legends say that the ATC and the flight instructor are still formulating a plan for the Cessna to land

By the sound of it, the controllers sounded more freaked out than the poor kid missing his wheel.

_Landing gear suddenly goes AWOL_ , _Gets bored waiting for help to arrive_ , _Searches youtube for landing without a wheel_ , _Finds Maggies video on VASAviation_ , "Ahh so that's how its done, I got this!"

Plot twist: In the future he gets married to Captain Maggie and they raise a squad of daredevil test pilots.

wait for instructor...nah F it .... i'll land !! well done !!

I think the student thought that the airplane could be compromised and situation deteriorating. He probably made the best choice for the info that everyone had. He could have had more damage like an oil or fuel leak etc. He felt the airplane acting weird and gut feeling decided to land. Bravo kid, this will prepare him for a lifetime of flight.

Wow. A student solo and he's left high and dry. Handled it like a boss, still maintains good radio discipline too.

It REALLY bothers me how, because he’s a student solo, they’re assuming he cannot relay any information reliably. He sounds as if he is calm, cool, and working the problem. In my mind he’s the source of the only reliable information they have & ought to be utilized as one. He’s a student solo, but other than the fire fighters he sounds more calm than anyone. Other than whatever occurred to lose the left MLG… this young man did an OUTSTANDING job landing that aircraft safely. He didn’t wait for whatever help ‘might’ be on the way, he used his wits & the aircraft to effect one hell of an emergency landing.

GRD: "... he's a student solo so we aren't able to get that much information out of him... " - Probably not when you don't even ask him question like what his instructors phone number is or how much flightime 10 gallons in a Cessna will give you?!

So much incompetence in a single video. Congrats to the pilot for making the decision to land.

His instructor saw the wheel come off and decided it was break time lol.

Control: uh, can we find the instructor. Everyone else: anyone know where the instructor is? Pilot: yeah, I'm just gonna land.

So...wait 10 minutes before asking what flight school? That seems smart. Geez.

*Student pilot today. Professional pilot tomorrow!* He said he wanted to attempt it and he did it. Kudos to him and everyone who tried to help out 👍👍 *17-Year-Old Student Pilot Maggie lands her plane without a wheel* --> kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eJhibJB8sdvIhKM.html

Congrats to the pilot, he did as well as any low hour student could be expected to.

BE THE PILOT, HE DECIDED! HE was calmer than all those ‘dweebes’ On frequency!

"Thank you for calling 1-800-ATP-FLYER. Your call is important to us. You are: Number 5. Of. 6. For Takeoff."

That was pretty much a textbook landing........really good. The kid kept his calm all the way....that's key to any emergency. While he didn't have many hours, any student who has just soloed is a pretty good pilot. He can handle the plane well, he just doesn't have the experience needed to make decisions, as noted in the video. I hope this guy keeps flying, he is on his way to being one of the best.

I was at the EAA convention back in the '80s, and just happened to take a break to watch the planes land. A low wing tricycle gear plane touched down in front of me, and lost its right gear. The pilot kept the right wing up on the runway, then when he was starting to lose it, he turned off the runway to the right into the grass in a tightening spiral. He did about 270 degrees of turn, slowing the plane, and using the energy to keep the wing up. Finally, he hit the breaks and the plane came to a stop, and the wing came down gently in the grass without any forward motion. It was a beautiful thing to see, and I heard later they repaired it and took off the next day.

I am shocked by ATC's behavior here. Instead of putting confidence into the pilot they just tread him like he is clueless. Hats up to the student pilot by keeping calm and doing what was right to do.

This guy did all right. He lofted the flare a bit, but considering his situation, I think it was a brilliant landing. He kept the left wing, fuselage, and horizontal stabilizer up until they were in the grass. He was even considerate enough to clear the runway! Really nice job! (DAMN Cessna did a great job designing the Skyhawk!)

Pilot: Tower, the plane’s doing a lot of weird things… Tower: oh, well just keep flying around… Good job pilot for taking control of your situation. And pretty nice landing too.

Common sense kicked in before panic. This kid realized pretty quickly (for a student, at least) that landing was obviously his best option. Even in chaos mode, his phraseology was better than a lot of commercial pilots I've heard on this channel. I hope he keeps flying.

