Passed my first checkride....

...as the recommending flight instructor. I sent my guy Justin for his private pilot checkride last week with a local examiner. I have to admit I was just as nervous as Justin was. My part of the checkride involved a)making sure Justin was well prepared, and b) making sure I filled out all the paperwork correctly. It was my first time, and I really worked hard to make sure it all came together. Justin did fine and he is now a private pilot....licensed to exercise all the privelages associated thereof.

I also soloed Jim last week. He did great. We did a few landings in the pattern, and then I hopped out. I took a few pictures of Jim while he flew in the pattern. He used runway 35, and winds were fairly calm. It was a perfect day to solo. When we got back in the office I cut the shirttail out of Jim's shirt and decorated it. It is hanging on the wall here in the flight school.

So, that makes two solos....one passed checkride, and I am at a 100% first time pass rate for private pilot checkrides. I need 5 checkrides, and an 80% pass rate and I wont have to pay anything to get my CFI certificate renewed in June of 2008. The FAA says that if you do not have 5 signoffs, with at least 4 first time passes within two years, you can either take a cfi refresher course in person or online(3-400$) or you can participate in a diff type of program. If you choose to not refresh your certificate and decide to instruct down the road, you will need to take another cfi checkride. Doesnt sound like fun to me....so, it might behoove you to make sure you take care of getting that refreshed. Also, passing an instructor addon checkride counts as starting over the two year clock. So, I passed two instructor addon rides in FL so I got a new lease on life...its now 2008 vs 2007.

anyways, thats about it for now. Teaching is going good. If you know anyone who needs an instructor shoot me an email.