My private pilot certificate was canceled.

So you’re no longer among the brethren? :p
 
Ok, I'll play, but you are still a certificated pilot right?
 
So your running around with a temporary certificate,hopefully.
 
I'll have you know that I move in a stately manner that befits my seniority!
 
Not yet. Make an offer...
 
midlifeflyer said:
Congratulations @Clark1961. Who is the poor DPE who had to put up with you? (I'm pretty sure I already know the poor CFI!)
Click to expand...
Genova and no, you din't know the CFI. He flys boxes for UPS for his night job and CFI was day gig. Only did about three hours in the office and four hours of flight prep so he knew what he was doing.
 
SkyDog58 said:
So you just waited for the complex requirement to go away, huh?
Click to expand...
That was just fortuitous timing. I've been working to get this done for a couple months now but had trouble with scheduling around here. Had to leave the area to get it done.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Congratulations @Clark1961. Who is the poor DPE who had to put up with you? (I'm pretty sure I already know the poor CFI!)
Click to expand...

No you probably don’t know the CFI, if you’re thinking it was me.

I flew with Clark once but neither of us knew the retract rule was going to change and I didn’t have access to a retract.

But he was doing fine on maneuvers when I flew with him. That or in one flight I wasn’t able to completely screw him up. :)

I just rode sidesaddle in the Dakota and threw his checklist at him a couple of times. :)
 
Clark1961 said:
That was just fortuitous timing. I've been working to get this done for a couple months now but had trouble with scheduling around here. Had to leave the area to get it done.
Click to expand...

How about a detailed PIREP. Working on mine right now. :)
 
BrianNC said:
How about a detailed PIREP. Working on mine right now. :)
Click to expand...
Detailed? Hmmm. Well, maybe some details...

Tried to knock out the commercial years ago. Went to Sheble. It was a disaster. I canceled the checkride and went home. Just didn’t get comfortable with maneuvers. Turned out that not doing the checkride was good because the DPE lost his designation and folks had to redo checkrides.

So, it’s time to try again...

First step is to ace the knowledge exam. Had a set of ASA DVDs from 2009. Went through that about six times then read through the FAA published example test and decided I was deficient on FAR knowledge. Reviewed FARs on commercial stuff. Then used Sheppard for final test prep. Missed one question on the exam. Disappointing but it was a pass.

Tried a local flight school for the practical training. Total disaster. Scheduled with an instructor after phone interview. Showed up for lesson and I had been bumped to a different instructor. Wasted time correcting instructor’s copy of POH to actual aircraft data. Had to dig up correct W&B data form from an avionics installation that wasn’t recent. Didn’t brief the flight when we eventually got around to flying. Tried one more flight with that school. They tried to bump me to yet another instructor and then wanted to cancel flight because of winds which were about 20 knots. I gave up on those turkeys.

Nate (@denverpilot) and I flew one flight and went through some maneuvers. Nate got slammed at work. (I think he was scared to get in a plane with me again but don’t tell him I said that.)

Wasted several weeks contacting/interviewing at other local schools I thought might be acceptable. Gun shy after first disaster. Got sick of unreturned phone calls, missed appointments, and other symptoms of poor planning or BSing prospective students. Started calling other schools in the region but with inconvenient commutes. Found one school that actually seemed have their crap in order but realistically I’m looking at a hotel stay for training and they weren’t really able to accommodate that type of schedule. Started calling flight schools all over the middle of the country...finally found one in an adjacent state who had a CFI who was working freight, a DPE on staff, a 182rg, and could get the training done in a few days. Scheduled for when the instructor had a solid block of four days available. Found a $40/night motel room and I was set.

Weather turned to crap when I was scheduled to fly to school. Icing pireps at 9,000’ so IFR no bueno. Waited several hours for ceilings to lift. Field finally went VFR so made my longest scud run to date using george, the Aspen obstacle display, current charts, and the radio to talk to anyone else dumb enough to be flying and on 122.8. Best info came from a flight of three Apaches fifty miles south of me. Low ceilings persisted so we lost a day and a half to weather.

Training went as expected. Instructor used ASA oral prep guide and his own checklist for the office work. I was well prepared so all oral review went smoothly and quickly. We skipped a fair amount of material as CFI became comfortable with my knowledge of which end of the aircraft was the front and where the wings should usually be attached.

