So, student pilots.. Who are we and where do we stand?

My checkride just got moved up by a couple days, got about a week to study like mad!
 
And for the time being, I'm no longer a student! *until I decide to go for my instrument rating) Got the practical portion of my checkride in this morning. Some early fog threatened to derail it, but it cleared up enough and the DPE said to go for it.

Only comments he had were that it seemed like I was trying to force the plane onto the ground during my landings and to make sure I'm letting the plane settle on its own.

Now to figure out my first $100 (or $250) hamburger trip...
 
Fredbob711 said:
And for the time being, I'm no longer a student! *until I decide to go for my instrument rating) Got the practical portion of my checkride in this morning. Some early fog threatened to derail it, but it cleared up enough and the DPE said to go for it.

Only comments he had were that it seemed like I was trying to force the plane onto the ground during my landings and to make sure I'm letting the plane settle on its own.

Now to figure out my first $100 (or $250) hamburger trip...
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Congrats!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
 
Timmer said:
Congratulations! And now you're just a student where you're in charge of the lesson plan. Keep that mindset and have a great time :)
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:yes:

Haha, was just thinking about this and realized my mistake. Come back to clarify and lo and behold it's been pointed out already.

I know I'll never stop learning when it comes to flying. Reading other people's experiences on these boards has taught me a lot already, and I expect that will continue and hopefully I can contribute occasionally and help someone else out.
 
Yes, it's amazing how quickly you can get sloppy without a CFI next to you. I am lucky and have been flying a lot with my dad, CFII, as one of my main passengers. It helps a lot to have someone who keeps you honest otherwise it's very easy to start thinking that being 100' off on altitude during cruise is fine.

Any plans for your post-certificate flying?
 
Timmer said:
Yes, it's amazing how quickly you can get sloppy without a CFI next to you. I am lucky and have been flying a lot with my dad, CFII, as one of my main passengers. It helps a lot to have someone who keeps you honest otherwise it's very easy to start thinking that being 100' off on altitude during cruise is fine.

Any plans for your post-certificate flying?
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Nothing specific yet. I have a good number of family members that I think would enjoy going up, including siblings and nephews/nieces. I'm getting married at the end of the month though so I have to carefully choose when/where to go for now. :D
Fiance isn't a huge fan of flying but any trips we take she's willing to fly with me, just not if I'm only going up to punch holes in the sky.
 
Timmer said:
Already? It seems like just the other day you started. Good luck! :)
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Tell me about it! It's been a busy couple months for me. Dont think I've had more than 2 or 3 days between flights the whole time. I'm looking forward to taking a little break after all this.
 
Rallyist said:
I'm pursuing my PPL. I've got about 38 hours, with my first solo under my belt. Now I just have to do my night XC with my instructor, and my solo XCs, and by that time should have the required 50 hours and be ready for my check ride. Hopefully all goes well.
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Required 50hrs? Did they change FAR 61?
 
Written scheduled for tomorrow. Only problem is it's scheduled at the airport. Plane crash today at the airport and the plane involved belongs to the school administering the test. Also a little difficult to be excited about taking the test right now. I'm ready but planning on reviewing some more tonight to get my mind right.
 
I am at 28.4 hours total, started in January. I am ready to solo, just a few more hours of emergency procedure flight, more stall practice and I should be good to go. I feel confident enough to fly alone now. If my instructor said go, I would go...two weeks ago I would have been hesitant but I am comfortable in the plane.
 
Having read these various threads about us students, it is striking the difference in how instructors approach soloing a student. I know aptitude plays a role, but the differences are so stark between approaches. Not saying one is superior to the other, just very different.
 
I was finally able to take my wife and kids with me on my first day of being a Private Pilot last night! Hopefully this serves as some encouragement to those of you still working towards their license.. Awesome feeling ! As you can see the boys were excited ! :D
 

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Being a student again. I have Just started flight training and find the rudder inputs very heavy in the C208B. Additionally the systems are a bit more of a challenge this time around.
 
Firefighter_324 said:
I was finally able to take my wife and kids with me on my first day of being a Private Pilot last night! Hopefully this serves as some encouragement to those of you still working towards their license.. Awesome feeling ! As you can see the boys were excited ! :D
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Fantastic. Sharing the joy of flight with friends and family is indeed incredible.
 
