— 5 seconds after landing my first solo flight —
Congratulations!!
The most awesome moment in an aviation career!
It is late afternoon on December 1st, more or less 4 months after this famous coffee with my friend Malvina who had initially influenced my Decision & Plan to start this journey.
Weather: very calm winds, not the clear sky but good visibility and some blurred layers of clouds that start to disappear.
Since I started my journey “From_Zero_To_Pro” I continuously post on Facebook about new steps & achievements.
It’s not a big surprise that the post about “My First Solo Flight” gets the most “Likes & Comments” so far.
But, it is again Malvina who makes me think the most: Congratulations! The most awesome moment in an aviation career.
Very individual Experience of a Lifetime
We had trained Circuits many times and I was finally able to land. Still, everything was a huge act of concentration but I know that I can do it and get back on the ground alive if my instructor falls out of the window.
This morning I had just flown my first navigation flight in very poor visibility. This flight was at the forefront of my mind. It started to create serious new concerns about totally getting lost somewhere in the South of the UK.
The circumstances, what goes through one’s mind in exactly these minutes before taking off, perceptions and feelings during the flight and the relief & happiness after landing must be very individual I am sure.
Additional memory space – ‘Dreality’
But from here something happened that must be the same for everyone. It took me a long time, almost up to the end of PPL(H), to let it properly sink in and give it the time it deserves, to find and build its own place in my personal memory.
Only then did I start to understand her words, and this must be the “awesome part of every aviator’s brain”
This flight was etched into my memory and created a new, additional memory space – ‘Dreality’.
During my first solo flight, I was never actually sure if I was just dreaming again. Since then, I can be in a very real situation and virtually dream this flight again, so detailed and identical that it feels more real than during the flight itself.
It has created a weird mash-up between dream & reality which includes every millisecond, movement, thought, view, sound, light etc. of these unique 3 minutes. Since then, subsequent solo situations get stored in this additional memory space in this specific and very pleasant way.
Flying is not just a dream and a cool feeling, it creates new brainpower and an enhanced ability to dream in reality.
