Ryan Says…

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted to my blog, sorry to anyone who has been loyally visiting my site each day or patiently staring at an unchanging RSS feed (does anyone actually do that? :)

Anyway, the reason is that I decided to ‘buckle down’ and get my pilots license. I read books and books on all things aviation, read aviation magazines and online articles, participated in pilot forums… I basically dove deeply into the world of aviation and wasnt planning to surface until I had my ticket.

At the same time I started taking more frequent lessons with my instructor to prepare for the ‘checkride’ - going over all the types of takeoffs and landings, all the maneuvers, emergency procedures and skills on which I would be tested. Over and over again.

When the date of my practical test finally arrived (July 10), I felt as prepared as I could be. Only days before I finally felt like I truly grokked crosswind landings (one of the hardest things to master in my opinion), and I generally felt ‘at one with the plane’ while in the air.

The long and the short of it - I passed with flying colors (pardon the pun), and can now call myself a private pilot! My PP-ASEL rating lets me fly in visual meteorological conditions, with passengers, in a single engine land aircraft (i.e. not a seaplane). I still need to get additional ratings/endorsements if I want to fly things like high performance aircraft (greater than 200 horsepower), complex aircraft (with retractable landing gear, constant speed prop and flaps), in instrument conditions (basically in clouds - this requires a lot of extra training and another checkride), multi-engine aircraft (again, extra training and another checkride), at high altitudes (in aircraft that fly above 25,000 feet), if I want to carry passengers for hire (requires a commercial certificate, which means another checkride and more stringent medical)… the list goes on.

This flying thing is truly something you can spend a lifetime mastering, and I’m sure it will provide me with a lot of enjoyment and a lot of ways to burn my cash for years and years to come. As is often said in the aviation community, my private pilot certificate truly is a ‘license to learn’, and I cant wait.

P.S. Anyone out there who knows me in person and wants to experience the freedom and excitement of flying around in a small plane, let me know! I’m always looking to share the experience.

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