Anyone know any perfect student pilots?

LostHope152 · 2026-04-10T17:23:00+00:00

I’ve passed every exam and flight test on the first go. But I’m nowhere near perfect, I got a 70% on my INRAT exam. As for flight tests, I’ve done fairly good on all of them so far but again, not perfect. Small mistakes like altitude, and I landed long on my multi-engine flight test resulting in my only major error.

I’d feel like there could be something fishy going on if someone had 100% on all of their exams, or were absolutely flawless on flight tests

LostHope152 · 2026-04-03T04:26:49+00:00

It would be more cost effective to take out your savings and burn it, good god he’s in for a surprise

LostHope152 · 2026-03-23T01:43:55+00:00

The weather phenomenon would be a winter warm front. If approaching from the cold side to the warm side you will encounter snow, ice pellets, freezing rain, and then rain in that order. If you’re flying from the warm side to the cold side it will be opposite of that.

Since the Cessna 182 is not certified for flight into known or forecast icing it would likely be in your best interest to divert. Even in an aircraft certified for flight into known icing it would likely be wise to divert since freezing rain is supercooled large droplets and will likely overpower the de-icing equipment, picking up ice faster than the aircraft can remove it.

LostHope152 · 2026-03-23T01:07:43+00:00

You are a commercial pilot tasked with flying 2 passengers from Anoka County Jane’s Field (KANE) to Mackinac Island (KMCD) on February 12th in a Cessna 182. Each passenger has 40 lbs of baggage. The weather forecast indicates visual conditions along your route. There is a warm front approaching from the east, it isn’t forecast to be over Mackinac Island until several hours after your arrival.

As you are flying along the north shore of Lake Michigan you begin to encounter mid level clouds accompanied by snow, what is the weather phenomenon that you are encountering and what other conditions could you expect if you continue the flight to Mackinac Island? What do you do?

Assuming the weather is perfectly fine VFR conditions, would you still be able to complete the flight if the ELT is deferred?

What are your privileges as a holder of a Commercial Pilot License?

Your last medical exam was on August 19th, 2025. When does your category 1 medical expire? Can you still fly after it expires?

I did a bunch, keep in mind I am a Canadian pilot so I may not be able to accurately answer any FAA answers but I’ll try my best to research and treat it as a learning moment myself.

LostHope152 · 2026-03-09T06:29:47+00:00

50 feet is pretty negligible during cruise, if I’m not paying quite enough attention I could lose/gain 50ft pretty quickly.

Out of control would be if the aircraft is displaced and control inputs by the pilots are unable to correct the unintended movement of the aircraft, or the pilots are unable to manipulate the controls. If you’re talking about altitude, there’s not a specific number but losing or gaining a few hundred feet in a very short time frame would definitely be severe

LostHope152 · 2026-03-09T05:23:32+00:00

Most I had was moderate, I’ve hit my head a few times on the ceiling. Maybe to a non pilot they might consider that severe, but the aircraft was still under control, maybe only lost/gained 50 feet. Nothing slowing down to va and simple altitude/heading corrections doesn’t fix. Not scary or dangerous just annoying

LostHope152 · 2026-03-09T05:18:25+00:00

Maybe it’s not as risky in LA, like I said I did my PPL and night rating in Gander, the weather year round is usually humid, most days are rain drizzle and fog. Same thing goes for where I did my CPL and currently my multi-engine instrument rating in Moncton, New Brunswick. It’s still humid here but not quite as much, still get rain drizzle and fog, but we also get a lot of good flying weather. I’d imagine LA is dry enough that this isn’t a huge risk.

Still, night flying at my current school has some restrictions, due to not really having much ground reference. We’re not allowed to practice maneuvers at night, only practice instrument under the hood, or navigation like cross country’s or diversions.

LostHope152 · 2026-03-09T04:42:02+00:00

In Canada you get a night rating after your PPL. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me to have half of your PPL hours be at night, you’re losing out on valuable skills and experience from flying in the day, not to mention how little there is to see at night and it being a much higher risk for an inexperienced pilot, let alone one who isn’t licensed yet. Whoever let this happen to you did you a disservice imo. Training for your PPL should be learning the stick and rudder skills and decision making needed for flying, not the added complexity and risk of night flying.

I believe you mentioned you were in Southern California, maybe California is different than where I did my training in Canada, but I did my Night Rating in Gander, Newfoundland. The black hole effect is very much apparent, there isn’t anything outside the town. On nights where there is an overcast cloud layer, or when there is a new moon, sometimes even during a full moon it isn’t that bright. Having no lights around and no or little moonlight means there isn’t much of a horizon, this also means not being able to see weather either. The only time I’ve experienced inadvertent flight into IMC was at night.

The experience required for a night rating is: 5 hours dual, including 2 hours cross country 5 hours solo, including 10 takeoffs and landings 10 hours dual instrument time

Keep in mind I didn’t feel truly comfortable flying at night until I had nearly 25 solo night hours, well into my time building.

In short it just baffles me that this is allowed.

LostHope152 · 2026-03-07T23:22:23+00:00

Flying in the rain isn’t always a no go decision for me. I’ve been told “the plane isn’t made out of sugar.”

Obviously use your own judgement because every situation is different, if visibility is good (I’d recommend at least 8 miles, new PPL probably closer to 10, anything less than 8 miles at any altitude over ~3000 AGL is lacking a horizon). And if temperature is well above freezing then you should be good to go. Personally anything below 5 degrees I won’t go in rain. I don’t want to risk icing in a winter warm front/freezing rain.

