I had booked the plane for most of the day, so I was reasonably certain we had plenty of time. Unfortunately, when we arrived the weekend dispatcher was gone to lunch. We had to wait for him to get back, but after that everything was good to go. I did my (increasingly) typical orientation, safety briefing and preflight. Everything checked out. This was great. We loaded up and I started the plane, radioed for taxi, did a run-up and taxied into position at Alpha 8 for takeoff. After glossing over the before and after takeoff checklists, I handed the book to my brother and asked if he could hold it for me. I explained that I might need it once we were off the ground so he just needed to keep it handy. I waited for the landing traffic to touchdown and roll out a bit before calling ready for takeoff. After they were clear, we were cleared for takeoff. As we rolled onto the runway, I looked over and asked one last time, "are you ready?" After an affirmative response, I applied full throttle and we were off. As we reached the end of the runway a large bird flew around the front of the plane and behind us. I immediately alerted the tower of this since it could be an issue and we proceeded to fly as filed. Our course was basically runway heading, so there wasn't much maneuvering to be done. Just a nice climb.... Read more »

While the test is fairly regimented and unsurprising, the oral exam is less structured than the practical exam. There are the standard parts, legal questions and cross country planning, and there are the questions that the examiner chooses to focus on. This lesson is about those questions specifically.... Read more »

On the one leg I wanted to have a GPS backup, I had no GPS. It turns out that what I had interpreted as the GPS having no location data, was actually me having put in the wrong airport identifier. It now thought I was headed to Greene County and that it was K0VG...I turned down the brightness and left it. I would just have to make sure I stayed on course.... Read more »