Today

cocolos

cocolos

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Jul 4, 2012
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Davis, CA
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cocolos
I talked with a guy, took him flying for a bit, and by the end of it told me I was a pilot. Sure feels good!
 
Well done! Great accomplishment for sure!

As an aside, I love the brevity in your story! It reminds me of the activity that I believe Ernest Hemingway,wrote " For sale, baby shoes, never worn" in response to the challenge to tell his life story in exactly 6 words. Your check ride recap is the "6 word" version for sure!
 
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cocolos said:
I talked with a guy, took him flying for a bit, and by the end of it told me I was a pilot. Sure feels good!
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Did you know you were a pilot before you took him flying today? Kudos!
 
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Duh. I missed it. I thought you meant you had some sort of epiphany. Now, if you had said "by the end of it he told me I was a pilot" I would have gotten it. My bad. Nice story. Congrats!
 
hah yes I was a pilot but attached to that was student :)

thanks everyone. I can't wait to go on all the XC trips I have planned this summer.
 
cocolos said:
hah yes I was a pilot but attached to that was student :)

thanks everyone. I can't wait to go on all the XC trips I have planned this summer.
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There are lots of good trips from here and the weather should be good for the next 5 months (gotta love Sac).
 
Nice work man, congrats! Did you fly out of EDU? Was the DPE reasonable?
 
Irish_Armada said:
Nice work man, congrats! Did you fly out of EDU? Was the DPE reasonable?
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I flew out of SAC. He was extremely nice. Taught me a couple things like how to file when you're going into international waters(DVFR). He explained to me that on top of the flight requirements when flying for charity to make sure that organization is registered with the IRS. And at the end of the flight he gave me some tips on some of the quirkiness of Cherokees for certain maneuvers.
 
cocolos said:
I flew out of SAC. He was extremely nice. Taught me a couple things like how to file when you're going into international waters(DVFR). He explained to me that on top of the flight requirements when flying for charity to make sure that organization is registered with the IRS. And at the end of the flight he gave me some tips on some of the quirkiness of Cherokees for certain maneuvers.
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Congrats.

FWIW, I'm pretty certain that DPEs are forbidden to provide instruction on a checkride and I'm about as certain that they almost always do anyway.:yes:
 
gismo said:
Congrats.

FWIW, I'm pretty certain that DPEs are forbidden to provide instruction on a checkride and I'm about as certain that they almost always do anyway.:yes:
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I imagine it is a good sign if they do. Might well mean that they are comfortable with how things are proceeding and are letting their DPE hat slip a bit.
 
Good job! :happydance:

And most excellent way to put it. :D
 
JasonM said:
Congrats! How long had you been working towards this great day?
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Since July. I had a delay with my medical. I can't wait to start my instrument training probably in the winter.
 
cocolos said:
Since July. I had a delay with my medical. I can't wait to start my instrument training probably in the winter.
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Nice, I started in Feb and very much look forward to this day. Was the verbal part of the exam difficult? I'm worried about remembering all that stuff.
 
JasonM said:
Nice, I started in Feb and very much look forward to this day. Was the verbal part of the exam difficult? I'm worried about remembering all that stuff.
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I got a good score on the written and I think that helped. My oral was pretty short it was roughly 1.5 - 2 hrs long. I had a 3 mock oral exams with my instructor and that seemed to help a lot.
 
cocolos said:
I got a good score on the written and I think that helped. My oral was pretty short it was roughly 1.5 - 2 hrs long. I had a 3 mock oral exams with my instructor and that seemed to help a lot.
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I took my written early on and scored a 96, but that was about 5 months ago, so i'm sure i'll have to study up again since I already feel like I don't remember a lot of that stuff. Hopefully my instructor can do the mock oral. I could see that helping. Do you feel like knowing what you needed to know for the written was sufficient for the oral or did you have to study other things more?
 
JasonM said:
I took my written early on and scored a 96, but that was about 5 months ago, so i'm sure i'll have to study up again since I already feel like I don't remember a lot of that stuff. Hopefully my instructor can do the mock oral. I could see that helping. Do you feel like knowing what you needed to know for the written was sufficient for the oral or did you have to study other things more?
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Here are some sample questions:

Along your planned cross-country today what airspace will we be over?

What are the VFR weather minimums for each?

What's the star in the airport data box( the one next to ct frequency)?

What are your limitations as a private pilot?

What are the required documents in the airplane?

Which of those documents expire?

Not a whole lot of tricky questions. The tricky questions, as the ones I stated in an earlier post about the IRS and DVFR, are usually for educational purposes. Just review your stuff from written and look over the oral exam guide by ASA. Don't stress to much about it. It will be an enjoyable experience(even though it might not seem like it at first).
 
Thanks cocolos. Hopefully I am over thinking this. I still have a lot of milestones to reach yet, but definitely looking forward to that day! Congratulations again and thanks for the insight.
 
JasonM said:
Thanks cocolos. Hopefully I am over thinking this. I still have a lot of milestones to reach yet, but definitely looking forward to that day! Congratulations again and thanks for the insight.
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Yea no problem. Let me know if you have other questions. Feel free to pm me.
 
My PPL oral ended with a question involving taking off from an airport out west with high DA. I was given the conditions and when I looked up the runway requirements the length was just barely enough (like 3000 ft with the POH calling for 2850ft). My DPE said the outcome of my oral and subsequent checkride hinged on my answer to this one question: "Would you take off?"

I was a bit conflicted as I couldn't tell if he wanted the "book" answer (such as would be correct on the written exam) or a realistic one based on my lack of experience so I asked him if I should answer as a newly rated pilot of someone with lots of mountain flying time and he said "I'm asking YOU!". I took that to mean he wanted the realistic version and I said "Then there's no way I'd try that" and he said "Let's go fly the airplane, if you don't screw up badly you'll pass".
 
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