HPNFlyGirl
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iBrookieMonster
Brook’s Checkride Story
First off I would like to start this by saying…I hope my story encourages people to follow their dreams of becoming a private pilot. I had many people who told me that they thought being a pilot was just some weird fascination of mine and that it would NEVER happen. Today I can laugh at them and tell them that dreams do come true.
FRIDAY NIGHT 12/01/06: I meet my CFI at the airport to go over the last little bit of preparation. We fill out my 8710 form, make sure the maintenance logs are in the plane (which they weren’t so we had to call the mechanic to come back out and hand them to me.) I checked the fuel in the plane, both tanks less than ½ full:
CFI: "You’re kidding right?"
Me "UH, NO!!!"
CFI "Do you have enough fuel to fly to FAY?
Me "NO!!!"
CFI "Bleep!!!"
Then he tells me that I need to go home and get a goodnight’s sleep. At that time I was not nervous. I am not sure what happened between the ride home from the airport that night and bedtime but all that changed. I did not sleep a wink
SATURDAY 12/02/06 CHECKRIDE TAKE ONE: When my alarm wailed at 6 am. I felt like someone hit me with a ton of bricks. I get dressed, grab my stuff and head for the airport. On the way to the airport I received a call from my friend Colleen who would be my air traffic controller that day. She wished me luck and told me I would do just fine. When I arrived at the airport I had to wait for the fuel guys to let the trucks warm up before fueling the plane. Preflight. Check the weather, file a flight plan, Check my fuel after the tanks were full. Told my CFI, I was off. When I was doing my runup the left mag ran rough. No big deal…just burn off the carbon deposits. Then I hear:
CFI - "BROOK WHAT’S THE PROBLEM, WHAT’S TAKING SO LONG!!!!
Me - I am leaving RIGHT NOW!!!! Johnston Country Traffic 737LK taxing onto and departing rwy 21 to the southwest. Johnston County."
As soon as I am able I switch over to Seymour Appch and request flight following. They opened my flight plan for me. Life was good. They switch me over to FAY appch., then FAY switched me to FLO. Switching to FLO I say:
Me - "Florence appch 737LK.
FLO Appch:- "GOOD MORNING BROOK!!!!! Would you like a No Gyro today?"
Me – No thank you. I promise I will give you one soon.
FLO – Ok cool. Cleared to land rwy 1.
Me: 737LK Cleared to land rwy 1.
I park the plane and have the line guy fuel me up. I walk in to the FBO and meet the examiner. I apologized for being 30 minutes late. He told me it was ok and to get settled and we would then begin. I go to the restroom (throw up…nerves) then I meet the examiner in his office.
Fred (Designate Pilot Examiner): Let me see your photo id, medical & student certificate, knowledge test, 8710 form, and your money.
Me: Here ya go.
Fred: Let me see your logbook. Hhhmm. Looks as if you’re missing your 90-day solo endorsement. Do you see it in here anywhere?
Me: Uh doesn’t this count?
Fred: No. It needs to be here and your endorsement expired 09/06. No big deal. Let’s call Bobby and get him to sign off on one and fax it to us.
Me: Ok.
Me: Hey Bobby.
CFI: Yeah what is it?
Me: Could you please fax over the 90-day solo endorsement.
CFI: What do you mean?
Me: My 90-day solo endorsement isn’t signed.
CFI: I am heading back to the airport now.
Fred: Let’s have a look at the aircraft logbooks. Hhhmm. Looks as if the ELT battery expired 11/06. 2 days ago. The guy who did the 100 hour just a few weeks go let it slide.
Me: Let me call Bobby back and see what I should do.
Fred: Good Idea.
CFI: WHAT NOW!!!!!
Me: The ELT battery expired 11/06…2 days ago.
CFI: Bleep. What you need to do is disconnect the ELT. Write in the logbook you disconnected the ELT and sign your name and the date. Next you will need to placard it ELT INOP.
Me: Ok.
CFI: If you have anymore problems call me.
After all that I had to throw up again.
We started the oral.
Fred: How do you get out of a spin?
Which lights come on when you hit your nav light button in the plane?
