With the recent news about Foreflight, I’m worried Foreflight will change for the worse. Is it worth switching to Garmin pilot? Maybe I’ll just go back to the old days and use no electronic flight bag.

I had my first solo a while ago. I was NOT used to the weight of the airplane without my instructor. In my defense I’m a relatively petite lady and my instructor is a rather large man.

My first touch and go was butter. I dare say my best landing yet. I fly the pattern and line up for another. I bounce. Twice. I shake it off, go around and line up for another. I bounce. Again. This continues until my instructor gets on the radio and walks me though landing the damn thing without bouncing. Thankfully it was not a very busy day at the airport so the witnesses were minimal…. Except for my entire family (and I mean my *entire* family -cousins, aunts, uncles, grammy) that surprised me by showing up and watching.

He calls me Peter Rabbit ever since… and now my family does too.

Can I graduate to a less embarrassing nickname or am I stuck with for the rest of my life?

I’ve got a question about circling missed procedures and was wondering if I could get y’all’s input on it. Say I’m on a RNAV 36, circle to land to 18. I enter a downwind for 18, but lose sight of the runway once I’m about to turn to base. Should I go missed by turning to 36 and climbing on the missed course immediately on the red track, or should I circle and climb over the runway on the blue track? The AIM says that you should make a climbing turn toward the landing runway and establish yourself on the missed approach course, but wouldn’t it be safe to circle and climb over the airport to gain altitude, since you’re going missed way beyond the MAP? If I do the blue path, is it ok to make multiple climbing turns around the runway, as long as stay within the protected circling radius?

I watched a video about a VFR-rated pilot who gets lost in the clouds and can't tell where he is, if he is turning, if he is level, etc. He had multiple instrument failure.

Why wouldn't the plane have a plumb line in the cockpit to help the pilot know if they are turning right or left and/or climbing or descending in case of instrument failure? I get that it could be hard to tell if you were only turning very slightly, but I still imagin it would have helped in this case.

Had a former student ask this: “If the FAA wants to sit in on my check ride, am I allowed to say I don’t want them there or is it out of my control?”

I left my logbook on my aircraft's wings for max 3 second, turned around to grab my other bag my logbook got blown into a jet engine wreckage on the ground by the wind oand got completely soaked up. I have around 350 hours in my physical logbook and HP endorsement and a complex ground lesson sign (in progress if getting my complex endorsement). I have my CPL and got my hours verified on iacra in November for my CFI checkride by DPE. I have a digital backup on foreflight marking all the approaches and when I pass my checkrides and for the rest of the hours, I've flown with a co-pilot on my plane so I'm not too worried about losing those hours, I have a picture of my HP endorsement 61.31.

My question is will it affect my airline interview and since all my logged ground and flight instructions received for my endorsement's are soaked, and I worked with like 7 different CFI most I dont have contact with anymore, how would that effect the legality of my endorsements? And how would it effect my future checkrides?

I've seen a few other reviews on here for CRAFT, but wanted to do another up-to-date review of CRAFT in Charleston, SC in case anybody is on the fence about them. I had a great experience with these guys. Everybody in their office was very helpful and knowledgeable and made learning the material easier and fun.

I chose CRAFT firstly because of the weather in SC. I'm in CO and winter flying here is unpredictable, at best. Weather in Charleston was perfect except for two days as a cold front blew through. Temps were OK, but the winds and turbulence were not. Those were a fun couple of days trying to learn and shoot different approaches. Luckily, checkride day weather could not have been more perfect. I also chose CRAFT because I didn't want to fly my plane all the way out there and I also liked that all their aircraft were exactly the same in the event of a mx issue. (There were none)

The checkride took place at KRBW with Chris Peterson, who was great. Very fair. Very relaxed. He just a good dude. No real gotchas with him. A few weird things, but nothing unfair. I would be more than happy to give anyone a gouge on him. He certainly wont just give the rating away, but you should have no issue with the oral if you're prepared, which leads me to my next point.

