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THE
CHECK-RIDE REPORT
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Well the day was yesterday, and I got my chance to
show what I had learned. Here's how it happened.
The day dawned dismally. It was raining and there was low cloud cover all over
the area. My checkride was scheduled for 9:00am this morning. It was only 6am,
so I was hopeful that the forecasters were correct when they said that it
would be clearing up by 10ish. With that in mind I finished up my last minute
planning details. The very last thing I did before putting everything away was
to run down the checklist in the PTS regarding what to bring to the exam. With
everything in place, off I went to the airport.
I got there about 45 minutes early. This gave me time to get the log books
out, check the tach time on the plane I’d be using, and just to generally
settle in. It was past 8:00 so I fired up Duats on the FBO’s computer and
checked the report. They still said the weather would be doable. Right now the
AWOS was reporting 6kovercast with 1500 scattered.
Enter the Examiner. I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that he
would appear on an armor clad horse with his mace in hand and proceed to stomp
and pummel me with a barrage of questions and situations that would leave my
mind reeling. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Mr. Collins
entered the room and greeted me warmly, expressed his concerns about the
weather messing up my day, and suggested that since we were both present we
should get started.
He started the oral with a general overview of how he expected the
“conversation” to go and then if we got a chance to fly, how that portion
would be conducted. He also advised me to stop him and request clarification
at any time during the whole procedure, adding that he had no problem going
over a topic as many times as it took for me to get what he was asking of me.
We went through A.D.s, and then spent the lions share of the time looking over
the sectional. I did pretty well. Of course I missed a question here and
there, or didn’t quite make myself clear on an explanation and would have to
elaborate. I had moments where I didn’t choose my words as carefully as I
should have, and he would call me on it, pointing out the distinction. Being a
computer geek, I am always ranting at people about syntax and should have
known better. Still, it was never a deal breaker. The oral went on until we
had covered all of the topics that were in the PTS (funny how that works).
Once he was convinced he had listened to me long enough he said, “lets go
check the weather and see if we are going flying.” There was no official
announcement that I had passed that portion of course since it is stated in
the PTS:
Quote:
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“Since there is no formal division between the “oral” and
“skill”
portions of the practical test, this becomes an ongoing process
throughout the test.”
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We determined that the flight portion would proceed after looking outside and
listening to the AWOS. So, I headed outside and pre-flighted the aircraft with
a checklist that I referenced dutifully. The examiner did ask one question
during the pre-flight. He pointed to the little intake port just above the
static port on the lefthand side of the fuselage and asked, “Do you know
what this port is for?”
It was a simple question, and one that I completely blanked on. Rather than
try to BS my way through it (a useless tactic I might add) I just said, “ I
have no idea.”
Turns out it is a cooling inlet for the factory flight instruments. Who knew?
With that bit of minutia out of the way we got the flight rolling. I followed
my checklists and got myself to the hold short line where the examiner
explained to me what he wanted me to do. I asked him to repeat himself twice
just to be sure I hadn’t missed an instruction. I was to perform a soft
field takeoff followed by a soft field landing. While slowing the plane down
on the roll out to a taxi speed he wanted me to set up for a short field
takeoff and without stopping, make a short field takeoff. Once at TPA he would
give me further instructions.
I told him what I was doing, and what to expect from me during the departure.
Stuff like when I was going to retract the flaps, and what airspeed I was
going to fly the departure at. I tried to always give him enough information
so that he never had to guess at what I was doing, or why I was doing it.
I’d have to say that the soft field landing was my biggest worry for the
whole flight. My last two flights have seen me drop the plane in from what
feels like 20 ft on my “soft field” landing attempts. I guess figured it
out though; while it wasn’t a squeaker, it was acceptable to me and more
importantly for this flight to the DE.
