Re: What you\'ve learned on your own?
* Check the oil every time you stop, oil leaks can develop quickly.
* If you fly a plane with a gps that you're unfamiliar with and don't want to put /G on the flightplan, don't put /A on there instead, dme is sometimes used from LOC frequencies. Put /U on the flightplan if you don't know how to use the GPS.
* Never take off on a DP when you can't figure out how to load it in the GPS and it requires DME and you have no DME (even if you're in VFR conditions
* Never try to "eyeball" 3 DME when you filed /A, without DME because you don't know how to use the GPS.
*Make sure you have the current charts, don't use the charts as soon as you get them in the mail, wait until they're valid. DP's change name/number when there is a change (i.e. mustang 5 changes to mustang6 when there is a change)
*If you instruct near controlled airspace, talk to approach or go somewhere else
*students will try to kill you (as mentioned before)
*don't keep track of how much you spend on flying
*when you mention to a girl that you're a pilot, they don't immediatly think of you as their ticket into the mile-high-club
*having a 26 knot crosswind and no close alternate sucks when you have to pee.
*If you call the tower for takeoff and you don't get a reply after several tries, it doesn't always mean your radio is out. Seems they vacuum in there sometimes and can't hear their radio.
*make sure the primer is locked.