FAA Checkride Redux

Svashtar

Svashtar

Joined
Dec 28, 2003
Messages
4,791
Not to make a big deal of it, but to follow up on my original post in September, I passed my FAA checkride yesterday (finally!) It was scheduled for a few weeks earlier, but the blustery weather has really kept us down, and then the examiner called in sick last week.

The delay was just as well, as I felt I really nailed all my short field / soft field landings and takeoffs, and this time had no trouble aceing the engine out / airstart and diversion / navigation tests. He didn't like my soft field landing as he said I went too long for a "real" soft field, but I was told I could use the whole runway by my instructor, so I did. It was a good landing, and I swear I felt like he was just trying to take any joy out of the occassion for me. Maybe it was a personality thing, but it's almost like he wanted to fail me, and couldn't find anything and was pissed about it. I know that doesn't make sense, but that's how it seemed. Oh, well, sc%$# 'em. I worked my ass off for it in between work so I'll just congratulate myself. :)

It goes pretty much without saying that mental preparation is 99% of everything. When my head is screwed on right and I am confident I feel like I can do just about anything, but when I start putting myself down and doubting myself then I feel almost paralyzed. My trouble is that I grew up always being told I would never accomplish anything of import, so tend to put myself down and not even try new things.

Anyway, thanks to all of you for your support! Finished my second degree a couple of years ago, now this goal is out of the way. Next goal is to (TRY!) and lose weight and get my body in shape, and then maybe an instrument rating in a year or so. Got to keep plugging away at life bit by bit!

Wish I had done this 30 or even 20 years ago, as I would have had a different career maybe, but it wasn't to be. At this point all I want to be able to do is go flying along the California coast down to Big Sur on a beautiful sunny day with my daughter and get some enjoyment out of it!

Thanks again to all my Cantina friends for all your encouragement and support!

Best Regards,

Norm
 
Glad to hear it, Norm:) don't sweat waiting later in life to get it. better late than never, right? Congrats!

Jake
 
Congrats, Norm! To fly above Big Sur would be the best... When driving, you have to focus too much on the road... oh, wait... OK, think of the views your family & friends will have... :cool:

I'd like to see the Hearst Castle from up there...

AA
 
Not to say "I told you so," Norm...but


I told you so. :D

Congratulations and best wishes for high-altitude joy for many years to come.

Now, start looking up the FAA Fly-in, held annually in Oshkosh, WI !!! Figure out your air-route. You can not believe the variety of aircraft that attend.

Squadrons of historical, experimental, conventional, and just plain weird aircraft gather to ...uh, hmmm...actually, I don't know exactly WHY they gather...but gather they do! Maybe to kick lies and tell tires?

Nice work.

Read the safety thread.
 
Congrats. Still wish I had been able to go on to flight school after I finished ground school. Have fun up there. :)
 
Congrats Norm!!!! You can put another notch in your journey of life.:D
 
Next, you just have to get big fuel tanks and fly to BirGorkha! :) Quick resupply mission, ya know. Take our exotic woods in exchange for exotic knives!! :)

Congrats.
 
Outstanding, congrats!!
Should we look for you at the next Marina air show for a ride? Wife and I took a ride in a Waco there, what a blast and have been thinking about flying lessons since I have nothing else to do...Congrats in doing it!
Over Salinas
medium.jpg
 
Kis has been making too many nice posts lately and now I have a chance to zap him for a mistake. :p ;) :D

It's the Experimental Aircraft Association flyin, Kismet. not the FAA!

( Why do I feel like I've stolen candy from a baby now? )
 
sweet said:
Outstanding, congrats!!
Should we look for you at the next Marina air show for a ride? Wife and I took a ride in a Waco there, what a blast and have been thinking about flying lessons since I have nothing else to do...Congrats in doing it!
Over Salinas
medium.jpg
Click to expand...


Thanks everyone! I appreciate your comments very much. That's the view alright Sweet! Plenty of soft field acreage to land in if need be. Great picture.

If you want to read up on a person who has had a hell of a flying career and doesn't mention it much, read up on Uncle Bill at the HI web site. As near as I can tell he's flown just about everything and for everyone and has forgotten more about this than most of us will ever know. I dreamed of making a career of it from the time I was a little kid, but the fact is at 6'8" and 330 llbs. I'm just too damn tall and too big around to have done so. I remember reading in the 1950's and 60's the ideal Naval aviator and Air Force pilot and all the great test pilots were all around 5' 8" or 5' 9" and 150-160 lbs or so max.

