Question for instructors: on an initial solo, do you tell the student to stay in the pattern or fly a high tow out of the pattern?

On Monday, August 2, 2021 at 4:59:01 PM UTC-4, 150flivver wrote:
> Question for instructors: on an initial solo, do you tell the student to stay in the pattern or fly a high tow out of the pattern?

At our operation the first solo is a normal 2000-2500 ft tow, followed by air work practice, or soaring if weather allows, followed by
normal pattern and landing.
Some are short. Some longer but not usually more than 1/2 hour or so.
UH

On Monday, August 2, 2021 at 4:20:52 PM UTC-5, Hank Nixon wrote:
> On Monday, August 2, 2021 at 4:59:01 PM UTC-4, 150flivver wrote:
> > Question for instructors: on an initial solo, do you tell the student to stay in the pattern or fly a high tow out of the pattern?
> At our operation the first solo is a normal 2000-2500 ft tow, followed by air work practice, or soaring if weather allows, followed by
> normal pattern and landing.
> Some are short. Some longer but not usually more than 1/2 hour or so.
> UH

Accidents most frequently happen during takeoff and landing. Most stressful parts of the flight for the student are take-off/tow, and pattern/landing.. Why make the entire flight stressful? Let them go to 2K or so, and have a little time to relax, and do a few turns and relax. If a thermal comes along, go along with it! Oh, and it won't hurt any if the couple of flights leading up to the solo are also to 2K. Give the instructor some time to observe and enjoy. They sometimes like to just go for a ride with their students. There is MUCH more to flying a sailplane than just "Follow the towplane, then come back and land."

Steve Leonard

I have the student replicate what they have been doing on the flights immediately before the solo. I do the simulated rope breaks earlier in the instruction schedule as I am looking for consistency in the flights just before soloing. If it's a low ceiling day and we can only do patterns - that's what the student is told to do on solo. If it's a good day and we had a relaxed upwind thermalling lesson before solo - that's what I tell them to do. I also brief the tow pilot that it is a first solo. Also, the student is left to understand that they have soloed "for that day" but will need to fly again with me (or another instructor) on the next few solo days.

A funny story: I was soloed in 1973 by the late Babs Nutt. Many years later she introduced me to a group of people as "the very first student she soloed". I said, "Babs, you never told me I was your first - I thought you knew what you were doing!" She responded, "Roy, when you soloed your first student - did you tell them they were your first?" Of course, we all know the answer to that question.

ROY