I’ve been flying for nearly nine years, however this was the first time I’ve done an actual BFR. Previously, I’ve met the recency requirements either through earning a new rating or participating in the Wings program. I had assumed it was going to be something with more check ride formality than a low-key brush up.
The ground session felt a lot like hangar flying in that we talked mostly about the various high(er) performance systems in my plane, cross country trips, subtleties of the local airspace, and some “what ifs” on instrument approaches in the area. He was challenging my answers where appropriate, just very casually. I enjoyed talking about practicalities rather than rote recitation of the FARs.
Since my plane’s out of service for its engine overhaul/annual, I rented one of the flight school’s C172s. While the instructor was signing off a student for their first cross-country, I did the pre-flight and sat in the cockpit for a while familiarizing myself with placement of everything. The first thing that hit me was the “rental smell,” which is really hard to describe but is some proprietary combination of sweat, oil, mildew, avgas and seat cushions.
It was kind of cool to come back to the basics: no turbo, no retractable gear, no adjusting the prop, just get out and fly, baby! Then I realized how much I missed my moving map GPS; this underscored how “addicted” I’ve become to it as a means (crutch?) of positional awareness.
We did some basic maneuvers under the hood. I had done my six approaches & holds in the simulator the week before, so this was pretty straightforward. He threw a “how would you intercept blah radial off foobar VOR from this position” question at me, and I had to think about it for a little while longer than I should have, and I’d sense a new force whenever I’d get fixated on an instrument for too long because I interrupted my scan to think.
After that, we did a chandelle (my favorite) was followed by slow flight and stalls. It was kind of comical trying to get the 172 to break
Hi Jim. I chose aviation as a category that I thought you might check the comments on more frequently, however, I really just wanted to ask you a couple questions. I saw your website b/c I decided to try freecardirectory.com tonight, and then realized that it was a hoax. Then I found cockeyed.com (wish I would have looked for that prior to spending $30) and I found your website. So, after looking at your extensive and well done website, I just thought I’d drop you a quick line. Upon getting to your website I found it extremely interesting that you are a pilot, only because I guess I would assume that a pilot would be one of the few personality types that would be so focused on busting out bogus businesses. I’ve been a pilot for only a few years, but, I hope one day, I’ll aspire to investigating the bogus businesses for those that get ripped off as well. So, how do you have time to fight all the battles you seem to fight? I hope they’ve paid off. I am planning on fighting freecardirectory.com for my money back, but I doubt it will happen. I guess my main reasons for writing was to say good job with your websites and also, it is nice to know that other people understand my frustration with scams.
Thank you
Thank you for the comments.
Hey, I was checking out the site http://www.freecardirectory.com and wondered about it so I typed in the site and the word “hoax” and it gave a sniblet of something on your site suggesting that this stuff is just a hoax. Now I can’t find the conversation. Know anything about this “drive a free car with advertising on it” stuff?
Appreciate it ! Brent
Yes, it’s a scam of sorts.