OT: Just passed my checkride

[wconkle]

Hey guys and gals, just thought I would share this with you. I passed my checkride for Private Pilot yesterday. I was flying a Citabria (with the door off, no less), and for my first landing I headed straight to Moontown Airport (3M5) so my first landing as a real pilot would be on grass, in a taildragger!
All was right with the world, at least for a few minutes there.
Thanks go out to Brant and Aaron with Acro Air in Alabama.

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[MenendezDiego]

Congrats and welcome to the club!

 

[grunau_baby]

Congrats:ernae:

Alex

 

[stansdds]

 

[Bushpounder]

CONGRATS!!!!! Welcome to the group! NOW you can learn to fly!

Don

 

[bstolle]

for my first landing I headed straight to Moontown Airport (3M5) so my first landing as a real pilot would be on grass, in a taildragger!

Conrats, what a great achievment
The only 'drawback' is that you are already flying a taildragger on a grass runway. That experience will be difficult to top in the near future

 

[Bone]

Congrats!

 

[rvn817j]

Congratulations!

Great airplane, great fun. Remember, you now have a license to learn. If you haven't joined AOPA yet...do it. Really good flight planning software (cloud based), good training material and other stuff for only $40 a year. Can't beat it! Enjoy.

 

[wconkle]

Hey thanks for all the feedback. Regarding the 'license to learn' concept; it was pretty surprising how little I had to know to pass the checkride! I am an AOPA and EAA member, and I supplemented training with lots of the Safety Institute and FAA Safety Team online courses, but even still; what I don't know how to do is vastly greater than what I do know! LOL, the examiner pointed out that, if I decided to hop in the plane and fly cross country to LAX the next day, it would be legal, but maybe not very smart!

And regarding bstolle, I agree that I'm starting out pretty high on the fun meter, but fortunately these guys also have a Super Decathlon (flew a couple hours in it too) and hopefully this fall and winter I'll get to do some more aerobatics. And at some point, I'll certainly get checked out in Acro Air's Stearman! Haha, so as long as my credit card doesn't melt down from overuse, I'll be able to keep the fun meter pegged.

I would also note that FSX was incredibly helpful throughout, and I expect it to be even more helpful when I start IFR training. I flew all of my cross country flights on here before the real world flight, so I could get a feel for flight times, wind correction angles, and visual ground reference points. In addition, the RealAir Citabria flight model is so accurate that I was able to practice slips to landing and sideslips for crosswind landings! And the Carenado Archer flies pretty close to exactly like the Warrior I also did lessons in, and I used it quite a bit to practice slow flight.

Now, while my credit card is warmed up, I better go get the Baytower RV! There's a whole new region of Rocky Mountains waiting to be explored!

Wes

 

[beana51]

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[ryanbatc]

Very nice! How I miss flying!!! It's like torture working air traffic and seeing all those pretty planes taxi/fly by on a daily basis

 

[fliger747]

Terrific! You never know where the adventure might take you. Mine has gone a lot further than I would have ever imagined.

Cheers: Tom

 

[Sedr37]

congrats!

 

[Tylerb59]

Congratulations!

 

[Sundog]

WTG! Keep us updated on your future achievements. Good news is always appreciated.

 

[Felixthreeone]

Congratulations! Welcome to the best club above earth!:salute:

 

[mfitch]

Congratulations! It sounds like your training was fairly diverse (different plane types). That sounds fun.

 

[Dexdoggy]

Very, very cool and congratulations!

 

[CG_1976]

Congrats

 

[roger-wilco-66]

:ernae:
Congrats from me, too! You really started out in style, taildragger on a grass runway

Cheers,
Mark