I soloed! with a story...

exneophyte

Well-Known Member
Did my first solo flight today and survived to tell the tale. I surely won't ever forget this day!

On downwind, nearly turning to final for my first landing in left traffic for 28L(having been cleared to land), tower calls in a stressed & heightened urgency voice something like "Cessna 123AB make right traffic. I have inbound aircraft that I need to accommodate. You should be able to circle back for landing in a few minutes after I get him in."

I clear the area to my right visually and make a 90 degree turn to the right. Now, I'm effectively on a departure leg for 10R. Not sure exactly what was going on, I climb back up to TPA and continue that heading. About 90 seconds later, I hear "Cessna 123AB you must have misunderstood my instructions, state your intentions." I replied, "I would like to return for landing." Tower comes back with instructions but they didn't make sense to me because I am completely unsure of what they want me to do now and a little flustered. Having heard on this forum and from other pilots if you don't understand what ATC wants you to do, get clarification. I call "tower, what would you like me to do, sir", with as little agitation as possible. He comes back "turn back and you are cleared to land 28L." I make a 180 degree turn and am about 2 miles out and proceed to do my best landing of the day.

The winds picked up a little and my next two landings were less excellent, but I didn't bend metal so life is good. Thanks to all on Jetcareers for your guidance and expertise for making this dream a reality. I do plan to see if I can't get the recording on LiveATC to see if I would do anything different in the future, but even my instructor who was listening on the ground wasn't sure what tower wanted so I feel a little better about it.
 
You are now a pilot. Congrats, don't ever let anyone get you down because they may have more time and experience than you do. Every professional pilot had just as many hours as you do now at some point. The red baron crashed on his first solo, looks like you're off to a better start than he had.
 
Congrats on the accomplishment! In a way what happened served as a good lesson that things don't always go smoothly but you have the ability to safely complete the mission. Well done!
 
It sounds like Tower, having already cleared you to land, wanted you to make right traffic as opposed to left which you had been doing in order to accommodate this other traffic. So your turn away is what confused him. You've already been cleared to land, at this point, you own the runway unless your landing clearance is rescinded. It seems like Tower could have been a bit clearer (perhaps not knowing you were a student solo) in their phrasing, perhaps "Cessna Skyburner 666, on the go, make right traffic to accommodate inbound traffic..."
 
It sounds like Tower, having already cleared you to land, wanted you to make right traffic as opposed to left which you had been doing in order to accommodate this other traffic. So your turn away is what confused him. You've already been cleared to land, at this point, you own the runway unless your landing clearance is rescinded. It seems like Tower could have been a bit clearer (perhaps not knowing you were a student solo) in their phrasing, perhaps "Cessna Skyburner 666, on the go, make right traffic to accommodate inbound traffic..."
Yea, that makes sense now that I think about it. Lesson learned.
 
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