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

Got in another IR training flight this morning. We hit it early (TO 6:45. I was preflighting at 6) to have the plane back in time for the next student.

Simulated radio work, Nav interception and tracking, holds (which turned into partial panel in the middle), programing the 530W for an approach, vectors to a RNAV approach, "low" (1000') approach, more vectors.

Mostly did fine. A couple of times I got distracted and wandered of heading or altitude but not too far. I got a lovely compliment from the CFI after landing "I really like your landings." It was a nice one, stall horn on, chirped the tires on made the next turn off.

John
 
Knocked out 1.3 of night work last night...was supposed to do the night XC but clouds weren't cooperating. Night XC, Long XC, 1.7 Hood time and written are what I have left.
 
Did my solo XC today, KPAO --> KMOD and back (well, yeah...). Slightly stress inducing as there was no one to bail me out, but over all, a [wonderfully] uneventful ride. 1.7 hrs.
 
NHWannabe said:
Knocked out 1.3 of night work last night...was supposed to do the night XC but clouds weren't cooperating. Night XC, Long XC, 1.7 Hood time and written are what I have left.
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You'd best get that written out of the way. What you have remaining will go quickly.
 
mscard88 said:
You'd best get that written out of the way. What you have remaining will go quickly.
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I'm in a similar boat...been so focused with work the past few months and need to study up on the online ground school I've been using. I have my solo XC's left and some other lessons and that's it (beyond practicing for the checkride).
 
abqtj said:
I'm in a similar boat...been so focused with work the past few months and need to study up on the online ground school I've been using. I have my solo XC's left and some other lessons and that's it (beyond practicing for the checkride).
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I think a few of us are in a very similar situation. I need my long solo xcounty, 1.7 of hood time (will do a little of this in another dual session rather than all of it during the 3 hrs of checkride prep), and checkride prep and I am ready to go. But between me and my instructor not getting off work till 5:30 during the week, and crappy weather on the weekends I have been sidelined for a while.
 
Guess who passed their PPL Checkride today......ME!

It was all very straight forward for the Oral, I had one issue when I got caught out identifying a Airfield with Class E at 1200ft (I said 700) I also said you could not pick up Special VFR at an airfield that has no tower.

The ride itself was nerve-wracking. I fly out of a Class C so when calling Clearance Delivery I asked for "direct" like we have always done in the past, they surprised me be requesting my desired heading. I tend to set up my GPS etc at the run up pad so it took me a few mins to get this as I didnt want to give an estimated figure on a checkride. Obviously I was extremely nervous so this kink really didnt help!

We flew to a field nearby without a tower for the landings. My regular landing was a little poor, got a little hop but managed to keep the nose wheel up. The DPE then wanted to do soft/short field T/O and Landings on the crosswind runway. A direct X-wind 10G14 made things quite interesting but he seemed satisfied.

We then went to do the maneuvers. Stalls and Steep turns went great. He caught me out by requesting a 20deg banked turn for the power on stall. I didnt have much practice doing them. Slow flight was an issue as it was quite bumpy and I had a little trouble keeping altitude and with the gusty conditions we did blip the horn once or twice. He gave me quite a stern lecture about how technically he could fail me for that but I guess he was satisfied in the end.

I then went under the hood for the usual climbs, descents, turns etc. Unusual attitude recovery was a lot more aggressive than I have practiced with my CFI but nothing that was really troubling.

Finally he vectored me over grass strip used by a cropduster and had me do my emergency engine out landing from 3000ft. At first I thought I was going to overshoot (which I was told is an automatic fail to this DPE) but I managed to slip enough to get in with plenty to spare. He took me down to 100ft so I assume he was curious to see if we would have made it? He told me to go-around and head home and that was it done!

There was one final mistake as I approached home with tower clearing me for 4R and me reading back 4L (The usual GA runway). Tower corrected me and all was good. After landing I came to a stop beyond the hold short line to clean up the aircraft and the DPE commented that I should have gone straight to monitoring Ground when advised by Tower in case they were trying to contact me even though I had not called them.

Then it was back to the FBO and a handshake! Even though I know that had I made a mistake that would have caused me to fail, he would have told me at the time, It was still nerve-wracking waiting for him to say that I passed! We went into the FBO and met my CFI who was waiting. We had a pretty in-depth debrief on basically everything we done (which in itself was a good learning experience). I wrote a check and he gave me my temp certificate and set me free!

The Oral exam was approx 1hr 40mins. Flight time was 1.7hrs.

I have 62hrs, of which 19 of them were from 5years ago when I started learning the first time. I start my Instrument Rating next week and cant wait!

Sorry for the rambling post, Im sure I missed some information, Im still buzzing!!
 
Awesome, congrats! I hope to be in your position in the near future!
 
Congrats!:thumbsup:

You mean he took your money AFTER the ride? Usually get your money first.
 
deftone said:
Slow flight was an issue as it was quite bumpy and I had a little trouble keeping altitude and with the gusty conditions we did blip the horn once or twice. He gave me quite a stern lecture about how technically he could fail me for that but I guess he was satisfied in the end.
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Bizarre, isn't it?

