Checkride Milestone — Mike Sylvestre

Checkride Milestone — Mike Sylvestre

By Michael “Mike” Sylvestre, EAA 1385886

My interest in aviation started when I was 16. I had actually soloed but times changed for me and I had only trained for a year and ended up stopping my training never to look back. Fast forward 40 years and the last two months have been quite interesting for me. In September, I started an online ground school as I was ready to get back into aviation.

To keep myself honest, I also set a date to start my accelerated flight training to ensure I would stay on track to finish my ground school. On September 21, I passed my written exam, and started my private pilot practical training on October 3 with Randal Longchamps of Accelerated Flight Training Academy. Not only that, I had a checkride date of October 17. Yes, my instructor had already scheduled my checkride — so no pressure! I flew every day for 14 straight days and on the 15th day, October 17, I passed my checkride.

Never give up on your dreams no matter how old you are!

Have you reached a milestone recently? Passed a checkride, given your first or hundredth Young Eagles flight, flown your homebuilt for the first time? Tell us about it at EAA.org/Submissions

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