November 7th: Kristine was on her own, flying an airplane around the airport traffic pattern (a rectangular route from the departure end of the runway around to the approach end - takeoffs and landings are the two most important skills, after all). This is a huge leap for student pilots - can you imagine? - the courage it takes for a person to get into the airplane that they have only flown with an instructor, but this time - ALONE. There is still a lot of training to be after this point, but the instructor has trained for this day, and won't release a student until they're ready, but nerves being what they are, a lot of times it's the student who needs to know she's ready to go out on her own...
"You know, a lot of unexpected things happen, and usually they're not the ones you practice; but the fact that you practiced a lot of different things puts you in the proper mindset to handle whatever it is that comes along, even if it isn't the one that you've experienced before."-- Former
astronaut, Neil Armstrong (first man to land on the moon)
The picture above (Kristine wearing a shirt with writing on it) shows the tradition of cutting out the back of the tshirt to show how sweaty the solo student pilot has gotten. She is shown holding the cutout with her instructor pilot in the picture to the right.
Here are also videos of her flight, takeoff and landing phases...
http://www.girlswithwings.com/Bios/Kristine.html
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