No matter how many tests I've taken, I still get anxious the night before an exam. In school I never pulled an all-nighter, believing that it was better to get a good night's sleep and that anything I crammed into my cranium late the night before an exam wouldn't stay with me after I'd handed in my bluebook. But, of course, memorizing the names of the 12 cranial nerves by the memory jogger, "On Old Olympus's Towering Top A Finn And German Viewed Some Hops," seems a lot less useful or important to me today than loading the "airspeeds for normal operations" from the Pilot's Operating Handbook (POH) into my random-access memory.
But preparing for an exam and ultimately going one-on-one with an examiner is an excellent way to upgrade the data and make sure it's still retrievable. Periodically exposing yourself to evaluation is a great way to fight off the complacency that is bred by routine.
If you haven't added new ratings or certificates, consider doing it. It's a great way to bring romance back into your relationship with aviation. There's a wide range of ratings you can add to your private certificate. You can get a rotorcraft/helicopter rating, rotorcraft/gyroplane rating, lighter-than-air airship rating, glider rating, free balloon-hot air rating, free balloon-gas rating and a powered lift rating. If you're gun-shy about taking written/computer knowledge exams, you'll be relieved to know that for all these additional ratings, you're not required to take one to add a rating if you already have a pilot certificate. Nevertheless, you can expect the oral portion of the practical test to be pretty comprehensive.
In some ways it's a shame that very few pilots have chosen to embark on their aviation career by earning a recreational pilot certificate. But if you're one of the very few, then the obvious next step, after enjoying the benefits of being able to take a friend along and explore your home territory, is to upgrade your ticket to a private pilot certificate. That way you can literally expand your horizons and range, fly bigger and more powerful airplanes, carry more friends along and operate in and out of controlled airports.
To move up to a private pilot certificate from a recreational certificate is really pretty simple, which is what makes it a reasonable-though oft ignored-first rung on the aviation ladder. For the recreational license you need 30 hours of flight training (at least 15 hours from an instructor) and three hours of solo flight. During the dual instruction you have to have logged two hours en route to an airport more than 25 nautical miles from where you normally train and made three takeoffs and landings at the airport and flown with the instructor for three hours in preparation for the flight test.
To qualify for the private pilot certificate you have to log at least 40 hours of flight time, including at least 20 hours with an instructor and 10 hours of solo flight. If you've been using your recreational license, you shouldn't have any problem meeting the minimum flight time requirements and you've already had 15 hours of training with an instructor. You will need to get three hours of cross-country flight training, three hours of basic instrument training, three hours of training at night, including a cross-country flight of at least 100 nautical miles and 10 takeoffs and landings. You'll have to make three takeoffs and landings at an airport with an operating control tower. During your solo time you'll have to log at least five hours of cross-country, including planning and completing a flight of at least 150 nautical miles (with landings at a minimum of three airports) and with one leg at least 50 nautical miles between the takeoff and landing location. And before you take the practical flight test you'll need to spend three hours with your instructor in preparation for the flight test.
