Steven is officially a private pilot! He took his oral exam and did his checkride this Saturday, and passed! Ahh! I’m so proud of him! Congratulations, Steven!!!
He didn’t have much warning his test was coming up. He’d been hearing it wouldn’t be until the end of September! But then his instructor said they were going to try to schedule it for this week, then they actually booked time with the airplane, then he got his scenario on Thursday, and knew it would be happening, if the weather was decent.
So to be repetitive, after all that waiting, it happened really fast.
Here’s what happens at your final exam and flight, at least where he went to school – you get grilled with an oral exam for 1-3 hours (his was about 3, starting at 9:30 am). If you’re doing well in a topic, they move on. If you’re struggling, they dig in. After you’re exhausted from that, you do preflight and start out flying the “scenario.” The scenario Steven received was taking two friends to La Crosse to see a dying family member. Morbid much?
You leave on that heading, then once they see you know what the f*ck you’re doing with following a straight heading, they start throwing emergency scenarios at you to see how you react. Steven’s flight looked like this on radar:
I had sent a few friends his tracking and both Bobbi and Courtney commented on this maneuver:
I could actually tell what most of the maneuvers were from what he’s been sharing with me about his lessons.
Oh! The most exciting part (for me!) is that he flew right over the house when he left! I filmed him going by. I won’t subject you to that, but here’s a cropped screengrab:
Penny was excited to join me.
His flight was from 1:34 pm – 3:02 pm. All I had heard from him so far since he left for the day was two emoji face reactions after his oral, but he texted me at 3:21 “Passed.”
Then I immediately told like 10 people and posted it on Instagram stories. A lot of people were checking in with me to see how it was going. He had so much support!
He got home at 4:00 and gave me the complete debrief on it all. What an intense, long day. But he’s a private pilot now! I’m so proud of him!
No, I haven’t flown with him yet, just the two of us. Hopefully, this week!
YESSSSSS!!!!!!! Go Steven!!!! Congrats!!!!
Thank you!
Ahh, congrats to him! Yay!
Thanks so much!
I am so excited for him(and you) and not at all surprised that he passed!!! Congratulations Steven!!! Very proud of you!!!
Thanks so much Denise!
Congratulations!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Thank you Amy!
Congratulations Steven!
Thanks DeAnne!
I’m so proud of Steven! What an amazing accomplishment. I’m glad everything went well. (A 3-hour oral exam, though. OMG!)
Thank you! I am too!
Right? INSANE. He was exhausted for days!
That is so awesome! I booked a carpet cleaning job on a private jet once and ended up talking to one of the private pilots. Hearing what it takes to become a private pilot was astonishing! Truly an amazing accomplishment for Steven.
Congratulations to Steven. What an accomplishment!
Thank you!