I Learned About Flying From That: My First Solo and My First Loop

Robert L. Wieman

Wednesday, September 04, 2013 at 12:47 AM ET

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** To see more of Barry Ross' aviation art, go
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Key Takeaways:

The author recounts his first solo flight experience on Dec 24, 1943, where he faced a challenge landing in a snow-covered cow pasture and had to follow another plane to find his instructor.
Leveraging his understanding of physics from college, the author, while still in basic flight training, independently calculated and successfully performed an unauthorized loop maneuver in his PT-19 trainer.
Reflecting on the incident at 90 years old, the author acknowledges the extreme danger and foolishness of his youthful stunt, linking such risk-taking to the inherent nature of young combat pilots.

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The date was Dec. 23, 1943 — I was 21 years old. I was in the rear cockpit of a Fairchild PT-19 primary trainer with a total dual time to date of 10 hours. My instructor was in the front cockpit. The wide-open grass landing strip of Cimarron Field Primary Flight School in Oklahoma was dead ahead. The instructor waved at me to make a landing. I did everything right and made the prettiest three-point landing I had ever made. The instructor said, “Take off, circle the field and make another landing. If the next landing is as good as this one, tomorrow you’ll make your first solo flight.” Everything went well. The second landing was just like the first. “Meet me in the hangar at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning and we’ll get that first solo flight under your belt,” the instructor said.

The next morning everything was set for that first solo flight. During the night it had snowed, and everything was covered with 3 inches of the white powdery stuff. The ground crew had cleaned the snow off the PT-19, topped off the gas tanks and performed the usual engine warm-up.