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

huseyydemm said:
Hi everybody.
I started my PPL, and i've already flight 15 hours yet.
Do you know helpful website or app for practicing? Test, simulating, PPL questions or navigations.
Or what are you using?
Thanks
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I'm using ASA's PPL Ground School online. Has lots of practice questions, decent videos, etc.

onezuludelta said:
I feel...different today, somehow...

Maybe because yesterday at 11:30 AM I became the WORLD'S NEWEST PRIVATE PILOT!!!
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Congrats!
 
exncsurfer said:
Awesome, when is your first passenger flight?
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Soon, hopefully. I was so focused on the checkride I literally had not thought about or planned for ANYTHING past Thursday, so now I have to reset and figure what to actually DO with this license.
 
Seriously, though, thanks to everyone on this forum for being so helpful and supportive and offering up so much INVALUABLE information. I'll try to get a write-up together soon.
 
onezuludelta said:
I feel...different today, somehow...

Maybe because yesterday at 11:30 AM I became the WORLD'S NEWEST PRIVATE PILOT!!!
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Hay OneZuluDelta...Congratulations. That's awesome. I was thinking about you yesterday. How was the DPE? Definitely do a write-up for everyone else.

That feeling never goes away. (so far). If you're ever out at KISP, give me a buzz. I fly out of Gace Flying Club.
 
96gs917 said:
Hay OneZuluDelta...Congratulations. That's awesome. I was thinking about you yesterday. How was the DPE? Definitely do a write-up for everyone else.

That feeling never goes away. (so far). If you're ever out at KISP, give me a buzz. I fly out of Gace Flying Club.
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The DPE was FANTASTIC! (everyone, Frank and I used the same DPE, and Frank was really helpful and encouraging in private messages). So, thanks! I'll probably hit you up for information about rentals at ISP in the future, because FRG is just....so...FRG. And if I'm taking the train, ISP isn't THAT much longer a ride than FRG.

-Zack
 
ktup-flyer said:
My landings were horrible today. I need to figure out what this plane likes
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Same battle here but, far better Saturday and Sunday. Spent the majority of both days finding the aircraft's and my groove. total of 15 touch and goes, and slow flight just above the runway. Good luck. Solo test this week!
 
5 days in, and I'm apparently still a pilot.

I've decided to divide time into BP (Before Pilot) and AP (After Pilot). Day 5 AP is going OK so far.
 
Ed Sokol said:
Same battle here but, far better Saturday and Sunday. Spent the majority of both days finding the aircraft's and my groove. total of 15 touch and goes, and slow flight just above the runway. Good luck. Solo test this week!
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I got signed off to solo the 182, but I've already have a decent amount of solo time in the 172. Now if this weather would clear up...
 
huseyydemm said:
Hello everyone!

Congrats mate for your experince, and High Fly!
I have a question for everyone. Do you know any question data base for PPL and ATPL?
It would be great if it would be digital form, but i'm glad for everything.

Thank you for your help!
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As far as the written exam?

https://www.kingschools.com/free-faa-exam/private-pilot

Also just completed my first solo cross country from KCEU to KGVL back to KCEU. 106nm total and 1.9 hours. I did two laps in the circuit at KGVL so that increased the total time. Overall a good experience, but definitely learned a few lessons. Leaving KCEU (uncontrolled), I did not do the best job describing how I was departing and had a challenger lined up behind me waiting to take off. Fixed that after he asked me a few questions on the CTAF. Here's a video from the first landing at KGVL. Brought a little too much energy into the round out and floated down the runway. Also drifted a little right of center and did not put my xwind correction in. I need to be on top of that!

 
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Been to Northern Ontario for a couple of weeks fishing. Got to fly in a Caravan and Otter on floats which was petty cool. Today I did 11 normal takeoffs and landings for 1.5 hours for a total of 10.2. Land good about 1/2 the time.
 