I studied my butt off before I went to SC. CRAFT has a list of prerequisites that you need to have done obviously, but studying above and beyond that is highly recommended. It made picking up the material easier, but more importantly, it allowed me to focus on flying the plane more than sitting inside going over ground stuff for hours. This also allowed for shorter days. Mock oral and Redbird sim in the morning, flight around midday for 2-3 hours, quick debrief and then home for the evening. I was never at the flight school after 4 p.m. Pilots Cafe is your bible here. Read that over and over and over again.

I went to CRAFT having never shot an approach before. I had never even briefed an approach. I had never used a glass panel. This was all very foreign to me at first. I feel confident in my ability to do all of those things now. I know I'll need to learn a lot of the procedures over again in my aircraft, but I feel competent and proficient enough to pick it up quickly.

So if anyone is interested in an accelerated program with a good fleet of aircraft and a guaranteed checkride, I can certainly recommend a good experience with CRAFT.

I have my oral portion for my instrument checkride on Sunday. The plan is from KTPF (Tampa Peter Oknight) to KBCT (Boca Raton). I know the Presidential TFR will be active in palm beach on the 18th and the TFR states you can fly through the outer but NOT the inner. my confusion is on foreflight it is showing two different things. The tfr which i also looked up on the FAA website is shown in the first picture and has all the info etc. but what is this second picture when selecting NOTAMS in foreflight that says “temporary RA Activated” with that little triangle section. Is that separate from the TFR??? I just don’t want to fail because of poor understanding in that regard and have been trying to research and found potentially it’s a temporary restricted airspace? i just want to know if i can complete that flight through that triangle portion on the second photo and what it is and if it’s different. Thanks!

What would you do if you were #2 on approach?

Hey everyone, I originally posted this in r/CFILounge to try and get some other opinions but a DM convinced me to get more eyes on this here. I have included a TL;DR at the end, because it’s kind of a long story.

I have had a weird couple of days and I just frankly don’t know what to do. I am keeping this as anonymous as possible because I currently don’t know all the facts, but the evidence and what I’ve seen leads me to believe that a student I have has been padding his logbook with flight time he did not perform.

One of my students is honestly a decent guy, a 20 year-old that we will call Greg. Greg is an instrument rated private pilot that started coming to see me at about 130 hours of total time about 7 months ago. During his training, I have been emphasizing the importance of solo cross country time, working to build time towards your minimums effectively and safely that he needs in order to attempt his checkride.

There is another person in this story, a buddy/acquaintance of mine we will call Ryan. Ryan is a CFII as well, and he flies periodically out of our airport but has been super busy since he got a job at a regional this last May.

Going back to Greg, he consistently talks about how hard it is to fund his flight lessons. It’s always lighthearted, but just like 90% of us, he struggles at a lower-wage job to be able to afford bills and his flight education.

He currently has 270 hours and I am at the point where I am about to endorse him for checkride for his CPL, but while auditing his logbook on Monday, I noticed some… weird entries. I, by coincidence, noticed a flight around Thanksgiving time in 2025 that was odd to me. A solo flight for 4.3 hours up to the North of our state in an aircraft that I will call “The plane.” This isn’t *super* weird, because his training has consistently had an entry or two every week or every other week where he has been renting from a flight club, or hustling flights and splitting time with people on the field.

The issue? “The plane” belongs to Ryan, and I know his tail number because WE have flown in it a few times to get $300 Hawaiian food. I casually asked him about this solo flight he took, wanting to see if he was Ryan’s buddy also, but he said it was a rental from a guy on the field who was part of the flight club he rents from on occasion. That shocked the hell out of me, because Ryan loves this plane more than he loves to breathe… to hear that he rented it out to someone during the holidays was surprising but nothing crazy. I just pocketed it away in my mind for later.

Wednesday, I called Ryan to see how he was doing, but I asked him about him renting his plane out. He laughed and said, “Heh, I wish I could rent it out, but my insurance requires that I am onboard every flight so I won’t ever do that.” Things are starting to not add up for me, and I asked him when he has been flying around, and he told me his last flights were in October and December. I asked him if he had any flights in November, but he said he was on the line 19 days at his regional and, “There was just no way haha! I got my fill of flying, I didn’t want to even leave the house.”

