Checkride scheduled!

lancie00 said:
Don't worry. It will be here before you know it. Just look at this a an opportunity to do more studying. o_O
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Yes, that's my plan. Sometimes, it feels like it's easier to get planets aligned then schedule the checkride... lol... gotta have plane, weather, DPE available, day off from work and not get sick...
 
MacFlier said:
Update: plane had to go to the shop last night and it would be ready this afternoon. However, weather has been deteriorating and ceilings will be around 2000 so not ideal for a checkride.
Postponed it to first week of January... :(
Now I have to schedule some flights in between to keep skills sharp.
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Same thing happened to me first appt cancelled because of weather, second plane went in for mx and came back in time for the checkride but weather didn't cooperate, 3rd time was the charm. 1st appt was 10/20 finally got to go on 11/18.
 
MacFlier said:
Not yet... It turned out I had an issue in the paperwork with a middle initial not matching between the iacra forms, the student pilot cert and the written...
Very frustrating, especially that I learned about it only after flying to meet the dpe...
At least I got my first taste of class B as Approach cleared me direct to destination thru it, which was pretty cool.
So I rescheduled it for tomorrow, fingers crossed!
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So here is a question: Do you have a Bravo endorsement from your CFI. As much as we flew under it and around it, I never got that endorsement. And I am not sure if the endorsement just covers landing in a Bravo or any entry into the Bravo?

MacFlier said:
Update: plane had to go to the shop last night and it would be ready this afternoon. However, weather has been deteriorating and ceilings will be around 2000 so not ideal for a checkride.
Postponed it to first week of January... :(
Now I have to schedule some flights in between to keep skills sharp.
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Lots of people get check rides bumped this time of year. Just more time to get worried (just kidding).
 
Sinistar said:
So here is a question: Do you have a Bravo endorsement from your CFI. As much as we flew under it and around it, I never got that endorsement. And I am not sure if the endorsement just covers landing in a Bravo or any entry into the Bravo?

Lots of people get check rides bumped this time of year. Just more time to get worried (just kidding).
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Yes, I had the class B endorsement but never used it until then.
My plan was to fly around/under it but they cleared me direct thru, which saved me 10 mins or so.
The endorsement I believe is valid for flight thru Bravo but also land at bravo airports, except DFW in my case. But I could land at DAL.


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Update: PASSED! :)

I'm not really too good on write ups but I'll give some bullet points on my experience:

Oral started in the morning, around 9am and it went thru until 12pm. I did well on airspace, systems, regulations, flight planning and weather. Got tricked up on aerodynamics a bit, trying to explain the effects of aft CG x forward CGs...

Pratical test was the part I was most nervous about. We started with pre-flight, passenger briefing and off we went on a short-field take off. Went in to course on the x-country and 5 mins later we diverted.
We didn't go all the way to the diversion airport, but I had to show where the airport was, that we have enough fuel to get there, etc.
Next we went into steep turns and stalls. That's the part where I got dinged a little on keeping heading within ACS tolerances. I guess I got some leeway as it was turbulent.
Slow flight was pretty good and flew at 50 KIAS for a while, turning, climbing, descending, etc.
We did emergency landing, find a good spot and fly there. I thought I did ok, as I found a grass-strip and was able to almost touch down half-way thru... I wished I had lined and be able to land closer to the threshold but thought we'd have enough rwy left to stop.
Next came landings. We had a good 6 knot x-wind but I was able to land on center line for a soft-field landing, and on the 1000-foot markers on the short-field.
The stressful part (my heart rate monitor logged 160bpm... :) ) was that I was asked to slip from base at TPA to land flaps-up. Had to slip and messed up the first approach so we had to go around. Second chance came and I was getting it wrong again when I got "you're done if we go around", so at around 500 ft I got my controls right, slipped sideways, fixed the plane and landed flaps-up.
I had no idea I passed until I saw the DPE bring the printed copy of the temp certificate... until that point I thought I screwed up on the slip part....

Anyway, had to take a 45 minute break to calm down and fly back to home base, cleared thru Bravo again. :)

Now figuring out who's going to be brave enough among my friends to fly with me. LOL
 
Welcome to the world of aviators!!! Just don't use up all of the 100LL.
 
Best advice I got when getting ready for my checkride was the DPE knows way more than you do so just answer his question and don’t try to impress him. If he asks you “how do you know if you can fly VFR today” and you go into a 20 minute answer when all he was hoping for were the cloud clearances, you will certainly trip up on something and you will get caught in your answer!

For the flying part, as long as he has not stopped your ride you are fine! During my ride 6 years ago, I had just completed the hood portion of the test and as I was taking off the glasses( also remember to have those in the plane!!) we accidently flew into a cloud( maybe on accident or deliberate still don’t know to this day.). I thought I failed on the spot, but I just said the to DPE “what would you like me to do?” To which he answered, “well how bout we get out of this cloud.” I executed a standard rate turn at kept my calm and we were out in now time! If I would have given up right there, I’m certain I would have failed.

Not sure this is still a requirement but my DPE also created a distraction for me. He did it very cleverly claiming that he thought his house was on fire right under the traffic pattern and would I mind doing steep turns down low to find out. I remember saying to him “sir I’m not sure that would be safe.” To which he answered, “great job, you are pilot in command here, and then he joked saying, “never really liked that house anyway!” The entire ride was really enjoyable but each examiner has his or her own unique ways of getting to know if you will be safe!

Edit: should have read all the way through before posting- congrats on passing! I’ll leave my story up Incase it benefits others.
 
Congrats! It was one of the best feelings I have ever had. Lots of satisfaction in receiving that certificate.
 
Ronbonjovi said:
Congrats! It was one of the best feelings I have ever had. Lots of satisfaction in receiving that certificate.
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Indeed. It was such a relief that I told the DPE I needed an hour to slow down, take a deep breath before flying back to home base... :)
 
Huge congrats. It will take a couple more flights before you sit back and go "wow" and from there you'll grow in leaps and bounds in skills and confidence.
 
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