December 28th, 2009
Monday at around 5:00 PM in Dublin, GA, my FAA designated practical examiner shook my hand and informed me that I had passed my practical exam. I am now officially an airplane pilot.
The oral was predictable. I was weak in a few areas, but strong on most. During training, we did not spend an overwhelming amount of time on ground school. I was fine on the sectional, airspaces, and cross country planning, but a little weak on the myriad of different weather charts.
What we did spend a lot of time doing was flying. I was happy to be moving on to the practical flight test. Short field, soft field, slip to land, steep turns, emergency landing, go around, recovered stalls and slow flight were all within standards. He didn't like the way I set up some of the approaches, even though that was the way I was taught to fly them. So I just went with it and flew them the way he wanted.
We finished with a standard landing, which I hit very smoothly. We taxied back, shut down, and went back inside. Chris sat in on the debrief. We got the good news, signed some paperwork, and I was handed my temporary airmen certificate. Needless to say I was drained. We flew back to LZU - my first certificated pilot in command flight. I got the night landing. We parked and hit The Flying Machine for a couple of beers to celebrate. I still have a lot to learn about aviation and piloting an aircraft. I am extremely proud of this privelege and accomplishment, but ultimately consider it a license to continue learning on my own.
The one person that made this possible for me is my wife, Cynthia. It costs a lot of time and money to earn a pilot license. Every hour I spent in the airplane was an hour she spent alone at home trying not to worry and taking care of our nest so I would have a warm place to come home to. Every dollar I spent with the flight school was a dollar that did not go toward dinner out, a cruise, or a weekend at the cabin. Every day I took off from work to practice flying was a vacation day that we would not spend together. For 16 months she supported my mission. I am eternally grateful to her. I do plan to continue flight training, but for now it's her turn to be front and center. We are planning an adventure together in 2010 that will definitely be worth writing about.
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4 comments:
Thank You so very much for writing about your experience. I have lived vicariously through your posts.
Great blog. I'll continue to look back at it for advice as I complete my PPL in the coming months.
Since flight lessons are expensive these days. It would help us all if you could summarize the total cost of your PPL.
100 hours dual * 165 hr (inst + rental) = 16,500
15 hours PIC * 120 hr (rental) = 1,800
Gear, Fees, Books, Ground School, Misc = 1,500
Total = 19,800
That 100 hours is higher than it has to be. A more aggressive program could accomplish the PPL in 1/2 this time if the student were able to fly 3-4 times per week. My instructor took a flexible and relaxed approach to my training because I was usually only able to fly on the weekends and would get rusty quickly. He did a great job managing my weekend warrior pace.
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