The Long-Sought Ticket Is Earned At Last!

It took a lot of hard work from ANN's Rob Finfrock, a fair amount of NOT-normally available spare time, a dedicated instructor, a good LSA (the Gobosh 700S), and some wheeling and dealing from ANN, but we're happy to present the welcome details of Rob Finfrock's successful pursuit of a Sport Pilot's License.

Last May, Rob noted that "'Coming Next Week -- Emergency Procedures, And Dealing With Strong Winds.' Those words, written in March 2007, were the last I posted on the pages of ANN, until now, regarding my efforts to earn my sport pilot license. As regular readers might recall, I had just soloed an Evektor Sportstar at Grand Prairie Municipal (GPM) and was looking forward to moving on to my dual and solo cross country flights, taking the written exam... and finally, the checkride."

"Alas, things didn't work out as intended... certainly not the first time that's happened in my life, but still a bummer. First of all, I knew I was coming up against a hard deadline for my training to be completed -- I planned to move back to New Mexico in July. That wasn't much of a concern in March, however... I still had plenty of time!"

"As the weeks went on, however, time became increasingly compressed. The Evektor suffered a landing mishap in early April (with another student at the controls) which resulted in a scraped wing that put the plane out of service for three weeks. I was able to take the SportStar up solo a couple times after that, complete with its new, freshly-painted aileron... but that was it. In late June, 'my little SportStar' departed the side of the runway on takeoff, went into a ditch and wound up battered on the taxiway... fortunately resulting in no injuries to the pilot and his female passenger, but pretty much scrapping the plane in the process."

Folks, it went downhill form there... with a number of ponderous obstacles placed in the way of Rob getting what he wanted -- a fair shake at earning a coveted Sport Pilot's License.

Well... if you've read the multi-part series that described his adventures this past spring, you'll see that he did eventually succeed... and darned well, we think. Let's take a look at some of his thoughtsand experiences, in concert with CFI Jim Crone, about the process and practices that made Rob what he always wanted to be (and in his heart of hearts, always was)... a pilot.

Click Here: Aero-TV Celebrates Rob's Sport Pilot License

FMI: www.aero-news.net, www.gobosh.aero