Firefighter_324 said:
I was finally able to take my wife and kids with me on my first day of being a Private Pilot last night!
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Awesome. I bet they enjoyed it as much as you did.
Which I can't say about my wife as my first passenger because she is unbelievably scared of flying. But she went up with me since she trusts me more than anybody else, she says. :)

Where to for the first $100 hamburger?
 
Private 2 1/2 years ago. Expect to be a student until my last flight.
 
Passed my checkride today. Hot and windy, and definitely not one of my better days flying, but I passed. Getting checked out in the club 172 tomorrow morning since all I've ever flown has been the 150s our club has.
 
aggie06 said:
Passed my checkride today. Hot and windy, and definitely not one of my better days flying, but I passed. Getting checked out in the club 172 tomorrow morning since all I've ever flown has been the 150s our club has.
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Congratulations Pilot!! :D
 
aggie06 said:
Passed my checkride today. Hot and windy, and definitely not one of my better days flying, but I passed. Getting checked out in the club 172 tomorrow morning since all I've ever flown has been the 150s our club has.
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Good job!
 
Passed my written the other day. ASA book and study buddy app were both a huge help. Of course everything I was strong on wasn't covered and I think they gave me 4 or 5 vor questions. On to the oral prep. And getting back in the plane next week.
 
Like most I'm a life long learner. As far as aviation is concerned I don't plan on going any further than instrument and multi-engine.

Started in April, solo'd in July with just under 15 hours. Sitting at about 25 hours now, next up is night flight, another Xcountry and then solo cross countries. Solo endorsed on a 152 and 172.

Will take the written this week or next. Used Sporty's Study Buddy and get 90s on the practice test so I should be fine.

Hope to be done by October/November, if not before.
 
Passed my Checkride! I was really stressed out and did horribly on the prep flight with my CFI on wednesday, but I went up again solo for a couple hours and got my head back in the right place just in time. I struggled with a couple things on the oral, but overall did pretty well. Most of the first half of the flight went well, flew the first part of the XC he had me plan, then had me calculate a diversion enroute. Turned me around and did some maneuvers and flight under the hood on the way back. All the maneuvers went well, only real comment he had was to speed up the clearing turns. I was doing thing nice and gentle, he asked me to speed it up. Where things got messy was the landings and take-offs. He had me go over to KOKB, which is an uncontrolled field and happens to be my least favorite of the airports I've been to. There's some terrain all around the airport and the approach brings you over some houses and power lines that aren't close, but feel close enough to get my nerves going, and to add to it it's in a canyon that bounces the air around and we had 9 knots gusting to 15. Made for some really bumpy approaches and climb outs. I ended up going around on my first try at both the soft and short landings, and when I did put them down they weren't all that pretty, but he didn't say I failed. The final landing was back at KCRQ and we did a forward slip to no-flap landing. I was a bit fast and landed long, but got it settled down pretty well and cleared the runway. At this point I realized he didn't say I had failed, and all I had to do was the landing checklist and get to parking.....until I hear "6CA I have a phone number for you to call, advise when ready to copy." My heart about dropped, and I was frantically trying to figure out what I did. We gave them a call from parking and apparently they have had an issue with people requesting northbound departures at the coast drifting to the south during climbout before the turn. Apparently they had a faster plane departing behind us and it had to divert to the south slightly to avoid us. He just asked me to be aware and keep an eye on it. When we hung up the phone the examiner told me he had been watching my heading on the climb out and I was dead on our heading, and that the only reason for the drift was a breeze from the north. He said I hadn't done anything wrong and that probably the tower should have just told one of us to offset for traffic (which I've gotten before) and that as far as he was concerned I was just fine. Disaster averted. Needless to say it's a big relief to get all that over with. Looking forward to continuing to learn and starting on my IR soon.
 
Congratulations! My checkride too was on a hot and windy day at an airport with a lot of wind shifts. Made me very nervous that I will fail but eventually I did it right and passed.
Welcome to the club, Mr. Pilot!!
 
My CFI signed my biennial today. I am once again legal to fly solo and with passengers!

Back to where I was 30 years ago.

It is a great day. :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I forget his last name. First name is Jay, he works out of JetSource at KCRQ
 
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