Me…Red and Green lights on the wings.
Fred: Anymore?
Me: Yes, the white light on the tail.
Fax comes in…I go throw up. Then go back to being interrogated.
Fred: At night which way is the plane heading when you see a red light.
That is about all I remember of the oral.
He tells me to go out and preflight the plane. I go throw up yet again
I call get the current weather and NOTAM’s.
Preflight the plane. Fred comes out and gets in the plane.
Me: Are you ready?
Fred: Ready when you are.
Go through my checklist saying everything out loud and why I am doing it.
Call up ATC and they tell me to taxi to rwy 1, I taxi to rwy 1. After doing the run up I contact ATC again.
Me: Florence ground 737KL is at rwy 1 ready for take off.
Colleen: Brook would you like a squawk code?
Me: I don’t think that will be necessary.
Colleen: I insist on giving you a squawk code.
I looked over at Fred and said…Is that ok?
Fred: Sure. How do you know her btw?
Me: Oh I met her a few months ago and kept in touch.
Fred: Ah ok.
Me to ATC: 737LK would like a squawk code.
Colleen: Squawk 3010.
Me: Squawk 3010.
Colleen: Contact tower 121.9.
Me 121.9, 7LK.
Florence tower 737LK ready for take off.
Tower: 7LK cleared for take off. Fly rwy heading then proceed on course.
Me 7LK fly rwy heading, proceed on course.
My xc was from FLO to GSO.
After take off and proceeding on course I let Fred know where I was even though they were not my checkpoints. There is I-95. We are in between the 2 lakes.
Fred: If you needed to divert where would you go and what heading would you fly?
Me: Darlington and head 320.
Fred: Good. Now lets do maneuvers. Give me a steep turn.
Me: Would you like a clearing turn?
Fred: No this will suffice.
I did my steep turn. Staying within the limits.
Fred: Give me a power on stall.
Me: We will do a clearing turn so we don’t have to look at the sun.
Fred: Good idea.
I start the stall. Pitch up for 55 kias. Then start pull back to stall the plane. Well his seat slid all the way back. All I could do was say to myself…PLEASE DON’T GRAB THE YOKE!!!! So I nosed over for straight and level. I told him he needed to have his seat in and locked before I started again. After he had it locked I hit the back of the seat to see if it was locked. I start the maneuver again. I did good.
Fred: Give me a power off stall.
Me: Would you like a clearing turn?
Fred: I don’t see any traffic this heading is fine.
Did my power off stall. Life is good.
He handed me my foggles and said "Ok I have the plane, put these on. Now fly a heading of 120. Turn to the left. Climb to 3500 feet. Very good. Close your eyes now.
He did 3 unusual attitude recoveries. 1st one wasn’t bad. He didn’t touch anything to my knowledge because I scanned everything and didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. 2nd one a little more jostling and playing with the heading indicator. I caught that one real quick. 3rd one…he had the plane in every direction that plane could go in, stall warning horn blaring. I said…geez..hes gotta be done by now so I opened my eyes and looked. I saw nothing but ground and we were turning round and round. He had us in a spin. I recovered and fixed stuff he played with. He played with my altimeter, my heading card, trimmed it full nose up, changed the radio freqs. And pulled the mixture pretty far out. I swear if it had been out any more the engine would have quit. Very good he said.
Fred said we could call it a day because I looked as if I was going to puke and was a funky shade of green.. He wanted me to have a clean plane for my trip back home and that we could finish up next weekend. As bad as I wanted my ticket that day I could wait another week. I wouldn’t have survived in a puked in plane flying back home. Now take me back to FLO.
Fred: Where are you taking me?
Me: To FLO. (Well I always picked FLO out by the tall buildings and thought to myself…man how far did he take me out.)
Fred: I don’t think so.
Me: FLO tower 737LK
ATC: 737LK go head.
Me: 737LK would like vectors to the airport.
ATC: 7LK turn heading 060 and the airport will be in front of you.
Me: 060 7LK.
Sure enough there it was. So we landed normally.
I park the plane and couldn’t get out and run to the bathroom fast enough. I puked as soon as I got to the toilet.
