It's a pretty cut and dried description for what was a momentous day in my life. It was the day I successfully completed my private pilot checkride. That is, my second private pilot checkride. The first one had taken place on November 8, 2001. That one had not gone so well.Most of my aviation peers know this, and now you do too: I failed the checkride on the first attempt. Got the pink slip, augered in, went down in flames, pick any colloquialism you like. The examiner had me dead to rights. I messed up VOR tracking and the emergency power-off landing. There was no emergency descent in the airman certification standards back then. Heck, it wasn't the ACS-it was the Private Pilot Practical Test Standards.Yes, I did cry after that failure, mostly out of disappointment with myself and frustration that a long-sought goal was pushed out of reach-again-not by weather or examiner availability but by my own shortcomings. Yes, I did wonder if I was really cut out to fly small airplanes. I am not what you'd call a natural pilot. It took me 120 hours to finish.
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