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

Passed my written a few ago with a 93. Couple questions were worded really oddly and I had flagged them. Misread one question looking at it, one of those gotcha ones. Pretty happy overall. 52 hours and starting checkride prep, CFI says just some touching up to do so probably 5-7 hours. Getting close!
 
Passed my instrument checkride yesterday. Was a retake after an unsatisfactory on the oral for a misunderstanding of lost comms procedures re: landing.

Oral retake still look 2 hours and covered far more than the missed areas (why?), and flight was about 3. A little over 5 hours. Crazy flight portion. I was given a scenario and allowed to get all the plates and frequencies together, and all planning went out the window with unexpected weather, so ended up doing every approach on the fly. All unfamiliar approaches, and a broken autopilot, so all hand flying while looking up new plates, identifying nav aids, and my kneeboard notes were useless. VERY high workload— so I’m actually really happy with how it turned out.
 
Skybound-mg said:
Passed my instrument checkride yesterday. Was a retake after an unsatisfactory on the oral for a misunderstanding of lost comms procedures re: landing.

Oral retake still look 2 hours and covered far more than the missed areas (why?), and flight was about 3. A little over 5 hours. Crazy flight portion. I was given a scenario and allowed to get all the plates and frequencies together, and all planning went out the window with unexpected weather, so ended up doing every approach on the fly. All unfamiliar approaches, and a broken autopilot, so all hand flying while looking up new plates, identifying nav aids, and my kneeboard notes were useless. VERY high workload— so I’m actually really happy with how it turned out.
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Where did you fly your practical? Any helpful hints for others in the same geographic area?
 
Out of KHFD. It was so non-standard for this area and for this DPE I don’t know what advice I would give , beyond don’t focus only on the approaches the “DPE ALWAYS USES”. Fly to as many local airports as possible and do all of the approaches and published missed approaches.
StraightnLevel said:
Where did you fly your practical? Any helpful hints for others in the same geographic area?
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Finished instrument ground, now to take a bunch more practice tests and hit up the written.
 
StraightnLevel said:
…LOE….?
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In my world, it always meant "Level of Effort." If we were bidding a person to manage a team, for example, there might not be a specific set of tasks other than general oversight, so a cost estimate would list the activity as XX hours of supervision LOE.

Aviation acronyms still confuse me sometimes, because the same letters are used in other fields and contexts.
 
JasonM said:
Wow, this is awesome. When I thought about making this thread I didn't think about all of you guys that are already pilots and focusing on other more advanced training. That is great to see that training is an ongoing thing for so many of you. Good luck to you all as well. Also nice reading about where everyone is currently.
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After 100 hrs and 2 solo cross country flights I'm having trouble scheduling the PPL Checkride in Knoxville TN. Willing to travel to get it taken care of. Any advice appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
Skybound-mg said:
Out of KHFD. It was so non-standard for this area and for this DPE I don’t know what advice I would give , beyond don’t focus only on the approaches the “DPE ALWAYS USES”. Fly to as many local airports as possible and do all of the approaches and published missed approaches
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Skybound-mg said:
Out of KHFD. It was so non-standard for this area and for this DPE I don’t know what advice I would give , beyond don’t focus only on the approaches the “DPE ALWAYS USES”. Fly to as many local airports as possible and do all of the approaches and published missed approaches.
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Hey Skybound, I fly out of KHFD too. Learn2fly?
 
Gess said:
Passed.

Going to take a few days/weeks to not think about syllabi and lessons and just do some pleasure flying, then dive into IFR in June.
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IFR Checkride is Saturday. It feels very sudden (4 months of training) after spending such a long time earning my PPL. Looking forward to it, though.

Part-141 can be frustrating with its rigidity, but it sure is quick.
 
I earned my PPL back in February, followed shortly by my hp/complex endorsements but have been dragging my feet starting IFR training. I know it'll make me a better, safer pilot and open new opportunities to fly (and come back home) but I'm just not looking forward to starting training all over again..
 
Introductory flight - - - check.
Discuss plans with a CFI - - - check.
Download the FAA 'Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge' - - - check.
Work through the FAA 'Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge' - - - partial check.
Pre-flight a 1943 Taylorcraft L-2 (aka DCO-65) - - - check.
Shadow an IA on an annual inspection of a 1943 Taylorcraft L-2 (aka DCO-65) - - - check.
Photo copy Army Technical Manual AN-01-135DA-1 (20 Jan 1944) - - - check.
Work through Army Technical Manual AN-01-135DA-1 (20 Jan 1944) - - - check.
Join PoA message board - - - check.
Join Taylorcraft Foundation message board - - - check.
Search message boards for relevant posts - - - check.
 
I finally began lessons last week, currently scheduling two a week @ 3 hours each.
The last two lessons the plane and CFI have been available past my reserved time so I'm getting a little extra flight time.

I'm enjoying it and I find the reading is more enjoyable when I have something I can relate it to.
 
Gess said:
IFR Checkride is Saturday. It feels very sudden (4 months of training) after spending such a long time earning my PPL. Looking forward to it, though.

Part-141 can be frustrating with its rigidity, but it sure is quick.
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Made a no-doubter mistake on my IFR ride. Did one approach two weeks later and earned my rating. I've been working through the commercial syllabus since October and have my stage 1 check tomorrow. Hoping to be a CFI by mid-summer.
 
Hi everyone, Alessandro Cotrufo here. I'm a student pilot based out of Simi Valley, CA. I'm currently effectively at Step 1 of the PPL journey, just getting my hours in and trying to absorb everything my CFI throws at me.

Right now, the focus is really on ground school; I'm deep in the PHAK Handbook, preparing for the written exam in the long run. It's a lot of information to be honest lol, but I'm loving the process. Can't wait to eventually get it all over with, look back and smile when I have my wings!
 
alessandrocotrufo said:
Hi everyone, Alessandro Cotrufo here. I'm a student pilot based out of Simi Valley, CA. I'm currently effectively at Step 1 of the PPL journey, just getting my hours in and trying to absorb everything my CFI throws at me.

Right now, the focus is really on ground school; I'm deep in the PHAK Handbook, preparing for the written exam in the long run. It's a lot of information to be honest lol, but I'm loving the process. Can't wait to eventually get it all over with, look back and smile when I have my wings!
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Hey man. Welcome. I'm a student pilot as well, although a bit further along. I take my check ride next Wednesday. I grew up in Woodland Hills so just over the mountain from you. Where are you flying out of? Van Nuys or one of the airports the other direction?
 
Hey all. I'm Michael and just started working towards my PPL again here in upstate NY.

At the moment I'm just focusing on ground school before I get in the seat again. I'm hoping to take my written in March and start flying then. I'm going through Rod Machado's ground school course while also supplementing it with a few books including Stick and Rudder.

Nice to see some other students here!
 
Completed the knowledge exam last week with a 90%. I fell for some of the "gotcha" worded questions regarding passenger briefings and seat belt use, though I immediately realized walking out where I slipped up.
Reviewed the problem ACS's that evening and am feeling great about moving forward. Surprisingly I didn't get any long-form questions like weight and balance, x-country planning, wind correction angles, etc.

I'll be taking lessons out of APF for the next month and then heading back up to NY to finish up training.
 
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