Fix my flight instructor's weight and balance spreadsheet to pull data from aviationweather.gov by adjusting the permissions that were missing (he couldn't figure out why the METAR was no longer getting fetched) #flightlessons

Land a Cessna 152 on my 2nd ever flight lesson. A bit crooked (needed more rudder) but did it myself! #flightlessons

Book 2 months of flight lessons ahead of time because I noticed the airplanes I'm needing to fly for cost savings reasons are super popular and get booked out in advance #flightlessons

Finish first real flight lesson in a Cessna 152 and complete a hilariously easy airport badge access course to get my ID card #flightlessons

Convince ForeFlight to give me an extra month free trial for their mobile EFB because I started flight training later than I expected #flightlessons

Schedule first real flight lesson for Friday, and buy 2 aviation headsets at different price points so I can see which one is worth the money (and return the other after testing) TIL: aviation headsets are *expensive* because of much tighter quality control and better components. Cheapest ones that are decent quality start at $375 and go up to $1,299 for premium headsets #flightlessons

Ship free tool to auto generate FAA private pilot practice test questions via the Sporty's API: github.com/bakatz/sportys-tes… #flightlessons

Write post about how to save money when doing flight training: ben-makes-stuff.beehiiv.com/p… #flightlessons

Try to fly in the weather in X-Plane 12 in full-screen mode just to see what it would be like, and good lord it's disorienting Thought I was descending when I was climbing and vice versa, very hard to stay on a heading No wonder private pilots w/o instrument ratings aren't allowed to fly in the weather #flightlessons

Get personal email from the CEO of Gold Seal offering to give me his Instrument Rating course for free in exchange for a phone call + additional feedback on his PPL course (I just finished it and sent some text feedback, then he reached out personally after reading it) - took him up on it. Always nice to hear directly from the CEO. #flightlessons

🎉 Pass FAA private pilot knowledge test with a 90% score at an in-person testing center! Security was pretty serious, they had a metal detector and made sure you weren't bringing a single thing in with you that could allow you to cheat One guy I think got caught cheating or otherwise got yelled at by the proctor for some other reason in the middle of the test, not sure what happened to him 😂 Thread on X with SeCrEt TiPs in case you want to get a good score on this exam too: x.com/ben_makes_stuff/status/… #flightlessons

Write Sporty's FAA practice test scraper to scrape my practice test history and generate a new combined practice test PDF with all of the questions I got wrong at any point during taking practice tests to help with studying #flightlessons

See consistent >= 90% scores on the FAA knowledge test practice tests, going to keep studying missed questions anyway to try for a 100% in person next week because I've always been an overachiever #flightlessons

Practice using a plotter to figure distance and true course from A to B + adjusting for magnetic variation to get magnetic course #flightlessons

Schedule FAA private pilot knowledge test and plan to take a practice test every day leading up to it + review any areas with questions that I missed or had to guess to get #flightlessons

Pass private pilot ground school final exam and get certificate that allows me to take the real FAA knowledge test in person Still noticed some deficiencies in my knowledge though (mostly random cloud and airspace clearances that are hard to memorize), so will continue taking practice tests for the next week, then schedule my exam for April 1 #flightlessons

Get 92% on practice exam for the entire course, feeling pretty good about taking the in person FAA exam now but will continue practice tests for a week to see what I'm deficient on, then schedule #flightlessons

Pass final stage check before the final exam with a 97%. Now to take practice tests before the final exam + in person FAA exam! #flightlessons

Fly KFRG -> KMTP using 2 VOR ground stations as waypoints in XPlane 12 to practice what I just learned in ground school about VOR navigation ...and nearly hit a car after landing way too far down the runway 😅 #flightlessons

Final stretch of ground school, just a few lessons remaining and then time to take practice tests before signing up for my FAA exam Next lesson is on VOR navigation which seems pretty cool 📡 #flightlessons