SIGforum
Got My Private Pilot's License Today

This topic can be found at:
https://sigforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/320601935/m/7750033994

March 14, 2023, 10:14 AM
mcrimm
Got My Private Pilot's License Today
A great achievement. I have about 75 hours over a lot of years. 40 hours as a student in a 150 and then the rest with friends in low wingers and a twin. I'll never finish but I sure do love to fly.



I'm sorry if I hurt you feelings when I called you stupid - I thought you already knew - Unknown
...................................
When you have no future, you live in the past. " Sycamore Row" by John Grisham
March 14, 2023, 10:35 AM
V-Tail
quote:
Originally posted by skywag:

Sorry, but you pushed one of my hot buttons. You got your pilot's Certificate......not license.

Dogs are licensed. pilots are certificated.
Back when I lived in the Chicago area, late 1960's, I instructed at a large Part 141 school at Midway, where the only curricula that we taught were for instrument rating and instrument instructor certificate.

The Chief Instructor was a grumpy guy who gave a lecture whenever he heard somebody refer to a "pilot license."

He would say that a license was something you bought, like a dog license, hunting license, etc. (he included driver license in that category), while a Certificate was something that you earned.



הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים
March 15, 2023, 08:12 AM
Modern Day Savage
Outstanding pursuit and accomplishment! I have a lot of respect for those who conquered their fears.

I miss flying and hope to get back into it someday.

quote:
Originally posted by ScreamingCockatoo:

...

When I went on my practical check ride, I had just touched down in an awful 10+knot crosswind, applying full power, when the biggest bumble bee you've ever seen was shot into the cabin through the wing vent.
Now I'm trying to climb out with what sounds like a basket ball with wings and a hypodermic needle filled with make your life awful angrily bouncing around the roof of the 172.
I looked over at the examiner who was the biggest bear of a man, and exclaimed, "a bee in the cabin! we've got a goddamn bee in the cabin!!!"
He just calmly looks at me and asks, "well what are you going to do about it?"
All I could say was "fly the plane". So I did.

...


Cool Great story and excellent reply!
March 31, 2023, 03:06 PM
rock185
I am a victim of instructors who never corrected my terminology. I still think of it as a licenseWink I also have a drivers license, that I had to take written and driving test to acquire.


NRA Life
March 31, 2023, 03:17 PM
Warhorse
quote:
Got My Private Pilot's License Today


Congratulations, that's quite an accomplishment.


____________________________
NRA Life Member, MGO Annual Member
March 31, 2023, 04:09 PM
photohause
Contrats! Clear Prop! Green side down. Cheers


Don't. drink & drive, don't even putt.


March 31, 2023, 04:41 PM
bryan11
Congratulations!
March 31, 2023, 06:15 PM
Sig2340
WELL DONE!

WELL DONE INDEED!!

I took my check ride in 1987. And promptly ran out of money to fly.





Nice is overrated

"It's every freedom-loving individual's duty to lie to the government."
Airsoftguy, June 29, 2018
March 31, 2023, 06:46 PM
P250UA5
quote:
Originally posted by Sig2340:
WELL DONE!

WELL DONE INDEED!!

I took my check ride in 1987. And promptly ran out of money to fly.


I ran out of money about halfway to my checkride. And that was in about 2004-5.




The Enemy's gate is down.
March 31, 2023, 09:17 PM
slosig
quote:
Originally posted by skywag:
Great going!!

Sorry, but you pushed one of my hot buttons. You got your pilot's Certificate......not license.

Dogs are licensed. pilots are certificated.

Karl
ATP with 4 jet type ratings
It is true that pilots are certificated. There are plenty that would argue that we’re certfiable too, but that’s another issue…
April 01, 2023, 08:05 AM
MMSIG229
OK, I'll play. BTW congratulations!!! Now, what was the end number of the first plane you soloed?? Mine was N8135C, a Piper Cherokee PA28-161.
April 01, 2023, 01:47 PM
V-Tail
quote:
Originally posted by MMSIG229:

what was the end number of the first plane you soloed?? Mine was N8135C, a Piper Cherokee PA28-161.
I don't remember the N-Number, but it was a 65 hp Aeronca Champ, much like the one in the photo below. It was August 1964 at the now-closed Asbury Park NJ airport, and I had about eight hours when my instructor said, "I'm gonna get out and watch you. Do everything just like I showed you, and if you do good, I'll let you solo."





הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים
April 01, 2023, 01:58 PM
Sigmund
quote:
Originally posted by V-Tail:

...at the now-closed Asbury Park NJ airport...


http://www.airfields-freeman.c..._NJ_E.htm#asburypark

Where I learned to fly (1970-71) is also closed:

http://www.airfields-freeman.c...hmond_S.htm#berkeley
April 01, 2023, 02:15 PM
Fly-Sig
My first solo was at LDJ, Linden NJ, in the summer of 1979. My great grandfather was involved in the founding of LDJ, and my dad kept his Piper Arrow there.

I probably landed at Asbury Park with my dad before it closed. He loved puttering around to all the little airports in NJ, and cruising up and down the shore.
April 01, 2023, 02:42 PM
DBabsJr
Congrats! From someone to chicken to do it themselves whose first solo ended on the taxiway.
April 01, 2023, 03:46 PM
pedropcola
Nice job. Flying is great fun. Best “job” ever.
November 09, 2025, 08:19 PM
ChicagoSigMan
Just an update today, as I noticed in my logbook that my latest flight put me over the 300 total hour mark. I reread my original post and noted that I had expressed an interest in doing Pilots n Paws rescue flights, and 2 and half years later, it was a flight to pick up a 95lb German Shepherd stuck in a kill shelter that put me over the 300 hour mark.

Since getting my Private Pilot Certificate, I have gone on to get my instrument rating and high performance endorsement and now have over 50 hours in the Cirrus SR22, which my wife prefers because of the air conditioning and parachute system.

A while back, I took my niece on a quick flight to Marathon in the Florida Keys for lunch. That flight lit a spark in her, and she is now at Univ. of Michigan studying aeronautical engineering and working on her private pilot certificate.

It's been a fun journey - one that I look forward to continuing.
November 09, 2025, 08:31 PM
old rugged cross
Sweet. Sparking someone important to you is one of the greatest of joys. Congrats.



"Practice like you want to play in the game"
November 09, 2025, 08:31 PM
nhtagmember
Congrats and welcome to the club.
November 09, 2025, 08:46 PM
slosig
quote:
Originally posted by slosig:
quote:
Originally posted by 92fstech:
That was actually my plan, but a little over a year ago I got diagnosed type 1 diabetic. From what I understand, I'd need a waiver to pass medical now even for a private...commercial is not even an option. Kinda glad that things worked out the way they did, actually, because if they'd gone the way I'd wanted I'd have been dealing with a forced career change and insulin dependence all at the same time, which would have been really hard. As it is, I have a job that I like (most days lol), and I've got four kids so I only have to convince one of them to grow up and fly me around Big Grin.
Ouch! I'm sorry that you are having to deal with that. Wishing you every success in dealing with the condition.
This is an old thread. Reading over I saw this and it occurred to me that in the meantime my nephew who is a type 1 diabetic has received his private pilot certificate.