Bman.
Pre-takeoff checklist
53.9 hours (26.3 dual / 27.6 PIC), $10,268 cash and 514 days later - I passed my ASEL PPL checkride Thursday. What a great day!
My instructor and I left for KOJC on Wednesday morning to get up there, get a lay of the land and do a full day of practice before the checkride Thursday am. My CFI really held my feet to the fire on all procedures and maneuvers to assure that I was solid and focused. By the end of 5 hours of practice, I was about ready to call the whole thing off due to frustration. I just couldn't get my act together and really felt like I just wasn't flying like I should be. CFI just said let's get back to the FBO, have some dinner and go take care of IACRA. Cross the T's and dot all I's. I was hoping that after dinner I could get more study time in on the FARs but I was just to beat and suspected I better just get some rest for the exam. I knew my stuff well off (I hoped). I slept great - I was exhausted.
The morning of my checkride, I woke up at 5:30 am to update my flight plans to the current winds. I wrapped those up and headed to the airfield. The DPE was already there and ready to go. This was much like riding the roller coaster to the top of the first big drop and knowing there was no stopping the train now! We dove right into the paperwork and the magic words "This begins the oral exam" hit the floor. About :30 seconds later, I was at ease because the DPE was fantastic. He wasn't there to catch me on everything but to make sure there was a sound knowledge of pretty much all things listed in the PTS. It really was a conversation about all things aviation - me as the PIC, the plane, weather, medical and the big FAR for PPLs. I didn't know everything of course but we just discussed it if I didn't know a subject thorough enough. About 2 hours later, DPE was ready to pre-flight the plane with me and go fly.
The preflight was performed exactly the same I had always done since day 1. I threw out a little more information while I was walking around to show the DPE that I knew what all the parts of the plane were and why I was checking them. He appreciated that I think because it didn't leave much to question. For example, I noted the fresh air intake versus the heater intakes were clear or the ELT / Comm / Nav antennas were all secure. Nothing time consuming just a little more information along the way.
While listening to ATIS I was feeling apprehensive after the previous days flight flight and hoped that I could somehow manage to perform better. I took a deep breath and just made the call to ground I was ready for taxi to remain in pattern with full stop landings and taxi-backs. We started with normal, short, soft field T/O's and landings. My normal landing was a greaser. I figured well, at least one landing was pretty. The short field... well, that makes two really nice landings. The soft field (always a bit weird plowing the air on t/o) but I nailed the wheels breaking the ground at about a foot and accelerated in ground effect nicely. The soft field landing was nice too! I did have a little hop when pulling the yoke AFT for braking but we settled down quick enough. DPE said all very nice - let's move on to cross country and maneuvers. I won't bore you with that - it was all pretty uneventful but all beautiful. I don't know what was happening relative to the previous day. I was just relaxed. Picking of one maneuver after another and saying "This completes the steep turn maneuver... this completes the turn around a point maneuver". Even the engine out procedure was great - I happened to pick out a private strip about 2 miles away and it set me up on downwind leg at pretty much pattern altitude. It doesn't get much better than that!
DPE said lets head home and to request the option. I requested the option and suspected a go around. No problems there. The second time around he said, you look a little high on final, what are you going to do here? I told him I am going to do a forward slip and put it right on glideslope and brought it on home.
He hopped out of the plane when parked and waited for me to secure everything. I jumped out and CFI said welcome to the club and DPE said very nice work! We completed some paper work, I signed my temporary aiman certificate. Done.
CFI said have fun on the way home, I have another plane here that I am taking back to the FBO. I headed home and for 1.5 hours I sang along to what ever stations I could pick up on the ADF. It didn't matter what was on - I was singing to everything. It was a great day!
Benjamin
My instructor and I left for KOJC on Wednesday morning to get up there, get a lay of the land and do a full day of practice before the checkride Thursday am. My CFI really held my feet to the fire on all procedures and maneuvers to assure that I was solid and focused. By the end of 5 hours of practice, I was about ready to call the whole thing off due to frustration. I just couldn't get my act together and really felt like I just wasn't flying like I should be. CFI just said let's get back to the FBO, have some dinner and go take care of IACRA. Cross the T's and dot all I's. I was hoping that after dinner I could get more study time in on the FARs but I was just to beat and suspected I better just get some rest for the exam. I knew my stuff well off (I hoped). I slept great - I was exhausted.
The morning of my checkride, I woke up at 5:30 am to update my flight plans to the current winds. I wrapped those up and headed to the airfield. The DPE was already there and ready to go. This was much like riding the roller coaster to the top of the first big drop and knowing there was no stopping the train now! We dove right into the paperwork and the magic words "This begins the oral exam" hit the floor. About :30 seconds later, I was at ease because the DPE was fantastic. He wasn't there to catch me on everything but to make sure there was a sound knowledge of pretty much all things listed in the PTS. It really was a conversation about all things aviation - me as the PIC, the plane, weather, medical and the big FAR for PPLs. I didn't know everything of course but we just discussed it if I didn't know a subject thorough enough. About 2 hours later, DPE was ready to pre-flight the plane with me and go fly.
The preflight was performed exactly the same I had always done since day 1. I threw out a little more information while I was walking around to show the DPE that I knew what all the parts of the plane were and why I was checking them. He appreciated that I think because it didn't leave much to question. For example, I noted the fresh air intake versus the heater intakes were clear or the ELT / Comm / Nav antennas were all secure. Nothing time consuming just a little more information along the way.
While listening to ATIS I was feeling apprehensive after the previous days flight flight and hoped that I could somehow manage to perform better. I took a deep breath and just made the call to ground I was ready for taxi to remain in pattern with full stop landings and taxi-backs. We started with normal, short, soft field T/O's and landings. My normal landing was a greaser. I figured well, at least one landing was pretty. The short field... well, that makes two really nice landings. The soft field (always a bit weird plowing the air on t/o) but I nailed the wheels breaking the ground at about a foot and accelerated in ground effect nicely. The soft field landing was nice too! I did have a little hop when pulling the yoke AFT for braking but we settled down quick enough. DPE said all very nice - let's move on to cross country and maneuvers. I won't bore you with that - it was all pretty uneventful but all beautiful. I don't know what was happening relative to the previous day. I was just relaxed. Picking of one maneuver after another and saying "This completes the steep turn maneuver... this completes the turn around a point maneuver". Even the engine out procedure was great - I happened to pick out a private strip about 2 miles away and it set me up on downwind leg at pretty much pattern altitude. It doesn't get much better than that!
DPE said lets head home and to request the option. I requested the option and suspected a go around. No problems there. The second time around he said, you look a little high on final, what are you going to do here? I told him I am going to do a forward slip and put it right on glideslope and brought it on home.
He hopped out of the plane when parked and waited for me to secure everything. I jumped out and CFI said welcome to the club and DPE said very nice work! We completed some paper work, I signed my temporary aiman certificate. Done.
CFI said have fun on the way home, I have another plane here that I am taking back to the FBO. I headed home and for 1.5 hours I sang along to what ever stations I could pick up on the ADF. It didn't matter what was on - I was singing to everything. It was a great day!
Benjamin