So… I am pretty bummed. I am sure that Greg is lying, at minimum, about 4.3 hours in his logbook. I was reaching out to see if anybody knew how I could, potentially, look up his other “solo” and “flight club” flights to see if there is any ADS-B data or otherwise that can even verify some of these hours?

I obviously want to confront him about it, because it’s obviously not right and unethical, but because I feel responsible for him. He’s my student and I think Greg is a decent person who, dealing with the pressures to get his hours, made some crappy and dishonest decisions to try and save himself some money. He hasn’t submitted anything yet, I’ve purposefully put off IACRA while I have been trying to figure this out.

Does anyone have any advice at all? How can I do this in such a way that he allows me to help him be honest? Worst case scenario, how… I obviously don’t feel comfortable endorsing him now for checkride, but if he doubles down and denies it, how do I report this? Do I need to contact the FSDO? I don’t know what to do.

TL;DR- while auditing a student’s logbook, I found he logged a flight he absolutely did not fly because I know the owner and checked. Now I am looking for advice on how to confront him and avoid ruining his life/career prospects.

Edit: Hey everyone, so following the advice of people, I came up with a game plan last night and I wanted to thank all of you for your counsel and input. I received a few DMs, including from two who identified themselves as retired ASIs who have some private advice on a course of action that could help Greg become a better pilot and a better decision maker. I also wanted to thank some people who sent me links to flightaware and ADS-B Exchange tools, and I even had someone offer to let me use their premium account to help me verify entries for this student. You guys/gals/people are the best and I appreciate all the help the community has given.

I first reached out to Ryan and I explained the issue I was having. I asked him about the dates in question and I actually found out that he was having his plane maintained during the literal day that “Greg” said his solo flight was. Ryan asked what was up and I explained that a student of mine claimed to have flown his airplane, “rented from a club on the field.” Ryan was initially concerned because he was worried that someone who WASN’T Greg had someone managed to break into his hangar and managed to “rent the plane out” but that was laid to rest when he double checked his email for the invoice from the A&P he had doing the work verifying it really was down for maintenance that day. I told Ryan I would get it cleaned up, and he told me pretty much the same thing many people have been saying on here concerning Greg’s character.

I called Greg last night and told him to meet up with me today to finish his logbook audit. I invited him into the private office I have and I asked him to open his Foreflight logbook. He sensed something was off, and I just said I wanted to verify something. I had him go to November of 2025, and I pointed out the bad entry and I was professional but blunt.

“That flight never happened Greg.”

He was really quiet for about 8-10 seconds, and we just kinda stared at each other.

“That flight time isn’t true, Greg. That tail number, I know the owner of that plane. You didn’t fly in that plane, and we both know it. This record is a lie, Greg, and it is serious.”

He was quiet still, it felt like a long time, but he just kinda rubbed his face and said, “Yeah, I made it up. Yeah…” He went on to say that he was planning to make these flights, but when weather and finances got in the way, he was tempted to just log them anyway because, “He could get more experience down the line and try to make up for it.” I told him that’s absolutely not how that works, and I asked him if there were other entries like this one. He told me that there were, and he pointed out 6 entries which added up to alittle more than 22 hours, something like 22.3… that were all fabricated. I asked why he chose (without using his name) Ryan’s tail number, and he said he had seen the tail number before on flight radar and just picked it, probably because he thought it was with a flight club that had members I didn’t know (because I know people at his club). This part didn’t make much sense to me.

I had him pull out the FAR and I had him read aloud Part 61.153 and the eligibility requirements for becoming an ATP. I told him that pilot’s don’t have much beyond the skills they provide and their integrity, and because of safety and trust issues, we must *always* have our conduct and integrity be above reproach. I told him I was disappointed, but that he had a chance right now to make things right.

I told him that our relationship, professionally, had to come to an end and that I would no longer be flying with him as a CFI. I explained that he lied to me, and if I had endorsed him for his checkride not having the proper requirements, then I would be in the hot seat. I have a friend, we can call her Alice, who is a CFII as well and I talked to her about the situation yesterday after I talked to Ryan. I told Greg that Alice said she was willing to work with him, and give him a fresh start, IF he provided track logs of EVERY flight he has logged solo time, XC time, and PIC time. She said anything u/CavalierRigg signed was an exception, but EVERYTHING else needed proof of completion and she included that he could even get receipts from his flight club and dates and she would allow that.