I had to call my CFI to let him know I didn’t finish.
Bobby: "What do you mean you didn’t finish?
Me: I got sick.
Needless to say…That was a long flight back to JNX. 1.5 hours My longest flight yet. When I arrived home my friend Gabe landed to see how my day went. I told him I didn’t get to finish because I was nervous and getting sick. He gave me a hug and said I will finish next week. What a GREAT friend.
Tuesday 12/04/06 Practice Engine Outs: Since I knew I only had engine outs left to do, I wanted as much practice as I could get. I flew with my CFI a few times and nailed each one. Ok he told me. Do some solo now and you will be ready. My engine outs…I impressed myself, not to mention a guy watching them on the ground with a handheld. He thought I was a CFI and told me he wanted to take lessons from me. Hah. I told him… I was just a student not quite a private pilot. He told me how professional I sounded on the radio and flying the plane. Talk about a confidence booster. J
Saturday 12/09/06 Checkride Take Two: Wake up this morning temperature is a frigid 15 degrees. Arrived to the airport and the plane is covered in frost. Get fuel, preflight and let the sun melt some of the frost. My CFI shows up and says ok lets get bottles of hot water and finish it up so you can get out of here. We finish defrosting the plane. Everything is good now. I do my run up. Take off and head back to FLO. Near FAY I notice that I am straight and level by looking outside but my attitude indicator is indicating I am in a nose diving bank. I tap on the glass…nothing. My other vacuum instruments are working just fine. AI must be clogged. Push on to FLO. Arrived at FLO and parked the plane which I had the line guy fuel Check in with Fred. Go to the bathroom (I didn’t puke this time. J ) and hang out with Fred and his friend for a little bit. This helped me relax. I apologized for being 15 minutes late this time. He said not to worry because he knew there was frost on the plane. He then told me to preflight the plane then he would be ready to go. I asked if there was going to be any more oral questions and he said no. All he had me do were 2 engine outs which I nailed and even had room to do touch and goes afterwards. Then we landed full stop with the 2nd landing. Since I crossed over the intersecting runways when I taxied back I made sure to ask ATC if it was OK to cross. They said yes. I told Fred I did that just to make sure I wasn’t slapped with a runway incursion. He said that was smart thinking and he wished more people did that. We park the plane. I tie it down then walk inside. I meet up with Fred and he talked with me for a bit and he signed my temporary airman’s certificate and said "Welcome to a 3rd generation of pilots." Then he shook my hand. And we took a picture out in front of the plane. I am now a 3rd generation pilot. My grandpa and my cousin are pilots. My cousin is my dad’s generation.
I called my brother to let him know 1st. Then I was making some new friends when my CFI called. This would be my last time really playing tricks on him so I let it go to voicemail. I called him back.
CFI: Why haven’t you called me yet?
Me: Oh I was talking to someone.
CFI: AND?
Me: Well the attitude indicator went out today.
CFI: So you didn’t get to finish because your attitude indicator when out.
Me: No. I passed.
CFI: That’s all you had to say.
He was happy for me.
I had to show my ATC friends my new certificate. I took the courtesy car and drove to the tower. Some ATC’r let me in, I saw Kerry and he looked at me and said "How did it go?" and gave me the thumbs up and I shook my head yes. Then Colleen showed up and gave me a BIG hug. Then we took pictures out in front of the tower.
I then called my dad and told him he HAD to come to the airport because it wasn’t an option it was mandatory. Why he said. I told him…I JUST PASSED MY CHKRIDE AND I AM NOW A PRIVATE PILOT!!!!! COOL he said. Same for my mom.
I leave FLO. When I arrived back at JNX I flew over midfield and rocked my wings. My brother video taped my landing and it was NICE!!!!! The tires didn’t even squeak. (There were 3 old guys standing around and they were amazed. They also said…"HER TIRES DIDN’T SQUEAK" Then they congratulated me.) My mom, dad, brother, and his girlfriend Brookie were all there. I asked them if they wanted a ride all 3 declined. L My mom and dad BOTH said…"its too cold to go in the little plane. Sigh. My brother said "Oh you can take me up by yourself." "YEAH!!!!!" He looked and was like "That’s OK." Heh heh…He has flown with me before but with my CFI up front and him in the back.. And HES ALIVE!!!!! Hah hah hah.