Him and Maggie flying *We don't we don't need wheels where we're going*

"He says 10 gallons, we think he has more" This, right here, is grounds for a sacking. Even if someone is a student, if they report an amount of fuel, *never* assume they have *more.* You can assume less, margin of error etc, but never assume more.

Serious impressive landing with that broken plane.

I watched it all happen right in front of my place. We had a nasty little storm cell come in while he was doing touch and gos. The winds came up quick and almost 90 degrees from the left on rwy 21. He tried to land around the B12 intersection, turned into the wind a litte too much and got off the left edge of the rwy. He was about three feet off the ground and decided to go around. Smart decision, but before he could climb out of it his left main cought the B11 taxi sign. The sign exploded, sounded like a shotgun. His wheel assembly went bouncing down three more intersections. That guy did a helluva good job keeping it in the air and putting it down safe.

The only “ADULT “ in the video was the Pilot. Calm, followed ATC instructions, realized the situation was deteriorating and took control. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Impressive skills by the student to recognize that his plane was acting strange and to just go for the landing and avoid further risk. Also nailed the landing!

Absolutely ridiculous. Why even ask him his fuel if you are going to be like "no I think he's wrong" like wtf?! 10 gallons is like 80 pounds or so, it's not that far fetched. And then when someone asks you a question about the situation let's not even try to ask the pilot, just say "well he is a student so he probably doesn't know." Meanwhile don't even ask what school he is part of, just guess incorrectly and then chase that school around when you don't even have contact info. My god.

When he said weird things were happening with the plane I was hoping he would just land it. No sense making a bad situation worse by trying to keep it in the air and potentially having another problem come up. Great job by him landing

"The aircraft did land safely, and the pilot is out of the aircraft." Well done, sir. Well done.

I respect the student’s decision to land before the instructor even got on frequency. It’s an example of confidence in your own decision-making process which is not something everyone is comfortable with.

I learned to fly under an instructor by the name of Jean at Riverside Airport in Tulsa. Whenever I would go out for a solo, including my first solo, she would be there in her vehicle with her portable radio set to tower - and had instructed me to switch to her "private" channel (just an unused standard channel - I won't mention the freq here, but I still remember it!) if anything went wrong and I needed to talk to her. I never had to do that... but after watching this and looking back, I must say my instructor rocked. I had no idea how lucky I was... On my first solo I remember setting my secondary radio to her freq just in case, and using the main for both ground and then tower (whereas usually I would have one set to tower and the other set to departure to make the transition easier when the time came). Kudos to this kid... I'm not sure I would have put it down without talking to my instructor first. In fact I am almost certain I would not have, unless there was something else going on - like maybe he really did only have 10 gallons of fuel on board. So ya.. excellent job done.

I fly out of KSDL (Scottsdale) and I was blown away that they did not have direct phone numbers available to every flight school and FBO on the field. There is no reason at all for them to have to dial a 1-800 number like that. Also, any CFI could have assisted - they didn't necessarily need to track down HIS instructor. There are probably 20 CFI's at Scottsdale at any given time. With this, all said.. wow the student did an amazing job of keeping his head and landing perfectly given the conditions.

Atta boy!!! You stayed calm, and you flew the airplane, navigated, and communicated. You couldn’t have done it any better.

Wow. What a cluster. Respect to PIC.

For all those wondering this plane burns about 10 gallons an hour, so he had at best an hour of fuel left. More likely 30-45 minutes to avoid any risk of low fuel/plus higher fuel burn due to his situation

Tower manager needs to work on a contact list. Not having an FBO phone number??

If he really only had 10 gallons of fuel and he did say the plane was doing weird things (which atc didn't pick up on) he might have been so low on fuel the plane was doing 'weird things' and he knew he better get it down asap. just a theory but I wonder.. in any case stayed calm and landed like a boss.

Wow, brings back memories of my first solo in 1991, also in a C-172. Almost immediately after takeoff I lost my airspeed indicator. When you are taught to fly by the numbers that's pretty disconcerting. i made it around the pattern and made a normal landing but it was pretty darn scary that early in one's flying career with just 11 hours under your belt. It turns out the pitot tube had hit a bug which plugged it causing it to be plugged.

