Scud_072
Pre-Flight
Hey ya'all... I am a new member and have enjoyed reading all the posts and seeing how supportive everyone is to each other. I am 55 and began my training in July and am starting on the XC portion of my training this month.
So the CFI tells me that I am ready to solo (at about 20 hours) and says I have to go for a pre-solo check ride with the DPE. I check with the flight school to book it and they tell me I have to book directly with the DPE. So I call, leave a message, get text back that we are on for Wednesday morning at 0900.
Driving to the airport, I notice that everyone is flying the pattern in the opposite direction than ALL of my previous flights. Well, "that will be interesting I tell myself" but still not nervous. I arrive right on time and the first thing the DPE says to me is "do you have a plane?" I said "no, I thought you had one?" The flight school said to book with you. We laughed but had no plane. So, turning to the flight school booker, I ask if there are any 172 available (they had three, and I had flown two of them) but those two were booked. But the third one was available. Why was it available on short notice you ask... because it was a bit of a dog and had some "known issues" one of which that the flap indicator didn't work particularly well. Still not nervous, I am up for the challenge and do the pre-flight and worked with the flaps quite a bit so I could develop a count to know if I had 10, 20, 30 or 40 degrees of flaps when I held down the lever.
Walking out to the plane I chat up the DPE about the pattern changing at a non towered airport and who makes the call to change designated runway as I comment on it being different than I have practiced. So now we both know that I know that the patten is different this morning.
So we fire up the plane, check the doors and belts, and I START TAXING TO THE PLACE I ALWAYS TAKE OFF and the DPE says "you are going the wrong way." DOH! Well... lets just say I lost my confidence, turned around, took off and asked what he wanted me to do, still reeling about taxing the wrong way when I knew I should have gone the other way. He says head west and level off at 2500. I do that and he says "power on stall." I slow to 1500 RPM and then started reaching for the flaps.. but stopped myself because I wasn't sure I was suppose to use them for that maneuver (I remembered later that I wasn't) but I noticed I wasn't confident in what I was doing which could mean I was unsafe so I said "I can't remember." Was this going to be strike three (no plane, wrong way taxi and this)? The DPE then said "slow flight" wanting to see if he was really wasting his time or not. But training pays off. My CFI and I had really worked on slow flight a lot and I nailed it loosing no altitude and flying at 40kts.. then we did a few other things and two landings (in the opposite directions) which were ok. The DPE gave me so good feedback at the end and cleared me for supervised solo with the CFI. Overall I was a good experience and I learned a lot. I saw and appreciated that I didn't beat myself up after any of the mistakes, didn't pee my pants and didn't quit and stayed safe. I soloed the next week which was fabulous. Completed my three "supervised solos" and have now taken it up by myself three times for practice and am enjoying the entire process immensely.
Thank you for reading... Happy New Year!
So the CFI tells me that I am ready to solo (at about 20 hours) and says I have to go for a pre-solo check ride with the DPE. I check with the flight school to book it and they tell me I have to book directly with the DPE. So I call, leave a message, get text back that we are on for Wednesday morning at 0900.
Driving to the airport, I notice that everyone is flying the pattern in the opposite direction than ALL of my previous flights. Well, "that will be interesting I tell myself" but still not nervous. I arrive right on time and the first thing the DPE says to me is "do you have a plane?" I said "no, I thought you had one?" The flight school said to book with you. We laughed but had no plane. So, turning to the flight school booker, I ask if there are any 172 available (they had three, and I had flown two of them) but those two were booked. But the third one was available. Why was it available on short notice you ask... because it was a bit of a dog and had some "known issues" one of which that the flap indicator didn't work particularly well. Still not nervous, I am up for the challenge and do the pre-flight and worked with the flaps quite a bit so I could develop a count to know if I had 10, 20, 30 or 40 degrees of flaps when I held down the lever.
Walking out to the plane I chat up the DPE about the pattern changing at a non towered airport and who makes the call to change designated runway as I comment on it being different than I have practiced. So now we both know that I know that the patten is different this morning.
So we fire up the plane, check the doors and belts, and I START TAXING TO THE PLACE I ALWAYS TAKE OFF and the DPE says "you are going the wrong way." DOH! Well... lets just say I lost my confidence, turned around, took off and asked what he wanted me to do, still reeling about taxing the wrong way when I knew I should have gone the other way. He says head west and level off at 2500. I do that and he says "power on stall." I slow to 1500 RPM and then started reaching for the flaps.. but stopped myself because I wasn't sure I was suppose to use them for that maneuver (I remembered later that I wasn't) but I noticed I wasn't confident in what I was doing which could mean I was unsafe so I said "I can't remember." Was this going to be strike three (no plane, wrong way taxi and this)? The DPE then said "slow flight" wanting to see if he was really wasting his time or not. But training pays off. My CFI and I had really worked on slow flight a lot and I nailed it loosing no altitude and flying at 40kts.. then we did a few other things and two landings (in the opposite directions) which were ok. The DPE gave me so good feedback at the end and cleared me for supervised solo with the CFI. Overall I was a good experience and I learned a lot. I saw and appreciated that I didn't beat myself up after any of the mistakes, didn't pee my pants and didn't quit and stayed safe. I soloed the next week which was fabulous. Completed my three "supervised solos" and have now taken it up by myself three times for practice and am enjoying the entire process immensely.
Thank you for reading... Happy New Year!
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