As the Grateful Dead once said, "What a long strange trip it’s been," but in the end WELL WORTH IT. For the 1st time in my 30 years of life, I can now say that I have accomplished something.
Now my thank you’s
Mom & dad – thank you for having patience with me. I love you.
My brother, Brian – thank you for sitting in the back and video taping my lessons. I love you.
Bobby, My CFI – Thank you for pushing me to be my best and for putting up with me. I know it wasn’t easy being my instructor at times, but we BOTH made it through. Also thank you for the pep talks when I needed them.
Mark Shilling - Thank you for the plane rides and being a mentor.
Jeff Watson - Thank you for doing a mock oral with me at Borders.
PoA & AOPA friends – Thank you for helping me out with whatever I needed and for the late night chats and PM’s about flying.
Kitty Hawk 99’s – thank you for the scholarship.
Aileen Watkins – Thank you for listening and giving me guidance when I needed someone.
and
My cousin, Peter – thank you for all your advice and taking me flying. Looks like I have some pretty big shoes to fill, as I would like to fill shoe’s one day. J
From lesson number 1 to my 1st landing as a private pilot I had:
Hours flown: 177.7
CFI’s: 22
Airport’s Visited Towered: 7 Uncontrolled: 10 Grass Strips: 1 Total: 18
Aircraft: 12 different makes and models
N Numbers: 18
Years: 7 years, 7 months, 15 days
Logbook Entries: 155
Having your brother videotape your 1st landing as a private pilot: PRICELESS!!!!! J
Perseverance paid off. I hope my story inspires at least 1 person, if not more. I think my calling now, is to help those who think they cannot do this, when all they need is someone to help guide them in the right direction. Another thing, NEVER PAY IN ADVANCE. As Jim Valvano, the coach for the NCSU basketball team said, DON’T EVER GIVE UP!!!!! I never gave up and now my dream has come true.
First off I would like to start this by saying…I hope my story encourages people to follow their dreams of becoming a private pilot. I had many people who told me that they thought being a pilot was just some weird fascination of mine and that it would NEVER happen. Today I can laugh at them and tell them that dreams do come true.
FRIDAY NIGHT 12/01/06: I meet my CFI at the airport to go over the last little bit of preparation. We fill out my 8710 form, make sure the maintenance logs are in the plane (which they weren’t so we had to call the mechanic to come back out and hand them to me.) I checked the fuel in the plane, both tanks less than ½ full:
CFI: "You’re kidding right?"
Me "UH, NO!!!"
CFI "Do you have enough fuel to fly to FAY?
Me "NO!!!"
CFI "Bleep!!!"
Then he tells me that I need to go home and get a goodnight’s sleep. At that time I was not nervous. I am not sure what happened between the ride home from the airport that night and bedtime but all that changed. I did not sleep a wink
SATURDAY 12/02/06 CHECKRIDE TAKE ONE: When my alarm wailed at 6 am. I felt like someone hit me with a ton of bricks. I get dressed, grab my stuff and head for the airport. On the way to the airport I received a call from my friend Colleen who would be my air traffic controller that day. She wished me luck and told me I would do just fine. When I arrived at the airport I had to wait for the fuel guys to let the trucks warm up before fueling the plane. Preflight. Check the weather, file a flight plan, Check my fuel after the tanks were full. Told my CFI, I was off. When I was doing my runup the left mag ran rough. No big deal…just burn off the carbon deposits. Then I hear:
CFI - "BROOK WHAT’S THE PROBLEM, WHAT’S TAKING SO LONG!!!!
Me - I am leaving RIGHT NOW!!!! Johnston Country Traffic 737LK taxing onto and departing rwy 21 to the southwest. Johnston County."
As soon as I am able I switch over to Seymour Appch and request flight following. They opened my flight plan for me. Life was good. They switch me over to FAY appch., then FAY switched me to FLO. Switching to FLO I say:
Me - "Florence appch 737LK.
