Preflight

Tales of the (shirt)tails

Our recent mention of aviation's shirttail-trimming tradition after a student's first solo flight (see "Preflight: The Shirttail Tradition," April 2005 AOPA Flight Training) generated quite a bit of reader response in support of the practice. As a believer in the shirttail tradition, I was pleased.

John Mateka started flying in November 2004 with flight instructor Elaine Heston at Rostraver Airport in Monongahela, Pennsylvania. "When I walked into her office I thought it strange to have white cotton cloth with pictures hanging on the wall," he wrote. Being in a new environment, he didn't ask about the material -- and the April article answered his unspoken question. "I now understand the tradition that was right in front of me on that first day."

Flight instructor Jerry Griggs soloed his daughter, Janice Griggs, and her best friend, Andrea Hattan, from Lake Waltanna Airport near Wichita, Kansas, last fall. "Both girls soloed in my 1937 Aeronca K -- Andrea on October 20, 2004, which was on her sixteenth birthday, and Janice on October 19, about two weeks after her sixteenth birthday," he wrote. "The shirttail cutting tradition is alive and well here. Both girls are thrilled to have soloed an old taildragger."

David Robinson, a flight instructor for the Middle Tennessee State University flight program, normally decorates his students' shirttails to mark the occasion. "I like to make it personalized and look good so they will keep it and maybe frame it," he said. However, he got behind recently when several students soloed within a few days of each other -- and with a friend's help, printed photographs that could be ironed onto the unadorned shirttails. The students? "They loved them," Robinson reported.

Seth Levinstein, a CFI who resides in New York City, lost his shirttail when he soloed at Bayport Aerodrome on Long Island in May 1999. "I now work as an instructor at a major flight school where the tradition has been modified to a ceremonial ringing of a bell at the doorway. I always wanted the opportunity to pull out a pair of scissors and cut a square of fabric from an unsuspecting student. To this day, I still carry my shirttail in my flight bag as a reminder to keep me humbled."

Nan Funkhouser earned her pilot certificate last July at Gardner Flight School in Gardner, Kansas. Flight instructor Micki Shetterly "is an artist with a shirttail, as well as with an airplane," said Funkhouser, who was inspired by her dad to learn to fly at age 51 after seeing him fly a Stearman on his eightieth birthday -- for the first time since 1942. "You can imagine how thrilling it was to wear my shirt with 'Bill's Daughter' on the front and half of the back missing. He immediately knew what I had accomplished when I turned around to show him, and I can tell you it was one thrilling moment!"

The airport office walls at Gardner are full of shirttails, she added. "I can't think of any better decor for a flight school."

James Stacy, a student at Attitude Aviation at Lawrence County Airpark in Chesapeake, Ohio, agreed. "I enjoy walking into a flight school and seeing the shirttails pinned to the walls. My first solo was on October 24, 2004, and the shirttail is hanging on the wall in my CFI's office," he said. "The rest of the shirt was airbrushed, framed, and giving to me as a Christmas present from my sister."

I soloed August 27, 1990, and still have my tails and I can recall to this day the feelings of accomplishment and exhilaration just by holding it in my hands," said CFI David Tenhundfeld, who teaches at The Flight School of Gwinnett in Atlanta. "We have a very talented artist by the name of Rebecca Black who adds a lot of color and flair to the basic scribblings we artistically challenged CFIs come up with."

Tenhundfeld and Black graciously offered to create a replacement for my own shirttails, dutifully clipped after my first solo in 1989 -- but never decorated and eventually lost. I can't wait to see the results.

Only one flight instructor did not endorse the shirttail tradition, but he takes another approach to commemorating the significant event of first solo. "Not everyone wears a cheap cotton t-shirt when they solo," noted Karl Elmshaeuser. "I take their picture with the aircraft and have a 5-by-7-inch print made, place it in a frame, and present it to them. It becomes a keepsake for them to preserve a significant moment in their life and it motivates them to come back and continue their efforts to complete the training."

The shirttail tradition shares that objective.

Several shirttail photos sent in by readers appear in "Training Notes and News" (p. 14). Additional stories and photos are available on AOPA Flight Training Online.