Yesterday morning I received my Private Pilot license at Cable airport in Upland. It took 2 years for me to complete my training (mostly because the summers have kept me too busy to find time for flying), which was MUCH longer than I thought when I naively picked up the phone one day and called a random flight school. You legally only need 40 hours of flight time to get your license. I had 63.7. If I could have done the training without huge breaks in-between flights, I probably could have done it in close to 40, but you build up rust pretty fast as a student pilot when you aren’t in the air for a couple months.
The examination was one of the more difficult things I’ve done in recent memory. It’s been a while since I’ve had a proper “boss,” and there aren’t many people in my life that could make me feel 2 inches tall. However, when you have just barely begun to master something, and you are asked to demonstrate it to someone who’s been literally doing it full time their entire adult life, you’re bound to feel like a putz. That was me. My examiner had been flying since 16, an airline captain (yes, full captain on a 737) since 30, and had over 22,000 hours of flight time. It was the aviation equivalent of having Kelly Slater judge my surfing or having Neil Peart judge my drumming.
So while most of the exam went fine, my examiner pounced on any weaknesses he sensed, and drilled deep down like a festering cavity on a tooth. Like water leaking into a boat through a small hole, he’d slowly start sinking the whole ship, a drop at a time, with questions that made me feel like 2 years of flying had prepared me no better than a casual glance through a magazine. We spent 20 minutes discussing True Airspeed because I had used the wrong scale on my little flight computer. I told him I understood the concept. He defiantly stated “prove it.” He wanted to make sure I actually knew, but mostly, he wanted to see me sweat. He wanted to see whether I was the kind of person who would crack and give up, or who had enough confidence and resolve to keep going. In the air, these things matter.
And that was before we even got into the damned plane. The engine gave me a hard time when starting it. He told me that what I was doing to get it going was “a good way to start an engine fire.” We taxied to the runway, and while en-route I set some avionics. He said that was “very dangerous.” We took off and turned crosswind. I didn’t apply enough rudder in the turn and he said it was “a good way to get the aircraft into a spin.” By doing what I normally did, I had, apparently, nearly killed us three times before we had climbed 500 feet above the ground. It went on, and on, and on. Too fast. Too slow. Don’t turn that way. Don’t read that checklist now. Don’t use flaps. Why are you slipping the airplane now? About half of what I did brought strong words of consternation, and dire warnings of fiery crashes and dead family members.
But at the end of the day, it’s his job to evaluate my performance by the FAA’s standards, not his own, and after a nearly 5 hour exam, he shook my hand, gave me my license, shot a couple polaroids at my request, and sent me on my way. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I was literally afraid that the next thing I did would be the thing that sent him running after me, saying “what the hell do you think you’re doing?!?”, and that he’d tear up my license and call me a cab.
I learned a lot yesterday – about flying, and about myself. I’m certainly grateful that the examiner was hard on me, because it will make me a better pilot. But I’ll also get a sinking feeling in my stomach every time I fly over Cable airport that I’m doing it all wrong, and that somewhere, an old grizzled pilot is watching me and shaking his head in dismay.
Ray
Doug,
Congrats on this new achievement! What’s next? Commercial jets? :)
Jan 17, 2010 @ 10:22 am
[ b ]
congrats bro! that’s quite an accomplishment! i am stoked for you. can you fly me to vegas now?
Jan 17, 2010 @ 10:27 am
Wendy
My Dad is a pilot, I think the crusty old guys take pleasure in making the newbies sweat… but then it is to a good end. It’s easy to make a fatal error especially when you’re new.
My favorite story about Dad and I is when I was doing aerial photos of him and friends. We landed, I switched planes, shot, landed, switched planes, shot, landed got in Dad’s plane to go home.
We’d done the preflight checklists four times at this point, so we skipped a few things… i.e. I forgot to shut the door!
We took off and my hair sucked towards the door– “Uhhhh, Dad… I forgot to lock the door..”
“You had one job on the checklist…”
It was like riding in a convertible. (except super chilly!)
We joked this is why in aviation we don’t cut corners. (Even when it seems redundant.)
Happy Landings!
Jan 17, 2010 @ 10:29 am
admin
Love the story, Wendy!
Chris – when you wanna go? ;)
Jan 17, 2010 @ 11:27 am
karen
wow, what an accomplishment!! congrats doug!
Jan 17, 2010 @ 11:37 am
Karen Johnson
“By doing what I normally did, I had, apparently, nearly killed us three times before we had climbed 500 feet above the ground.”
My favorite line! Again, congratulations on your license.
Jan 17, 2010 @ 11:50 am
Kb
Sounds amazing. Way to stay focused. Fly high and far.
Jan 17, 2010 @ 6:13 pm
Katie Neal Photo
I have never met you but have HUGE respect you for doing this. Such a big accomplishment!! Congrats!
Jan 17, 2010 @ 6:51 pm
Margaret Bryant
Congratulations! On my check ride he asked me to pick out a place on the sectional and to fly him there. Even though I picked the practice area, a place I had been to many, many times, I got lost! Nerves will do that to you!
Jan 18, 2010 @ 7:05 am
admin
@ Margaret –
Hah! I did a similarly stupid thing… The DPE did a simulated electrical failure, and I knew that in a 172 you probably shouldn’t lower your flaps to land with a sketchy electrical system, since in a go-around you might not be able to get them back up. I put them down anyway. Right about to flare for landing he says “go around,” and then hold the flaps down at 30 deg. It was a cool-ish morning at 1400′ MSL, so we made it out with 30 deg just fine, but he did hammer the point home that if I was at Big Bear in the summer, me and my family would all be in the lake. I knew better, and just didn’t connect all the dots on checkride day!
Jan 18, 2010 @ 7:55 am
scott williams
Congrats Doug.
I actually got all the way through my Commercial Multi IFR, so I know exactly how you felt, those testers are like psychics and seem to know the exact question to ask that you have no idea what the answer is.
Happy flying.
P.S. Quite the achievement to have found the only other pastime more expensive than photography! ;)
Jan 18, 2010 @ 8:26 am
admin
Scott – totally! I suppose I could be into yachting or cocaine… coke might be a break-even scenario, though :)
Jan 19, 2010 @ 1:34 pm
Michael Corsentino
Right on Bro! Way to go. You’ve earned you’re wings ;-)
Jan 28, 2010 @ 9:11 am
Kim Rily
I have such respect and also envy for you!
My dad has been a pilot since before I was born. One of the things on my “bucket list” is to go flying with him, with me at the controls. My dad has hundreds of stories of that old pilot– they really do like to make you sweat and see what you will do in a pressure situation. He had stories like that when he switched from USAF to commercial airlines at age 50!
Feb 22, 2010 @ 12:34 pm