Finally a private pilot

[Oliver]

Hi everyone,

 

 

I've got good news as of 1pm yesterday... I'm finally a private pilot! I had been in conflict with the FAA for months after an examiner had taken his fee and refused to do my check ride exam. Luckily, after researching other examiners, I finally found a great and professional examiner in Winter Haven, Florida. The examiner's name is Chuck Brown and him and his brother operate and own a seaplane base directly on Winter Haven airport. 

The oral portion was the part that had me most stressed out but it ended up going nearly flawlessly apart from a few questions that I fumbled with to find an answer. Luckily I had prepared and had my FAR/AIM handy and was able to find the answers within a reasonable amount of time.

 

The flight portion had a few minor hiccups as well but overall went very well like the oral. I stayed within my minimums and maintained within PTS standards for the duration of the flight.


Overall, it was an experience that I had stressed about before taking, but now that I know how a check ride works, I'll definitely be less stressed for my instrument exam in a few months. Planning to have my IR done by October and my commercial pilot license by May of next year! 


Olivier C.

[sqrt(-1)]

Congratulations!   Well done!

[Peter T.]

Congratulations Oliver! 

[Oliver]

Congratulations!   Well done!

 

 

Congratulations Oliver! 

Thanks guys! 

[hobofat]

The stress and anticipation of a major exam is always worse than the exam itself! Congratulations!

[Oliver]

The stress and anticipation of a major exam is always worse than the exam itself! Congratulations!

Thanks! And yeah it definitely was... At the end of the exam I said "I'm afraid to ask, but did I pass" and he replied "Yes... why? Did you not want to pass?" and then he started laughing. 

[cessna729]

Congratulations Oliver, well done!

Now the sky's the limit! 

[Oliver]

Congratulations Oliver, well done!

Now the sky's the limit! 

Thank you very much! 

[Liner45]

congrats and good luck with the instrument exam.

[Oliver]

congrats and good luck with the instrument exam.

Thanks! I heard there was enough similarity between the Commercial and Private that I think I'm going to do my commercial written exam next and then my full IR followed by my commercial check ride.

[Push_IT_Up]

Congratulation Oliver. It's an accomplishment and experience of a life time you will treasure. Welcome to the flyers club.

[Oliver]

Congratulation Oliver. It's an accomplishment and experience of a life time you will treasure. Welcome to the flyers club.

Thank you sir, much appreciated. 

[eaglewing7]

Congratulations, especially after all of the BS you had to go through to get to this point.

 

Good luck with the CPL as well.  It will be more in-depth, at least the written exam should be (it was up here in Canada).  Of course the flight test should be similar, just with more stringent standards.

[Oliver]

Congratulations, especially after all of the BS you had to go through to get to this point.

 

Good luck with the CPL as well.  It will be more in-depth, at least the written exam should be (it was up here in Canada).  Of course the flight test should be similar, just with more stringent standards.

Thank you very much. Did you do all your licenses in Canada? 

[eaglewing7]

Yes sir.  PPL, then tailwheel training (in Canada there is no tailwheel rating, but insurance companies have set a minimum of 10 hours dual before you can act as PIC), float rating, night rating, multi-engine rating, and finally CPL.

 

So, here I am, with a CPL ~230 hours, and am basically unemployable, or at least thats the impression I've been given when applying for jobs thus far.  

 

So, now I'm in the process of getting my Class 4 Instructor Rating, which is going to be another ten thousand dollars...

[Oliver]

Yes sir.  PPL, then tailwheel training (in Canada there is no tailwheel rating, but insurance companies have set a minimum of 10 hours dual before you can act as PIC), float rating, night rating, multi-engine rating, and finally CPL.

 

So, here I am, with a CPL ~230 hours, and am basically unemployable, or at least thats the impression I've been given when applying for jobs thus far.  

 

So, now I'm in the process of getting my Class 4 Instructor Rating, which is going to be another ten thousand dollars...

Wow, I'm very sorry to hear that. With those ratings it's incredible that you can't even find work. It's what terrifies me about the aeronautical work area. I'm looking to combine my love for business and aeronautics and open a company that sells and ferries all sorts of planes. We've got a guy wanting to partner with us who's quite high up in the aviation field and has a lot of potential contacts and contracts. As much as I'd love to one day work for Air France or Emirates, they're requirements are absolutely nuts. Air France hired only 2 pilots last year and fired over 3,000. And not to sound snobbish, but after spending 80k+ total on training from 0 to CPL, taking a regional job at 20k a year really seems out of my sight. In modern day America, it's hardly possible to even live on such an income, needless to say it's even more difficult when you're working 10+ hr days and can't work anywhere else at the same time. I wish you the best of luck and hope it definitely works out for you. 

[eaglewing7]

The regionals are not a good place to be, and in the US, its become even worse with the increased FO requirements (mainly having 1500 hours/ATPL).  The pay is not going up, and the reason for that is the fact that the mainline carriers are unwilling to pay more for the contracts that the regionals sign...

 

In Canada, there are two main regionals, Jazz and Encore, with pay that is on the lower end of acceptable starting out, but gets decent with years of experience.  There are smaller regionals/airlines, and some of these are very much hit and miss, you need to be very careful when applying for jobs, to make sure you've done a bit of research on the company.

