I'm a commercial pilot

I passed my commercial flight test today! I'm a commercial pilot!

Last week, I finished the required hours for the commercial license. I took my pilot dad with me for the flight on which I reached 100 hours of pilot in command time. I've been practicing flight test maneuvers over the past couple of months to prepare for this day. I've done some dual time with an instructor and taken a couple of my fellow pilots along to critique me and give me pointers. It's been a lot of fun. Finally, I felt ready (enough) and I wanted to get the flight test done. You just get to the point when enough is enough!

As is typical for spring on the prairies, today was very windy and bumpy. I don't mind turbulence but I worry about landing well on windy days. Somehow, today, I didn't care about the conditions. I just did my thing. After a 30 minute oral exam on the ground, we started the flight with a circuit for a soft field take off and landing. Then we did the cross-country departure procedure and the en route ground speed and ETA calculations. That took us to quiet airspace about 20 nautical miles from the airport, where I demonstrated slow flight, steep turns, stalls, and spin recovery. I did some hood time including timed turns, unusual attitudes, and partial panel. While in that area, I also did a forced approach. Then he gave me a diversion scenario, which was to fly to his airstrip on his farm, about 15 minutes to the south. Once at his strip, I showed him a precautionary landing. Then I put the hood back on and did a GPS intercept and navigated back to the airport. I took the hood off in time to join the circuit for a short field landing and take off. The final trick was a precision 180 power off landing, which I nailed in a 25 knot wind. He made me wait to find out whether I passed! He never really said it; I just assumed as the de-brief went on that I made it. He was actually a nice guy and a very fair examiner. It was a good flight test.

Me and my beloved 172M GJJL
This is a huge milestone in my aviation life. In many ways, this is another beginning but I feel like I've accomplished a lot in the last couple of years and today I feel legitimated as a good and capable pilot. In two days, I'm leaving for a three week trip to Africa. It will be a great reward and a nice break from the intensity of training. Then, when I get back, I'll think about what the next step will be in my flying career!