My first solo

It was a very special day.. I took my student down to Fort Worth Alliance Airport (KAFW). I have trained this student for about 3 weeks. I taught him how to preflight the airplane and I remember how scared he was at his first takeoff, his first power on stall and his first slip to land.

During his first 5 or 6 lessons he kept the taxiway center line on one side of the airplane.  Now it was a different story; my student is able to call ground, taxi the airplane on the center line  do the run-up, call tower, takeoff, take me to another airport do the required calls, land and taxi back with me sitting on the side with my arms crossed!!

We landed at Alliance Airport and taxied back to the runway.. we did that four times and at then I asked the tower for parking instructions since my student was flying solo for the first time.

This is my second student I endorse to solo.. but this one is special because my first one was already trained and was assigned to me to give him retraining. I started with this one without him having any experience;  the feeling of seeing him making decisions, communicating, flying, etc.. it's amazing because he learned all that from me!!

I was very very scared.. but he was excited.. very excited and that made me feel better.. he did his three takeoffs and landings and I will definitely keep that day in my mind just as I remember my first solo.

Final checkride

Finally on September 12th 2012.. I had my last checkride with Mr. Fred Houston.. my CFI single engine add-on.. I did my best checkride ever and even the examiner noticed that I probably had more time than the other ACPP guys because my maneuvers were flawless.. That was a very nice compliment and I felt very excited.
We went up and I did chandelles (both right and left), lazy eights, slow flight, accelerated stall, power-off stall, he simulated to be a student and asked me to guide him to a power-off 180 to the 1000 footers. We also did all landings, eights on pylons, etc..
It was a very fun flight.. I really enjoyed it and I felt more confident than any other checkride. It is not easy and you need to be focused on what you are going to teach your student. The guy who took this checkride before me failed and that really made me focus on the game.. exchange of controls, detailed pre-flight, use of checklists, I was talking and talking every single thought that I had and explaining every movement that I did. That is what CFI checkrides are all about.
I'm happy to be done now.. Next step is to take a small brake, I need to take care of some personal and some work stuff and probably by the end of the year I will be applying to flight schools or looking for SIC opportunities on Charters or Part 91 operators.. Right now I feel amazing because I have accomplished the hardest part of the dream; but the journey continues.