Blogging at FL380

This blog entry is being written at flight level 380 somewhere between Portland and Denver. I’m en route to Boston to spend the weekend with some very good friends. I don’t know if Denver has free wi-fi, like PDX has. If they do, I’ll try and upload this in Denver. If not, I guess I’ll upload it when I get to Boston.

Apparently, Denver decided it should take advantage of travellers and charges $8 for wireless access, unlike Portland where it is free. Just a note to owners of businesses at Denver airport, money I could have spent at your shop is instead going to AT&T. Boo Denver!

This is the first time I have flown commercially since the TSA implemented the “no liquid” rules. There was conspicuously less carry-on luggage and it was great. I used to travel a ton for business, and certainly empathize with the road warriors. But, the security check to get to the gates was breeze and it only took about 5 minutes to board our airplane. No one was trying to cram their bag into the overhead bin, blocking everyone else in the aisle. I’m sure I am in the minority, but I wouldn’t mind going to single carry-on (purse/briefcase) policy. It would be safer and quicker.

I took the FAA private pilot exam yesterday. I got a 97, which, apparently, is better than what Pearson airport’s dog, Ellie, got on the exam (she got an 87). The test examiner claimed he saw some paw prints on my test materials and accused me of getting help from the dog. The FAA publishes a book of all the test questions (I think there is a bank of 600 of them). The exam consists of 60 questions to be answered in 150 minutes. I studied by going through all the questions in the test guide and highlighting the answer. Most of questions can be answered if you know the basic principals behind them. However, there are a quite a few questions that require rote memorization. For example, I had a question about to whom and when I am supposed to send a notice if I were to be convicted of drunk driving. I’m pretty sure that’s the one I got wrong. I also bought this program for my Palm Treo called Private Pilot Pocket Test. This way I could take test questions when I had some free cycles…or even during meetings (let’s keep that between ourselves…okay?) It’s a great study aid. I highly recommend it for anyone taking the written exam. Finally, I took the free exam on Sporty’s web-site every night for a week before taking the test.

When I finished the test, I didn’t think I had done that well. There were a couple of distractions that made it really hard to concentrate on the test questions. First, I took the test at Pearson airport. I never put two and two together and only until I was taking the test realized that plane engines are really distracting. Second, there was someone taking another test sitting next to me. He was a using calculator and was hitting the buttons as hard as he could. Boy, he sure used his calculator a lot. There was another woman there taking another test, some kind of nursing exam. Her test results were printed out right after mine. She had passed. She seemed so happy and relieved. I was happy to pass the test just because it’s one step closer to my license. But, passing her exam meant she could get a job. I think she mentioned to the examiner that she took the test previously and failed by one question. Good for her for sticking with it and not giving up. I don’t know how the guy next to me did, he was still pounding away at his calculator when I left.

Now that I’ve passed my test, I only need to do two more things before I’m ready to take my check ride. First, I need about another half-hour of hood time. Second, I need to do my last progress check with the chief flight instructor. Hopefully, by the end of September, I’ll be ready to take the check ride.