First off: OneZuluDelta...Congratulations!! Looking forward to ANY write-up you can do about the ACS check ride. Mine was scheduled for next Tuesday (8/15) BUT.. just like this entire past 6 months, it's been postponed. This time due to maint issues with the plane. I haven't flown in over a week, and the plane is down until at least this weekend = not enough time to prep for Tues. Next slot available from the DPE is the week of 8/28 - BUT I can't have any time off that week from work. So now I'm scheduled for 9/12 at 9am.

Bright side is it gives me another month to prepare. Been studying a lot, and now I want to fly at least once a week in the upcoming month, with at least 2-3 flights the week leading up to the ride.
 
Ronbonjovi said:
As far as the written exam?

https://www.kingschools.com/free-faa-exam/private-pilot

Also just completed my first solo cross country from KCEU to KGVL back to KCEU. 106nm total and 1.9 hours. I did two laps in the circuit at KGVL so that increased the total time. Overall a good experience, but definitely learned a few lessons. Leaving KCEU (uncontrolled), I did not do the best job describing how I was departing and had a challenger lined up behind me waiting to take off. Fixed that after he asked me a few questions on the CTAF. Here's a video from the first landing at KGVL. Brought a little too much energy into the round out and floated down the runway. Also drifted a little right of center and did not put my xwind correction in. I need to be on top of that!

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If that's a bad one you're doing great!!

Had another lesson today. We stayed in the pattern at KABQ since it wasn't terribly busy, so I got 10 landings in.

Today was all about practicing landings and to be certain I could re-do my solo from a few lessons ago. Landings today were all pretty decent. Of course I want them better, but all had a stabilized approach and pretty good mechanics throughout the landings.

So hopefully next week I will get to solo for real instead of just doing one landing.

I haven't really talked about it in this thread, but my last solo attempt went a little haywire. Did the couple of laps with the instructor, then he got out and off I went. All was going great in the pattern. Stabilized approach and the landing was really good. Once on the ground I go a little crooked on the runway and couldn't get straight down the runway again. I ended up running off the side of the runway in to the dirt!

Stopped about 30 feet or so off the runway. No injuries of course, and the plane was fine. We had the airport mgr tow us over to the ramp area to look everything over. CFI called the flight school and let them know. While on the phone the head mechanic told him some things to check and look for. As a precaution, the CFI said he would fly us back to our airport. Flight back was uneventful, all was fine.

I did get to learn how to fill out a NASA report, though. While it wasn't necessary, he felt it would be a good learning experience and I agreed.

Next stop, a REAL solo flight!
 
OK I promised you guys and gals a write-up, and I've had a few days to digest, so here we go. It’s…uh…long. I may have forgotten some things, so go easy.

Oral:
This checkride had been a long time coming, and I had talked to a LOT of people about it. Towards the end of my training, some of them seemed mildly exasperated by it, and were basically telling me, "Look you know this stuff. This test isn't going to be that hard. You'll be fine."

(All of those conversations didn't stop me from panic-studying silly things like magnetic compass errors in the last 15 minutes before the DPE showed up.)

Well, all those people were right. And the DPE set me straight as soon as he walked in. He said "Look, I don't expect perfection. The standards exist, and you have to meet them, but I'm just here to make sure you're safe." Once he started the questions, it was just like everyone checkride report I had read: it was a conversation. I had the chart out and we went over the flight I had planned, and all the questions were based off of that. Such as, "Before this flight, what decisions would you have to make? Where would you get the info to make that decision? What equipment would you need? If this or that happened (airport closures, changing weather), how would that affect your decision?”.

It was such a relaxed conversation that he accidentally answered some of his own questions. I just kept my mouth shut and let him do it .

After he felt comfortable with the knowledge portion, he went over exactly everything we would do in the flight portion, which surprised me. I was expecting him to be super cryptic and spring things on me in flight, but looking back now, I don't even know why I thought that. He said he prided himself of having efficient, yet thorough, exams.

Flight:
I preflighted while he watched, then we strapped in. I got it started up, discovered to my dismay that planes don't taxi with the parking brake on, which we both laughed about, and off we went (with a short field takeoff) to the practice area.

