Hippike
Pre-takeoff checklist
...POA's newly minted private pilot is joining the gang here 
Today I passed my check ride!!!!!
To those of you who've been here, no explanation necessary, you know/remember how awesome/otherworldly/incredible this feels.
To those of you who are working towards it, here's my two cents:
- if your instructor says you are ready, you are ready. Trust him, he knows better and is smarter than you
- if you go on your last solo flight the day before your check ride and you grease those landings and you shout out loud "beautiful", you are ready. Even though, the next day, you will surely screw up a few things and the check ride maybe the worst flying you ever do, but if you believe you are ready and you want it hard enough, it will come.
Heck, 3 weeks prior to my CR, I already composed the post that I was going to put on my FB page, because
1) I knew I was going to pass and
2) I knew once I pass I will be too exhausted to type and post
On days when my mind got weak and started wondering about 'what if I fail', I just quickly snapped out of it and went to study some more. I did not want to give a reason to the DPE to fail me on the oral. Failing on the oral is the worst that can happen because it's proof that you don't want it hard enough. You may get a brain fart and forget about things like: what happens to the altimeter if your static gets blocked - what do you see in level flight? (hint: nothing unusual, until you start climbing/descending), but if you start drawing a schematic of the pitot static system/instruments to your DPE, he will see that you know your stuff and will help you out. He doesn't want you to fail. If you stumble at the 'CG aft heavy' part he will hand you a model aircraft and you can play with it and figure out what's up with that aft CG. He doesn't want you to fail.
Now, the flight portion is part skills and part something else...
Yesterday I spent 2.5 hours in the pattern drilling those landings in zero wind conditions on the runway that we use 80% of the time. This morning airport was using the other runway and winds were 15G22. We went to the practice area and I haven't really grasped the fact that I am flying on my CR, he started giving me maneuvers: power on/off stalls, steep turn to the right, Approach called out a traffic so we rolled wings level, he said start the steep to the left, completed about half way, he said climbing stall in 20 degree turn. What? Where are we? What are we doing? Are you actually testing me? My controls - OMG, did I fail? Here, put your foggles on. OK, that's the first time I could catch a breath and collect myself. Eyes closed, head down, roller-coaster, now recover. Did that twice. Good, now take make to Santa Monica. Little relief as SMO used to be my home drome. I thought to myself, this is it, I can still salvage this, I will show him a good landing, oh look, there is an aircraft on the runway, go around... jeez man, gimme a break
Back to VNY, show me a no flap touch and go with a soft field take off. A what? How? How do I do any kind of take off (other than normal) after a touch and go. Well, figure it out!
At this point >>I failed<< crossed my mind so many times that I stopped counting. He helped again: what's a short field? Well, it's flaps 10 and nose up. OK, do that. Like it's the easiest thing to do.
And the funny thing is, I did it.
I know it's easy to blame it on the wind, but I was all over the place, TPA was off +/- 100, sometimes more, speed unreadable (at least I wasn't comprehending it) but I was flying the bloody airplane!
I nailed the SOB final short field landing and put it smack in the middle of the stripe where I said I would but when he said exit at the next and taxi back, I knew that was the end and I started to sink into hell at the thought of failure... Never once remembering the most important thing he told me at the very beginning: "If you fail, I will tell you immediately and we stop". Well, he never said that!
He took control during the taxi back and gave me a ton of notes, advice, recommendations that I can/should do better in the future. After shut down he got out, offered a handshake and said congratulation. I actually asked back: "did I pass?" ...duh...
Happiest day of my life!
Today I passed my check ride!!!!!
To those of you who've been here, no explanation necessary, you know/remember how awesome/otherworldly/incredible this feels.
To those of you who are working towards it, here's my two cents:
- if your instructor says you are ready, you are ready. Trust him, he knows better and is smarter than you
- if you go on your last solo flight the day before your check ride and you grease those landings and you shout out loud "beautiful", you are ready. Even though, the next day, you will surely screw up a few things and the check ride maybe the worst flying you ever do, but if you believe you are ready and you want it hard enough, it will come.
Heck, 3 weeks prior to my CR, I already composed the post that I was going to put on my FB page, because
1) I knew I was going to pass and
2) I knew once I pass I will be too exhausted to type and post
On days when my mind got weak and started wondering about 'what if I fail', I just quickly snapped out of it and went to study some more. I did not want to give a reason to the DPE to fail me on the oral. Failing on the oral is the worst that can happen because it's proof that you don't want it hard enough. You may get a brain fart and forget about things like: what happens to the altimeter if your static gets blocked - what do you see in level flight? (hint: nothing unusual, until you start climbing/descending), but if you start drawing a schematic of the pitot static system/instruments to your DPE, he will see that you know your stuff and will help you out. He doesn't want you to fail. If you stumble at the 'CG aft heavy' part he will hand you a model aircraft and you can play with it and figure out what's up with that aft CG. He doesn't want you to fail.
Now, the flight portion is part skills and part something else...
Yesterday I spent 2.5 hours in the pattern drilling those landings in zero wind conditions on the runway that we use 80% of the time. This morning airport was using the other runway and winds were 15G22. We went to the practice area and I haven't really grasped the fact that I am flying on my CR, he started giving me maneuvers: power on/off stalls, steep turn to the right, Approach called out a traffic so we rolled wings level, he said start the steep to the left, completed about half way, he said climbing stall in 20 degree turn. What? Where are we? What are we doing? Are you actually testing me? My controls - OMG, did I fail? Here, put your foggles on. OK, that's the first time I could catch a breath and collect myself. Eyes closed, head down, roller-coaster, now recover. Did that twice. Good, now take make to Santa Monica. Little relief as SMO used to be my home drome. I thought to myself, this is it, I can still salvage this, I will show him a good landing, oh look, there is an aircraft on the runway, go around... jeez man, gimme a break
Back to VNY, show me a no flap touch and go with a soft field take off. A what? How? How do I do any kind of take off (other than normal) after a touch and go. Well, figure it out!
At this point >>I failed<< crossed my mind so many times that I stopped counting. He helped again: what's a short field? Well, it's flaps 10 and nose up. OK, do that. Like it's the easiest thing to do.
And the funny thing is, I did it.
I know it's easy to blame it on the wind, but I was all over the place, TPA was off +/- 100, sometimes more, speed unreadable (at least I wasn't comprehending it) but I was flying the bloody airplane!
I nailed the SOB final short field landing and put it smack in the middle of the stripe where I said I would but when he said exit at the next and taxi back, I knew that was the end and I started to sink into hell at the thought of failure... Never once remembering the most important thing he told me at the very beginning: "If you fail, I will tell you immediately and we stop". Well, he never said that!
He took control during the taxi back and gave me a ton of notes, advice, recommendations that I can/should do better in the future. After shut down he got out, offered a handshake and said congratulation. I actually asked back: "did I pass?" ...duh...
Happiest day of my life!
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