Almost there....

So I've been practicing the FAA's written test for private pilots for almost 2 months now. It consists of a a 61 question test on all aspects of general aviation. Topics such as weather, mechanics, performance, procedures, psychology, navigation, NTSB, medical, aerodynamics, and much more. I'm scheduled to take the real thing tomorrow morning at Princeton and hopefully pass. The amount of stuff you need to know is very tedious and it costs $100 to take. Once I pass, I'll be ready to pass my final pre checkride lesson where I will go up and demonstrate that I can perform all maneuvers, handle hypothetical emergency scenarios, and most of all be smooth with the handling. After exactly a year of flying, I've gotten much better at "feeling the air" and working the controls to "nail" altitude, airspeed, heading and keeping the ball centered. I am very satisfied with this. Once this lesson is over, I'll be cleared to fly solo to 2 different airports and back on a multi-leg trip of at least 150 nautical miles. Actually this particular trip will be more like 270 nautical miles. I'll start in Princeton, go to Lancaster, PA, then Williamsport, PA, and finally back to Princeton, NJ. After that, I'll have to make sure I can do everything up to the standards if not exceed them and hopefully pass the checkride. It's been a long year, lots of setbacks recently, but I'm happy to have nearly completed a life goal I've had since I was 4.


One a side note, I'll probably be off to Japan for about 4 weeks in Sept. As I will be doing an accelerated course on credit, risk, finance, and banking with my dad and perhaps I'll finally understand what it is that he does for a living :) Perhaps could use this to my advantage to start making some serious cash in the near future. Probably try and make enough to pay for graduate school. Which reminds me I need to get on with starting my apps for that. Really like the idea of being somewhere warm and near a beach or at least a location that isn't too far from an outdoorsy kind of place, bike, hike trails. I'm thinking I might try and hike up Mt. Fuji finally, start in the evening, make an sunrise accent, put the new hiking boots to good use.

Can't wait to drive the M3!