When I did my Sport Pilot checkride a few months ago, I was required to have the stall horn sounding when we did slow flight. Otherwise it would have been a fail. Sport Pilot still uses PTS, not ACS.

The FAA behaves in mysterious ways....
 
My instructor always wanted me to do slow flight at mca on the raged edge..
Congrats on your pass!
 
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Pretty much just getting started again after a 35 year hiatus. Started doing the King school stuff and a neighbor has been letting me fly his C-150 right seat. It's coming back pretty fast but I have a question:

Is it better to do the ground school first or the flying? I see pros on each side.

Thanks and great to be here!

Ron
 
Half Fast said:
Bizarre, isn't it?

When I did my Sport Pilot checkride a few months ago, I was required to have the stall horn sounding when we did slow flight. Otherwise it would have been a fail. Sport Pilot still uses PTS, not ACS.

The FAA behaves in mysterious ways....
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Very bizarre!

When I began training 5 years ago I was taught to ride the horn through the entire slow flight sequence! I’m not sure why they decided to change it?
 
If you’ll watch the video of Rod Mochado and John King debating the new ACS (google it; it’s on YouTube) you will learn that the standard is that way because ACS committee member John King “wasn’t paying attention” in his own words.
 
Getting back to training after a break of almost a month. Flew twice recently, once to a new airport and once just in the pattern, but with a good and ever changing crosswind. Did a few forward slips and simulated engine out landings. CFI says one more flight with her, then a stage check and I'm ready to solo.
 
Good lesson today, going over short/soft field landings/TO's. Got a little windy (really wasn't sure we'd get to go out) and coming back to KABQ it got a little fun. Last 10 minutes or so we were getting tossed all over the place. But my landing was smooth as silk even with the winds, so I was happy about that and it was a big confidence booster. Took a lot of concentration and work, but I handled it well.

Hopefully get the cross country in this Tuesday we had to cancel this past week due to the winds.
 
Black GTS said:
Pretty much just getting started again after a 35 year hiatus. Started doing the King school stuff and a neighbor has been letting me fly his C-150 right seat. It's coming back pretty fast but I have a question:

Is it better to do the ground school first or the flying? I see pros on each side.

Thanks and great to be here!

Ron
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You may as well ask high wing or low wing. Tail wheel or nose. Haha, you'll get no consensus. I chose to fly and do ground study 'as you go'. I put the written off till towards the end so all those details would be fresh for the oral. I ended up having more time between written and oral than I would've liked. Now, queue the chorus of 'get the written done before your Discovery flight' guys.
 
Black GTS said:
Pretty much just getting started again after a 35 year hiatus. Started doing the King school stuff and a neighbor has been letting me fly his C-150 right seat. It's coming back pretty fast but I have a question:

Is it better to do the ground school first or the flying? I see pros on each side.

Thanks and great to be here!

Ron
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Studying for the written you can do anytime, even simultaneously with the flying if you like. Most folks seem to like to “get the written out of the way” early on.

https://www.faa.gov/training_testing/testing/media/testing_matrix.pdf

For an initial written test...

“An airman applicant may present one or more of the following acceptable forms of authorization for all tests listed above (except PCH and PCP):

• Certificate of graduation issued by an FAA certificated pilot school (14 CFR § 61.71(a).
• Written statement or logbook endorsement from an authorized ground or flight instructor certifying that the applicant completed an applicable ground training or home study course and is prepared for the knowledge test (14 CFR § 61.35, 61.96(b)(3) or 61.103(d)(2)).”

King has a way of providing this from them, or your CFI can verify.

Different rules for a retest after a failure, but you won’t be doing that, right! ;) (Those are also in that document.)

Welcome back! Have fun!
 
Dual cross country today to work on VOR and navigation. Went down to T or C and back.

Taking off from ABQ, about 4-5 mins in to the climb my CFI called out BIRDS! We were over the Rio Grande at about 8k' and there was a HUGE flock of geese/ducks straight ahead, at my level, and coming at me! Avoided them by going right (and away from the river). Missed them by maybe 15 seconds or so.

That'll get the old heart pumping!

Down at T or C the winds were 190 @17 gusting 24...wasn't too sure about it, but my CFI said "you've got this". I told him to plan on helping me, but I'd give it a shot. Got it down (with help of course) and then took off back to ABQ.

Whole flight was bumpy, lots of work to keep my heading and altitude. Did about .8 under the hood to get some more of that time check off, too. That was tiresome with the turbulence.
 
Had just enough cloud clearance to get some pattern work in. Did 4 laps and was very pleased with 3 of my landings. 1 I just misjudged how high I was above the runway and dropped it in. Oh well, they can't all be perfect :D. 0.8 PIC in the logbook.

Have the plane booked for Saturday for my long solo xcountry that I've been trying to do for months now. Looks like once again, the weather will not cooperate. February has been brutal with rain and sky conditions.
 
