Age When You Passed Inst. Check Ride

[flyingron]

Not more than a few months after I got my rating, I was flying IFR down to KSUT. I was cleared direct but then I got "Seymour Johnson's RADAR is out, I'm going to have to put you back on an airway."
I started giving position reports. It was amazing how much the controller had to do to get a full report out of some of the other pilots on the frequency.

It was then when I learned how useful the GNS480 actually is. When you're on the airway you can expand the flight plan and it gives you ETAs to all the fixes ahead.

 

[MBDiagMan]

Thanks for all the data folks! It was interesting. If I manage to pass my check ride I’ll be the first one to vote for the 70 to 79 bracket. At my age this is NOT easy!

 

[jsstevens]

Thanks for all the data folks! It was interesting. If I manage to pass my check ride I’ll be the first one to vote for the 70 to 79 bracket. At my age this is NOT easy!

Good luck! We’re all counting on you…

 

[IK04]

When was that? I remember when Stockton and Bakersfield were Non Radar but they had it by the early/mid 80's. Lemoore/Fresno had most of the space in between with Radar back to the mid 60's. When Castle first got Radar I don't know for sure but it was there by the late 70's.

Mid 1979.

 

[5QK]

I just got mine . 3 weeks shy of my 63rd bday.
Finally.

 

[Blatham489]

56

 

[RyanShort1]

Thanks for all the data folks! It was interesting. If I manage to pass my check ride I’ll be the first one to vote for the 70 to 79 bracket. At my age this is NOT easy!

Rootin' for you!

 

[MBDiagMan]

Thanks Ryan! I have had some more hold ups, but if I pull it off, the pilot won’t be the only member of the team over 70. My Cessna 140 is a year older than I am.

 

[Larry in TN]

I did a four-course range approach to KBUR, a VOR IAP, and an ILS with a procedure turn at KONT.

I didn't do any four-course range approaches, but it was 1985 and the airplane in which I took my instrument flight test was a 1960 C-310E equipped with two VORs and one ADF receiver. No DME. I was 19. The flight test lasted 1.5 hrs. For some reason, the types of approaches weren't logged. We had VOR, ADF, ILS, LOC-BC, and PAR approaches available in the area.

 

[SethV]

I was 36. I started flying at 35, later in life than I should have. Time and money never aligned.

My son just passed his instrument at age 17 in our SR22. I am his CFII, so that was pretty awesome. He is planning his commercial on his 18th birthday next year and the CFI shortly after.

 

[WDD]

Thanks Ryan! I have had some more hold ups, but if I pull it off, the pilot won’t be the only member of the team over 70. My Cessna 140 is a year older than I am.

How goes the battle for your IFR rating?

 

[tsts4]

48

 

[MBDiagMan]

How goes the battle for your IFR rating?

Not good! My flying had gotten pretty sharp, but had trouble with the oral. I had to leave the next day for Hurricane Ida volunteer disaster relief. Got back in time for a previously scheduled lengthy vacation. Got back from all that and flew with the instructor my DPE recommended and I had lost it. It was so bad I felt like I was starting over. Since I am starting over, the engine rebuild is finished in my Mooney so I have decided to start over in it.

This is a very daunting endeavor. It’s difficult to justify the goal except for the fact that I have never quit or given up on anything in my life. I am old, have overcome some unexpected obstacles, and am not a born pilot. I haven’t given up yet, but am trying to come to grips with the possibility that it may not happen.

 

[kgruber]

24 for me from Sundstrand Chief Pilot, Lyle Flick. "Flick Foggy Flying"

 

[WDD]

You volunteer for disaster relief - you’re hitting on more cylinders than those 1/2 your age. Take your time and have fun with it !

 

[Bill Haley]

60 yrs old

 

[benyflyguy]

Easy. What is the meaning of life??

 

[aterpster]

I didn't do any four-course range approaches, but it was 1985 and the airplane in which I took my instrument flight test was a 1960 C-310E equipped with two VORs and one ADF receiver. No DME. I was 19. The flight test lasted 1.5 hrs. For some reason, the types of approaches weren't logged. We had VOR, ADF, ILS, LOC-BC, and PAR approaches available in the area.

Mine was 1959.

 

[WDD]

Mine was 1959.

Lot of sextant, loadstone compass, and parchment map work ? Were there restrictions on how far you could fly else you fall into the abyss?

 

[MGJohnson]

60


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[aterpster]

Lot of sextant, loadstone compass, and parchment map work ? Were there restrictions on how far you could fly else you fall into the abyss?

Not exactly. From June, 1954, until Dec, 1957, I was enlisted active-duty USAF. The last year I was assigned to the F-100C flight simulator. In the next bay were two Link C-11 trainers (sort of T-33) with ILS/VOR/DME. The F-100 sim only had ADF (same as the early airplane). The major in charge liked me, so I racked up a whole lot of time in the simulator and the trainers.