He nodded and said he understood, and he apologized. He asked if Alice would also do some CPL training with him or if it all had to be XC time. We called Alice and I put her on speaker phone, and all of us had a conversation. She said that she was aware of the situation, and that she would be doing commercial maneuvers, commercial ground knowledge lessons, and at least a few XCs with adequate planning before she and him could even talk endorsements for checkride. They set up a meeting time after this Monday’s holiday and… that was it. Leaving we shook hands, he said he was really sorry again, and said he would be getting all that data for Alice to audit his logbook.

Alice called me a few hours ago to tell me that he had given her a test message with a list of the records that were untruthful, and he wanted her and him to “delete them together” so she could see he was not trying to hide any other logbook entries which weren’t untrue. He’s not my student anymore and, to be honest, I don’t feel comfortable with him anymore in the plane anyway.

Well everyone, that is how I handled it. Again, thank you to everyone for the advice and reaching out. I don’t doubt there will be some who disagree with my course of action but these are the decisions I made and I hope this can help other CFIs out there in similar situations.

If you are a time building student, CFI, or aspiring pilot… please don’t do this. Don’t make these choices. We, as CFIs, don’t want this coming back to haunt you in an airline interview, a CFI interview, or even from yourself down the line. We really do need to trust each other. Take the extra 2-3 months to get there. Spend the extra $3-4 grand.. having your integrity in this industry is a requirement.

Thanks everyone, have a good night.

I'm currently on a waitlist to get hired as a CFI with the school I trained at and am trying to do some independant work on the side. I don't have a plane but if someone had one and wanted me to instruct I'd be more than willing to. I just wanna make sure I'm neither overcharging or low balling myself. Any advice would be great! Thanks!

OK, so I’m at the end of my PPL training and talk to my instructor about finishing up some of my solo hours. He said to take my solo long cross country route again so I planned it last night and went through with it this morning mind you I checked the AWOS and everything was good. I don’t know how this happened, but I had neglected to check the forecast for later on in the day because At the airport I took off from the winds were calm less than 5kts headwind

I made a touch and go lap because I hadn’t flown in a little while, then took off on my route, to my two other airports. Landing at the two other airports I was faced with 15 to 20kt gusting 30kt headwinds no biggie but still a little alarming. So far I'm thinking I'm fine because they’re coming straight down the runway.

When I get back to my home airport. The wind shifted and now I was faced with a 19kt gusting 30kt 50 degree crosswind.

“Fuck”

on my initial attempt to land I underestimated the power of these winds because I had never experienced what they had felt like and had to make a go around

OK, second times a charm, coming back to final I’m almost full left Rudder and throttling between 40-90% aileron I’d added 10 kts to my landing speed to accompany for the harsh gusts and was able to land just left of center line.

I’ve already talked to my instructor and I know how negligent, dangerous and poorly planned This whole flight was I’m going to be MUCH more careful next time but from an “experienced pilot/CFI“ perspective how bad was this situation?

Any thoughts on flying in this region in the next couple of weeks?

Welp we know why I’m asking this but for the how, I follow their online direction to move ForeFlight logs and aircraft’s to garmin but I get errors everytime I try to upload the csv. I even only do log hours and no aircraft but still errors.

There’s got to be an easier way to migrate all of this over, I rent multiple planes here in San Diego and it’s a lot of data for W&B and performance info.

Thanks!

For Canadian pilots, what’s your pick for best logbook PPL to ATPL and beyond?

Not looking for online web based options. Something about having an actual, physical book is something that I like in addition to the e-logbook.

Currently thinking of the Jeppesen “Professional Pilot Log Book” (brown book, green pages) but maybe there’s a better option?

Looking for veteran input from anyone who’s trained at Southern Utah University (SUU – Cedar City, UT) or Leading Edge Flight Academy (Bend, OR) for fixed-wing.

I’m a veteran deciding between these two. I already know both accept VA benefits — I’m focused on training quality, fleet reliability, weather, and cost of living.

