesn't EVERYONE do it"??? kind of thing. It wasn't FBO-specific, or West/East coast, or Navy FIP --- ALL the guys who were solo'ing were doing it --- kind of a "rite of passage".

It wasn't even open for discussion ... if you DIDN'T ... you were a puss ... (y).

 

[Cate]

A4s, we still have my dad's framed shirt from his first solo. It, too, was a charming Madras plaid button-down. Unfortunately, his first solo was in 1995, so he didn't really have an excuse.

 

[skidkid]

Things must be vastly different out west. They provide harrassment, over-control, SA degredation, and superfluous comm constantly over here... and that's just while VFR.

Probably not but I dont really talk to the controllers as often as the F/W guys, for the most part my experiences with SoCal approach ahve been very positive, I do hear them tear into Joe Cesna every now and then, kind of makes me smile really.

 

[A4sForever]

A4s, we still have my dad's framed shirt from his first solo. It, too, was a charming Madras plaid button-down. Unfortunately, his first solo was in 1995, so he didn't really have an excuse.

There you go ... your Dad is obviously a man of breeding and quality -- even if he's 30 +/- years too late.

Or maybe it's a zen kind of thing with Madras print, succesful first solos, and button down collars ... ??? Perhaps there's a lesson herein for the Navy .... ? Madras flight suits ...??

 

[gregsivers]

I did IFS at PNS and my instructor cut my shirt and drew on it, and then hung it up in the flt school for a while. It was SOP while I was there 2 yrs ago, assume it still is now. My CFI was an ERAU student who was up here during the summer making more money.

 

[Gatordev]

In general, I think the cutting of the tail feathers is pretty standard, country-wide. All the flight schools did it at the airport I worked at as well as other airports I've been to. My folks have my shirt from 1992 framed.

 

[nugget81]

If you don't get your shirt cut for the first solo then you should get your money back....even Wilbur cut Orville's shirt back in 1903...

Congrats on the solo!!

 

[goosegagnon2]

danke'

 

[mules83]

Now does anybody know the tradition/reason behind cutting the shirt???

 

[nugget81]

Now does anybody know the tradition/reason behind cutting the shirt???

After a little research I have come up with a few possibilities:

1. It had to do with open cockpit airplanes. The instructor would sit in back and since talking was difficult (before the time of radios and intercoms), the instructor would pull on the shirttail left or right so the student would know which way to go....after the student solo'd, the tail was cut as he would be on his own from then on. (from AOPA Flight Training, April 2005)

2. Again with the open cockpit planes...after solo, the instructor would cut the back of the shirt off, hand it to the new pilot to wipe the oil residue/bug splats, etc. off the goggles (from risingup aviation forum)

3. To warn soldiers, the Army cut short the tales of dangerous or unpredictable mules. Similarly, new pilots' shirttales were cut to warn other airmen. (from AOPA Flight Training, April 2005)

4. Student pilots flying solo could be identified by cloth streamers trailing from the airplane. One source for material may have been the student's shirttail. (from AOPA Flight Training, April 2005)

Also, Barry Schiff wrote an article about it in 1997 for AOPA (you have to be a member to view it):
www.aopa.org/members/files/pilot/1997/prof9712.html