Steep turns, straight into slow flight, straight into power-off stalls, then power on stalls. Boom, boom, boom, one after the other. He encouraged me to really be assertive with my controls, as I fly pretty gingerly since my near-spin incident (near-SPINCIDENT??? LOL) last year. Additionally, he had me do the stalls as turning stalls. He was a little surprised that I hadn’t done them in training. So he said now was as good a time as any, and the bonus was that I didn’t have to maintain a heading during the stall and recovery, since I was turning.

Foggles on, and a bunch of turns, climbs, descents, climbing turns, etc. Then two rounds of unusual attitudes under the foggles, and then he gave me a little teaching moment. He said, "This isn't part of the test, but fly straight and level, foggles on." Then he had me close my eyes completely and try to stay straight and level. I thought "easy-peasy" and just tried to do nothing, I didn't feel any movement, so I thought we were good. All of FIVE seconds passed, he had me open my eyes, and we were in a pretty nasty descending right-turn. It was an eye-opener for sure.

Emergency descent down to 1,000 feet, then turns around a point, then back up and towards the airport. 3 landings: short, soft, and no flap, which all went pretty well (not perfect, but OK) except he was annoyed we kept getting our downwind extended (LOL welcome to FRG, man). I was super stressed about my short and soft (NO COMMENT), but they were short and soft enough (STILL NO COMMENT) so he was happy and I was too.

He kept quizzing me while I shut down, and even still while I was packing up the cockpit. I'm pretty sure the exam didn't end until I signed my temporary airman certificate. Which I did, at 11:40 AM on August 3, 2017, A DATE WHICH WILL LIVE IN INFAMY. Or something like that.

Holy ****, I'm a pilot.

In conclusion (TL;DR I guess):
The DPE was incredibly nice and helpful, professional and thorough, but not anal about anything. I got the feeling he just wanted me to be someone he would feel comfortable sharing the air with. The oral portion didn’t cover EVERYTHING, like I was afraid it would (there just isn’t time), and the flight portion also didn’t cover every possible little thing. I got the feeling (I don’t want to put words in his mouth) that he wanted to know I had positive control at all times, was ahead of the airplane, and could stay somewhat composed in an emergency and remember the main have-to-do-now items. My landings weren’t perfect, but they were within limits and safe.

TBH, it was slightly anticlimactic, in that we signed the paperwork and shook hands and then he left, and then I left. I didn’t really know what to do with myself for the rest of the day (besides celebratory drinks with my wife/biggest supporter). I NEED to go up again, I NEED to use this license. I don’t think it will feel real until then.
 
jbrinker said:
First off: OneZuluDelta...Congratulations!! Looking forward to ANY write-up you can do about the ACS check ride. Mine was scheduled for next Tuesday (8/15) BUT.. just like this entire past 6 months, it's been postponed. This time due to maint issues with the plane. I haven't flown in over a week, and the plane is down until at least this weekend = not enough time to prep for Tues. Next slot available from the DPE is the week of 8/28 - BUT I can't have any time off that week from work. So now I'm scheduled for 9/12 at 9am.

Bright side is it gives me another month to prepare. Been studying a lot, and now I want to fly at least once a week in the upcoming month, with at least 2-3 flights the week leading up to the ride.
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How long since you flew last? I had to postpone mine 2 times for weather so by the 3rd time I hadn't flown in 2 weeks but I was so fed up with preparing there was no way I was pushing it out again. I did have a 1 hour flight to the examiner though, that was my warm up.
 
Completed my requirement to do solo 3 landings 3 takeoffs in a Class D the other Day at Griffis Airfield in New York. (KRME) I also got to knock out more of the hood time requirement there. I only have 30 minutes of hood time left, and then it will be nothing left but checkride prep! I was supposed to fly two days ago, but my flight on Monday ended up giving me an ear infection.. so I had to postpone it. (Obey the IMSAFE checklist folks! If I had, I wouldn't have prolonged my recovery from my cold).

