"North Whiting Tower, Shooter 651 Solo, Mid-field Takeoff..."

This morning I flew my initial solo in the "beautiful" T-34C you see here...number 651! Solo means that I was the only person in the plane…there was no instructor in the back seat. It’s a pretty amazing feeling when Uncle Sam tosses you the keys to a million dollar aircraft, tells you to fly it to a different state, knock out a few landings over there (just for fun), and then bring it back home in one piece! It was a great morning for flying…clear blue skies with almost no wind. I left NAS Whiting Field and headed over to our practice area in southeast Alabama (basically the entire area east of Mobile Bay to Pensacola, and from I-10 down to the coast). Apparently, everyone else noticed it was a nice day to go flying too because it was crowded up there! After a short wait I entered the landing pattern at NOLF Barin in Alabama and did four AWESOME touch-and-go landings (too bad my instructor wasn’t there to see them!) followed by a departure from the airfield and about forty-five minutes of cruising up and down the Alabama coastline. I definitely had a great view of downtown Mobile from across Mobile Bay. I couldn’t help but remember that my first flight had been to the exact same spot (although, at the time, I was sick as a dog and busy performing an emergency landing gear extension for practice)! Soon enough I decided to head for home field and returned to Whiting. I definitely had a great time out there this morning and this flight was a significant training milestone for me! Guess I need to start studying for my next flight - I’m beginning the precision aerobatics phase of training. Not quite sure if I’m looking forward to that yet…