March 14, 2023 Solo Day Anniversary

The Liberty Gazette

March 14, 2023

Ely Air Lines

By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: This past week was a fun anniversary to celebrate. This time of year, in 1977, I flew my first solo flight in an airplane. It felt as if the airplane sped up quicker down the runway and leapt skyward, making a skyrocketing climb rather than a saunter to altitude, all because one less person, my instructor, wasn’t aboard; without his added weight, the airplane responded with more zip. He was speaking to me through my thoughts as I remembered the lessons he taught. As I moved controls, he was there (in my head) telling me when to adjust the throttle to change my power setting, raise or lower flaps, push the control wheel forward to lower the nose, or turn it to increase bank angle or level the wings. 

That’s what an instructor does, they take knowledge and skills they’ve gained through their own training and experiences, plus those from other pilots, and share them with new pilots. Experience, in my opinion, is the best teacher, provided you survive to learn from it–the major goal of flight instruction.

I have ten pilot logbooks stuffed with experiences, and sometimes I just look through them. Some of those entries flash images as if I were reading an epic novel. Most flights seemed tame or routine. But none of the flights, even along the same route or in the same type of aircraft, are ever identical. Each had some sort of lesson to teach, or something learned was reinforced. Learning is incremental, not always a big-bang revelation. Gaining skill and judgment only come with practice and time.

What would I change if I had to do it all again with the knowledge and experience I now have? What would I tell my teenage self? A perplexing question, since I gained what I have through the experience, and I would not want to rob myself of that, both the highs and the lows. Pondering that question seems like a waste of time. I’ll just pass what I can to the next generation of pilots. Even so, their experiences will be different.

I encourage young pilots to engage in as many different types of flying as they can, not to just focus on the airlines. They should learn soaring, fly seaplanes, and land at backcountry airstrips. Flying for the airlines may be a good career goal, but pilots need to develop judgement and leadership along with expanding their flying skills. By stretching themselves, they will grow professionally and personally. One point I make, especially with new pilots, is that there is no safe space, no place to go and hide when something goes wrong. Every decision a pilot makes has the potential to either take him or her down a path of success and survival, or, if it’s a bad decision, destruction. We make a lot of life-affecting judgment calls on every flight. We own our trophies as well as our failures.

It’s been forty-six years since I first soloed, and I’m still learning from the experience. 

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