Now I am just waiting to recover. My instructor estimates it will be about 10 hours or so before I am ready to do the checkride, since we still need to learn specialty landings, as well as s-turns and turns around a point. I am just trying to be patient, as I would like to get my PPL by December!
 
exncsurfer said:
How long since you flew last? I had to postpone mine 2 times for weather so by the 3rd time I hadn't flown in 2 weeks but I was so fed up with preparing there was no way I was pushing it out again. I did have a 1 hour flight to the examiner though, that was my warm up.
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I have not flown in 2 weeks now. This past week due to maint on the plane, and the week before due to family vacation (GREAT weather too.. but I digress). I should get some time this weekend or if weather is not good early next week. I hadn't flown for 2 weeks last time I flew as well, but I picked it up with no problem at all - in fact one of my best flights. Hoping to do some unusual attitudes recovery practice, and then do at least 2 mock check rides over the next 2 weeks. Check-ride scheduled for 9/12 now, and unless weather is a factor I really hope to not change that again.
 
@onezuludelta - a few questions (if you don't mind) from a somewhat paranoid soon-to-be-checkrider:

- Did he at any point do the "you lost your engine" throttle back to idle on you? Or did he say "you have a fire!"? I.e. what sort of emergency was the simulation? My instructor insists I keep my hand on the throttle in the pattern, as he said the DPE will sometimes pull it on crosswind if you aren't on it.

- Checklist use: I have been told (instructor and others) that use of checklists is very encouraged on the check ride. Preflight, startup, taxi, take off (with different ones for short/soft/etc), cruise, pre-landing, landing, shutdown. I have all of these and plan to use them. Did you? Just wondering if I'm being excessive.

- Short field - Did you do this at an actual short field? I can nail those, I have more trouble with the "imagine a tree on the numbers of this 11,000' x 500' wide class-c runway and land short beyond it". Give me a real 2500' field with a real treeline any day.

Finally - how long from start to finish was the oral portion and the flight? I have to fly to my exam (~30min) and home, wondering how long a day to expect.

I've never done turning stalls either, adding that to next lesson's agenda...
 
jbrinker said:
I have not flown in 2 weeks now. This past week due to maint on the plane, and the week before due to family vacation (GREAT weather too.. but I digress). I should get some time this weekend or if weather is not good early next week. I hadn't flown for 2 weeks last time I flew as well, but I picked it up with no problem at all - in fact one of my best flights. Hoping to do some unusual attitudes recovery practice, and then do at least 2 mock check rides over the next 2 weeks. Check-ride scheduled for 9/12 now, and unless weather is a factor I really hope to not change that again.
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Sounds like overkill to me, but hey, flying is flying and it can't hurt.
 
jbrinker said:
- Did he at any point do the "you lost your engine" throttle back to idle on you? Or did he say "you have a fire!"? I.e. what sort of emergency was the simulation? My instructor insists I keep my hand on the throttle in the pattern, as he said the DPE will sometimes pull it on crosswind if you aren't on it.
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He did "you have an engine fire", so obviously, that also counts as an engine loss because you want to stop introducing gas into a flaming engine (at least I do). So it was the same essentially, except since it was a "fire" I had to get the nose down and the speed up, instead of going straight to best glide (which i did after he said "fire is out, what do you do now?). I definitely keep my hand on the throttle in the pattern. I don't know if this was just this DPE, (YMMV) but he told me everything we would do beforehand. I was ready for all sorts of tricks and surprises, but that wasn't really how he ran the checkride. If you know what to do during an engine fire or power loss, you'll be fine. That's all they want to know, I'm pretty sure, that you know how to try to put it out, and that you can get to best glide and find a field.

jbrinker said:
- Checklist use: I have been told (instructor and others) that use of checklists is very encouraged on the check ride. Preflight, startup, taxi, take off (with different ones for short/soft/etc), cruise, pre-landing, landing, shutdown. I have all of these and plan to use them. Did you? Just wondering if I'm being excessive.
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Don't you use checklists anyway? Aren't all your lists on the same checklist? I only had to reach for one thing, and everything was on there. They are there, use them, most of them take 2 seconds anyway. I know it seems like a lot, I felt the same way. But once you reach cruise, the cruise checklist is literally like pitch, power, trim, or something similar, which you're doing (or already have done) anyway.

jbrinker said:
- Short field - Did you do this at an actual short field? I can nail those, I have more trouble with the "imagine a tree on the numbers of this 11,000' x 500' wide class-c runway and land short beyond it". Give me a real 2500' field with a real treeline any day.
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We did all the landings at FRG, same place we departed from, which is definitely not a short field. He just told me, "short field, the 1,000-footers are your spot", so I aimed 2 stripes before them (if I remember correctly), and as long as you land on the spot or up to 200 feet after, you're good. He didn't simulate any obstacles or anything. I was nervous about it but did fine. Just don't force it, be poised to go around. It'll show good judgement if you're gonna miss it by 400 ft and you go around.

