What was your favorite part of you flight training for your Private Pilots License?

Deep stalls, falling leaf, unusual attitudes, and thermaling in the club's C-152. My CFI insisted I be comfortable with the first three and at least have a basic understanding of the last. It was tons of fun!

EdFred said:
You did RNAV approaches in your private training?
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I got my PPL long before GPS. But, my CFI had me do an ILS and a PAR, under the hood, to NAS Lemoore. It wasn't perfect. But, it was very cool!
 
Most definitely solo x-country. Funny story.

I was 16 years old & a baby-face when I did my first solo x-c in a brand-new 1973 Skyhawk. It was the first model to have the new cuffed-leading edge. I stopped in Helena MT & took a break. As I returned to the 172 20-30 minutes later there were two older guys with their heads looking at the inside. I stood there for a minute & didn't say anything as they admired the new 172. After a few minutes, one of the guys notice me standing there & asked if I need something. I think they assumed I was an airport rat kid. I said as soon as they were done drooling over the new airplane I would resume my flight to Livingston. I know they were shocked that I was the pilot.

The next summer after turning 17, I had my private certificate. Great memories of the golden years of aviation.
 
First license was glider, so my favorite parts were rope breaks and accelerated stalls. First solo was fun and all, but I found it mundane - just another pattern hop. I was 15 at the time.

I preferred my 4th solo when I flew a single seater for the first time - made me feel like a real pilot when the instructor trusted me to get into an aircraft I had never flown and get it right. I knew the speeds, the new landing checklist (retract gear), and that “it’s lighter on the controls”. That was it. I had watched the person before me (a very experienced pilot with many hours and every rating under the sun) have some mild PIO on takeoff during their first flight in it. I took that into my mental reckoning and had a great flight.

Powered private, the highlights were night flying and a greater variety of aircraft. During my private training I probably flew 6 or 7 different types. I found the solo xc boring, straight and level just isn’t all that interesting.
 
EdFred said:
You did RNAV approaches in your private training?
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Yes I did and it was awesome! It was on two of my last flights, instructor was ready to sign me off for checkride and figured out that I still needed about 2-2.5 hours of simulated insturment time. We check all the basics and made sure I could do those and then did some partial panel and had time to do two approaches. I recently did some ILS approaches. As part of the rental agreement, if I don't fly for 90 days, I have to go up with an instructor. Usually this is just pattern work to knock any rust off and make sure you aren't going to bend the airplane, but last time I was asked what I wanted to do. Normally I fly at other locations rather than rent their planes, so there really isn't any rust that needs knocked off. I try to rent from them at least once within a 90 day period to stay "current" in case I want to fly with their planes, but weather and schedule sometimes cause me to miss the cutoff date. Those approaches have made me more comfortable with tower giving me straight in approaches or having me enter on the base leg.
 
Looking across the airplane on my first Solo and seeing an empty seat and knowing the only person who can get this thing back on the ground is me.
 
Definitely first solo XC. Planned it well, great weather, and I was able to enjoy the view for once!
 
Probably the closest I had gotten and still have gotten to a true emergency. Pre-solo stage check actually. As I was entering the pattern my engine started coughing pretty heavily. Pretty instantly felt a strange calm come over me and I immediately started trouble shooting as I was trained. Still had a some power, just running rough but I first pitched for best glide then started turning to make the runway closer before pulling out my emergency checklist. Long story short it was being being stupid and forgetting to enrich the mixture after a cruise at 7500, and i was starving my engine of fuel. Just proved to me that my training works and I truly was a competent pilot. Sure, I made a stupid mistake with the mixture, but I handled the situation in a calm and logical manor. feeling I will never forget.
 
It was the early 1970s. Being taught how to accurately short field land my Cherokee 140 by a guy who had not long before, been landing hellcats on carrier decks.
 
Easily my SPL checkride. My right seat (retired United captain, if I remember correctly) kept urging me to tighten my traffic pattern. By the end of our pattern work he had my crosswind/base at maybe 1/2 or 2/3 what I had done all through my training. If you know KLNK, we were making left traffic for 17 and I think we were flying over or nearly over the Duncan parking lot. On the last downwind he pulled the power and told me to dead-stick it. I'm no Bob Hoover, but I remember this irresistible smile just seizing me. I almost felt like I was watching my own hands and feet - they knew what to do.
 
kayoh190 said:
First solo, first solo x-country, and my first night flight were my favorites. Great memories!
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I roll with Kayoh on this. In order, I gave a war cry, I had to divert from my plan due to no fuel at a stop (on my own, no CFI to talk to in the pre-cell phone dark ages), and we landed at Washington Dulles for some free peanut butter crackers, giving me my first taste of a big-boy FBO, and then held short to wait for an Asia-bound 747 takeoff.
 