FLO Appch:- "GOOD MORNING BROOK!!!!! Would you like a No Gyro today?"
Me – No thank you. I promise I will give you one soon.
FLO – Ok cool. Cleared to land rwy 1.
Me: 737LK Cleared to land rwy 1.
I park the plane and have the line guy fuel me up. I walk in to the FBO and meet the examiner. I apologized for being 30 minutes late. He told me it was ok and to get settled and we would then begin. I go to the restroom (throw up…nerves) then I meet the examiner in his office.
Fred (Designate Pilot Examiner): Let me see your photo id, medical & student certificate, knowledge test, 8710 form, and your money.
Me: Here ya go.
Fred: Let me see your logbook. Hhhmm. Looks as if you’re missing your 90-day solo endorsement. Do you see it in here anywhere?
Me: Uh doesn’t this count?
Fred: No. It needs to be here and your endorsement expired 09/06. No big deal. Let’s call Bobby and get him to sign off on one and fax it to us.
Me: Ok.
Me: Hey Bobby.
CFI: Yeah what is it?
Me: Could you please fax over the 90-day solo endorsement.
CFI: What do you mean?
Me: My 90-day solo endorsement isn’t signed.
CFI: I am heading back to the airport now.
Fred: Let’s have a look at the aircraft logbooks. Hhhmm. Looks as if the ELT battery expired 11/06. 2 days ago. The guy who did the 100 hour just a few weeks go let it slide.
Me: Let me call Bobby back and see what I should do.
Fred: Good Idea.
CFI: WHAT NOW!!!!!
Me: The ELT battery expired 11/06…2 days ago.
CFI: Bleep. What you need to do is disconnect the ELT. Write in the logbook you disconnected the ELT and sign your name and the date. Next you will need to placard it ELT INOP.
Me: Ok.
CFI: If you have anymore problems call me.
After all that I had to throw up again.
We started the oral.
Fred: How do you get out of a spin?
Which lights come on when you hit your nav light button in the plane?
Me…Red and Green lights on the wings.
Fred: Anymore?
Me: Yes, the white light on the tail.
Fax comes in…I go throw up. Then go back to being interrogated.
Fred: At night which way is the plane heading when you see a red light.
That is about all I remember of the oral.
He tells me to go out and preflight the plane. I go throw up yet again
I call get the current weather and NOTAM’s.
Preflight the plane. Fred comes out and gets in the plane.
Me: Are you ready?
Fred: Ready when you are.
Go through my checklist saying everything out loud and why I am doing it.
Call up ATC and they tell me to taxi to rwy 1, I taxi to rwy 1. After doing the run up I contact ATC again.
Me: Florence ground 737KL is at rwy 1 ready for take off.
Colleen: Brook would you like a squawk code?
Me: I don’t think that will be necessary.
Colleen: I insist on giving you a squawk code.
I looked over at Fred and said…Is that ok?
Fred: Sure. How do you know her btw?
Me: Oh I met her a few months ago and kept in touch.
Fred: Ah ok.
Me to ATC: 737LK would like a squawk code.
Colleen: Squawk 3010.
Me: Squawk 3010.
Colleen: Contact tower 121.9.
Me 121.9, 7LK.
Florence tower 737LK ready for take off.
Tower: 7LK cleared for take off. Fly rwy heading then proceed on course.
Me 7LK fly rwy heading, proceed on course.
My xc was from FLO to GSO.
After take off and proceeding on course I let Fred know where I was even though they were not my checkpoints. There is I-95. We are in between the 2 lakes.
Fred: If you needed to divert where would you go and what heading would you fly?
Me: Darlington and head 320.
Fred: Good. Now lets do maneuvers. Give me a steep turn.
Me: Would you like a clearing turn?
Fred: No this will suffice.
I did my steep turn. Staying within the limits.
Fred: Give me a power on stall.
Me: We will do a clearing turn so we don’t have to look at the sun.
Fred: Good idea.
I start the stall. Pitch up for 55 kias. Then start pull back to stall the plane. Well his seat slid all the way back. All I could do was say to myself…PLEASE DON’T GRAB THE YOKE!!!! So I nosed over for straight and level. I told him he needed to have his seat in and locked before I started again. After he had it locked I hit the back of the seat to see if it was locked. I start the maneuver again. I did good.