Read the ACS like a Bible, it's all in there, and Short Field Landings don't say anything about simulating obstacles. Once I really dove into the ACS, it calmed me down some because the standards are fairly simple. (Ex: my instructor was making me hit a spot+200ft on short and soft field, but the soft field landing doesn't have that distance as part of the standard, so it doesn't matter on the checkride.)

jbrinker said:
Finally - how long from start to finish was the oral portion and the flight? I have to fly to my exam (~30min) and home, wondering how long a day to expect.
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Let's see. The DPE showed up around 9:30 AM. The paperwork took a little while. The oral was probably a little over 30 minutes, maybe 40. They get the idea pretty quickly if you know your stuff, and they won't drag it out unnecessarily. We had to pile in a car and drive to the ramp, then preflight, taxi out, wait for 3-4 landings/departures because FRG sucks, and we got off the ground at 11:15 (mark your takeoff time, so you can do the dead-reckoning stuff to your first waypoint). The flight itself came out to 1.2. Like I said, he prided himself on efficiency, but honestly, it'll be shorter than a full checkride prep lesson because you're only doing things once. I sent my wife the photo of me holding my signed certificate by 1:00 PM.

Hope that helps. there's a huge YMMV in there, because DPEs are different. But I dont think they can be that different, as they all operate from the same strict playbook.
 
@onezuludelta Just wanted to say thanks. That calms my nerves a bit, and I feel like I'm prepared now (other than I have not flown in 2 weeks). I will fly Wed AM this week, and hopefully once next week, and by then I should have the jitters under control. That still gives me 2 more weeks to prep and practice since I had to move the ride to Sept 12. Like @exncsurfer said "hey it's all flying" so no big deal. (I don't have my own plane yet anyway, so flying the school plane is it anyway for the time being)

Congrats to @abqtj too - one more milestone down!
 
Hi all, first time post. I've bee at PPL training for 16 months and completed all my required steps for my checkride. On my last practice day for the 3hrs with CFI before checkride, my school had its 2nd fatal accident within the span of 11 days. It's a difficult time at the flight school and I haven't been back yet. Im not aware how issues like this are handled, but I cant help to think if these incidents will have an effect on my upcoming check ride. Not to mention the thoughts In the back of my mind regarding the accidents. I was even wondering if it would be prudent to take my log book and find another school and finish up elsewhere since I haven't gotten the last endorsement from my CFI to schedule the checkride.
 
HVNYFly said:
Hi all, first time post. I've bee at PPL training for 16 months and completed all my required steps for my checkride. On my last practice day for the 3hrs with CFI before checkride, my school had its 2nd fatal accident within the span of 11 days. It's a difficult time at the flight school and I haven't been back yet. Im not aware how issues like this are handled, but I cant help to think if these incidents will have an effect on my upcoming check ride. Not to mention the thoughts In the back of my mind regarding the accidents. I was even wondering if it would be prudent to take my log book and find another school and finish up elsewhere since I haven't gotten the last endorsement from my CFI to schedule the checkride.
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Yikes, that's certainly terrible and concerning. Not sure what I would do.

Good luck.
 
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SOLO!!!! Achieved my solo this last Sunday! Were doing touch and go's at KRNM and after 4, She asked me to pull over to an offset to the run-up area. Opened her door, Got out, and said, I believe you have this! Give me 3 landings full stop, and every time you taxi by me, I will give a thumbs up or down. Thumbs up, go again, Thumbs down, stop and pick her up. I achieved a thumbs up after each one, total of three, Picker her up and back to KCRQ where i did my best landing yet! Great day!!!! The shirt i happened to wearing, was given to me by my G/F's father from a a recent Museum he visited at the beginning of the year. I told him that was the shirt i had on later that day, He said he was Honored! he is a fellow pilot of 20ish years.


