Teen pilot from Indiana survives crash landing on first solo

[ControlledBurn]

Knocked off course by a tail wind and running out of gas, a 17-year-old pilot flying her first solo flight picked out a farm field for a crash landing.


http://www.indystar.com/articles/6/136480-1936-102.html


My question is, what damn fool CFI put her out on an initial solo without close to full tanks?

[eccentric4]

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you handle an "OH SHIT!" situation when someone else FUCKS UP. I tip my hat to the young lass, and punch the CFI in their face.

Of course, it just occured to me...isn't it the pilot's job to check the fuel before the flight? I remember having to check it each time, and my instructor wouldn't...he'd just believe me.

[ControlledBurn]

It is certainly her job on pre-flight, however a CFI should be double-checking the student's work and asking questions on stuff. Mine have always looked in the tanks themselves and asked me about the fuel conditions. (i.e. Was it filled? Did you sump it? etc)

[Triggar]

Yeah - especially if the girl's got 40 hours logged. Every pilot should have it embedded in them that you don't believe anything anyone tells you - you check for yourself. She should have checked her own fuel tanks before she took off, not believed the gauges, but actually climbed up there and checked them herself. I don't blame her CFI - I mean yeah, the guy should have confirmed it, but if the girl wants to be a pilot than she's got to do stuff like that on her own.

[SierraHotel]

I doubt it was her first solo flight, probably her first solo cross-country, and the media misunderstood it.

*prepares for all the dangerous pilot stuff to come out of Sun n Fun*