Hi everyone,
Just wanted to post my recent success of passing my private pilot checkride! Started ATP @ KIWA on 4/12, and checkride was on 6/20. Day went great, other than the fun of performing landings in 108 degree weather. Hey, makes for a better pilot right? Just wanted to thank everyone from my instructors and mentors on this forum, to the other students going through this path as well, as all of the information provided on this forum is absolutely invaluable! I still can’t believe I’m a private pilot, and needless to say I don’t have much time to let it soak in anyway cause already on to instrument! Looking forward to this next challenge, one of which my instructor and lead both said was their favorite block of training. As always I’d love to hear any advice from others who have already passed instrument, and I look forward to keeping my progress posted as I continue through this amazing experience. Thank you again to everyone!
Chase,
Congrats! That seemed to fly by, at least for us following along! That first checkride can be quite daunting not knowing what to expect but you did it! Instrument is a completely different kind of flying. It’s during this phase that you realize if you’re more of a VFR or IFR kind of flyer. Typically one comes more natural than the other. If you haven’t taken care of your IRA written yet, don’t waste any time getting Sheppard air and starting on that. It’s the biggest database to get through so starting early is key.
That is fantastic! Congratulations! Instrument training is fun and tough as it is learning a whole new way of flying airplanes. Hit the books and spend as much time in the simulator as you can.
Thank you for the update and also thank you for your kind words about the forum.
Congratulations! I know for me, the private checkride was the most stressful, since I didn’t know what to expect, so be proud of what you’ve accomplished! For instrument, which was personally my favorite, my best advice would be to stay ahead of the plane as best you can. Study the approach plates you expect to fly, make some notes, load in as much as you can on the ground, and you’ll be much more relaxed during the approach. Luckily, most of the instrument flights will also be XC flights so you should have some time to go ahead and load frequencies and brief before you start approaches. Then your focus is just on small corrections for altitude and lateral guidance!
For instrument, knowledge knowledge knowledge. Use the ACS, open your FAR/AIM to the Instrument TOC (towards the front), don’t skip the extra suggested readings while you go through your online lessons (like ACs), get a copy of the Instrument Know-It-All Handout…
And probably the hardest part about instrument flying is the “cleared for the approach” radio call and juggling Aviate Navigate Communicate during a missed approach.
For the “cleared for the approach” call, ATC gives you 3 key pieces of info
Heading
Altitude
Cleared for the approach
It sounds like a lot when they issue all 3 in 1 transmission, but if you pay close attention for those 3 key pieces it makes the read-back easier.
Oh and you’ll probably eventually learn about the $500 button. Or however much an Instrument checkride is these days.
I was thinking about this and I would like to add that I am a huge fan of using the ASA Instrument Oral Exam Guide (red cover) as one of your basics for studying. That is one of the best study books OI have ever seen and it really covers everything pretty well.
Well done friend! Looks like a great photo, that’ll be one to remember. The challenges always continue, though the checkrides seem to get easier as you go because you learn how and what most DPEs will want. The instrument stuff comes with practice and repetition, utilizing the simulator in your ‘off’ time when you do not have lessons will be your best friend.
Like Chris said, the ASA Oral Exam Guide is a good book to thoroughly go through, I also use the ATP Instrument Study Guide they provide in your Supplements library. It thoroughly goes through line by line of the Instrument ACS and gives a question and answer response.
Thanks everyone for the kind words and advice! I’ll kind of tackle them from the top. Hannah…daunting is an understatement lol. It’s exactly what you and so many other say…the unexpected and uncertainty of how the checkride will go. I knew my training and preparation was enough…or was it?! That’s exactly what goes on through your head until you basically get that piece of paper 5-6 hours later! Looking back, the training provided and expectations of what to know prior to really does pay off. And there isn’t a better feeling in the world, than afterwards looking back and saying, “that wasn’t so bad”. It just shows that with hard work, trust in the system and the help and training from our instructors, extra ground instruction from new CFI’s, speaking with other students, this forum, and everything else in between, we as ATP students really do have a wonderful advantage and wealth of knowledge and training available. As far as writtens Hannah…knocked all of them out before starting, as I knew how much that would benefit me!
Roscoe…funny you say that because the day before my checkride, a current CFI student said the exact same thing. Certainly isn’t a coincidence, and I’m sure I’ll look back possibly saying the same thing. And yes, every single one of our instrument flights is XC, so that should help with becoming proficient and continued training for staying ahead of the plane. That lesson looking back has been a strong emphasis really since day one, and even though I’m only just starting instrument, you see how valuable that lesson is, and thankful to have had that instruction from the start. It’s only going to matter even more now!
Tory…already downloaded and printed the instrument know-it-all tonight, thanks for mention, as I hadn’t heard of it before! And as you said, knowledge, knowledge, knowledge! As I’m learning its much more of a deeper understanding of training rather than broad like private. Especially with these first couple of weeks, I’m taking advantage of more downtime from flying with studying/sim. It is a TON of new information, and is like learning a new language just when you got the basics down with first one lol.
Chris…YES, the ASA oral’s are great. I love how they are formatted very conversation/oral exam style, and really helps construct answers to questions in a scenario situation, exactly how my private oral was. It was basically a 3 hour story, starting from a ramp check, through my xc flight with a family member to/from the airport that was given to me a few days prior, incapsulating everything the ACS requires to cover. Granted I’ve only read through the private, but it was a great resource and only expect the instrument book to be just as helpful.
And Brady, thanks for the kind words as well. I will absolutely use the resources you mentioned, and continue to keep you posted just as you did throughout your training and success! I can’t thank everyone enough who is consistently involved and helpful through this forum, and it feels amazing to share the great news with everyone just as exciting it is to hear about everyone else’s accomplishments as well! I’ll continue to keep everyone posted, but certainly will have more questions first .
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