Gregg Brightwell

Gregg Brightwell

Well Known Member
Wasn't sure where to post this, but I took my Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) Practical Test with Jennifer Wise in Tulsa yesterday. She is a WONDERFUL examiner, along with office mate Nan Gaylord. Both are great. Weather was horrible at my home airport KIDP. 300 ovc, 1.5 vis, and 0/0 temp dewpoint with freezing drizzle. Needless to say, I left the plane there and drove to Tulsa to at least complete the ground portion of the test. I had rented aircraft from there before, and they actually had the same make and model airplane, so after weather improved to 1100 ovc and 5 miles, 7/5, We went ahead and tried the flight portion. Fabulous news, the autopilot failed on climbout before I ever even turned it on. I hand flew the airplane through almost 2 hours of: 2 ILS to mins, a VOR-A to mins with a circle to land, a GPS to mins with a circle, steep turns, 3 stalls, unusual attitudes, with the foggles on the whole time and rough skies. BUT I got er' did. That was an intense flight.

Bottom line, as soon as I send this, I am headed to the shop to give my -4 wings some attention as I have neglected them for the last 2 weeks to study. That should me much less stressful than yesterday!

Have a good Sunday all....

G
 
Congratulations

The check ride is a tough one, probably the hardest I've ever done. I took mine in connection with a Pt 135 check in San Jose in 2002. Afterwards, I was spent. I think the only reason the examiner ended the ride was because we were out of fuel in the Piper Seneca.

I now have an ATP for multi-engine aircraft, which I don't understand because we spent almost all of the time flying around on one engine :rolleyes:

Congrats again.

Don
 
Gregg,
Congratulations on getting your ATP. It is indeed the toughest rating (IMHO) and now I hope that you can make the time and effort dedicated to getting it, pay off.
What plane did you use for the ride? I am in agreement with an earlier comment, in that I don't know how they can be sure that we could actually fly with both engines running!
 
ATP

Well, to be honest, I did a single engine ATP. G1000 172. Now I know what you must be thinking.... Oh man, how hard can it be in a 172..... Well, still plenty hard. The tolerances are virtually non existent. At one point though, we were about 5 degrees nose down and climbing at 300 fpm in an updraft... quite a ride....
 
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