In my usual peregrinations through the aviation world on YouTube I came across the above very modest video which I find unusually moving. It’s a GoPro camera recording an older man’s first solo flight in a pre-1970s Piper Cherokee. The solo flight is just what it sounds like–the first time a student goes up without the instructor in the plane. It’s a milestone event and the two things pilots always say about their solo day is that the plane was remarkably different feeling without the added weight of the instructor in the right seat, and that the day is the most memorable of their lives. Here, we witness that event in real time as our student performs his run-up, takes off, does a lap in the pattern while announcing his positions to any local traffic in the area (it’s an untowered field) and comes in for a successful landing. (Aviation joke: “A good landing is one you can walk away from”). He’s visibly nervous–hands shaking, voice uncertain–but he makes it just fine and, once down, lets out a joyous little cackle of pleasure that the best actor in the world couldn’t quite approximate to give us the sense of what its like to have mastered the airplane. By the way, I’m dating the era of the plane based on the ludicrous trim-tab which was then located on the ceiling of the aircraft–it’s the wheel-crank that he’s forced to uncomfortably reach for and rotate all in order to make the plane flyable ‘hands off’ which is much more comfortable than exerting constant pressure on the yoke–assuming the pilot doesn’t dislocate his shoulder in the process…