a congratulations e-mail to my son on his first solo

Richard,

Stay out of those god damned things!

I just came back from one funeral. I don't want to be going to another.

Managed my first helicopter solo in the R22 today at just under 22 hours of instruction (minimum is 20).

Did five traffic patterns at Erie airport with 4 other fixed wing aircraft that were doing "Touch & Gos". Lucky, without 200lbs of instructor the little R22 did a good job keeping up with everyone else.

My instructor snapped some pics as I came in after the final pattern.

Big Rush, More Later.

Cheers,

Richard