Getting Your Private Pilot License – More Solo Flying

19 November 2018   |  Updated on February 05, 2024

This post is part of the story series Getting Your Private Pilot License.

As a glider pilot with about 220 flying hours, I finally decided to take the jump and start my Private Pilot training in June 2018. In this series, I share my experiences of getting my Private Pilot License in Belgium. From preparing for my first lesson, to my first solo flights and ultimately my checkride.

I hope these articles will be able to help you get the most out of your own flight training!

View all stories in this series

So last week, I had my first solo flight! What a feeling! Even though I already soloed on gliders a few years ago, it still felt special not having an instructor with you in case you mess up.. Well, luckily I didn’t!

So time to enjoy that feeling a little more and go for some more solo flights in the circuit. At the moment, I’m released to fly solo in the traffic circuit only, which means I’m practically limited to taking off, joining the circuit and landing again (or touch-and-go’s). But I still enjoy every single minute of it!

I get to practice my landings and circuits without an instructor by my side. This is both a great way to learn, but also a great way to learn the wrong things.. That’s what my instructor told me the next time we went flying together again. And he’s 100% right: if you do about 20 circuits on multiple solo flights, learning the wrong things can happen fast. That’s why after a few solo flights, I loved to be able to fly with an instructor again. You learn so much more!

But still, practicing some solo circuits does help. It makes you more comfortable and your landings will improve one after the other. Of course, there will still be bad ones, you’re still a student after all, but every small bit of progress will help you on the way to you private pilots. I can just feel that checkride coming a little bit closer every week!

But… it’s not always about learning. Sometimes it’s just about enjoying your Sunday evening, up there, all by yourself 🙂 And that’s what I love about flying!

Oh, and I also got a chance to test out the MP3 audio function on my new Faro G2 ANR headset, awesome to play songs in the background while flying! (Disclaimer: I only tested it during one flight and on a low volume to not interfere with my ATC transmissions)

You can read the entire review here: https://hangar.flights/guides/faro-g2-anr-review

Next flight we will explore the boundaries of the working area to train some advanced maneuvers and fly solo outside of the circuit.

Talk to you then!

Senne

This post is part of the story series Getting Your Private Pilot License.

As a glider pilot with about 220 flying hours, I finally decided to take the jump and start my Private Pilot training in June 2018. In this series, I share my experiences of getting my Private Pilot License in Belgium. From preparing for my first lesson, to my first solo flights and ultimately my checkride.

I hope these articles will be able to help you get the most out of your own flight training!

View all stories in this series