Friday, November 16th, 2007 12:59 pm
Today [livejournal.com profile] rfrench is taking his FAA check flight for the Airline Transport Pilot rating.

All day so far I've made sure to avoid sending him text messages asking how he's doing. I figured that's the last thing he'd need. So far I've been good! I haven't heard a thing, either, which likely means he passed the oral exam and is probably flying now. Or maybe the examiner is still asking truly evil questions.

If there's any cancellation or continuation for any reason at all, it's going to be awfully difficult for him to reschedule. His aircraft goes down for annual on December 1 and the validity of his having passed the written test will expire in December. So while he shouldn't particularly need luck to pass the checkride, severe bad luck could still cause trouble: examiner coming down with food poisoning, plane having a sudden flap control failure... anything really. Fingers crossed.

edit: He passed! Yay!
Friday, November 16th, 2007 09:05 pm (UTC)
Ooo. Good luck and fingers crossed for him. Hope it all goes well.
Friday, November 16th, 2007 09:16 pm (UTC)
Much good luck.
May he pass with flying colors!
Friday, November 16th, 2007 09:22 pm (UTC)
So if he comes home & says that he an ATP, do you start to think of him as an energy source for muscles?
Friday, November 16th, 2007 11:08 pm (UTC)
The thought had occurred to me. Ah, acronym overloading!
Friday, November 16th, 2007 09:50 pm (UTC)
Much good luck wishes.

Anytime you talk about flying I can't help but think of Brenda Sutton's song In The Blood (http://www.bsutton.com/Brenda/music/lyrics/intheblood.htm). As much as I was exposed to the air craft industry - my dad was a mechanic - I was too shy/timid/insecure to persue learning to fly. I salute you and [livejournal.com profile] rfrench for following your passions.
Friday, November 16th, 2007 10:04 pm (UTC)
Good luck to rfrench!!!!!!!!
Friday, November 16th, 2007 11:15 pm (UTC)
Good luck! I'm sure he'll do well.
Saturday, November 17th, 2007 12:24 am (UTC)
Have you heard back! I hope he did well!
Saturday, November 17th, 2007 01:03 am (UTC)
Heard anything yet?

What's the end goal for his ATP rating anyway? Wanting to fly for the airlines or something else?
Saturday, November 17th, 2007 06:27 am (UTC)
ATP single-engine is a useless rating. It'll reduce my insurance about 5%, but that's it. ATP multi-engine is much more useful, and I plan to get that in Feb. Working for the airlines sounds like absolute hell to me. I thinking maybe getting some kind of part-time corporate job eventually. Flying some rich guy around in his jet to interesting destinations.
Saturday, November 17th, 2007 03:26 am (UTC)
Ooooh, goodluckgoodluckgoodluckgoodluckgoodluck!