Flying went okay. I’m mostly a straight and level get to destination guy so some aspects of keeping the nose pointed in the right general direction were challenging. The maneuvers are visual but that doesn’t mean ignore the instruments if needed for pitch and bank. Pull on Chandels and keep pulling then when yer done pulling pull a little more. I’ve always liked stalls so that stuff was easy. DPE only wanted to the horn. Piece of cake.

Landings were easy. Most every landing since private training has been practice to hit the thousand foot marks and to hold the nose off...usually with power off. Instrument training really messed with the power off aspect but I learned to fly it on with a little power and that is a good skill to have when things go ‘no bueno’ out here in the land of long runways. The point is that landings are practice and not just getting the aircraft on the ground in reusable shape. Be on speed. Hit your marks.

Checkride was by the book. Had some distractions during oral with electric power at FBO that were beyond anyone’s control - power company had a leg dropping intermittently and at first denied it after sending rookie lineman out. Local electrician set them straight and they eventually fixed it. Anyway, DPE used achecklist and we hit every item. Nav, regs, systems, medical, regs, instruments, regs, planning, regs, regs...did I mention regs? I think the Feds have gone bonkers and think paper makes airplanes fly. I do have to mention the DPE was nice about the regs and didn’t ask for chapter and verse, more about what could and couldn’t be done and how things are legally done.

Local A&P grilled hamburgers so I got to eat after the oral. Flight was by the book. DPE was very quiet. Finally loosened up a bit during landings at the end of the ride.

I did get one ‘Airplane’ reference in while taxing to park. Sorta late so it prolly didn’t score well with the judges. The airport has some non-standard markings and I didn’t recognize them for a few seconds so I muttered it was the wrong week to stop sniffing glue...

Edit: oops, fergot to mention Tony Condon stopped by one day in his King Air to check up on things. He didn’t take me up on my offer to let him fly my checkride.
 
Last edited:
Clark1961 said:
Detailed? Hmmm. Well, maybe some details...

Tried to knock out the commercial years ago. Went to Sheble. It was a disaster. I canceled the checkride and went home. Just didn’t get comfortable with maneuvers. Turned out that not doing the checkride was good because the DPE lost his designation and folks had to redo checkrides.

So, it’s time to try again...

First step is to ace the knowledge exam. Had a set of ASA DVDs from 2009. Went through that about six times then read through the FAA published example test and decided I was deficient on FAR knowledge. Reviewed FARs on commercial stuff. Then used Sheppard for final test prep. Missed one question on the exam. Disappointing but it was a pass.

Tried a local flight school for the practical training. Total disaster. Scheduled with an instructor after phone interview. Showed up for lesson and I had been bumped to a different instructor. Wasted time correcting instructor’s copy of POH to actual aircraft data. Had to dig up correct W&B data form from an avionics installation that wasn’t recent. Didn’t brief the flight when we eventually got around to flying. Tried one more flight with that school. They tried to bump me to yet another instructor and then wanted to cancel flight because of winds which were about 20 knots. I gave up on those turkeys.

Nate (@denverpilot) and I flew one flight and went through some maneuvers. Nate got slammed at work. (I think he was scared to get in a plane with me again but don’t tell him I said that.)

Wasted several weeks contacting/interviewing at other local schools I thought might be acceptable. Gun shy after first disaster. Got sick of unreturned phone calls, missed appointments, and other symptoms of poor planning or BSing prospective students. Started calling other schools in the region but with inconvenient commutes. Found one school that actually seemed have their crap in order but realistically I’m looking at a hotel stay for training and they weren’t really able to accommodate that type of schedule. Started calling flight schools all over the middle of the country...finally found one in an adjacent state who had a CFI who was working freight, a DPE on staff, a 182rg, and could get the training done in a few days. Scheduled for when the instructor had a solid block of four days available. Found a $40/night motel room and I was set.

Weather turned to crap when I was scheduled to fly to school. Icing pireps at 9,000’ so IFR no bueno. Waited several hours for ceilings to lift. Field finally went VFR so made my longest scud run to date using george, the Aspen obstacle display, current charts, and the radio to talk to anyone else dumb enough to be flying and on 122.8. Best info came from a flight of three Apaches fifty miles south of me. Low ceilings persisted so we lost a day and a half to weather.

Training went as expected. Instructor used ASA oral prep guide and his own checklist for the office work. I was well prepared so all oral review went smoothly and quickly. We skipped a fair amount of material as CFI became comfortable with my knowledge of which end of the aircraft was the front and where the wings should usually be attached.