Finally had some nice weather today so I could finish my solo requirement. Practiced steep turns, power on and off stalls, slow flight, turns around a point. I've had to cancel several times over the last two weeks. I am now done with all requirements for private and just need to do the checkride. I will do a couple of practice sessions just prior to the checkride to be sharp. Total hours right now are 46.6
 
denverpilot said:
Studying for the written you can do anytime, even simultaneously with the flying if you like. Most folks seem to like to “get the written out of the way” early on.

https://www.faa.gov/training_testing/testing/media/testing_matrix.pdf

For an initial written test...

“An airman applicant may present one or more of the following acceptable forms of authorization for all tests listed above (except PCH and PCP):

• Certificate of graduation issued by an FAA certificated pilot school (14 CFR § 61.71(a).
• Written statement or logbook endorsement from an authorized ground or flight instructor certifying that the applicant completed an applicable ground training or home study course and is prepared for the knowledge test (14 CFR § 61.35, 61.96(b)(3) or 61.103(d)(2)).”

King has a way of providing this from them, or your CFI can verify.

Different rules for a retest after a failure, but you won’t be doing that, right! ;) (Those are also in that document.)

Welcome back! Have fun!
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Thanks Denver. I'm kinda doing both at the same time right now but will definitely have to brush up before the written.
 
First time in a towered airport (Delta). It was fun and challenging. Wish they didn't have to talk so fast, but I'll get it down. It's a lot of information to process and read back. 25 hours in and well on my way. We'll be planning our cross country's here soon. At what point did the rest of you knock out your written test?
 
ScottinIowa said:
First time in a towered airport (Delta). It was fun and challenging. Wish they didn't have to talk so fast, but I'll get it down. It's a lot of information to process and read back. 25 hours in and well on my way. We'll be planning our cross country's here soon. At what point did the rest of you knock out your written test?

In my beginnings, I would always stated i was a student pilot and they would slow down a bit and give you some leeway. After a few flights in and out of towered airspace or any controlled airspace for that matter, it comes to you and you will blend right in. Especially when utilizing flight following etc.... Now its second nature for me. Cross Country's are fun because you now get a taste of going somewhere and using what you have learned. I finished my Solo Cross country a couple of weeks ago, what a feeling of achievement. As for the written, I'm working on mine now and have been working on it while flying. I want to get the highest score possible so im not rushing it.

Ed
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CGChief said:
Just returned home from third actual lesson. Did a few power off and power on stalls, then a couple of crosswind touch and goes. Followed by a crosswind full stop landing. It was a bit breezy in Chesapeake, VA
I'm also done with my third lesson. First was straight and level f!ight obvious!y. Then turns to a heading and cruise decent and ascents on second time up. Third time was also stalls and flight to an uncontrolled airport to refuel. What a fantastic time I'm having. I waited a long time for this and It is everything I hoped it would be. The big bonus is my instructor, super guy, and very knowledgeable.
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I'm just getting going and have waited a very long time. I am also 3 lessons in. Would be six but was grounded due to weather. Having a great time. I was wondering, does anyone have any thoughts about how aircraft handle in reality, as opposed to how you expected or imagined they would handle?
 
ScottinIowa said:
First time in a towered airport (Delta). It was fun and challenging. Wish they didn't have to talk so fast, but I'll get it down. It's a lot of information to process and read back. 25 hours in and well on my way. We'll be planning our cross country's here soon. At what point did the rest of you knock out your written test?
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I waited till I was around 35 hours and took it. I would honestly study for it as much as you can, and when you are consistently doing well on practice tests online go and take it.
 
Current PPL working on my IFR right now. I am about 4 hours in, mostly Sim time at the moment. Mostly Pattern A and Pattern B under the hood. Having fun so far!
You can follow my progress or read about my PPL adventures here -> https://packflier.com
 
Ronbonjovi said:
I waited till I was around 35 hours and took it. I would honestly study for it as much as you can, and when you are consistently doing well on practice tests online go and take it.
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That's what I'm thinking too. I played around with a practice test on the FAA website, and realized I'm not ready. I should be ready to go by 35 hrs though.
 
I am hoping the weather cooperates tomorrow, unlike the last 2 times I was supposed to fly. I am almost ready for first solo, tomorrow is supposed to be a "stage check" but I don't know if it will work out since I missed the last two.
 
Well tomorrow is finally my first lesson in the Warrior at KISM. I am very excited to get back into this, I have not flown in 20 years, I soloed in 1994 at 16, flew off and on until 1998 then ran out of money. I never did get my PPL, and now I am 39 and ready to do this, I will get this done. The kicker is I lost my log book, but good news on that coming soon. I know not 1 of those hours will really help me at this point, since I need to do it all over again for proficiency purposes, but eventually some of those hours will help. Cant wait to share my experience!
 
Skyking517 said:
Well tomorrow is finally my first lesson in the Warrior at KISM. I am very excited to get back into this, I have not flown in 20 years, I soloed in 1994 at 16, flew off and on until 1998 then ran out of money. I never did get my PPL, and now I am 39 and ready to do this, I will get this done. The kicker is I lost my log book, but good news on that coming soon. I know not 1 of those hours will really help me at this point, since I need to do it all over again for proficiency purposes, but eventually some of those hours will help. Cant wait to share my experience!
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Sounds very similar to my story. You’re going to have a ball.
 
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