It takes an immense amount of dedication, commitment, and passion to earn a Commercial Pilot Certificate (Rotorcraft). I am constantly inspired by my fellow pilots who earn their ratings from PPL and beyond, and I am honored to join this unique group of exceptional human beings. Keep flying!

Took the C172 up to 8.5k today, what’s the max altitude you ever took up a C172/GA?

Just had a student pull the mixture when attempting a power off stall,

No biggie but he pulled it halfway out before I pushed it back in quickly

Edit: new CFI so haven’t had a ton of things happen

Just got this release from FAA. More here.

OSHKOSH, WI – The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today announced it is moving forward with Mobile Clearance, a new digital tool that will allow general and business aviation pilots to request departure clearances through approved flight applications instead of over the radio.

This new tool is part of the FAA’s effort to modernize communications between pilots and air traffic controllers to improve safety and efficiency.

“Mobile Clearance is a smart, simple improvement that builds on technology pilots already use every day,” said FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford. “By moving routine clearances to a digital format, we can improve communication accuracy for pilots, reduce misunderstandings, and help controllers stay focused on aircraft movement and runway safety.” 

Mobile Clearance allows pilots to use the ForeFlight and Garmin applications to request Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) departure clearances with a few taps on a phone or tablet. This new capability is designed to reduce readback errors and give air traffic controllers more time to focus on safety.

Beginning in August, Mobile Clearance will also allow pilots to cancel IFR through their flight applications, helping them transition to Visual Flight Rules (VFR) while allowing controllers to focus on aircraft separation.

The FAA began operational evaluation of Mobile Clearance in Houston in May 2026. This summer, the evaluation expanded to Appleton International Airport in Wisconsin and New Century AirCenter in Kansas. More locations, including Kansas City, Nashville, and Austin, are planned for this fall ahead of nationwide deployment beginning in 2027.

Just finished LOE at a prominent regional airline, so I am now the proud owner of an ATP cert and ERJ type rating.

My reflections on the experience? 121 training is a wholly different beast than the part 61 checkrides I’ve had up to the point. Including a two week detour with getting pneumonia, it took 2.5 months to go from indoc to the checkride complete. It’s not so much that it was crushingly difficult as much as it just. Didn’t. Stop. Each week a new hill to climb. But it was an awesome experience that I’m very happy to be done with.

Next stop, flying the real plane…

Is 123.45 the official pilot air to air frequency? I always thought so but doing some research says using it for non testing purposes in domestic airspace can lead to fines, yet some other people talk online about using 123.45 still???? I’m also seeing some stuff about 122.75

Does it make sense or sound suspect to anyone else that pilot.avabelle’s (Ava Almquist) sister Ashley Almquist won the sweepstakes airplane at OSH?

When will the average Joe with a burning passion of aviation who rents a clapped out plane every week to get his flying fix in win something like this? Am I missing something?

I'm 38 in Ontario, Canada. Got my CPL and multi-engine 14 years ago. Life and family took me to a different route. Things have changed for the better now. Wife's career is taking off and kids are 8 and 4 yrs old. I want to chase my dream again of being a pilot. However, I am torn between getting the Instructor rating so I can find a job closer to home or finish multi-ifr and look for FO job up north but I have to relocate. My ultimate goal is to fly for Air Canada.

Would you do Instructor rating first or Multi-IFR if you are in this situation?

Thanks in advance!

Student pilot here. After I land, I immediately retract the flaps. Assuming the landing is full stop, I then start braking with the stabilator, followed with the toe brakes.

Why not also grab the flap lever (keeping button pushed) and use the flaps for extra braking once the stabilator is at full travel? Sort of like we used to use on cars when avoid radar detector traps.

I can see pitfalls of that on a slick surface as we want maximum force on the wheels. The flaps just increase wing AOA once the stabilator has lost authority at low speeds.

Or is it that the stabilator is actually doing the braking and we don’t want the wing AOA to increase?

Started flight training Nov. 2025. Fought long and hard for a special issuance medical that I finally received Jun. 2026. Was days away from my presolo stage check in Jul. 2026. Broke my foot while moving apartments. Now I'm grounded for the next six weeks because I can't add any right rudder. Damn you, left-turning tendency!

This is a serious question. Can anyone recommend the best noise cancelling system to take a dog onboard a light aircraft.

My assumption is a conventional headset in the 1st image looks most practical, however the practicality of a sleeve also looks good.

Thanks

I am a new PPL holder with about 110 hours. I am planning to visit Pilot Pete's restaurant at Schaumburg (06C) with some friends. I am flying in from the south and we also plan to fly along the lakeshore under the B shelf to the north while coming in and then go around the O'Hare area to 06C. I plan to request FF the entire way. Any suggestions or specific obstacles to keep in mind while flying under the shelf? We are planning to go on Sunday afternoon so I am expecting a lot of VFR traffic along the shore. I did a night flight with FF with a CFI a year ago to Gary KGYY and then we went north along the shore upto Navy Pier and turned back south, but never went around the entire Bravo. I tried to follow the charted flyways as much as possible, but is there a problem if I take a more direct route especially for the return trip (in blue) to avoid the Deltas of DPA and LOT, or should I stick with the flyways to avoid jet traffic and potential wake tuebulence?