Ed
 
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HVNYFly said:
Hi all, first time post. I've bee at PPL training for 16 months and completed all my required steps for my checkride. On my last practice day for the 3hrs with CFI before checkride, my school had its 2nd fatal accident within the span of 11 days. It's a difficult time at the flight school and I haven't been back yet. Im not aware how issues like this are handled, but I cant help to think if these incidents will have an effect on my upcoming check ride. Not to mention the thoughts In the back of my mind regarding the accidents. I was even wondering if it would be prudent to take my log book and find another school and finish up elsewhere since I haven't gotten the last endorsement from my CFI to schedule the checkride.
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Wow, I'm not sure how I would handle this. It might depend on the cause of the accidents, but really I would consider looking around. If there are other flight schools nearby, how is their safety record? How is the record of your current school (before the recent stuff)? One thought I would have - when unsure gather more information and wait. You don't have to rush the check ride. Take some time to process what has happened and how you feel about it.
 
Am I still allowed to post in here? I'll go with the old "my license is a license to learn" thing and say yes.

Went up last night to get checked out in a different flight school/rental place's Warrior, because that's who I want to rent from in the future. It was a PA-28-161 Warrior II, whereas the plane I finished my training/checkride in was a PA-28-151 Warrior. I assumed they would fly identically, but the newer one was LIKE BUTTER compared to the older one. I was shocked. Has anyone else noticed a difference like this? The 151 felt stiff and heavy, like I was fighting it all the time and it was sliding all over the place. The 161 was smooth as silk, with light controls, and it went right where I wanted it to go. Crazy.

Plus, it has the Garmin GTN 750 which gives me a huge avboner. I love that thing, it's so intuitive and easy to use, instead of scrolling through pages with big dials and little dials.
 
onezuludelta said:
Am I still allowed to post in here? I'll go with the old "my license is a license to learn" thing and say yes.

Went up last night to get checked out in a different flight school/rental place's Warrior, because that's who I want to rent from in the future. It was a PA-28-161 Warrior II, whereas the plane I finished my training/checkride in was a PA-28-151 Warrior. I assumed they would fly identically, but the newer one was LIKE BUTTER compared to the older one. I was shocked. Has anyone else noticed a difference like this? The 151 felt stiff and heavy, like I was fighting it all the time and it was sliding all over the place. The 161 was smooth as silk, with light controls, and it went right where I wanted it to go. Crazy.

Plus, it has the Garmin GTN 750 which gives me a huge avboner. I love that thing, it's so intuitive and easy to use, instead of scrolling through pages with big dials and little dials.
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I can believe it. The flight school I'm at has 3 Cessna 172's and I've been in all three. They each fly slightly differently. 2 are 172N's and 1 is a 172M. One of the 172N's is 180hp, one is 160hp. All three have different avionics and panel layouts, and the flaps are all different. I'm telling myself it'll make me a better pilot :D
 
abqtj said:
Re-did my solo this morning, 3 landings to complete stop DONE! :D

Monkey is off my back finally.
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Considering the past behavior of The Monkey, this is a good thing.

abqtj said:
I can believe it. The flight school I'm at has 3 Cessna 172's and I've been in all three. They each fly slightly differently. 2 are 172N's and 1 is a 172M. One of the 172N's is 180hp, one is 160hp. All three have different avionics and panel layouts, and the flaps are all different. I'm telling myself it'll make me a better pilot :D
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It'll make you good at briefing exactly what airplane you're flying today...
 
I'm currently working on getting my PPL while attending college. I had to put getting my PPL on hold due to job loss but recently came in to some unexpected money and may resume lessons soon. Also might have a new job as an oil tech soon that hopefully pays decent for a part time job.

I'm looking to get into banner towing, hopefully in NJ for a summer.
 
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