EP199 - No Longer Sport Pilot Extraordinaire

Eleven minutes of "we're keeping it a mystery," and then out with it: our friend Timestamp Tedder went and passed his private pilot checkride. "No longer sport pilot extraordinaire." Theoretically he can still hold the title, he just kind of added some more. A hard-won medical, a pile of hours in the Egg, and now a private pilot certificate sitting on top of all of it. So tonight is the full checkride debrief, from a guy who did it the midlife way: over-prepared, slightly terrified, and delighted.

The flight portion opened with a gift from the aviation gods: two lane faults on the Rotax during the run-up, in front of a DPE who is also an A&P. "Oh no, this is not a good sign." Flip the lanes, they reset, never came back, and if you also just said "lanes?", the 912iS explainer is linked below. Ted's adrenaline on boarding "just went nuts," at which point he discovered the top note on the DPE's own checklist: relax. "And he keeps pointing to it in the flight. It's like, wow sir, that's not helping." He did, however, collect planning points for knowing Redmond's Flight Following Lite: squawk 1237, tune the frequency, say nothing, and "they'll call you out if they need you to move."

Around the patch, the wins keep coming. Gary in Colorado passed his private and asked the question of the week: is it normal to feel numb the day after? Gita's ruling: "totally normal to feel dumb or to feel numb the day after. Both sort of feel normal." Gita also shared a pattern with a police helicopter fresh off studying rotor wash, and received a comment from the helicopter pilot "best left unanswered." Ray B. in Australia passed his sport pilot nav ride, "but most importantly it was done in a Piston Peasant t-shirt." Skip L. passed his private after life got in the way for two and a half years, which is the most midlife pilot sentence there is. Sierra Squared logged 1.5 of floats, seven takeoffs and landings, and retired from float flying at "almost 700 bucks an hour." Tonight's wisdom: nothing improves your crosswind technique like an audience at the FBO.

Mentioned on the show:
Gita Brown and the Calm Cockpit Podcast: https://calmcockpit.com/
Description of the Rotax 912iS electrical system and lanes: https://www.rotax-owner.com/en/912is-technical-questions/11220-basic-description-of-generator-and-lane-system-operation
"Flight Following Lite" in Redmond Oregon: https://notams.aim.faa.gov/lta/main/viewlta?lookupid=2667888510941271769