RWS 88 – First Solo Flights with Peter Holstein

Rotary Wing Show - Interviews from the Helicopter Industry

Today’s topic is First Solo flights. If you are a student getting ready for your first helicopter solo this is the episode that you want to hear.
If you are an instructor sending students solo then you will also definitely want to listen to this one.

For everyone else there are some good risk management considerations in here and it provides another opportunity to step back from the day to day tasks and think about some of the legal liability that we all have when performing our jobs in aviation.

That first solo flight is a milestone for all pilots and culturally it gets a bit of nostalgia or mysticism wrapped around it.

To help us break down the topic we are joined today by Peter Holstein – a highly regarded and in-demand flight examiner here in the Australian helicopter community.

Peter has training and testing approvals for most of the things we need in the GA helicopter world – sling, NVFR, instructor ratings, Low level, PPL, CPL etc

When I needed to complete my Grade 1 instructor training endorsement – Peter conducted the testing for that. We’ve also used Peter a number of times for qualifications for our other staff instructors.

In 1992 Peter opened his own flying school in the south Sydney area called Aerowasp Helicopters which traded all the way through to 2016 and he then moved to where he is now at Touchdown Helicopters at Wollongong Airport.

Peter is also a Member of the International Society of Air Safety Investigators.

There is a saying that experience is the best teacher. After 30 years of sending students solo and especially for today’s discussion – first solo – you can imagine that Peter has experienced a few lessons.

When it comes to aviation I would much prefer to learn something from someone else rather than have to learn it first hand. And with first solos there is not a huge amount of room there to make mistakes.

Not a helicopter one unfortunately but this is my favourite first solo certificate template

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Links from this week’s episode:
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Touchdown Helicopters – company where Peter teaches and is the Head of Operations

Have a comment or feedback about Episode 88? Where did you complete your first solo? Be part of the conversation by leaving a comment below.

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