Fred: Give me a power off stall.
Me: Would you like a clearing turn?
Fred: I don’t see any traffic this heading is fine.
Did my power off stall. Life is good.
He handed me my foggles and said "Ok I have the plane, put these on. Now fly a heading of 120. Turn to the left. Climb to 3500 feet. Very good. Close your eyes now.
He did 3 unusual attitude recoveries. 1st one wasn’t bad. He didn’t touch anything to my knowledge because I scanned everything and didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. 2nd one a little more jostling and playing with the heading indicator. I caught that one real quick. 3rd one…he had the plane in every direction that plane could go in, stall warning horn blaring. I said…geez..hes gotta be done by now so I opened my eyes and looked. I saw nothing but ground and we were turning round and round. He had us in a spin. I recovered and fixed stuff he played with. He played with my altimeter, my heading card, trimmed it full nose up, changed the radio freqs. And pulled the mixture pretty far out. I swear if it had been out any more the engine would have quit. Very good he said.
Fred said we could call it a day because I looked as if I was going to puke and was a funky shade of green.. He wanted me to have a clean plane for my trip back home and that we could finish up next weekend. As bad as I wanted my ticket that day I could wait another week. I wouldn’t have survived in a puked in plane flying back home. Now take me back to FLO.
Fred: Where are you taking me?
Me: To FLO. (Well I always picked FLO out by the tall buildings and thought to myself…man how far did he take me out.)
Fred: I don’t think so.
Me: FLO tower 737LK
ATC: 737LK go head.
Me: 737LK would like vectors to the airport.
ATC: 7LK turn heading 060 and the airport will be in front of you.
Me: 060 7LK.
Sure enough there it was. So we landed normally.
I park the plane and couldn’t get out and run to the bathroom fast enough. I puked as soon as I got to the toilet.
I had to call my CFI to let him know I didn’t finish.
Bobby: "What do you mean you didn’t finish?
Me: I got sick.
Needless to say…That was a long flight back to JNX. 1.5 hours My longest flight yet. When I arrived home my friend Gabe landed to see how my day went. I told him I didn’t get to finish because I was nervous and getting sick. He gave me a hug and said I will finish next week. What a GREAT friend.
Tuesday 12/04/06 Practice Engine Outs: Since I knew I only had engine outs left to do, I wanted as much practice as I could get. I flew with my CFI a few times and nailed each one. Ok he told me. Do some solo now and you will be ready. My engine outs…I impressed myself, not to mention a guy watching them on the ground with a handheld. He thought I was a CFI and told me he wanted to take lessons from me. Hah. I told him… I was just a student not quite a private pilot. He told me how professional I sounded on the radio and flying the plane. Talk about a confidence booster. J
Saturday 12/09/06 Checkride Take Two: Wake up this morning temperature is a frigid 15 degrees. Arrived to the airport and the plane is covered in frost. Get fuel, preflight and let the sun melt some of the frost. My CFI shows up and says ok lets get bottles of hot water and finish it up so you can get out of here. We finish defrosting the plane. Everything is good now. I do my run up. Take off and head back to FLO. Near FAY I notice that I am straight and level by looking outside but my attitude indicator is indicating I am in a nose diving bank. I tap on the glass…nothing. My other vacuum instruments are working just fine. AI must be clogged. Push on to FLO. Arrived at FLO and parked the plane which I had the line guy fuel Check in with Fred. Go to the bathroom (I didn’t puke this time. J ) and hang out with Fred and his friend for a little bit. This helped me relax. I apologized for being 15 minutes late this time. He said not to worry because he knew there was frost on the plane. He then told me to preflight the plane then he would be ready to go. I asked if there was going to be any more oral questions and he said no. All he had me do were 2 engine outs which I nailed and even had room to do touch and goes afterwards. Then we landed full stop with the 2nd landing. Since I crossed over the intersecting runways when I taxied back I made sure to ask ATC if it was OK to cross. They said yes. I told Fred I did that just to make sure I wasn’t slapped with a runway incursion. He said that was smart thinking and he wished more people did that. We park the plane. I tie it down then walk inside. I meet up with Fred and he talked with me for a bit and he signed my temporary airman’s certificate and said "Welcome to a 3rd generation of pilots." Then he shook my hand. And we took a picture out in front of the plane. I am now a 3rd generation pilot. My grandpa and my cousin are pilots. My cousin is my dad’s generation.
