As I described yesterday, it turned out that both of the FBO's Piper Warriors were down for maintenance today, which meant that I couldn't go flying. Mike suggested that a good way to use the time would be to take the practice written exam instead.

One of the requirements you have to meet before getting a pilot's license is to score a 75% or better on the official FAA written knowledge exam. However, the FAA doesn't even let you take the written exam until a flight instructor has signed an endorsement in your logbook saying you're ready. At Fly By Knight, they give you a practice exam, and if you score 85% or better on it, then they endorse your logbook and you can make an appointment to take the official one.

I had read through the entire 500-page textbook during my first month of flight training, but since then the only studying I had done was leisurely reading a few pages of the study guide every day or two and quizzing myself on the practice questions. I figured that I might be ready for the exam later this week, but I wasn't 100% confident yesterday that I could pass it yet. But I figured it didn't hurt to give it a shot, since I couldn't do anything else anyway, so I went ahead and scheduled it.

Today I went in and took the practice test, and ended up scoring a 95% on it (and getting to see a real P-51 Mustang to boot). Sharon asked if I wanted to go ahead and take the written one, and I said sure, so she set up the computer for me. I worked through that in about an hour, and scored a 90% on it. Phew, the knowledge test had been one thing I had been worried about, so it feels good to suddenly and unexpectedly have that out of the way.