We're spoiled nowadays; all the trainers I learned in are no more than 2 years old, with 100 hour inspections required. (Cessna 172/S). They all have two way radios, VOR and NDB receivers, transponders and encoding altimeters, state of the art GPS systems, the works. All fuel injected, so no carb heat to mess with like on the 150 series. It makes flying a hell of a lot easier. Even the flight computers are all electronic now, although I still use a manual E6-B analog flight calculator as I'm afraid of punching in a wrong button and getting an incorrect response (probably what slide rule folks said when the electronic calculator was invented!)

In the "old" days, pure pilotage was how you got around. You still have to know the navigation basics, but plugging in your flight plan into the GPS sure makes things easier. My hat is off to anyone who learned to fly back when it was a lot more art than science.

Thanks again to a great bunch of folks!

Regards,

Norm
 
Of course, you are right, Rusty.

I knew it was one of them "AA" things. The skies of Wisconsin are filled with the drum of piston aircraft, often small groups flying in formation on their way there. Getting a flight-line pass allows you to wander among the various incarnations of gravity-defying machines. One year, the Concorde came and did hourly (that's HOURLY) junkets to Ontario, Canada and back. Then they did "touch and goes" with that incredible creature. ( Did you know that sumbich gets LONGER in flight? Something about heat, metalurgry, and who's gonna check anyway?)

The acrobatics are among the most precise flying you will ever see. All the casual attitude disappears when they start with precise and demanding angles of turn, rates of speed, and timing of maneuvers. Really astonishing.

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Resources for general aviation pilots, students, aircraft owners, and instructors: training logs, stories, articles, free CFI listings, reviews, photos, events calendar. ... Oshkosh Fly-In. Home > Flying Adventures > Oshkosh Fly-In ... took a few days to visit the world's largest fly-in at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I took an airline into Milwaukee and ...
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An interview with owner of an Airplane Washing Franchise. ... Visit to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Team Wash Guys parked right outside the EAA Oshkosh, Wisconsin Fly-In. The largest airshow ...
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8. OSHKOSH FLY IN 2002
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9. Pictures from the EAA Oshkosh '98 Fly-In
... Some Pictures from the EAA Oshkosh '98 Fly-In. (aka "EAA AirVenture") ... My photos of the Oshkosh FLy-In's in 1997 and 1996 ...
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10. Regional EAA Fly-ins
... Sun 'n Fun EAA Fly-In. Lakeland Linder Regional Airport ... Regional Airport. Oshkosh, WI (OSH) July 25 - July 31, 2005. EAA Mid-Eastern Fly-In ...
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11. Van's Aircraft -Fly-In Schedule
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12. Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture
 
I had about 16 hours of dual in a Cessna 140 when I had to start collecting medical records of different ear surgery -

I was around +/- 20 years old. What the ground school ended up teaching me was that there were at least 3 ways if not more of changing a craft's x,y,and z axises (sp?). Redundancy, redundancy, redundancy, and when you run out of those ways, try something else as long as you are alive to do so.

Interesting that I should be reminded of this after the Gun hoarding thread. I can see how I've applied the principle to various parts of my life, and it does explain my tendency to make sure I have redundancy in my guns and knives.

Explain my a$$! I got them because I lusted after each and every one of them. Lust and Avarice! I had to tell myself something so I could justify the next one!!!

( If you only lie to yourself, is it really a lie? )

PS: I don't feel so sorry for you now, Kismet! That was a dirty low down trick to play on us by posting umpteen links to aeroporn!
 
Kismet is right about OshKosh. I'd suggest everyone here make it at least once in your life, if you have any interest whatsoever in things with wings. Went about 8 years ago, while I was in ground school. Teacher took a coupla us up to the show(was living in Chicago subrubs at time, so was jsut a long day trip). Amazing time. No way you can see everything in one day, or even in the time of the show.
 
When I was a kid I wanted to fly really bad, so I made a pair of wings out of some coat hangers and old window shades. I was just about to launch my invention from the garage roof using my brother as the test pilot when our parents came home and grounded us.
 
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