A pilot’s first solo is a huge deal in the path towards becoming a certificated pilot and enjoying the freedom of creating your own flight journeys. In aviation tradition, the occasion is usually marked with the instructor cutting off the shirttail from the T-shirt in which the student first soloed.
This tradition is symbolic of the day when the student is cut loose from the instructor’s grip. Often these shirttails are framed and hung on a wall, to be displayed for other students and pilots to see.
