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Onward and Upward

© Wendy Beye

You have struggled, studied, and worked hard to master the skills necessary to pass the FAA practical test, and now, finally, the coveted private pilot's license is in your pocket. What can you do with the freedom to fly any time you want to?

Flight instructors like to remind their newly-minted pilots that flying skills require constant maintenance work. A private pilot's license is just "a license to learn." The day you passed your private pilot checkride with an FAA examiner, your skills were sharp, and you had practiced the drills over and over to try to achieve perfection. If you want to continue to be a safe and competent pilot, expect to fly at least several times a month, challenging yourself to meet high standards of performance on each and every flight.

Many new pilots are anxious to give friends and family members rides. If you choose to do so, remember to keep the flights short and sweet, preferably on blue sky breezeless days, and demonstrate professional judgement by not showing off any of the scarier moves you learned on the road to pilothood. It might not be wise, either, to load up your small rented airplane with spouse, kids, and a week's worth of baggage to take a thousand mile trip. Start with less ambitious flights, perhaps to a town fifty miles away to buy the famous $100 hamburger (the burger may cost $3.95; the travel expenses will add the other $96.05!)

If you are fortunate enough to have a spouse or significant other who enjoys flying in small airplanes, short day trips can provide hours of entertainment. If your spouse or S.O. doesn't enjoy airplanes, here is your opportunity to educate and perhaps even give that special someone the "flying bug." Try to remember how you felt the first time you flew, with butterflies fluttering in your stomach, and tailor your flight to gradually allow your passenger to become accustomed to new and strange sensations. The effort will be worth the payoff: a flying companion who will be genuinely excited to accompany you on your adventures.

Some newly-licensed pilots jump right in to begin work on their next rating or license. Usually the first add-on is an instrument rating, which not only gives you the legal right to fly in weather which requires the skill to "fly on the gauges," but also sharpens your precision flying skills. This rating requires more ground study, another written test, specialized flight instruction from an instrument-qualified instructor, and finally, another FAA checkride to demonstrate your mastery of instrument flight. This is a valuable rating to obtain, even if you do not plan to make a career of flying.

The copyright of the article Onward and Upward in Small Planes is owned by Wendy Beye. Permission to republish Onward and Upward in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.