This post should deserve a new category of its own. I can not put it in the “Never again” category, as I did not made anything wrong. So here’s the story.

On a saturday morning, on a non-controlled airfield, where the circuit is quite short because of an immediate cross-wind turn at departure end of runway, I was flying circuits for currency. By saying the circuit is short, I mean something about 3 minutes and 30 seconds in an aircraft flying 110 kts in downwind.

Two other aicrafts were also flying the pattern, so it was very active. At a certain time, an instructor decided to give his student his first solo. So we were now four in this short pattern. After a full stop, I taxied back to the holding point, and the solo student was on mid-base. I lined-up for take-off, and and while I was climbing out, I was expecting the student behind me making his “Final” call, but nothing happend.

After quite a long while, we all heard the voice if his instructor on the AFIS frequency, requesting… “position – altitude”. This was quite a shock, and the frequency remain silent, until the AFIS guy said he saw him going-around, and entering right hand downwind ! The pattern being left-hand, we all listened carefully, until the guy announced being on long final again.

The two aircraft on downwind (including me) flew a longer downwind to let the solo student come in quietly, but unfortunately his approach ended in a go-arround. I was number two, and landed uneventfully. I could see the third attempt of the solo-student, which was a bit hard, but a good first solo landing.

He even taxied back to the holding point for a new solo pattern experience, for which he also needed two attempts, the first flare being a bit high.

While I was cleaning and clearing my aircraft, I felt a bit guilty and uncomfortable with what had happened. My view was that I scared him by lining up while he was approaching, and may be I should have been more careful, knowing he was on his first solo. But on the other hand, I could not find any rule or fact to support that.

If he felt it was too close, he could have asked me on the frequency to wait for him to land. His instructor could also have asked me, he was on the frequency with his handheld radio. So both of them did not see a risk, or they did not said it.

When the guy flew his first go-arround, he did not said anything on the radio, and flew an unexpected right-hand pattern. This raise questions regarding his procedure training. Radio is certainly not the first item on the list when going-arround, but saying intentions and reporting position is important, especially in a non-controlled environment.

During a debriefing with all the involved people, the question has also been raised, to know if the conditions were good or not for a first solo. Mentionning on the frequency that this was a first solo was good, but leaving a student on his own for the first time in a quite busy environment is certainly questionable

To conclude, I hope this could benefit to other, and the only lesson I retain from this is that next time someone will be on first solo, I will take MUCH MORE margin. I was not close, he could have done it easily, but I don’t want to hear the “position – altitude” call from an instructor on a frequency again.