It's official. On Thursday, March 22, Erik, my instructor, signed the back of my student pilot permit, effectively upgrading me to a private pilot. I'm pretty stoked. I have a flight booked later today with my first passengers. None other than Merilee, and Olive or Oliver (we should probably change that name to Zucchini soon due to the size of it). We'll take a flight this evening over to the Red Deer River gorge and back to the Three Hills town. The wind and turbulence calm down significantly around 6:00 pm and I want to make it as smooth a flight as possible. Sunset is already as late as 8:30 here.
The privileges that come with the private license include: the privilege of flying an airplane in Canada (as long as you're type rated on it), the privilege of carrying non-paying passengers and the freedom of being able to get to far off places in a relatively small amount of time. That last one is not always true. Aviation is fraught with many a delay or weather hinderance. I've heard it said around the airport, "Time to spare, go by air."
Prairie doesn't hand out wings when you become a pilot but they do give you epaulettes (shoulder straps). I'll get a picture of them.
So I'll continue to work toward my commercial license including night and instrument ratings over the next few months and the summer. Thanks for your interest in the journey so far. Why not come out here and I'll take you for a flight!?
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