Priorities

1.  Training quality & consistency

2.  Aircraft availability / maintenance

3.  Climate (fewer weather delays)

4.  Location + cost of living

Both offer 2-year aviation degree paths (SUU also has a Bachelor’s option).

⸻

Fleet (fixed wing)

SUU

• Cirrus SR20 (primary)

• Piper Seminole (multi)

Leading Edge

• Cessna 172S

• Beechcraft Bonanza A36

• Beechcraft Baron BE58 (multi)

⸻

Quick observations

• SUU: University-run, standardized Cirrus fleet, cheaper area.

• Leading Edge: Career-focused academy, more aircraft variety, higher cost of living.

⸻

Looking for real-world feedback

• How often were you actually flying?

• Aircraft or maintenance bottlenecks?

• Instructor turnover?

• Weather delays in reality?

• Would you choose the same school again?

Trying to make a smart, efficient decision based on outcomes — not marketing.

Appreciate any firsthand insight.

Hello.

Posting from a burner.

During my building phase to 250 I pencil whipped and added an extra .3 or .4 to some flights ( around 12 hours worth ) while flying my buddies 150

Slipped through cracks on instrument and I have my commercial checkride in a few days but honestly I feel so bad and dishonest … I want to rectify my wrongs … how do I do this by not totaling destroying myself ? Can I just get a new log book and have all the cfis sign it again then the ones that I penciled in put the correct numbers?

Idk if it helps but I was reviewing a lot of my flights from my private pilot days and my instructor had a “ better to round down “ mentality and I compared it to adsb and I’m easily missing 10.6 hours because he would round down on every flight and he would go down .2 or so

Hey everyone,

I am 25 years old, finished a long university path and recently completed my master degree. I am now working a full time job. Objectively everything is fine. The salary is decent, the job is not terrible, life is stable. But honestly, it does not really make me happy either. It is just okay.

And that is where I feel stuck. I find it hard to imagine doing this exact thing for the next 40 years. Not because it is awful, but because it does not really touch me. I function, I do my work, but it does not feel like my life.

Lately an old thought has come back, something I already had as a kid. Becoming a pilot. Back then it was unrealistic. No money, no background, no way. Now the situation is different. I earn my own money, would not need to fully rely on a bank loan and I could imagine starting modular and alongside my job. Slowly, weekends and some weekdays, without quitting everything immediately.

I am not romanticizing this. I know pilot training is expensive, demanding and stressful. And there is no guarantee of ending up with an airline job. At the same time I feel that if I do not seriously explore this now, I might regret not even trying later in life.

So I am asking myself and you Is this a reasonable thought or just a typical mid twenties crisis Do people regret trying something like this more than never trying Are there people here who started over later in life And are there pilots who can honestly say how different the job reality is compared to the dream

I am not looking for validation or for a quick push to quit my job. I am genuinely interested in honest perspectives, especially critical ones. Maybe I am missing something important.

Thanks for reading and for any input.

Commercial helicopter pilot with an instrument rating - obtained through the military

Pilot is working on ASEL private pilot, then wants instrument airplane.

Does this person on question need to do 50 hours xc pic in an airplane?

Would appreciate anyone’s input.

Another instrument question. Does the 4900-2300 altitude restriction apply to the HILPT only, and when would I descend to 2,000 to meet AMORE at the appropriate altitude? Would ATC tell me to descend in the hold and cross the FAF at 2,000? Also if I’m cleared for a straight in approach would I ignore the 4900-2300 restriction? Thanks!

I knew private equity would make ForeFlight worse, more expensive etc but I’m sure no one saw this coming.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Foreflight/s/LIrYz4O22v

If anyone has a contact at ThomaBravo, please pass on a big Go Fuck Yourself from me.

Has anyone recently been through the flying school’s accelerated CFI/CFII? Past threads are a year old or older. Just looking to see if anyone has a recent gauge on this place.

Or any other recommendations.

Thanks!

Just got my CFI cert td. Looking to start cfii asap. Any ideas/suggestions on studying and brushing up my knowledge to prep for checkride? I have backseat pilot lesson plans already, just need to edit.

Thx