My first flight with David Brindle (CFI)  was on Oct 8th in a Cessna 152. We started with the initial how to do preflight of the plane using checklists. As we progressed in future classes, he guided me on how I can be confident of doing radio calls, doing a takeoff, and most importantly landing the plane safely. As part of the PPL Airman Certification Standards (ACS), there are a multitude of tasks that as a Pilot in Command (PIC), I am expected to perform. These ensure that with a license, I can operate the plane safely on my own and am not a danger to myself or anyone else. 

Some of the tasks also involved steep turns, stall recovery, night flying, flight planning, and many others. Over the course of the next 8 months, David kept teaching me and testing me to make sure I was able to perform the maneuvers without compromising the safety of the flight. He also included another CFI at the school to do a stage check. This involved me demonstrating my capabilities to him to ensure David did not miss anything. After satisfying all requirements, David cleared me for my first solo flight on July 8th 2022. By this time, I had been flying with David for 45 hours. It was still nerve-wracking to have to fly the plane by myself without having any input from a CFI. I later found out after landing, that David was at the hangar watching me takeoff and landing, tracking my flight online, and monitoring my radio calls. If needed, he could have jumped in on the radio, but fortunately he didn’t need to.

After my solo flights, I had more confidence and was able to take more control of the tasks at hand. As a solo pilot, I could only fly the plane with the CFI (David) approval. Anytime I would like to fly, I would check the weather and then check in with David. Since I was only doing practice landing at a nearby airport, he didn’t need to verify my cross country flight planning for those flights.

We continued with our training for the next 4 months. This included me doing my first solo cross country flight. I went from Flying Cloud (KFCM) to New Ulm (KULM) to St Cloud (KSTC) and back. This was an exciting journey, as I spent 2.5 hours in a plane on my own monitoring my flight and ensuring I was on the right track with pilotage and dead reckoning. These included comparing the waypoints on the map with what I can see on the ground. This also included monitoring my fuel consumption to verify my calculations of fuel were correct.

During the course of my training I also studied for my written test. This was to ensure that I had the appropriate knowledge about the plane, the airspaces, the emergency procedures and other concepts. The minimum passing grade for this test is 70%. Fortunately, I had studied well for this with David’s help and was able to get a 78% on it. After I had fulfilled all the requirements, I was scheduled for my checkride with a Designated Private Examiner (DPE). Jacob Fielstra came highly recommended from Inflight and my checkride with him was scheduled for Oct 19th 2022. The days leading up to the day of the checkride involved lots of studying. Part of the checkride involved an oral exam where Jake quizzed me on my knowledge and the gaps I had in my written exam. After he was satisfied with it, we went for our flight. The flight coincidently was in the same plane that I did my solo in; Cessna 152 N48500. During the flight he asked me to do maneuvers which David had prepared me well for. After a 1.6 hour flight, we landed on the good news that Jake thought I could be awarded a Private Pilot Certificate!