Looking To The Sky

Private Pilot Aeronautical Written Exam – COMPLETED!!!

It’s Done!

After over a year of putting my private pilot aeronautical written exam off, I’ve finally taken a ginormous weight off my shoulders and passed my written test – with FLYING colors (no pun intended)!

I scored a 97% on the sucker (I wanted 90% August of last year!), missing only 2 of the 60 questions out of 800+ that I received.  I only needed a 70% and I feel wonderful!!!  I had the test finished in less than 45 minutes even with 1 hour and 45 minutes to spare (2.5 hours total) I went through my answers and did the silly thing of shutting down the machine!  Thankfully they store the answers online, so I was able to get the machine going again and get it all submitted!

Thanks!

I really want to send a shout out to all those people who have been so supportive of me getting this done.  Thanks especially to my previous instructors. James, for his initial kickstart in getting my training as a private pilot going and thank you Rick Payne for getting me to where I am today.  You two have been so helpful.  I have a lot left to go, but I feel soooooo much better than I ever have about finishing things up and getting my actual license.  With just 10+ hours of flying to go, an oral and practical exam, I feel pretty awesome.  This was the one hurdle that I’ve needed to finish to get my butt working at this again and I’ve finally demolished it!  So much stress has been relieved!

Things I Learned:

Don’t stress about it as much as I did!

It is important and it is great that I did such an awesome job on it, but it really isn’t something to focus on like I did.  One thing I didn’t do during my flying was spend the time to study.  This could have easily been remedied if I would have taken the time to focus, but I was out of college and flying airplanes…I didn’t want to focus on studying as well!  It took me finally realizing that this was going to keep haunting me if I didn’t just put it on the calendar and take the test.

I am a procrastinator

Though I knew I am a procrastinator, I’ve always thought of myself as a good one.  I really won’t put much effort into something unless it is either easy, or I have it on my calendar of things to get done.  Even though I hadn’t studied as much as I knew I needed to, I had my instructor schedule my test.  It was seeing this date approach me that finally got me to take the time I needed to focus and study.  Thank goodness I realized this and had him put it on the books, because as we’ve seen…I was able to get it done.

Study! Study! Study!

How much I despise studying, I spent the week before going through almost every question I would have been asked thanks to a handy android app called “””””.  It is a great resource for those who want to finish their written exam.  It also taught me a number of things I wasn’t going to pick up by just reading.

What’s Next!?

Well if you couldn’t tell, it’s getting back in an airplane and flying!!!  I’ve been watching a lot of Tail Spin lately and I’ve realized how much I miss flying.  I’m headed to Seattle this weekend, then off to Vegas area doing work for a couple weeks, then back home where I’ll kick off flying once again.  Just 10+ hours to go, an oral exam, then my practical exam (flying with the examiner – nerve racking!) and I’ll be an accomplished private pilot.  A lot of time left to go, but I feel good and have a new energy about finishing this up that I haven’t had for some time.

Here’s to finishing this up so I can fly all you adoring friends and family!

Categories: Private Pilot Completion

Tags: James, no-flight, Rick, Testing, VFR

Just 3 More Days Beginning To Fly Again!!!