Not Another Student Pilot!

The last two weeks have been grueling. Lots and lots of flying, in preparation for my FAA examination. The whole time has blurred together in my mind, so I don’t have specifics about any of the lessons. Lots of landings. Lots of short field landings, which needed a lot of work. And, for fun on one flight back to Midway, Alex (my instructor) zero-G’d the airplane and had my 3”x5” notebook floating in the cockpit for a couple of seconds.

Anyway, it all came together this morning for my exam. I did a load of last-minute research brushing up on ground school and made a bunch of Excel spreadsheets for my cross country (MDW to CID) and weight and balance, because I was tweaking both right up to the last minute. I had a nice printout of all my performance calculations: the inputs, the outputs, the assumptions (e.g., which runway MDW would be using). All of my preparedness must have impressed the examiner because the oral exam was only 45 minutes. I tripped up on some questions and had to be led to the answers desired. But I did pretty well—it wasn’t the nightmare I was anticipating.

The practical exam went well enough. Again, not perfect (cough forgot GUMPS on my first landing cough), but I didn’t need any “do-overs”. (I’m not actually sure the examiner noticed my GUMPS omission.)

So, the outcome is that I GOT MY PRIVATE PILOT LICENSE.

It hasn’t quite sunk in yet. I’m already being pestered about who will be my first passenger (my wife), where I’ll fly to first (MWA, to visit my in-laws before they move), when I’ll be taking that flight (maybe July 15th), and how often I expect to be flying (twice a month, to nearer locations).

Will I continue this blog? Yes. The Private Pilot License is a license to learn. I will continue to study flying and at this point in my piloting career every flight is a new adventure, if not a new lesson.

I’ll let you know how my first flight goes. For now, I’m going to bask in the glow of accomplishment.