A lot has happened in our live since my last post. We sold our house, we moved to a brand-new rented condo, I had to re-train on a new plane. I now fly on the venerable Cessna 152.
This has pushed my practical exam further back. Not that I have a timeline, but I would really like to bring my FG and sons up this year. Since the Cessna is a new plane for me, I had to solo it. I took me about 3 to 5 hours to do so. I also had to relearn all the maneuvers, exercises, and behavior on this bird. It is very different. The DA-20 was a plane that did not want to land. It had a glide ratio of 11 to 1. This means it could go 11 miles in the air for every nautical mile (5200 feet) in altitude. In comparison, the 152 flies like a rock. It’s not as bad but the ratio is 7,8 to 1. 7,8 miles for every nautical mile.
All in all, I had to take the summer of training to be ready for my exam.
I did my PPL exam on September 13. That day was memorable in several ways. First, the weather was execrable. The turbulence was so hard that my examinator was worried that I would puke while wearing the IFR glasses. Have no fear, my stomach is pretty good in those conditions. Did I tell you that the weather was bad. It was so bad that when came to time to do my re-routing, after I have told my examinator that since I was re-routing at 1500 feet, that I would need to go at 2100 feet to pass over my destination airport to be 500 feet over the traffic pattern and if I was authorized to start climbing. She said to me, I am glad you asked. Since the weather is this bad and since you seem to know exactly what I want for the rest of this exercise, let’s go back home for 2 landings and we are done. I went back, we did 2 landings. My first one was, let’s say… very ordinary… The conditions had worsened. But my second one which was a soft landing was really a greaser. She was impress considering the conditions. After the second landing she said to me. OK now stop worrying, you did good. This is only then that I started breathing again :). We brought the plane back to the school yard, stop it with the right procedure, got in and debriefed. She then told me I had passed. Whoohoooo!!!!!!
I am now a certified private pilot. As a gift from me to me, I bought my self the new Lightspeed delta Zulu headset with all the bell and whistle so I can let my passenger have my Zulu 3.
I did several flights to show my girlfriend and 2 of my 3 sons how it is. One of my sons was not feeling well the day we were supposed to fly. In realty, I think he chickened out :).