 

The issue that I see in Canada is that while there are entry level jobs out there, the competition is fierce among low time guys, but even worse is the fact that there are higher time pilots who cannot find work, and thus they end up taking these entry level jobs.  There's also the TFWP in Canada, but thats another story, for another thread.

 

Good luck with your business plan, if your ever interested in branching out to the Great White North, let me know.

[Oliver]

The regionals are not a good place to be, and in the US, its become even worse with the increased FO requirements (mainly having 1500 hours/ATPL).  The pay is not going up, and the reason for that is the fact that the mainline carriers are unwilling to pay more for the contracts that the regionals sign...

 

In Canada, there are two main regionals, Jazz and Encore, with pay that is on the lower end of acceptable starting out, but gets decent with years of experience.  There are smaller regionals/airlines, and some of these are very much hit and miss, you need to be very careful when applying for jobs, to make sure you've done a bit of research on the company.

 

The issue that I see in Canada is that while there are entry level jobs out there, the competition is fierce among low time guys, but even worse is the fact that there are higher time pilots who cannot find work, and thus they end up taking these entry level jobs.  There's also the TFWP in Canada, but thats another story, for another thread.

 

Good luck with your business plan, if your ever interested in branching out to the Great White North, let me know.

It really is a shame that most of the regionals are setting the requirements for entry so high for pilots. There are less and less pilots being able to afford the training and it's going to end up creating a massive shortage of pilots in the long run. There are currently so many older pilots on the road to retirement, and granted a lot of young guys are there to take their places, soon those positions will be filled out and I really think there'll be a shortage of new pilots.

Nonetheless, I hope you're able to hit it with one of the bigger carriers because from what I've been told, flying for regionals will make you dread being a pilot. I'll be sure to hit you up if we ever have any expansion or flights set towards your area. Thanks for the offer. My good friend and business partner for this new company is currently in France in order to get all his Green Card paperwork filled out so he can come work in the US. Once he moves here we're going to kick it into high gear and really get this moving.  

[eaglewing7]

Its not necessarily the regionals, but more the FAA.  The changes were made after the Colgan Air Q400 crash.  Of course, the irony is that the FO had ~1500 hours, and crew fatigue played a role, but hey whatever works right?  

 

The pilot shortage, well the rumours of one, have been around for a hell of a lot of years, and thus far, there have been no indications of it yet.  9/11 helped stave off a retirement blitz for a bunch of years, and the layoffs that occurred meant that high time pilots were looking for work to get them to retirement.  Of course, my other opinion of the shortage, is that it is nothing more than a sales pitch used by flight schools to get suckers in the door (along with the idea that you can be flying jets straight out of flight school).  Sooner or later, in Canada, there will be a shortage of Canadian CPLs, and that is a well known fact, Transport Canada publishes the licensing statistics every year, and the numbers are on the decline...

 

Frankly, my interest lies with the 702/703 type of flying (aerial work/charters), sort of the "bush" type flying.  Be it tailwheel flying, aerial photography, survey work, patrols, floats, that sort of thing.  Eventually though, you will run into a wall of sorts, where you cannot advance much further, and the days of career float pilots are on the way out, which is quite sad.  But, I have no expectation of getting into any airline environment for many years.

 

I'd certainly like to hear more about your business plan, send me a PM if you want.

[Oliver]

Its not necessarily the regionals, but more the FAA.  The changes were made after the Colgan Air Q400 crash.  Of course, the irony is that the FO had ~1500 hours, and crew fatigue played a role, but hey whatever works right?  

 

The pilot shortage, well the rumours of one, have been around for a hell of a lot of years, and thus far, there have been no indications of it yet.  9/11 helped stave off a retirement blitz for a bunch of years, and the layoffs that occurred meant that high time pilots were looking for work to get them to retirement.  Of course, my other opinion of the shortage, is that it is nothing more than a sales pitch used by flight schools to get suckers in the door (along with the idea that you can be flying jets straight out of flight school).  Sooner or later, in Canada, there will be a shortage of Canadian CPLs, and that is a well known fact, Transport Canada publishes the licensing statistics every year, and the numbers are on the decline...

 

Frankly, my interest lies with the 702/703 type of flying (aerial work/charters), sort of the "bush" type flying.  Be it tailwheel flying, aerial photography, survey work, patrols, floats, that sort of thing.  Eventually though, you will run into a wall of sorts, where you cannot advance much further, and the days of career float pilots are on the way out, which is quite sad.  But, I have no expectation of getting into any airline environment for many years.

 

I'd certainly like to hear more about your business plan, send me a PM if you want.

Isn't it strange how the FAA manages to make the decision that makes the least sense in many circumstances? Yep, and when that day comes I'm convinced that there will be many flight schools that will be out of business. The cost of training is absolutely ridiculous. I'm doing the rest of my training as split time with my CFI friend (future biz partner) and even without the cost of instruction and only 1/2 the cost of the plane, it still adds up to insane amounts. 

Yep, you're the same way as myself then. Only the big and prestigious airlines had my interest, but I really believe that flying all sorts of airplanes on trips, and odd aviation jobs would be far more fun and a much better learning experience.

I'll write up a PM and send it your way. The business plan is still a WIP since I'm already running my own companies online and doing both my university and flight studies so unfortunately I don't have much time to dedicate to it for the current time... which isn't a huge deal since I couldn't even fly in my own company without a CPL. 

[f800gecko]

Congrats! I'm just getting ready for cross country work as part of my own PPL venture.