Watch the One Week Ready to Solo webisodes (www.aopa.org/OWRTS)
They experienced the thrill of their first takeoff, wrestled with crosswind landings, and rejoiced at their first unassisted touchdowns. They battled airsickness, laughed at the tilting horizon with an airshow star, and howled with delight at a mischievous maneuver designed to build confidence and skill. Nik Oekerman, Chris Graves, and Sherry Rosenkranz experienced the highs and lows of flight training in sharp relief—compressing presolo training and the sights and sounds of the Sun ’n Fun International Fly-In and Expo into one week—and with cameras rolling for it all.
The industry-wide One Week Ready to Solo project, led by Redbird Flight Simulations, brought together Oekerman, a former U.S. Navy corpsman; Graves, a Harley-Davidson custom builder; and Rosenkranz, a global advertising manager for General Motors, for seven days of flight training, ground school, and simulator sessions before a culminating flight on the eighth day. The three students arrived in Florida in April as strangers, with no previous flight experience. They left with a newfound sense of accomplishment, budding friendships, and an indelible tie to a community of aviators.
“Your objective this week is really simple, and that’s to have fun,” Redbird Skyport’s Roger Sharp told the three students at the beginning of the experience, documented in a series of AOPA Live webisodes launched during EAA AirVenture in July. “And you’re going to do that by learning to fly at the same time, so it’s going to be a really cool way of having fun.”
The project sought to take the participants from zero flight experience to close to soloing in a week to demonstrate to nonpilots that their dream of flying may be more accessible than it seems. Sound ambitious? While most students space their training out over a period of months, flying more frequently reinforces each lesson and helps students progress more quickly in their training. A number of training providers around the country specialize in accelerated training, where students fly several times a day and may finish their certificate in a matter of weeks. Redbird uses simulators to complement flight lessons in the accelerated courses it offers at its Skyport flight school in San Marcos, Texas; Sharp said that the students normally would solo after about a week in San Marcos.
Unusual challenges. The One Week Ready to Solo participants had a few unusual challenges during their busy week of training and airshow fun. The presence of cameras at every stage put additional pressure to succeed on the already self-motivated students. And Saturday, the last day of their training, would be among the busiest days of the show as weekend visitors flew in. So Redbird removed the external pressures to solo and planned for the instructors to accompany them on their showcase flights in a passive role. Training flights in RedHawk refurbished diesel Cessna 172s at nearby Plant City Airport, simulator sessions at the Sun ’n Fun grounds in Lakeland, and short ground-school sessions would help prepare the students to fly unassisted.
You can watch the student pilots’ journey of discovery as they learn new concepts, build confidence, and celebrate training triumphs in a series of five webisodes produced by AOPA. Viewers get to know the students and see how their different backgrounds and personalities affect their approach to flying. Oekerman, who served two combat tours in Iraq, responds well to pressure and took to the more adrenaline-infused maneuvers of training. Rosenkranz, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2007 and is now a senior leader in the Livestrong Foundation, applies her philosophy of “live life in the moment” to the experience. And Graves, who worked on the new Harley-Davidson LiveWire electric prototype and builds custom motorcycles in his garage, brings his analytical perspective to the training.
In Episode One, viewers meet Oekerman, Graves, and Rosenkranz as they get their own introduction to the basics of flying and climb into a simulator for the first time. Episode Two documents their first flights, with crescendos of excited laughter as the RedHawk accelerates down the runway. “It feels awesome!” Rosenkranz exclaims in the climb.
By Episode Three, the students are starting to pick up on some of the concepts introduced earlier. Graves gets a lesson in confident aircraft control when his guest instructor, AOPA Editor at Large Dave Hirschman, drops a roll of toilet paper out of the window and has Graves slice the unfurling ribbon with the wing.
Oekerman takes off with airshow star Sean D. Tucker. “We’re just going to make our own roller coaster, OK?” says the National Aviation Hall of Famer.
The fun continues in Episode Four, when the budding aviators learn emergency procedures and get advice from AOPA President Mark Baker on rising to the challenge of training and the great rewards of learning to fly. The students build confidence in their skills, and airshow performer and Red Bull Air Race competitor Michael Goulian helps Graves gain a practical understanding of stalls and the wing. Jeppesen’s Craig Thighe, a designated pilot examiner, weighs in on the students’ progress as the week draws to a close.
In the final episode, the students put together all that they’ve learned. Rosenkranz and Graves fly to Lakeland and back to land in front of the Sun ’n Fun crowd, and Oekerman does takeoffs and landings at Plant City. Their instructors are no longer coaching them through each step of the flight; Graves’ instructor, Doris Gatewood of Virginia’s Aviation Adventures, goes so far as to cover her mouth with tape. The students exit the aircraft beaming with joy and pride at the progress they’ve made.
Total immersion. During their whirlwind week at Sun ’n Fun, the One Week Ready to Solo participants immersed themselves in the general aviation experience: admiring aircraft, meeting airshow performers, chatting with pilots, and enjoying brats and other fly-in food. They found a welcoming community of aviators that supported them at every turn.
Instructors from award-winning flight schools came to teach them, and celebrity guest instructors jumped in to help. Pilots shared stories from their own training experiences and invited the students to upcoming events. AOPA, Garmin, Jeppesen, Lightspeed, Sporty’s, and Sun ’n Fun are among the sponsors that supported the project financially and with training materials and pilot gear.
AOPA is sharing the students’ story in the hopes that their energy and excitement will inspire others to learn to fly. Fellow student pilots may commiserate with training plateaus, airsickness, and weather delays, but they’ll also recognize the rush of excitement during the neophytes’ first takeoffs, the flash of triumph when a concept starts to click, and the camaraderie of newfound friends exploring a world of new experiences together.
After shutting down the aircraft from her last flight of the week, Rosenkranz expressed a sentiment many a student pilot has felt after a hard-won training victory. “I don’t want to get out,” she said. “I’m kind of ready to go back up.”
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