I soloed!
by Tyler

Hello Mr. Wolff,

It's Tyler! I am all signed up and really excited for the Brigade Air camp this year. I have invited a friend to come as well, however he has not signed up yet. This will probably be my last year as I plan to attend LeTourneau University next year after I graduate High School. But, before I get into any of that, I have some important news that you might want to hear.

This last week was my spring vacation from school, and after many days of rain and clouds, I was relieved to find some clear weather to fly in and enjoy. I have been talking and struggling with my parents for over a year now to let me solo, but this past week I finally got the go ahead! My parents and I prayed for my safety before I flew. We prayed that this experience would be a large step toward my future goal to serve Christ. And after that, my instructor and I flew a few laps around the pattern. He instructed me to park the plane so that he could hop out, and then he shook my hand and said go have fun! I was only allowed to do three touch and goes in the pattern, but I still had the time of my life! The Cessna 152 Flying Fortress that I was flying screamed at Mach 2 without my instructor in the seat! When I landed, they cut off my shirt tail (which I suppose is now a dying custom of many flight schools). I now have that shirt tail, and I will forever remember April fools day 2005, for it was the day I soloed.

Hope that we have everything worked out for the camp this summer. Are we going to have two planes again as well as multiple CFI's? Sounds like this year's camp will be the best. I am going to make it my best because, like I said before, it might be the last one I go to for a very long time. But don't worry, because once I get my commercial pilot's license, high performance endorsement, multi-engine IFR rating, and maybe my CFI, I will be flying MAF's King Air B200 across the jungles of South America delivering the greatness of God's news to the eyes and ears of the un-reached.

Looking forward to hearing from you.