When I did my instrument rating training in a Tri-Pacer a couple of years later, everything was in slow motion, after having flown IAPs at jet speeds. It was an unusual background into a light airplane instrument rating.

I have fond memories about that era. And, it got me into the left seat at TWA early on. 707, DC-9, 727, 767, 1011.

 

[WDD]

Now that’s a cool story!

 

[N1120A]

My story is not nearly as cool as Wally's. Actually, I'm pretty sure no one's is.

I did a four-course range approach to KBUR, a VOR IAP, and an ILS with a procedure turn at KONT.

Man, that's so much easier than the vectored ILS, partial panel RNAV GPS approach and VOR circling I did.

Oh, wait...nah. At least they didn't make you do the NDB into EMT. Or did that exist then? ;-)

Thanks for all the data folks! It was interesting. If I manage to pass my check ride I’ll be the first one to vote for the 70 to 79 bracket. At my age this is NOT easy!

You'll do it.

I was 36. I started flying at 35, later in life than I should have. Time and money never aligned.

I was the exact same way. I started training 3 weeks before my 36th birthday. Private at 36, instrument 11 months later at 37 (after weather screwed up two check rides).

 

[aterpster]

Oh, wait...nah. At least they didn't make you do the NDB into EMT. Or did that exist then? ;-)

EMT didn't have any IAPs in 1959. But, they did have an IFR departure procedure, which was handled by BUR approach control. There was a hot-line telephone on the outside of the airport manager's office that connected to approach control.

Here I am in the F-100C simulator sometime in 1957. The base photographer was a pal, so he took several photos of me and the simulator.

 

[Rich Holt]

I was 41 last Friday. That's when I received the Temporary Airmen's Certificate.

 

[6t6]

67

 

[luvflyin]

EMT didn't have any IAPs in 1959. But, they did have an IFR departure procedure, which was handled by BUR approach control. There was a hot-line telephone on the outside of the airport manager's office that connected to approach control.

Here I am in the F-100C simulator sometime in 1957. The base photographer was a pal, so he took several photos of me and the simulator.

Was it a Published IFR Departure Procedure? Or just a set of instructions they gave you. There have been a few airports without IAP’s that had published ones. I hadn’t heard that EMT was one of them.

 

[Whitney]

Too late for voting in the poll, but I was 20.

 

[saddletramp]

18 here. That was in a airplane with one Nav/Com. Lot's of dialing in those days to find intersections.

Now that I'm instruction full time again I'm amazed how many modern day pilots can't properly track a VOR theses days. The magenta line has spoiled us.

 

[Possum]

66 years old.

 

[aterpster]

Was it a Published IFR Departure Procedure? Or just a set of instructions they gave you. There have been a few airports without IAP’s that had published ones. I hadn’t heard that EMT was one of them.

I believe they read it over the hotline. This is circa 1960.

Later on the FAA permitted charted IFR departure procedures at a few airports that didn't have IAPs. That was discontinued a long time ago.

 

[flyingpreacher]

Started mine back in December and got a discontinuance due to weather. 7 reschedules later (all additional weather conflicts) I FINALLY earned my IRA yesterday! So glad that's over with! Now I can get back to flying for fun for a while. Hoping to hit commercial, CFI, and CFI-I next summer. (Part 61)

 

[flyingron]

45 for me. I had taken my written like three times and let it expire before I finally did the PIC ten day (well eight in my case, got a couple of days off for good behavior).

 

[woodchucker]

I'm working on it. 50-something. Last flight with double-I we did unusual attitudes. My first thought was seriously my friend? A 60 something bank and dive or whatever and my body didn't have a clue what was going on? Recovered satisfactorily but need more work on that.

 

[Clip4]

Oh well, you know it’s Instrument and not Knstrument.

So you never passed a Kah-nstrument check ride?

 

[WDD]

Started mine back in December and got a discontinuance due to weather. 7 reschedules later (all additional weather conflicts) I FINALLY earned my IRA yesterday! So glad that's over with! Now I can get back to flying for fun for a while. Hoping to hit commercial, CFI, and CFI-I next summer. (Part 61)

Congrats!!!!

 

[MBDiagMan]

Unfortunately, no.

I could list all the somewhat unique circumstances that got in my way, but it would sound like nothing but a list of excuses. The biggest problem I have with it is that for the first time in my 73 years, I quit something I had started. I didn’t graduate college until I was thirty, and didn’t really make my career catch fire until I was forty, but I didn’t quit on either or any other significant endeavor.

I can say that all the practice approaches I have flown, and continue to fly, along with all the rest of the training, study and practice has clearly made me a better, more confident pilot. I flew to Galveston from NE Texas yesterday with a few challenges and everything worked out great.

I have friends that keep encouraging me to finish, but the practicality of that is just not present.

 

[frfly172]

54

 

[Tom Hurley]

70 back in November 2020. Almost exactly 20 years after passing my PPL. Tremendous feeling of accomplishment. And I have stayed IFR current since then in my Arrow.

 

[ytodd]

49