I'm surprised it took them that long to ask the pilot himself what flight school he was in. That was one of my first thoughts.

Wow, WTF this is depressing. The Scottsdale Flight OPS KSDL need some serious training, mainly Ground. Pilots intentions were to bring that bird down, instead of calling the flight school. Speaking of flight school where was the FI? Oh wait, scottsdale OPS, call I 800 CAP CRUNCH flight school Press one on your key pad if your Scottsdale Flight OPS in need of retraining, what was that? Bravo to the pilot for bringing the bird down. Scottsdale get some training for God sake, who trained you all? Bubba GUMP? To the pilot, young man I would go down range with you anytime. Excellent work

No prop strike, and landed on the working wheel. Fine job.

Very nice landing, great job! Maggie inspiring solo students everyday!

That was a pilot who proved himself worthy of the title. He remembered the fundamentals of aviate, navigate, communicate and brought it down with the best of his skill. Bravo Zulu and I'd be proud to be his passenger.

Good on the PiC for making the call to land. A good pilot knows when to take matters into their own hands, and he knew the right time to do so. As a result, he is safe, the plane looks reparable and nobody on the ground was hurt. Amazing outcome!

Experienced ground crew: Dithered and failed to obtain a complete picture. Inexperienced pilot: Flew the plane, remained calm and was decisive enough to over-rule ground and get the damaged plane on the ground safely. Well done sir.

Captain Maggie got way more praise and I think this guy deserves just as much. Excellent job! You two should get married 😊

Flight School will just say "land".

Man, they didn't even ask if he thought he knew how much air time he had or what flight school they just said he doesn't know he's a solo student but never ask they are inept and should have asked the kid right away. Nice landing kid great composure!!! Now the rest of the first contact with him wow. The woman does nothing but make inaccurate statements and try and defer any responsibility I did tell him to land I was speaking with his instructor (I could not find forever but didn't ask a pilot what school he was from) and "he" just decided to land himself while admittedly she did not know how much fuel he had. Imagine an emergency that required her to think quicker than "circle for awhile". Noice Kid great job!

Impressive! Kid was like, “um, yeah...so I’m landing this plane and gonna bring you the flight school info...Then I’ll liftoff amd circle again and wait you bozos to do ANYTHING.”

That ground controller is dangerous

Tower and Ground had there head up there butts. In need of training. Good job 👍 pilot!!!

Instructor or NO instructor there's only one thing to do..then he made his choice. NICE landing!

I'm not sure I could have landed that well with all the wheels on the plane.

Lession learned: Get tower a list of phone numbers of flight schools operating at the airport

"Keep circling, we're gonna drive your instructor over here to the tower." "Nah ima just land this thing."

Such poise and confidence to trust his own discernment on the decision to land. Glad he had the proficiency to execute it.

Love when the ATC and OPS say great job

OPS handled this terribly.

Nothing to suggest he's a kid. Yes he's a student pilot but he could be 47 years old for all we know. So while he lacked technical skills and would have preferred to defer to expert advice, he didn't necessarily lack maturity or had never faced any kind of emergency before. When the advice wasn't coming and everyone else on the radio is sounding flustered and the aircraft has now started doing weird things he stopped deferring and took the decision. Excellent ending to a scary story.

Really impressed with the level of calm this student pilot had! I'm sure he will have a great flying career.

Perfectly executed by the young student pilot. He definitely passed his first major test in aviation. I wish him a great future flying career filled with fun and adventures.

Speaking as an ex CPL, that was one hell of a good landing, especially as he possibly had not yet been given instruction for that situation (to hold the wounded side up as long as possible). Well Done!!! Very well done!!! Why did the Tower not have an up-to-date emergency contact list for all the operators on the Field?

This student flat out Rocked it on is own. Magnificent job!

I would have thought they could have brought a Cessna pilot and then an IP from somewhere on freq. to reassure him, get a comprehensive assessment of the aircrafts status and the name of his IP and flight school, as well as talking to him about a regular landing expectation with rudder compenstion on landing run and expected left turn off the runway when he slows down. The tape made it sound like no-one was really working with this pilot, he seemed a bit alone, but we did not hear many of thr radio transmissions I would assume.

