Brian Can Fly Again

A couple weeks ago I went to Luzon to get our Cessna 180 ready to sell. I flew with our chief pilot, Garry, to Manila and we took a taxi from the airport terminal straight to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) headquarters with high hopes of getting a pile of paperwork processed before closing time. Included in that pile was getting my temporary Philippine pilot’s license.

We arrived at the CAAP office and the people we needed to see were there in the office. This was a real blessing because often they are out giving check rides and not around. I was approved to take a written exam on Philippine regulations on the spot. We hopped in a taxi and went to the testing center and they got me in right away to take the test. I should mention that I had never seen a book of Philippine regulations before taking the test so I was nervous.

I took my test and felt like I failed it. Some of the questions were not even questions. They were sentence fragments that made no sense at all. It wasn’t a matter of not knowing the content, but a matter of not understanding the English! So I figured I’d failed the test and would find out my results a couple days later. That wasn’t the case though. They graded the exam while I waited and I passed with a minimum passing score of 70%!

They printed my results out right there and I took them back to the CAAP office just as they were closing, signed my pilot’s license and was done. I expected the process to take several days, but we did it all on our way home from the airport. It was such a blessing to have that complete. Now I will fly 10 hours in the country to prepare for a check ride with a Filipino examiner. After the check ride (assuming I pass) I will have a permanent Philippine pilot’s license and can start flying passengers again.