Rapid City Teenager:
First Flight Lesson to
Solo Flight in 16 Days!
Some high school students lay on the beach in the summer, or serve as lifeguards at the beach or pool. Some go to summer school, while others have jobs.
And a few advance their knowledge and skills by learning to fly an airplane!
Jacob Fliginger, a senior from Rapid City, SD, is doing just that. He is considering a career as a corporate pilot and thought it would be good to get started!
The past two summers, Jacob worked at an RV park in Keystone, SD, practically in the shadows of Mt. Rushmore. This summer, he chose spend a few weeks visiting his aunt in Cedar Rapids, IA, and, just to keep from being bored while she was at work, began working toward his Private Pilot license.
Jacob is a serious, no-nonsense, teenager who knows how to apply himself to the task at hand. Just 16 days after his first flying lesson, he was flying solo while his instructor watched from the ground! Not a record for "shortest time to solo" but absolutely nothing to be ashamed of! Most student pilots take a few months to achieve this level of competency. Because Jacob and his instructor were both available every day, they flew each day the weather permitted, which was 10 of the 16 days. That results in rapid progress!
Jacob rented a Piper Warrior II airplane from Cardinal Leasing, LLC, Marion, Iowa. The plane is based at McBride Airport, immediately north of Cedar Rapids. His instructor is Keith Williams, a retiree from Rockwell Collins. His own flying experience began 50 years ago this year with his first flight lessons, flying a Taylorcraft out of the Ames airport while he was a student at the then Iowa State College.
Most training was done at the Vinton or Cedar Rapids airports because McBride airport has become surrounded by residences. We were trying to be a good neighbor, even though the airport had been there for decades before the houses were built. Not everyone loves the sound of a low-flying airplane!
A large part of learning to fly safely and competently comes from being exposed to different situations and experiences in a safe and non-threatening manner. Rather than simply concentrateing on mastering take offs and landings, the instruction leading to the first solo flight included flights to Independence and Waterloo and exposure to the air traffic environement at those places.
The airport at Vinton, Iowa, was the site of Jacob's first solo, where he made three take offs and landings---one of which was nearly perfect, by his own admission. Then his instructor jumped back into the plane and they flew to Cedar Rapids, where he again soloed. This gave Jacob the experience of talking to the control tower and sharing the single available runway with corporate jets and airliners.
Following that experience, they returned to McBride Airport where he made another solo flight! The first solo and solo flight at three different fields in a single day make for an exciting summer!
Here's one 17 year old who certainly stands a good chance of having his head in the clouds every day in a few years!
Links of interest:
- Quick License!
- Solo flights (Jason Everson and Jared Christensen)
- Solo flight (Larry Robey)
- EAA Chapter 33