The short field takeoff was a non-event. While we were in the pattern he said
he wasn’t comfortable with the low cloud cover today and would not be asking
me to do his usual engine out scenario. Instead he would simply be pulling the
throttle to idle at some point on the downwind and I would have to make a
simulated emergency landing at SFZ.. It was during this portion of the program
that I thought I had blown it. I waited wwwwwaaaaaaaay to long to deploy any
flaps and ended up having to dive for the runway and float until I had bled
off enough speed for touchdown. The DE was unfazed and simply asked for a
normal takeoff and another trip around the pattern for a normal landing.
I set this one up beautifully, at least to me. He wanted me on the VASI glide
slope on final not above it. I corrected and was set up for a very nice
touchdown. I had just rounded out when he said, “ A truck just got on the
runway ahead of you, go around.”
I pushed In the throttle, and raised the flaps to 20 degrees, then remembered
carb heat and pushed it in. The DE suggested that in the future I might want
to push in the carb heat before messing with the flaps. I didn’t mention to
him that the carb heat was a “Oh yeah carb heat” moment on my part. I’m
not really sure why I forgot about it but I did. Still, it was nothing that
was going to bring the ride to a halt.
We departed the pattern at this point and he wanted me on course for the XC to
Syracuse. Not a real problem but I was flying along at 1500 ft, and couldn’t
pick my landmarks too well. He would suggest that I trust my course and
finally we found a place where we could climb up another 1k. What a difference
1000 ft makes. I could now clearly see the landmark I was looking for off in
the distance, and knew that I was on course.
Since I had plotted my course with pilotage and dead reckoning only, he wanted
to see if I could navigate by instruments. I guess you could call this the
deviation portion. He gave me a vor and a frequency because he had already
taken my chart and my flight log away from me. I asked him for the station
Morse ID and he replied with a smile, “dit do dit, dit dah, don’t worry,
I’ll take responsibility for the station being correct, I would like you to
take us to the station please.” I quickly dialed in my radial to the station
and got us on course. A few minutes of tracking the radial and he was
satisfied.
He then had me put on the hood. Nothing to really report here: No surprises,
no big errors. Just standard rate turns to the heading he requested. I suppose
I did climbs and descents too. I forget if he had me do slow flight under the
hood or not in any event we moved on.
On to the maneuvers: Stalls were the next thing on the menu. He had me do them
a bit differently than I had practiced. For the power on stall he went from
cruise to requesting a climb at 80, then a climb at a slower speed, say 65,
then 55, then 45. At each stage I would have to hold the airspeed for a bit
before he moved on. Then he said, “You know, I don’t like 45 anymore.
I’d like you to climb at 25 knots now. . . you see where I’m headed with
this right? I just want you to get to the first sign of a stall” I responded
in the affirmative and clarified that he didn’t want the break. Done. Next
up were the steep turns. I let the ball get a bit out of the box on the left
hand turn, but had no problems at all on the right.
“OK, descend to 1500 and take us back.” I complied. I made a call at 10
miles out and one at 5. Then announced the 45 entry and called downwind.
“Lets make this one a normal landing to a full stop.” I called base and
final. Touched down and taxied clear of the runway.
Once I had shut down the airplane and had finished up my checklists the DE
congratulated me on a well prepared oral and a well flown flight. He made
special note of my high finals saying “the definition of insanity is doing
the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Pretty much I
think he wants me to use the 3 degree slope the vasi dictates. I can work on
that.
All in all I think I did alright. I got congratulations from my CFI and the
other instructors who helped me on my way. I went back upstairs to finish up
the paperwork and to get my temporary cert. When the DE handed it to me and
explained it’s temporary nature, I took the paper and said, “how cool is
this?” I was really saying it to myself, expressing how happy I was with
what I had just done.
The DE looked at me for a second after I said those words then replied,
“It’s pretty darned cool if you ask me.”
I left the FBO tired but fully satisfied in my accomplishment. I know I’ve
earned it, I know I’ll enjoy it, but I don’t think it’s really sunk in
yet though.
I’m now a Private Pilot.
Keith
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