I called my brother to let him know 1st. Then I was making some new friends when my CFI called. This would be my last time really playing tricks on him so I let it go to voicemail. I called him back.
CFI: Why haven’t you called me yet?
Me: Oh I was talking to someone.
CFI: AND?
Me: Well the attitude indicator went out today.
CFI: So you didn’t get to finish because your attitude indicator when out.
Me: No. I passed.
CFI: That’s all you had to say.
He was happy for me.
I had to show my ATC friends my new certificate. I took the courtesy car and drove to the tower. Some ATC’r let me in, I saw Kerry and he looked at me and said "How did it go?" and gave me the thumbs up and I shook my head yes. Then Colleen showed up and gave me a BIG hug. Then we took pictures out in front of the tower.
I then called my dad and told him he HAD to come to the airport because it wasn’t an option it was mandatory. Why he said. I told him…I JUST PASSED MY CHKRIDE AND I AM NOW A PRIVATE PILOT!!!!! COOL he said. Same for my mom.
I leave FLO. When I arrived back at JNX I flew over midfield and rocked my wings. My brother video taped my landing and it was NICE!!!!! The tires didn’t even squeak. (There were 3 old guys standing around and they were amazed. They also said…"HER TIRES DIDN’T SQUEAK" Then they congratulated me.) My mom, dad, brother, and his girlfriend Brookie were all there. I asked them if they wanted a ride all 3 declined. L My mom and dad BOTH said…"its too cold to go in the little plane. Sigh. My brother said "Oh you can take me up by yourself." "YEAH!!!!!" He looked and was like "That’s OK." Heh heh…He has flown with me before but with my CFI up front and him in the back.. And HES ALIVE!!!!! Hah hah hah.
As the Grateful Dead once said, "What a long strange trip it’s been," but in the end WELL WORTH IT. For the 1st time in my 30 years of life, I can now say that I have accomplished something.
Now my thank you’s
Mom & dad – thank you for having patience with me. I love you.
My brother, Brian – thank you for sitting in the back and video taping my lessons. I love you.
Bobby, My CFI – Thank you for pushing me to be my best and for putting up with me. I know it wasn’t easy being my instructor at times, but we BOTH made it through. Also thank you for the pep talks when I needed them.
Mark Shilling - Thank you for the plane rides and being a mentor.
Jeff Watson - Thank you for doing a mock oral with me at Borders.
PoA & AOPA friends – Thank you for helping me out with whatever I needed and for the late night chats and PM’s about flying.
Kitty Hawk 99’s – thank you for the scholarship.
Aileen Watkins – Thank you for listening and giving me guidance when I needed someone.
and
My cousin, Peter – thank you for all your advice and taking me flying. Looks like I have some pretty big shoes to fill, as I would like to fill shoe’s one day. J
From lesson number 1 to my 1st landing as a private pilot I had:
Hours flown: 177.7
CFI’s: 22
Airport’s Visited Towered: 7 Uncontrolled: 10 Grass Strips: 1 Total: 18
Aircraft: 12 different makes and models
N Numbers: 18
Years: 7 years, 7 months, 15 days
Logbook Entries: 155
Having your brother videotape your 1st landing as a private pilot: PRICELESS!!!!! J
Perseverance paid off. I hope my story inspires at least 1 person, if not more. I think my calling now, is to help those who think they cannot do this, when all they need is someone to help guide them in the right direction. Another thing, NEVER PAY IN ADVANCE. As Jim Valvano, the coach for the NCSU basketball team said, DON’T EVER GIVE UP!!!!! I never gave up and now my dream has come true.
Ditto.....
I felt fine (he swears it was bad food...)
Sooooo, could you guys come a tiny little bit further?
