As I was working through my instrument training, I realized I was “all-in”. Flying had become a real passion, and I just wanted to be up all the time (yes, I had a full-time job, so this was a nights and weekends thing). I could fly the flight school’s aircraft, but they were mostly for training: always busy, and frankly, a little beat-up. I started to think more and more that I’d rather own my own plane so I could control my own destiny. I had a co-worker at Amazon who was also a pilot and was interested in owning as well, so we started talking about buying an airplane together and splitting the cost. He had to back out for personal reasons, but after the research we had done together, my heart was completely set on owning.
Wow, it’s been a minute. As is typical for me, I had big plans for this blog, creating a diary of every step of my flight training. Then reality happened. I know so many of my faithful readers have been wondering what happened. “Are you ok?” “Did you finish your training?” “Are you flying Air Force One now?” All these questions, and more will be answered below. I’ll do this in two parts. Part one here, finishing my certificates, and then I’ll wrap it up in part two, where I’ll talk about what it’s like to actually be a pilot. I promise I won’t go dark on this two-part series! Part two is mostly written already, I’ll post it shortly.
Stage checks scare me. It’s a test, and no one wants to fail a test. I had put a lot of myself into the training thus far, and after my stage 1 failure, I was fearful that I would fail every stage check at least once.
It’s been almost 3 months since I last wrote. No, I didn’t stop flying, I’m flying as much as ever. I’m going to keep writing about my training, but know that much of what I’m about to write is quite a bit out of date.
In this phase of my training, I was focusing on the things you’ll do when you’re a “real pilot”. While a huge part of the thrill for me is learning the basic “stick and rudder” skills that are foundational to flying, ultimately, you fly so you can go places. The idea of waking up one morning and deciding to fly to the San Juan Islands, to Portland, or to the Olympic peninsula sounds pretty special. This post contains more pictures than usual, since I actually went somewhere! Read on.
In early September, I was standing on the ramp at Rainier chatting with Jamie. It was going to be one of our last flights together, and the airplane we were going to take was having a maintenance problem. While we waited for a quick repair to get made, we were chatting about the training process. I was expressing frustration with how long it was taking to get through stage one, that finding time on the schedule with my next instructor (Troy) was looking difficult, and would I be able to get everything done before the weather came in? That last point was a real worry. Seattle weather in the summer is impeccable. There’s usually little to no rain from early July through mid-October. But after mid-October, cloudy skies and rain is the norm. This doesn’t mean that I couldn’t fly, it just meant that flights would be cancelled due to weather with some regularity. In addition to this, Rainier is a super-busy flight school, and reserving planes can be a challenge because they get booked early. Jamie offered a couple of pearls of wisdom. “Stage one is the longest, hardest stage. You know nothing about flying, you have so much to learn, and figuring out how to land feels impossible. However, once you figure all that out and pass the first stage check, everything goes faster. Stage two is fun. You have navigation, more solo flights, night flying, cross-countries. There’s lots of occasions where getting a plane is actually pretty easy.”
As mentioned in my last post, I needed to pass my first stage check in order to solo. And I did. Unfortunately, I needed to wait a week to actually get the solo done. While I had an option after Sunday morning’s quick flight to pass the stage check, I was ready for a little break from the stress of new tests. My next appointment was two days later, but we had to cancel for weather. Saturday looked like the day.
Training to become a private pilot is typically broken into three stages. Stage 1 is learning how to fly the airplane and the basic maneuvers. This includes straight-and-level, climbs, turns, descents, along with stalls (power-on and power-off), steep turns, and emergency procedures. Stage 2 is essentially “advanced” flying, which includes performance takeoffs and landings (soft (i.e. grass) fields, and short runways), navigation, night operations, and introduction to cross-country flying. Stage 3 is preparation for the checkride, which is the final exam, typically administered by a Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE), someone authorized by the FAA to test pilots. This model is nice for breaking what could be a long slog of training into more achievable chunks. My flight school, and I assume most others, end each stage with a “Stage Check”. This is a mini-test to assert that you have the skills and knowledge necessary to proceed to the next stage. Successful completion of the stage check enables the big milestones of flying. Passing Stage 1 Check enables you to solo. Stage 2 Check enables you to go on a solo cross country. Stage 3 Check enables you to take the checkride.
I’ve gotten really behind in my posts. In my last post, I talked about how I wasn’t sure who my long-term instructor would be, that Jamie was paired up with me, but he had an expiration date. Since he was moving to only work Monday to Friday, ultimately I’d have to find a new instructor. As of this writing in early October, that has been happily solved, but it’s a story for another day. In the meantime, I had flown two lessons with Jamie, and I felt like with him, I had a solid IP who would push me to get better.
After flying one lesson with Shane, I went back and forth over e-mail with Chief Jim. My flights over the next couple weeks all wound up getting moved to Jamie. I had flown once with Jamie early on and liked his style. Jim and I settled that Jamie would be my full-time instructor moving forward. Sounded like a plan. However, in the pre-brief for my first lesson with Jamie, he let me know that he was in the process of changing his schedule to not work weekends. As I’ve mentioned before, that’s a deal-breaker, so this was a big disappointment. While he wasn’t cancelling anything already on the books, he was not accepting any new weekend appointments. We agreed to keep the next couple weeks of appointments on the books while I worked on figuring out who my long-term instructor would be. In the meantime, I flew four of the most productive lessons yet, and my flying came a long way.
