After about two months of flying, studying, and waiting, I am finally going to have my Instrument Rating checkride. I am thrilled since I only had to wait for two days after my end-of-course check, which is not common at all.
We will be flying to Brooksville, a nearby controlled airport with an ILS approach available. Although the weather is not perfect for a runway with ILS today, we might be able to have a low-pass. I am planning ILS, LOC, and RNAV approaches there and an RNAV approach at my home airport.
I am always a bit nervous about exams, not because of a lack of confidence but because of the higher pressure than usual. Besides that, there will be nothing more than what I have already done, such as flight planning, weather briefing, working with charts, unusual attitudes recovery, holding, airplane control, and instrument approaches. One more good thing is that the ATC in Brooksville is usually amazing.
As a result, I am now a legal instrument pilot. I have a bit of a strange license now, which is an EASA PPL, piggyback FAA PPL based on the EASA one, and the US instrument rating based on this piggyback FAA PPL.
What’s next? I am going to obtain a FAA CPL to eliminate the necessity of maintaining my EASA PPL for executing the privileges of the FAA one. In other words, it will become a normal standalone FAA Commercial Pilot License with an Instrument Rating. Then I am going to pass the EASA ATPL theory and obtain a standalone EASA CPL. I can count my future US flight time towards EASA minimums too.
Why am I going that way? Why two different licenses? Basically, to increase my chances of being hired anywhere. Since I am neither a US citizen nor an EU citizen, aviation-related things are complicated in Russia, and our general aviation is nearly dead. I suppose I need as many credentials and as much experience as possible. At the end of the day, it’s also fun, and I love flying.
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