Walking to the FBO office when it was required to have someone sign your logbook at each stop on solo cross country flights and watching little kids peering through the fence at the "Great Waldo Pepper" and his Piper Colt!! What a change in the last 52 years :)
 
For me, it was bombing my friends with twinkies on my first solo out of the traffic pattern!
 
IK04 said:
For me, it was bombing my friends with twinkies on my first solo out of the traffic pattern!
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LOL. Some dude videoed himself dropping a subway sandwich to a friend from his airplane last year and word on the street is he got his peepee slapped by the FAA for it. Kinda silly but he made the video and someone snitched since the video can’t be used as evidence. That or they just asked him and he fessed up. Either way, don’t know. But his buddy got the sandwich and it was supposedly still warm. LOL.
 
When I did it, I was completely legal and in compliance with the regulation regarding dropping objects from aircraft in the air. It is 91.15 now.

I made sure the folks on the ground knew I was coming and they were prepared. They attempted to catch the flying pastries in a towel and caught most of the 13 I threw!

They filmed the event with a Super-8 camera and I got to see the footage once... It sure would be wild to find that film now!
 
denverpilot said:
LOL. Some dude videoed himself dropping a subway sandwich to a friend from his airplane last year and word on the street is he got his peepee slapped by the FAA for it. Kinda silly but he made the video and someone snitched since the video can’t be used as evidence. That or they just asked him and he fessed up. Either way, don’t know. But his buddy got the sandwich and it was supposedly still warm. LOL.
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§ 91.15 Dropping objects.
No pilot in command of a civil aircraft may allow any object to be dropped from that aircraft in flight that creates a hazard to persons or property. However, this section does not prohibit the dropping of any object if reasonable precautions are taken to avoid injury or damage to persons or property.

So what did they get him on?
 
...Oh, I forgot one thing:

My friends' little sister caught a twinkie square on her forehead. She was not injured and said "yummy!" when they asked her if she was OK...
 
BrianNC said:
§ 91.15 Dropping objects.
No pilot in command of a civil aircraft may allow any object to be dropped from that aircraft in flight that creates a hazard to persons or property. However, this section does not prohibit the dropping of any object if reasonable precautions are taken to avoid injury or damage to persons or property.

So what did they get him on?
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No idea. Here’s some ABC affiliate that still has the video up. I’m guessing he was a tad too low for the 500’ rule. Ha.

 
IK04 said:
...Oh, I forgot one thing:

My friends' little sister caught a twinkie square on her forehead. She was not injured and said "yummy!" when they asked her if she was OK...
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Must.

Resist.

Comment.
 
My favorite part was landing, especially when I heard the words, "make short approach." My least favorite part was accelerated stalls. Yuck.
 
Brad Smith said:
My favorite part was landing, especially when I heard the words, "make short approach." My least favorite part was accelerated stalls. Yuck.
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Have to ask, what didn’t you like about accelerated stalls?

I ask because my old timer experience was that we were going to do spins anyway, so accelerated stalls were relatively benign, unless you whipped one so hard it became a spin entry. And we didn’t do that...
 
BrianNC said:
§ 91.15 Dropping objects.
No pilot in command of a civil aircraft may allow any object to be dropped from that aircraft in flight that creates a hazard to persons or property. However, this section does not prohibit the dropping of any object if reasonable precautions are taken to avoid injury or damage to persons or property.

So what did they get him on?
Click to expand...

Maybe the sub was a double meat BMT. Those things can kill you.
 
Night XC from KBDN to KDLS. Landing over the Columbia River at night and knocking out most of the landing requirements at KDLS. Night, hills, river, no PAPI or VASI. Great practice. My instructor "failed" the electrical system coming back from S33 after we finished the last couple of night landings with and without the landing light. It was great practice flying with the headlamp and triggering the runway lights with my handheld.
 
Spin recovery in a 152. Fun stuff back in the day
 
Aside from first solo, solo xc and passing my checkride. I really loved unusual attitude recovery.
 
My CFI was an old spray pilot who also flew in Vietnam. Needless to say he was a bit crazy, and we did numerous "non-standard" things, all of which were awesome, a bit wreckless, but at the end of the day probably prepared me better for real world situations.
 
The long solo XC, despite the turbulence being absolutely awful and having 2 of the landings be absolute garbage.

Also, getting to fly the LAX Mini Route and talk to LAX tower was pretty amazing.
 
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