Flying went okay. I’m mostly a straight and level get to destination guy so some aspects of keeping the nose pointed in the right general direction were challenging. The maneuvers are visual but that doesn’t mean ignore the instruments if needed for pitch and bank. Pull on Chandels and keep pulling then when yer done pulling pull a little more. I’ve always liked stalls so that stuff was easy. DPE only wanted to the horn. Piece of cake.

Landings were easy. Most every landing since private training has been practice to hit the thousand foot marks and to hold the nose off...usually with power off. Instrument training really messed with the power off aspect but I learned to fly it on with a little power and that is a good skill to have when things go ‘no bueno’ out here in the land of long runways. The point is that landings are practice and not just getting the aircraft on the ground in reusable shape. Be on speed. Hit your marks.

Checkride was by the book. Had some distractions during oral with electric power at FBO that were beyond anyone’s control - power company had a leg dropping intermittently and at first denied it after sending rookie lineman out. Local electrician set them straight and they eventually fixed it. Anyway, DPE used achecklist and we hit every item. Nav, regs, systems, medical, regs, instruments, regs, planning, regs, regs...did I mention regs? I think the Feds have gone bonkers and think paper makes airplanes fly. I do have to mention the DPE was nice about the regs and didn’t ask for chapter and verse, more about what could and couldn’t be done and how things are legally done.

Local A&P grilled hamburgers so I got to eat after the oral. Flight was by the book. DPE was very quiet. Finally loosened up a bit during landings at the end of the ride.

I did get one ‘Airplane’ reference in while taxing to park. Sorta late so it prolly didn’t score well with the judges. The airport has some non-standard markings and I didn’t recognize them for a few seconds so I muttered it was the wrong week to stop sniffing glue...

Edit: oops, fergot to mention Tony Condon stopped by one day in his King Air to check up on things. He didn’t take me up on my offer to let him fly my checkride.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the write up.

Were you able to do your flight plan for the XC on FF or some other software? Or a written log and sectional? If on FF or some other software, you just use the log that FF produces?
 
Clark1961 said:
Edit: oops, fergot to mention Tony Condon stopped by one day in his King Air to check up on things. He didn’t take me up on my offer to let him fly my checkride.
Click to expand...

That was pretty funny. Clark and I BS'd for about two hours watching the low clouds blow by until we realized we were long time internet acquaintances! Well done on the ride, now you can get to work :)
 
BrianNC said:
Thanks for the write up.

Were you able to do your flight plan for the XC on FF or some other software? Or a written log and sectional? If on FF or some other software, you just use the log that FF produces?
Click to expand...
In recent history has anybody had a DPE not allow software planning tools after the Private ride? That said you better be able to figure things out without software either on the ground or in the air.

I mentioned the power failure at the FBO so when it came time to discuss navigation in the oral we had no internet connection. I went old school with the plotter on the iPad charts to give headings. Better know expected fuel burns too. Basically go into the oral as a pro pilot who may be asked to go just about anywhere domestically. Know airspace cold...
 
tonycondon said:
That was pretty funny. Clark and I BS'd for about two hours watching the low clouds blow by until we realized we were long time internet acquaintances! Well done on the ride, now you can get to work :)
Click to expand...
Wondering if aviation is going to be Clark's new career. ;)
 
tonycondon said:
That was pretty funny. Clark and I BS'd for about two hours watching the low clouds blow by until we realized we were long time internet acquaintances! Well done on the ride, now you can get to work :)
Click to expand...

Oh that’s funny! Hahaha. :)
 
Congrats Clark. Now you don't have to ask if you can share costs with someone in your airplane.

Oh, that's right, it won't be your airplane for much longer. Such a pity.
 
steingar said:
Congrats Clark. Now you don't have to ask if you can share costs with someone in your airplane.
Click to expand...

Actually he does. Unless he got a 135 Certificate somewhere. :)

That’s on the oral...

“So you pass today and you’re a Commercial Pilot tomorrow. What can you do?”

“Not much. Do you like to skydive?”

:)
 
denverpilot said:
Actually he does. Unless he got a 135 Certificate somewhere. :)

That’s on the oral...

“So you pass today and you’re a Commercial Pilot tomorrow. What can you do?”

“Not much. Do you like to skydive?”

:)
Click to expand...
More importantly I can get paid by you to fly your airplane..
 
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