Private Pilot!

I now write as a private pilot! It is amazing, but not hard to believe that I was able to fulfill my goal of getting my license in one semester. Earlier on I was doubtful, as the weather for a couple weeks in a row just didn't cooperate. And with my busy schedule at school, my goal seemed a bit to ambitious. But, like I said in my last post, effective time management and motivation can go a long way in accomplishing your goals.

I had initally scheduled my checkride for early Monday (14th), but low ceilings moved it to Wednesday. Tuesday evening it took me quite a while to fall asleep. I was up early wed. morning ready to go. I was extremely nervous, but the entire thing went really well! The examiner, Dr. Lay, briefed me before we started on the order of events and then we started the checkride. It started with an oral exam, which took about 45 min and then we headed out to the plane for the practical test. During that flight, from the moment we stepped into the plane, I was being watched on how I handled every stage of the flight. This was the final examination, and he tested me in every element I learned this semester. When it was over, we parked at the hangar, had a postflight debriefing with my instructor and he signed a temporary license for me. Let me tell you, I was quite excited when he pushed the paper across the table, smiled and ask me to sign on the line. I was a private pilot!! Dr. Lay said it would take 110-120 days for me to receive the actual card. This is the Federal Government we are talking about. I sure hope I get it by then.

Next semester I will start right away on getting my instrument rating. But for now, I'm kicking back and enjoying the Christmas Break. So until my next post, have a Merry Christmas and a holiday.

Time Management

Once again I'm afraid I will have to start my post with an apology. These last few weeks have been crazy and the workload keeps piling. So I'm sorry it has taken this long to post. There are about two weeks left in the semester and I'm finding that all of my work is catching up to me. Papers have been assigned and finals need to be studied for. But most important of all, I have my FAA written exam and checkride fast approaching.

I have been studying for both like a madman, whilst juggling all of my other school work. I have also been progressing through Stage 4, the final stage, quite quickly. My first night flight was Monday, and I had a night cross country last night to Wichita. It was my first time flying into class C airspace and what and experience! On approach the tower told us to keep our speed up, as a Learjet was on final behind us. So we flew the approach right below the yellow arc at 120 knots. Fortunately Wichita's runway is long enough we didn't need to worry about our ground roll distance, so speed wasn't a critical factor.

I have another night cross country tonight with a local solo tomorrow. I am working on polishing up my maneuvers and cross wind landings so they are in tip top shape for my checkride. I must admit I'm quite nervous. But I might as well get used to it, since I know I'll have many more to come!