Aviation Forum / General / Learning / July 2006

Sleep?  I fell asleep briefly but woke again about a half-hour ago and
couldn't stop thinking about the rest of my CFI checkride today (if you'll
recall, due to aircraft maintenance issues, I was able to complete the oral
exam earlier this month, but needed to get the flight test ...

As with most FBO's (I'm presuming, since I'm new to this being a CFI, now
<grin>) there is usually (largely for insurance purposes, I understand) a
checkout with the Chief Pilot at the FBO for a potential new-hire CFI at an
FBO.

I was in Maine last week and picked up a seaplane rating (from Lake
Region Air.) Hopping around the lakes was a great time.
I need to learn a bit about blogging, so I'm writing up the experience
and posting it on a blog (see http://myrealtestblog.blogspot.com/ ).

Well, I won't bore you guys with the gritty details.  I will say I felt
like I was run through the meat grinder yesterday (July 17th, 2006).
Between the DE (who rescheduled on me THREE times - grrrr) and the 40'c
temps (prob 110' F. in the cabin), the thermal activity, and the dog ...

I learned a little lesson about where to look for traffic this weekend,
the answer obviously being "everywhere, including (or especially?)
where you least expect it".
I'm with my instructor at a nearby non-towered field practicing short

Took my first non pilot passenger (my girlfriend) for a flight on
Saturday.  I think I fussed over her to the point of being patronising
getting her into the plane and strapped in.  Once we had everything
onboard and got airborne the flight went very well.  We just went on a

Well, I'm hopefully one flight away from trading in my student pilot
certificate.  Don't have "the ride" scheduled yet but I've heard the
lead time isn't much so the day will be here soon enough.
Unfortunately, I'm already nervous about it.  I was nervous enough

What is a "downwind departure" supposed to look like at a towered field?  
It's not mentioned as a standard departure in the A/FD for my home field,
but I got cleared for one the other day.  My instructor and I had very
different interpretations of how to fly it.

Does anyone know if Cecil passed today?
The suspense is killing me!!!!

I've always, generally, followed the suggestion that one shouldn't do
anything aviation related (like studying or flying maneuvers) the day before
a checkride; but it has left me wondering the reasoning behind this common
admonition?  Is it just that the brain could use some ...

For any Canadians here:
This is simply a matter of curiosity on my part.  I was wondering what
is the semantic difference between a permit and a license as in
Recreational Pilot Permit and Private Pilot License.  Whay isn't it

I have a choice of learning to fly for a sport pilot licence (its
outside US so its called ultralight here where I am) in either Zodiac
C601 or Stol 701 from ZenithAir (www.zenithair.com) as built by Checz
Aircraft works.

Other than the Designated Examiner's handbook, do the FSDO examiners
(specifically those that do CFI checkrides) have a document that indicates
what guidelines they have to follow in conducting the checkride, etc... ?
If so, is their a link online to it that anyone has to share?

As I mentioned before, the 'second part' of my flight instructor checkride
(the flight test) will be conducted on July 25th.  Just today, I got the
time....  8AM  <argh> ;)   So, I'm going to do the 'get a hotel room near my
airport the night before' approach as I did for my Oral ...

On a takeoff my instructor informed me that I was drifting to the left.
How did he determine that?  My attitude was fairly nose high and I
couldn't see anything but sky.  So, what visual cues does one use to
determine if one is staying on course?  Is it only the heading