Airspace regulations, weather theory, and considerably more mathematics than I expected. Behind me now, at least on paper.
Passed my private pilot written exam today, a genuinely significant milestone I have been studying toward, with real, sustained difficulty, for the better part of two months now, working through airspace regulations, weather theory, aircraft systems, and considerably more actual mathematics than I fully anticipated when I first started this entire flight training process nearly a year ago now.
I want to be honest in this diary entry that the studying leading up to today was genuinely, consistently miserable in a way the actual flying lessons themselves have almost never been, dense, technical material that required a specific kind of sustained, careful memorisation I have not had to seriously engage with since my own university years, delivered through study materials that, however well-organised, never quite managed to make weight and balance calculations or sectional chart symbology feel like anything other than exactly what they are, genuinely dry technical content essential to safe flying but not exactly gripping reading material on its own terms.
I failed my first practice exam badly enough, several weeks back, that I genuinely worried, for a few discouraging days, whether I had the right kind of mind for this particular part of pilot training, a worry that felt considerably heavier than any doubt I have experienced during the actual physical flying, where I have generally felt reasonably confident in my own developing skill. My instructor, when I mentioned this specific worry to him, reassured me that nearly every student he has taught over the years struggled considerably more with the written material than with the actual flying itself, a reassurance that helped in the moment but that I did not fully, properly believe until today’s actual passing score confirmed it for myself.
The exam itself, when I finally sat it this morning, felt considerably more manageable than my earlier practice attempts, a genuine testament, I think, to how much the accumulated weeks of admittedly miserable studying had actually sunk in despite how discouraging the process felt while I was still in the middle of it. I finished with time to spare, reviewed my answers twice, and submitted with a specific, quiet confidence I did not feel walking in this morning, a confidence that turned out, once my score came back almost immediately, to have been entirely justified.
I called my flight instructor the moment I got the result, and he sounded, over the phone, almost as pleased as I felt myself, reminding me that this specific written exam has historically been the single biggest hurdle for a genuinely significant number of his students over the years, considerably more so than any individual flying skill, which made today’s pass feel like a real, hard-won accomplishment rather than simply the next expected box to check on my way toward an eventual private pilot certificate.
I am allowing myself exactly one evening of pure, uncomplicated celebration tonight, a proper dinner out with friends who have patiently listened to me complain about weight and balance calculations for weeks now, before I turn my full attention back tomorrow toward the considerable flight hours I still have remaining before I can actually take my practical exam and, eventually, earn the certificate itself. But tonight, just tonight, I am simply enjoying having gotten one genuinely difficult, genuinely miserable stretch of studying properly, completely behind me.
One of the friends joining me for tonight’s celebration dinner asked, somewhat innocently, what exactly comes next in the process, and I found myself genuinely surprised by how naturally I was able to lay out the remaining steps, the additional flight hours, the cross-country solo requirements, the eventual practical exam with an actual FAA examiner, a fluency I did not have even a few months ago and that today’s exam, in its own strange way, has apparently helped solidify alongside the specific technical knowledge itself.
I think that fluency is, in its own way, its own small marker of progress worth celebrating tonight alongside the actual passing score, a growing sense that this entire process, which felt genuinely overwhelming and slightly abstract when I first started nearly a year ago, has become something I can now speak about with real, grounded confidence rather than the vague, hopeful uncertainty I carried into my very first lesson.
My instructor sent a short congratulatory text partway through dinner, adding, with what I choose to read as genuine warmth rather than routine encouragement, that he has watched today’s specific pass rate become a genuine turning point in confidence for nearly every student he has taught over his own many years of instructing, the moment the whole process shifts from feeling like an uncertain, open-ended undertaking into something with real, visible momentum carrying toward an actual, achievable finish. I believe him completely, sitting here tonight with considerably more confidence about the road ahead than I have felt at any previous point across this entire training year.
I am already, somewhat prematurely given how many flight hours I still have left to log, starting to think about what I actually want to do once I finally hold a private pilot certificate in hand, whether simply flying for the pure pleasure of it on weekends, or perhaps eventually pursuing additional ratings that might open up more serious possibilities down the line. Tonight is not the night to fully plan that out, and I am genuinely trying to resist the urge to get too far ahead of myself before the considerable work still remaining is actually finished. But it feels, for the first time since I started this whole process, like a genuinely real and reachable future rather than simply a distant, hopeful possibility.
More from this author at Siobhan O’Donnell, prat.uk.