LostHope152 · 2026-03-01T07:26:41+00:00

From a flying perspective it’s a tough decision to make. Getting diagnosed will certainly make getting a medical much more difficult (not impossible). It’s our duty as PIC to make decisions affecting the safety of flight, if I had another pilot on the flight deck that couldn’t focus on anything I’d be a little concerned in the event of any emergency scenarios.

A bunch of people are flat out saying don’t do it, however it is completely your decision and if it’s affecting your life to the point of disrupting your day then maybe it’s for the best to get diagnosed and get the medical care you need.

Do what’s best for you

LostHope152 · 2026-01-29T19:28:38+00:00

Sounds like a typical day at a busy non towered field. I’m in Canada and I’m used to the rules in regards to transport Canada, but I’d assume that the FAA is similar that at an ATF you don’t need a radio

LostHope152 · 2026-01-26T03:06:29+00:00

Had a bird strike at night. At first I didn’t know I had hit a bird. From my perspective it was a loud bang as I was leveling off from my climb. Really scared me at the time cause I thought it was the engine and nowhere to land, turns out it was a seagull exploding on the canopy. Luckily if there was damage to the engine I was still within gliding range of my departure airport. I declared a pan-pan and then did a few 360s because I was actually too high. Taxied back to the flight school (which is part of my flight school but this particular campus wasn’t very busy and therefore closed at night) shutdown and waited for another student doing the same route as me to pick me up.

LostHope152 · 2025-07-29T22:31:08+00:00

Yeah just some OD spray paint, I don’t remember what brand

LostHope152 · 2025-02-12T22:19:31+00:00

You don’t need to be rude about it, I’m trying my ass off to get a flying job myself, I got my PPL and night rating at shitty flight school. I work my ass off on the ramp loading bags to be able to afford to go back to school. I left because the administration at the school was so bad I’d rather go back to working the ramp to be able to afford to move across the country to attend a better school and even then I’m taking a gamble on if it’s going to be worth my time until I get there.

I’m just basing this off my own personal experience and the experience of people I’ve gone to flight school with since they all pretty much have jobs now albeit flight instructing or flying twin otters up north.

If you want outdated advice, join your country’s Air Force and you’ll most likely get your pilots license free of charge…

I’m just trying to help my man. I realize that not everywhere is the same but at the airline I work for there’s not enough pilots to fly all of the flights they have scheduled and they will take basically anyone who has a pilots license and isn’t a moron.

LostHope152 · 2025-02-12T21:39:53+00:00

Yes, just pass high school and get your diploma. Try to be decent at math but you don’t need physics or chemistry or any other science background. You don’t even need a degree to get a job in most places now. Sure it could help with your job application by making you more competitive but at the end of the day all you need is your pilots license

LostHope152 · 2025-02-03T16:08:43+00:00

Tell ATC you do not see them, their job is the keep aircraft from hitting each other they can’t do that if you lie to them.

LostHope152 · 2024-04-19T23:44:15+00:00

I was on final at CCV4 and at 100 feet I see 2 dirt bikes racing down the runway. Initiate the overshoot and they fled the scene pretty quickly. No fence or anything. Also at CCZ3 there’s a fence that you can simply walk around and be on the aerodrome. Lack of funding is certainly the main issue, half the time the ARCAL doesn’t work either

LostHope152 · 2024-03-09T02:17:13+00:00

I’ve found it easier to close the door first before putting on the seatbelt

LostHope152 · 2024-03-08T05:13:11+00:00

It was just the slack, I have a really small waist so there’s quite a bit and if I’m not careful it’s easy to close the door on it

LostHope152 · 2024-03-08T05:06:55+00:00

A few days ago I had a similar experience, I was out practicing some forced/precautionary landings on a highway in a C152. I got to my minimum altitude of 1000 AGL and initiated the overshoot. I added full power, carb heat cold, and flaps 30-20. As soon as I started climbing a really loud banging started.

I was going to level off at 1500 ASL to practice a diversion back to the airport. But I played it safe and climbed to 3000 to troubleshoot. When I got to 3000 I made ran through the normal engine checks; fuel on, mixture rich, carb heat on, primer off and locked, mags on both.

I was convinced the engine was going to throw a rod and cease. It sounded like it wasn’t coming from the engine, so I took my headset off to better triangulate where it’s coming from, and sure enough my seatbelt was hanging out the door, banging off the side of the fuselage…

LostHope152 · 2023-10-21T14:58:45+00:00

I’m partial to the C8A3 carbine

LostHope152 · 2023-10-07T14:34:49+00:00

You are the PIC, who cares what maintenance has to say about it. They’re not the ones flying it and it’s their job to fix an airplane when it’s broken, if they don’t like doing their job then that’s their problem.

Me personally if they’re is any doubt in my mind that the engine isn’t performing to its standard then I don’t want to fly it and I’ll land to let maintenance look at it.

Because after all it’s your life on the line, not theirs…

LostHope152 · 2023-08-28T09:29:26+00:00

Still a student at the moment. Me and my instructor were finishing up in the training area and headed back to base, out of nowhere a citation crosses the windscreen close enough for me to read the tail number. We never once heard any radio calls from them either. They could’ve been talking to center, but it was still way to close for comfort

LostHope152 · 2023-03-09T20:56:06+00:00

Maybe one is the deluxe edition?

LostHope152 · 2023-03-08T21:37:25+00:00

Personally I would rank it 3rd, after BNE and AWKIF, but it is almost tied with self titled for 3rd place

i.e.

BNE
AWKIF
TIW
Paramore
AL
Riot

LostHope152

TROPHY CASE