SODA

[robert l]

I have just received my letter of authorization to take the Medical Flight Test, 3^rdclass. My SODA. I was wondering if anyone here has had to do the same and what should I expect. Is this oral,written or just demonstrated flight ability or all three? I have been flying with an instructor a couple of hrs. a month just to be flying since I can’tsolo until I get past the SODA. I’m just wondering what I should brush up on.
Thanks,
Bob

[rwanttaja]

I see in another post that your issue is lack of vision in one eye. I received a SODA for the same thing...but it was about 48 years ago, so the details are fuzzy (much like the vision from my right eye :-).

I do recall it was someone similar to the Private flight test. No written and no oral, but the FAA guy spent a few minutes before takeoff pointing out various far-off objects and asking me for details. For the flight test, it was basically to verify that I had sufficient depth perception to safely fly the aircraft.

Binocular depth perception is mostly a close-in capability. When landing an airplane, you're looking fairly far down the runway so it doesn't really come into play. My Fly Baby doesn't have any shock absorbing capability in the landing gear (other than the tires themselves), but I have not noted any undue difficulty in landing.

Greatest danger is taxiing, since that's within the range of binocular vision. Fortunately, most airports have good wingtip clearance so you shouldn't have any trouble. I did tag a garbage can once, though.

Good luck!

Ron Wanttaja (rhymes with "one-eye-ah")

[FlyingRon]

Should make you at least as good of a pilot as Jack Rousch.

[robert l]

Thanks Ron, I had been flying a Champ under S/P rules until I started this quest to renew my medical, but I stopped about a year ago. I wanted to save my money just in case I qualified to take the Medical Flight Test. I have a good friend that just recently got his CFI and I have gotten a couple of hrs. in the left seat of a 172 with him. No charge for an instructor, it's nice to have friends like that ! Anyway, I have 6 months to get this done so I'll get some more time in before I call the examiner. Flying the Champ out of Monroe, N.C., they have a fair amount of traffic and quite a few airplanes and I managed to maneuver around without hitting anything. Thanks for the good wishes and we will see how this all turns out.
Ole One Eyed Bob

[dougbush]

Ron Wanttaja (rhymes with "one-eye-ah")

I was wondering about that, and would have guessed wrong.

[rwanttaja]

I was wondering about that, and would have guessed wrong.

"Way out here, they got a name
for wind and rain and fire
The rain is Tess, the fire's Joe
and they call the wind Wanttaja....."

Ron "Blowin' the stars around" Wanttaja

[robert l]

"Way out here, they got a name
for wind and rain and fire
The rain is Tess, the fire's Joe
and they call the wind Wanttaja....."

Ron "Blowin' the stars around" Wanttaja

I hate to say how I was pronouncing it !!!

[rwanttaja]

I hate to say how I was pronouncing it !!!

Probably not in a way I hadn't heard before.

And the nationality guesses range just as far when people actually hear in pronounced. Most common guess is that I'm Hispanic; the name sounds similar to "Montoya". Second most-common guess is that I'm Hawaiian or Samoan. Such beliefs fade out when they meet me.

Oddest pronunciation was from a General in the Air Force...he saw my name tag, asked out to say it, and I replied, "Wanttaja, sir." He blended the "s", so I was "Wanttajas" for the rest of the visit. Sir, yes sir.

I really can't complain, because *I* pronounce it wrong. I pronounce it "Wahn-TIE-ah", but good skywegian names like mine should have the accent on the first syllable: "WAHN-tie-ah." Stems from when my parents moved from the Scandinavian regions in North Dakota to the Big City; from always correcting the "Wan-taj-ah". My grandmother used to correct us all the time.

Best pronunciation guess was about a year ago... "Waterninja". I liked that one. Liked it so much I created the appropriate Avatar.

Ron Wanttaja

[FlyingRon]

I've got similar fun and games. My grandfather was an orphan. Half of the siblings still spell it the Sicilian way "Natoli". Half have it Americanized to Natalie. If you pronounce it like a girls name (NAT-uh-lee), you have it correct. It's not Nah-Tally (ho) and it's not Nah-Tah-Lee-Ay (which is how a Sicilian would pronounce it if he saw it written). It's also not Nah-TOLE-Lee (as the correct spelling is usually mispronounced).

For real fun, my sisters (before they were married) and my wife and mother find people have a habit of calling them by their last name. Amusingly Margy found that Nancy Judy (married to Navion expert Ron Judy) had the same experience.

Just to make things even more fun, I'm Ron Natalie, Jr. My father is an attorney who did some aviation labor and other regulatory work so sometimes people get us confused (asking my father about his plane or someone asking me about legal issues). When we travel to the same destination, we've learned to book the hotel rooms in our wive's names to avoid them closing one out as a duplicate.

[Tom Charpentier]

Ditto for me on the name business. At some point my family started using "Shar-PEN-tier" rather than the proper French "Shar-PON-ti-ay." I don't care how anyone pronounces it, but it's always a pain to have to dictate it. It's tough for people to wrap their heads around my last name starting with "Ch" rather than "Sh" or "Sch," even when I spell it to them.

Anyway, Ron's description of the SODA ride is accurate. It's similar to a regular flight test, but focusing on areas where the medical issue may be a problem. If you have any more questions shoot me an email at tcharpe@eaa.org.