Keven’s Aviation Adventure: FAA licensed Private Pilot

A lot has happened in the two months since my last check ride. Most importantly, my daughter Antonia Juliet Palmissano was born on January 27th. Our family is overfilled with joy and love.

With all that comes with a newborn, it was hard to focus on flying. I did have a couple of practice flights in and even a checkride scheduled on February 21st which was canceled due to strong winds. As a side note, the winds that day were less than the day of my first checkride. Shortly after that date, the FAA examiner, Bill Barton, had a mild stroke. He was fine, but has (or at least chosen) to temporarily give up flying. This means my CFI, Mark Clark, had to schedule me with a new examiner.

Mark was able to get me in with Don Crowder. Mr. Crowder served in the United States Air Force and is a retired MTSU Professor for Aerospace. I was told I needed to plan a flight from Murfreesboro airport (MBT) to Huntsville International - Carl T Jones Field (HSV).

MBT to HSV

During our practice flight on March 6th, Mark and I flew to MBT and practiced a few landings, including a go around. MBT is one of the busier small airports in the area because of the aviation program at the university. While I was in the traffic pattern, there were at least 4 or 5 aircrafts there as well. Next we flew east of the airport and practiced stalls, steep turns, and simulated engine failures. Even though I lost a bit of my confidence with the first checkride, I felt much more prepared this time.

As the day approached, the weatherman was predicting a 30% chance of rain and I expected it to be canceled again.

To my surprise, the weather was great. Winds were a little breezy, but well within the normal limits. Clouds were at 12,000 feet, so plenty of room to fly under them. Plus, the clouds kept the sun from blinding us.

Once we landed at MBT, we spoke to Mr. Crowder for a few minutes. He explained that he had reviewed Mr. Barton’s notes about my last checkride and didn’t expect the flight to take much longer than 30 minutes. He wasn’t going to re-test me on everything and there was no need to fly the cross country flight I had planned. My first impression of Mr. Crowder was that he was very calming and reassuring. What great attributes to have as an examiner.

Next, we went out to the Cessna 172 (N434EP) and I pre-checked the aircraft. After finding it airworthy, I took off of runway 36. He asked me to perform a soft field takeoff, which I did perfectly. We flew in the left traffic pattern and he asked for a short field landing. It wasn’t my smoothest landing, but adequate. Next time as I was about to land, he ordered a go around. I fully expected it. I gave it full throttle, pulled back on the yoke and raised the flaps half way. Once I got a little more altitude, I raised the flaps fully. It was perfect, and I smiled to myself knowing I had passed this maneuver.

Next, we flew about 8 -10 miles to the east and he asked me to demonstrate steep turns in both directions and then a power off stall. Once again, I executed the maneuvers well within the standard. Still feeling good that I had demonstrated everything to a passing level, he had me fly back to MBT.

On the way back he provided some feedback on my prior landing. The advice he gave was to keep my right hand on the throttle and completely steer the aircraft with my left.

Finally, he asked me to complete a soft field landing. I nailed it! Mr. Crowder even complemented it. I taxied back to the ramp and secured the plane. It was on the ramp that he told me that I passed!!!

What a great day. I allowed myself to feel the pride of a hard-worked for accomplishment. It is nice to finally say that I’m an FAA licensed Private Pilot. I am part of an elite club.

I received a copy of my temporary license before I left, and I’m legally able to exercise all of the privileges of being licensed. My permanent license should arrive within the next 4-6 weeks.

I had hope to have my license back in October, but sometimes extra unforeseen challenges arise, like bad weather, changing instructors, changing aircrafts, babies, and more. Yet, the goal was still achieved by not giving up - plus the support of great friends and family (especially my beautiful wife).