Experience teaches even fools (like me)

For three years, from the seventh through ninth grades, I took Latin. I stunk at it. I barely passed. I wasn’t motivated and I just couldn’t seem to get the hang of it. Forty plus years later, I’m having deja vu all over again.

We had a nice flight up to Bar Harbor yesterday - my two sons went with me for the first time. Adam took this picture as we approached Bar Harbor airport (KBHB)

In order to become a licensed private pilot, you have to have a check ride with an FAA designated examiner. That seems fair enough – the FAA wants to verify that you can safely fly the airplane before they issue you a license.

But before you can take your check ride, you have to pass the FAA Knowledge Test. Here’s how it works: you go to an FAA testing site, sit at a computer, and they give you 2 1/2 hours to answer 60 questions. You need to get a score of 70% (42 correct answers) to pass the test. You can’t take the private pilot check ride until you have passed the knowledge test.

And the FAA makes it easy (not for me, but for other people). Here’s how: They choose the 60 questions randomly from a database of about 700 questions. And the 700 or so questions are made available to everyone. They’re in books, online, in iPhone apps. The questions are multiple choice (three choices) – which means even random guesses should result in a score of 33%.  Sounds easy, right?

Well, not for me. My brain is not properly wired for memorization. I was lousy at foreign languages. I couldn’t remember the various grammar rules in English class in junior high (i before e except after…). And I had those problems when my brain was only 13 or 14 years old. Now my brain is nearly 57 years old and it’s worse!

I have been studying for this test for weeks. In the winter, I took a ground school course that covered much of it. I bought an online course and have watched most of their videos. And I am constantly taking practice tests – there are tons of them online. (Want to try it – here’s one.) Despite all of that, I keep getting scores of 83-85% and I really, really want to ace this test. I figure my actual score at a testing site will be lower than my “practice” tests. One guideline I hear from people is that you should consistently score 90% plus before taking the test.

Some of the questions are easy (for me at least). For instance:

What is the definition of a high-performance airplane?
A) An airplane with a normal cruise speed in excess of 200 knots.
B) An airplane with an engine of more than 200 horsepower.
C) An airplane with 180 horsepower, or retractable landing gear, flaps, and a fixed-pitch propeller.

(The answer is “B”) But other questions require calculations – such as weight limits and something called “moment.” And boy am I struggling with those. Still others are rote memorization.

Here’s an example of a question that simply makes my head hurt:

The operator of an aircraft that has been involved in an accident is required to file an accident report within how many days?

	A)	10.
	B)	5.
	C)	7.

My answer is that if I am involved in an accident, I’ll figure this out – that is if I live to tell about it.

Another aspect of this (and this happened with Latin too – 40 years ago), is that some of the questions are irrelevant to actual flying. For instance, there are lots of questions about navigating using technology (VORs) that is essentially being phased out. And there are one or two questions about GPS – which is how I navigate and most pilots do these days.

So I keep plugging away. The other day I took a practice test in the morning. I thought: if I get a 90, I will drive to Nashua and take the test today. I got a 75! I went backwards! And now I am worried that the more I take the practice tests, the more there may be a point of diminishing return. I am starting to see the same questions over and over and I am trying to remember how I answered it the last time and if that was the correct answer. I am starting to overthink the whole exercise!

The purpose of this particular blog was to vent about my frustrations – with Latin and the FAA. As it turned out, learning Latin wasn’t such a bad thing. So many foreign languages are rooted in Latin and I still remember some of the Latin phrases I had to learn. One was: experientia docet stultos: Experience teaches even fools.

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