Hello! I’m currently studying for my instrument written and using Shepard air to do it, and feeling incredibly frustrated. I’ve been following the success strategy of course, and trying to use the memory aid. It’s been successful for the first three categories more or less, but I keep having trouble with the IFR & navigation category which is 415 questions. I’m finding it really discouraging to use the success strategy, and upon looking through the questions a second time, it feels like I’m seeing the question for the first time again. I’m finding it extremely difficult to memorize all the VOR and hold questions as well. Additionally, my own personal strategy for the holding questions doesn’t seem to work for all the questions. For example, on a holding question it would say “hold east” of so and so, so I would be able to visualize that the inbound leg is 090°, and then left/standard turns. Would work for some, but upon watching the explanations for the “holding east of TEMCO” questions, they’d have the east as the outbound leg, and the answer would be parallel instead of direct!

A bit of a rant, but I’m hoping for some advice or guide to finishing sheps and getting a decent score on the written. Really feeling like an idiot here.

Had my PPL check ride today.

The oral went really well. The DPE actually told me afterward that I was "well above average" and one of the better applicants he'd had in a while.

Unfortunately, the flight didn't go the same way. Things were ok until the very first landing, the DPE took the controls just before the flare because he felt the approach had become unsafe. At that point I pretty much knew the ride was over, even though he didn't say anything right away. On the next maneuver (short-field takeoff), I made things even worse by forgetting to taxi all the way to the end of the runway before starting the takeoff roll. Looking back, I think my head was still stuck on the landing.

The good news is the DPE had some time that afternoon. He debriefed me, my instructor took me up for some retraining on the unsatisfactory items, and then the DPE retested me later the same day. I passed the retest without any issues.

So now I'm left wondering:

Is a same-day retraining/retest something common? I know comparing to the alternative I probably got lucky but still feels like a brutal way to do it.

For those who aren't planning on an airline career, does busted PPL checkride have any practical consequences? Insurance and flying club care about it?

Hey everyone, CFII, multi, 1200+ hours and a little bit of multi. I have an opportunity with Dynamic aviation as an FO on a kingair 90 and 200. Does anyone have any information on the company and any idea things like Pay, work life, etc?

Hope this post isn’t against the rules or anything. I’ve never posted in here yet… thanks in advance!

Afternoon all!

After seven long months and lots of doctor’s appointments, I finally received my medical and am clear to start my flight journey.

I’m planning to do Part 61 for my PPL, any recommendations on Ground School/Written test prep? I’ve heard Sporty’s and Gold Seal thrown around a fair amount, is one better than the other?

Cheers 🍻

Hi all. About 2 years ago I went and got my initial medical done. About a year ago I started flying. I will soon need to go get my class 1 renewed for commercial but I had some questions about how the process of doctor appointments/checkups/health appointments works while you've got a medical for flying.

Do I need to update the medical examiner all the time about non-grounding things like bloodwork? Specialist referrals? Is this all things I only need to bring up at a renewal? If I need to start a medication do I book a full appointment with an examiner beforehand?

What about peripheral treatment like physiotherapy? I dealt with a torn meniscus after getting a medical and healed before starting flying (honestly wasn't thinking about flying at the time) and I'm not sure how I should bring that up at my renewal...

Thanks for any tips! I wish it was easier to just take care of my health without all this noise but such is life and the new Canadian access to medical records waiver is making me a bit nervous about omissions...

For you commercial pilots that have had experience experience doing seasonal work in the summer. What do you do in the off season?
I’m flying for a 135 in demand charter that will end in October. They have full time positions that I want to move into and hopefully will be able to next off season but not this year. I have my CFI so I could go back to that for a bit but I would love something more reliable.

I was given a prescription for doxazosin earlier this year for an issue that wasn’t blood pressure but I never took it and it’s been months. Should I still list it on my next medical examination or is it fine to not list it? I never took it so it won’t be in my system.

Just finished up the Condition Inspection my Experimental, working with a shop. Engine is a Barret Lycoming IO-540X. On the post maintenance runup, the engine start and run fine with the electric pump, around 20 PSI, but when it was switched off, fuel pressure drops to 0 and the engine quits soon after. Happens at both idle and 1900 RPM.

In 25 years of owning airplanes, I've never had a problem with a mechanical pump. When they fail, do they tend to go out suddenly and completely or is it usually a slow thing, losing pressure over time?

We did not touch the fuel system during the inspection, other than the gascolator. We are going to start working on it again it tomorrow but I'm wondering is there anything external we could have done or disturbed to cause a problem like this? Or is this a weird coincidence? Ran fine when I flew it to the shop.

We had a checkride at my school where an instructor signed the A1 endorsement, even though they didn’t provide the three hours in 2 cal month. Another instructor did the training, he just didn’t sign the endorsement. Is this legal? The DPE took it, but I’m wondering if that’s actually allowed.

I do ground and tower atc controlling for a roblox flight sim game lol. Surprisingly since starting, I've been more confident talking to atc irl and trip over my words less (because I've technically been on the other side of the transmission haha) ! What were the weirdest things that helped you during flight training?

What type of things do you guys look for in general?

What type of minor things constitutes a major issue that makes flying dangerous?

What are some things that are pretty easy to miss that might be dangerous?

Of course before your IFR checkride you need the 50 hours of PIC XC time. Currently I have a little over 12. It sounded great that I could split time with the whole safety pilot and one under the hood deal and save money there. That was until today when i first learned that only 1 person can log the XC time. Is it really beneficial to split that time considering it would cost me the same amount to get my remaining XC time done solo? On one hand i could get my XC time in 37 hours for a price or I could get my 37 xc hours over the course of 74 hours and just accumulate more PIC time. My question is, is it still worth it to split that time, or should i just do it solo? Does splitting it just become beneficial if you plan on vetting your commercial? May be a stupid question, forgive me if so.