Last week was solo week for a lot of the kaydets. Us 'Structors usually stop work for fifteen minutes to watch the last of the three required trips around the traffic pattern airfield circuit for each of the kids, but the last flight on *this* particular day had everybody -- US and Iraqi pilots and staff, contractors, refuelers, mechanics, folks who work for Three Letter Organizations nearby, and every student in the Flight School -- either waiting on the ramp or standing on the berm overlooking the runway.

Two trips around the circuit and two low passes in a pretty brisk crosswind (student's options for two of the three include touch-and-go or rejected landings, but he *must* land on the third pass). The pic below shows this particular kaydet's third approach.

He touched down a bit long, but he didn't balloon or bounce. I haven't OPSECed the pix yet, so you'll just have to take my word that he was wearing the world's biggest grin when he taxied past me on his way to the traditional mud-douse and fire-hose drenching.

Why all the excitement over one Iraqi student becoming the IqAF's newest pilot?

Because of what we promised if he soloed. We're gonna teach him to drive a car.

He's never even *been* in an automobile...