Originally Posted by
runge
The thing that was the hardest for me is, I had to quit almost immediately after I got my instrument checkride. I went from that, to 2 years of not flying at all, into training for my commercial, which is all about looking outside the airplane, so that made it a hard transition; I still have to consciously focus more on what's going outside the airplane during my commercial maneuvers.
It has been ten years for me. I started flying in my early twenties. I got my private license fairly quickly (43 hours) and moved right into my instrument training. Unfortunately, I had to watch every penny I spent on my flying and had to make the most out of every hour. I had nothing to spare. I did this all under Part 61 rules so I had cross country time to complete as well. I did finish all my instrument training and then a few days before my already scheduled check ride my CFI came to my office and tells me he is leaving to move to another state. He has to leave that day. He had signed all the endorsements in my logbook but when I asked him to sign my application for the rating he said he didn't have time. He told me to go fly with another instructor and he said bye and left. I had just enough money to get through my check ride. And no instructor was going to sign my app unless they flew with me and were comfortable with what I could do. I had no money left to do that.
That pretty much broke my heart as I was a single mom with a job and full-time school. I had nothing to spare and my CFI knew it. So I just decided to focus on school and get my degree. Now, I am finishing up my PhD in physics and have a very good job with the DoD. And of course I have money to fly now. So here I am...