Pilot Life: Licensed and Certified!

After a little over a year of hard work and frustrations, I've finally earned my private pilot certificate! I met with my examiner and we briefly went over a few things from the last time we met and then briefed on what the flight portion would consist of. Afterwards, we went out to the plane and fueled it up before conducting pre-flight under the observation of the examiner. After that was complete, we hopped in the plane and got the engine started up. After checking brakes and steering, I did the run-ups. Following run-ups, I taxied us to the runway and we took off, doing a soft-field take-off to start.

N802CT, the plane that got me here!

The checkride flight started out with us heading towards the first waypoint on climb-out with the mock-cross-country flight plan I wrote up, pointing the nose towards Nephi. The airplane was performing a lot better with the climb-out than what the original flight plan called for so my examiner called me to level off and we began maneuvers. After initiating a 180 back towards Spanish Fork (which also served as a clearing turn prior to the maneuver), we started with slow flight. After getting configured, my examiner called out for gentle banks to the headings she chose. From slow flight, my examiner said we were ready for a power-off stall so I went into that. And while were doing stalls, my examiner also had me do a power-on stall as well. Satisfied with that, we went into steep turns, which were alright, but could've been better...

My examiner than took the controls briefly and instructed me to put on my foggles for a brief stint of hood time. After handing me back the controls, she had me fly a few headings with reference to instruments only. We then did recovery from unusual attitudes, which I did well on. I was then instructed to remove the foggles and we moved onto simulated emergency situations with a simulated engine fire. Again, I recalled what I was taught to do and initiated procedures to get the "fire" out; I had my emergency checklist on hand and went through the process of getting the "fire" extinguished. I then put the airplane into a rapid descent, which would be the appropriate maneuver to do in an attempt to extinguish an engine fire. After my examiner called "fire out," I proceeded to go through the emergency landing checklist and aimed for a field to land at had this been a real emergency. In the end, we would've made the field so my examiner called for a "go-around" and I got us back up to altitude in preparation for ground-reference maneuvers. I only had to do one, and my examiner asked that I perform S-turns across a road. After determining wind direction, I did my S-turns across I-15 just south of the Spanish Fork Airport.

Satisfied, my examiner instructed me to head back to the airport; we were almost done. I entered the pattern to set up for a couple landings on the same runway we departed from. She had me start with a touch-and-go doing a soft-field landing with a normal take-off. I was then instructed to perform a stop-and-go doing both a short-field landing and takeoff. The third and final landing was a normal full-stop landing where I was required to initiate a slip from a high final approach. I could've executed this landing a little better but I still passed anyways. And with the third landing done, we taxied back to the ramp and I passed the checkride! My examiner and I briefly went over everything that went well, improvement areas, and just some quick general knowledge stuff and we were done! Logbook filled out, and temporary airman certificate signed, I am now a newly-minted private pilot!

While I'm happy that I finally did it, my feelings over this accomplishment are mixed. For starters, it should not have taken me a little over a year to get my private pilot certificate. But I ended up dealing with challenges and issues at UVU Aviation where I did not fly for a significant period of time and I had to go through some re-training. My time so far flying at UVU is lackluster at best and I've lost a lot of faith and confidence in the flight school to the point I ended up migrating down to Spanish Fork, where I could get consistent and reliable flight training. I'm still unhappy with UVU with regards to how my overall situation was handled, as my flight training with them felt inconsistent and unreliable at times during the challenges I've faced.

But despite all my frustrations, becoming licensed and certified is still a good feeling. I want to thank my friends and family who stood by my side supporting me as I worked my butt off towards this endeavor. And of course, I want to especially thank my flight instructor at Platinum Aviation, Harold Rice for helping me complete my private pilot training! For now, I shall enjoy this moment and privilege and I look forward to the next milestone of my flying career!

Licensed and certified! Despite all the frustrations I had with regards to my flight training, it's still a good feeling! And I'm also representing the good folks I've known from my days at the Legacy Flight Museum with my old uniform! It was these good folks who solidified my desire to become a pilot and go into the aviation industry!
(Photo credit: Harold Rice)