r/flying

Edit: Thanks for all the answers, you have been really helpful. Fortunately I was taught and doing the entry correctly (overflying, going past several miles and then joining at 45°) and won't misnomer it as a "teardrop" anymore.

For some context, I'm training for my PPL. I was coming in to just do some touch and goes at a non-towered airport with a CFI.

Durning my entry I made a call "(Airport) Traffic, (callsign) Overflying the midfield at 1500. Will be doing a right teardrop to enter the downwind for runway 31. Touch and go. (Airport) Traffic. To which he replied "isn't it a little early for the teardrop?"

Now, I've been taught to state my full intentions as far back as my position calls (unless it's so busy time doesn't allow for it). CFI just told me it was a local DPE and to ignore him. He snarked at me again with an "Oh my god" or something when I said I was in the departure leg and would be staying in the pattern after the first touch and go.

Was there anything technically wrong or that could be phrased better here? Does he just have a thing to pick with teardrops or the terminology or something? I've never been corrected on my calls by the instructors at my school. I wish I could know what he wanted me to do better instead of being passive aggressive, but oh well.

My wife and I just celebrated her 22nd wedding anniversary and we were talking about what to do for our 25th. She proposed that maybe if I had a plane by then and everything worked out, we could take a trip together in our plane.

I was pretty intimidated by this. I’m only 12 hours in and I would be lucky to get my PPL completed in 2026.

It got me thinking, though that it seemed like a worthy goal, but I wanted to have some way to benchmark it. for instance, maybe what we want to do just to find some fun general aviation destinations throughout the southern US and southwest. Maybe bounce around on the Gulf Coast in across Texas, to Big Bend, ending up over in New Mexico or Arizona. Then flying back to the Midwest. No really complicated airspace, no mountains, no high altitude.

I was just kind of curious at what point in your training you’d feel comfortable doing something like this. I could probably only get to maybe 200 hours by then and even that would be difficult. I’m worried it’s not a realistic goal.

I’m 32 years old, married, have a toddler, another child potentially on the way, and I’m struggling with a major career decision. I’d love input from people who have either made a similar switch or decided not to.
Current situation:
Cybersecurity professional making ~$105k/year
4-day workweek (Mon-Thu)
Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays off
Stable career with growth potential
TS clearance and several years of experience
Comfortable financially
Don’t love cybersecurity, but don’t hate it either
The dilemma:
I’ve been seriously considering becoming an airline pilot. I recently started flight training and completed my first lesson. It went better than expected and I genuinely enjoyed it.
What attracts me to aviation isn’t just flying airplanes. It’s the lifestyle on the other side:
Potentially much higher income later in my career
More days off (eventually)
Travel benefits for my family
A career that feels more interesting and meaningful to me
Less interest in climbing the corporate ladder and sitting in meetings all day
The problem is the path to get there.
Realistically I’m looking at:
$100k+ in training costs
Several years of balancing flight training, work, and family
Low-paying CFI years
Working weekends and long hours to build time
Potentially sacrificing a lot of family time while my kids are young
Regional/junior airline schedules before seniority improves things
One thing that’s weighing heavily on me is that I spent most of my 20s in the Navy. Part of me feels like I already sacrificed one decade of my life building a career and setting up my future.
Now I’m asking myself:
Do I really want to spend much of my 30s grinding through another career transition just so my 40s and 50s are potentially better?
Or do I stay in cybersecurity, continue progressing, earn more certifications, enjoy the flexibility and stability I already have, and maximize time with my family while my kids are young?
I honestly think 60-year-old me might be proud that I became a pilot.
But I also think 40-year-old me might be grateful that I spent my 30s present for my family.
Has anyone faced a similar decision? Particularly pilots who started later in life with young children, or people who chose not to make a major career change despite being drawn to it?
What would you do in my shoes?
I’d continue to work full time while flight training. However, if I commit to flight school then I would have to see it out through the end. My wife and I can’t justify 20-30k for me to get my PPL just to figure out if it’s something that I want to do.

Looking for company recommendations that can do complete overhaul (exterior paint, interior, avionics) for a Cessna 182?

Any experiences or recommendations would be appreciated.

I know it takes some time untill it expires. Also we're talking about the land of EASA, i don't know how it works in the US.

But for someone who only files airliners for a living, which obviously aren't single engine piston aircraft, it can be easy to forget.

If you're an airline pilot, who has a couple years of large jet expirence, have you let your SEP expire?

My airline doesn’t do trading cards or wings, so I’m curious what y’all like to handout to our big and small flight deck visitors. If you can provide links to purchase that would be awesome!

I’ve been at one of the AA wholly-owned regionals for about a year now, and overall it’s a great company - I enjoy flying the jets and the travel benefits are great. The tough part has been the constant 4-on/3-off schedule and time at hotels. It’s taken a real toll on my sleep and routines. I try my best to stick to my routines while on the road, but it’s genuinely hard. I also find it tough to cram my whole social life into the three nights a week I’m actually home.

I’d love to hear from anyone at the legacies, is it actually that much better in terms of flexibility and time at home even as a Junior FO, or if I’m struggling this much now, am I likely to run into the same issues at mainline?

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Are there any good side gigs that anyone has done in the past while on the road? I work at a regional and have plenty of time on my hands to earn a bit of cash. I have an accounting degree and want to try to incorporate that into it if possible. Open to all ideas that allow remote work with flexible hours. TYIA

Descent from cruise altitude... 