I dont care if that kid is a solo or new, with that landing WITHOUT instructor guidance, give him the license!!

He did the BEST THING HE COULD DO by afmitting he was a student pilot and didn't know what to do.

Oh man. Well done. I’m unsure given the circumstances, that could have been any cleaner. Good job.

I think this pilot realized that the situation in the tower was basically the shrug emoji and he decided to take charge.

He did an amazing job staying calm and doing what he had ti

And meanwhile the controllers wound up killing the student by assuming.

First rule of emergency landing in a Cessna: open the doors. I’m surprised no one told him

Good job dude! Way to go, hope you stick with it. You sound calm and you knew to hold on to for as long as you could.

I can’t wait to have this guy as my future pilot on an airliner. He handled it awesomely and put ATC to shame! Well done captain, I hope the career works out well for you!

You are telling me there was zero instructors on either frequency??

Outstanding job dude !! Well composed given the current situation. Well done Sir !!

This poor guy, he did such a great job with no help 😂

When the pilot said the plane was acting weird, it was time to be on the ground. Bravo, Young Sir!

Nice landing for a student! Had a student near local airport around here she did a very similar landing and minimal damage to the plane she was safe no injuries also. She also got lucky as there were air force army and coast guard pilots on the ground who noticed her loose the gear her instructor went up in the tower and walked her through the landing.

It must have felt like hours waiting for his instructor to be found. I can't blame him for finally deciding to land. Must have been really stressful for him.

Nice! Way to work the problem and not letting the problem work you!!

The second you are solo you are Pilot In Command. Good on him he took command and did a good landing. He walked away. Can't ask for better.

She keeps talking like he is a helpless solo student pilot who doesn't understand anything.

Plot twist. Instructor gets fired and they give his job to the kid who is is now a local legend and goes by the call sign "Rough Rudder."

He could felt he can't stay in the air anymore and decided to land himself. He definitely knows which situation he was at. The helpless one is the controller.

That was F-ING impressive! He had no idea what to do, but when his plane started feeling unsafe to keep flying he decided to put it down anyway and made a beautiful landing! I love watching student solos ace their emergencies.

What a class A bit of aviation! Well impressed with that, both the decision making and landing.

For a student pilot in a non-standard situation, he did a pretty good job of remaining calm and communicating clearly. And had the confidence to make the judgement call to land, likely thinking the situation was going to get worse if he stayed in the air. Well done. On the other hand, little confused by how they handled the situation. Why not just ask the kid for his instructors number? Why ask him how much fuel he has only to then say it's probably more than that? He was in an uncomfortable situation for sure, but he didn't seem incompetent.

That was actually really good for not having anyone walk him through it. Could even tell he tried to correct the drift to the gearless side with the rudders until it was too strong

ATC sounded much more worried than the student pilot.

He stayed calm all the time. Awesome job!

That moment when a student pilot transforms into a real captain. One of the best landings I have ever seen.

Who needs an instructor when you are a Boss! Great Job First time I have viewed this. Way to keep calm. Good to be flying a Cessna this time. My Best to you in the future.

You Earned Your Wings 100x Over. Fantastic Job piloting a crippled plane and Landing it & walking away. What an Amazing Pilot, to deal with the pressure of a true life& death dilemma, yet step out with courage and Land that plane. He stayed calm , decisive , assessed the situation , did all possible & then brought it in. God Bless.

Great job staying ahead of his Aircraft and staying with ATC communication with the tower and staying calm throughout this and I'll be the one who would tell him that you did a fantastic landing to walking away from . Please let the student pilot know that .

The "getting lost" checklist applies. Climb: check. Confess: "I must have hit a sign or something." (Translation: I hit a sign. Y'all need a new sign and I need a wheel.) Communicate: Imma gonna put this thing down while I have the nerve. Bravo. Way to keep cool and handle it.

Funny how the pilot was left to figure it out himself, no instructors to be found.

Dude nailed that as well as any pro could. Regardless of how he lost his wheel, he was able to get himself on the ground safely and he managed to not hit anything, that's all that matters.