​Big congratulations to Shawn Tuckett, who just earned his Private Pilot Certificate in fixed-wing! While Shawn already holds his Commercial Rotorcraft certificate, today he officially joined the “real wings” club and traded in rotor wash for runway lights.
Flying helicopters has its thrills, hovering, autorotations, and all that collective-twisting fun, but we all know life is better with a proper set of wings. In the airplane, Shawn doesn’t have to constantly juggle power, pedals, and pitch just to stay in the air. No more pretending to be a hummingbird, now he can actually cruise, trim it out, and sip some imaginary coffee in straight and level flight.
Of course, his rotorcraft background gave him great stick-and-rudder instincts, but earning a fixed-wing certificate proves Shawn can do it all. He’s conquered both the hover button-mashing world of helicopters and the smooth, efficient world of airplanes.
A huge congratulations as well to his CFI, Andrew Spanier, for guiding Shawn through stalls, slips, and landings that don’t end with skids on the pavement.
Well done, Shawn! You’ve proven you can fly anything with lift, blades or wings, but let’s face it: fixed-wing really is the way to go (at least in our biased opinion ).
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