Rate of Descent: 1500ft;

Airspeed: 80 to 85kts;

Clean configuration.

No excessive load factor.

No induced slip.

Hey, I'm trying to decide where to do my MEP/MEIR/CPL for the final stages of training and have been thinking about going here, hopefully this is the right place to ask but has anyone had any experience at this school?

Ive been considering it because of the cost and the fact that its close to where im currently staying so would save accomadation costs elsewhere.

Thanks!

Had anybody interviewed with JSX lately for the FO position? They sent me an invite a few days ago for a one way video interview where I guess you record yourself answering questions. Had anybody done this before? And what are your experiences?

Let us know the best FBOs around Ft Rucker. Looking for good food or anything that you liked. Recommendations for students in Instruments.

KCEW has a great kitchen and meals only cost $1 (with fuel purchase)

79J (Andulusia) has buffet style breakfast and lunch

KDHN has catered Chick Fli A on Fridays (I think)

Been rewriting this post more than I'd care to admit. I've always to fly since discovery flight school in my first year of Uni but as a good, gullible and naive Asian kid who wanted to make his parents proud, I never followed thru.
Fast forward to 2016, I met a same age pilot in Koh Phi Phi who had started in his early 20's and now was exclusively doing SF/Singapore or SF/SE Asia routes making a buttload of money.

I thought then that being 35, I was far too late to start and never pursued it. Now I'm at a point in my life where I just want to "DO" things that make me happy you know?

I know I'll never get to be a wide body captain but beyond PPL, what has flying life been like for those that chose to get into it as a career later in your life? I can't afford my own bird & maintenance so even as a hobby, I could MAYBE only do 100hrs a year tops out of pocket.

Im CSEL rated and about to go to a week long fast track school to get my instrument rating. I have about 80-100 hours in the 182T I’ll be flying for the training, and it’s equipped with G1000s (no WAAS).
Anyone here taken an instrument checkride with G1000s that can shed some light on how the flight portion will go? How do they do partial panel? Do you think I’m biting off more than I can chew going from 3,000 hrs of six pack flying to G1000 for my instrument training, and trying to get it done in a week or so?

Like I said, I have about 80 or so hours in this airplane but haven’t flown it (or with G1000s) in about 2 years, and I didn’t ever learn the G1000s that in depth. Just enough for a few cross countries in basic VFR.

Hi everyone, i've been wondering lately about psychometric tests which you unfortunetly need to perform during your pilot assesment, and main question here is are they really THAT hard to pass as some say, also do they actually really matter for airlines, like it's decisive factor? Mainly asking those who already applied for pilot job.

I'm back again and this time with my CFI temp cert in hand. Thank you to everyone that gave me encouragement and advice in my original post. Starting off I'll say yes, I did report the oral to the FSDO once I was home safe and talked to my local POI and friends. I went back to the same DPE for my retest and my oral retest was a single question on COMM training requirements.

Going from that single question we got straight into the plane and after a long pre start brief we taxied out for what turned into a 2.7 hour long flight. I talked about every marking, sign, light, and airport object we taxied passed, the hold short and every item on the check list. Everything set and complete I demonstrate SF T/O and VY climb out to our cruise altitude.

I talked the whole time to the practice area about our sight picture, trimming the plane, systems and how to set the GPS/Nav to local VOR. Once in a good area I did clearing turns and we went into maneuvers. DPE asked for PPL steep turns both sides, straight into COMM steep turns both sides. He took controls after my demonstration and did perfect PPL steep turns and asked for a critique (I had none I said we were perfect on ACS standards), next he did COMM steep turns and put us straight into a accelerated stall that caught me off guard but I took controls and recovered immediately. I got us back to stable cruise and he asked for slow flight. Real easy but he had me hold slow flight while climbing 500ft and doing a 180. At 300ft I mentioned that our CHT's were getting high (440°) and he told me to stop the climb.

I went from slow flight to power off stall, recovered, power off stall again with secondary stall, recovered, cross controlled stall, and recovered. I climbed back to cruise and as soon as I finished cruise checklist he cut the throttle and gave me engine out. I explained ABCD list while demonstrating everything. We dropped to a little over 500ft AGL when he said recover. while we were low we did lazy 8's, 8's on pylons, turns around a point, and rectangular pattern.

Climbed back to up and picked a nearby airport to do Soft and Short field landings / takeoffs all to a full stop. Last takeoff was normal climb out back to the starting airport. I flew over for the 45 entry left downwind and as expected he killed the throttle and gave me a power off 180. I got all setup and 50ish feet over the ground setup perfect to hit the 1000ft marker when he called out "plane on the runway". I went around, flew normal left pattern and did a normal landing and taxi back to the FBO. Once the engine was turned off he he said "You're the FAA's newest CFI". I was locked in this entire flight, no way was I going to give him a reason for a NOD.

I have my cert and just got back to my home base an a few hours ago. Thank you again for everyone's kind words and encouragement after my oral horror story. To everyone who said my experience scared them away from CFI make sure you research DPE's heavily before you take your ride but if you prep and go to a well known local DPE your CFI ride should never be like mine. I'm not touching a plane for the rest of the week but starting next monday CFII training starts.