Flying Solo
by Joe Stout
In order to qualify to fly solo you must make 3 takeoffs and landings by yourself.
It was 1952 and Chester Reid was an instructor at Tom Stewart airport in Union City. I had scraped up enough money for a few lessons in his J3 Piper Cub. I had 3 hours and 40 minutes of instruction from Chester when I went for another lesson. That day he was busy and his son took over and we shot a few landings. After about 20 minutes he got out and told me to solo by shooting 3 landings. He evidently did not realize that I had less than four hours of flight time instruction.
I taxied back to the runway and took off and made 2 good takeoffs and landings. On my 3rd downwind leg preparing for my final landing I pulled the throttle back for the engine to idle as is the practice in light single engine aircraft. At that time I noticed one problem. The engine was not idling nor did it have enough power to keep flying. I then worked the throttle forward and back several times and nothing happened. By this time it was time for me to turn on my base leg just before turning for the final approach.
For those that are unfamiliar with the phrase, “Dead Stick Landing”, it means landing with the engine off. I quickly came to realize that was the only way I could land because there was too much power to land and not enough power to keep flying. As I was on the final approach I just reached over and cut the engine off. It sure is a funny feeling when you see that propeller stop and it also caught the attention of those on the ground. I bounced a couple of times upon hitting the runway but the saying, “Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing”, came true that day.
It turned out that the throttle cable had come loose from the carburetor.
Chester and his son were happy to qualify me to fly solo.