Hello,
While this is still fresh, I wanted to write up a check ride report. Enjoy!
And please let me know if you have any questions.
Anna
Oral:
Prove to me that the plane is airworthy:
Maintenance Logs
ADs – what are they, are they current?
Registration – does it expire, yes
Airworthiness Cert – how long is it good for?
Weight and Balance – where is it, is it equal to the W&B in the POH?
ELT, Transponder – how often are inspections due?
100 hour inspection – what does it entail?
Nav log – he spent a good bit of time studying it.
Didn’t really ask any questions. I just sat there.
Asked me to pull out my charts. Drew a line from my home base (KPTW) to another airport and asked me to take a few minutes to map out my route.
Lots of airspace considerations, MOAs, Prohibited, Restricted, alert, and sanctuary areas.
Asked about a Special VFR.
Asked about other airspace in the area. Expected quick, immediate responses and when I hesitated once, when recalling high G at night, he was quick to jump in and express the need for thorough airspace knowledge.
Asked about who I’d communicate with, and how- FSS and Approach for FF
Would I need to contact the tower? No.
What kinds of communication do I need to enter D, C and B airspace? Dialog, Communication, and Permission.
What kind of equipment for each airspace?
How high each air space goes to?
Weight and Balance
- does it include the oil? Yes, in my case.
- what would be the solution to bring it in to CF? Lose some fuel.
- what are characteristics of forward/aft CG, including stability, take-off and landing distance, and stall speed? Quick, one after the other, questions here.
Density Altitude
- what is it? PA corrected for temp.
- how does the airplane respond? Takeoff, cruise, landing responses.
- Why is the landing distance longer?
- How does DA affect true vs indicated airspeed?
Required Equipment
- know the difference between R and optional, and where to find it.
- An equipment list is not a Minimum Equipment List, why?
What makes the airplane stall and spin (long conversation at this point)
- how to recover from stalls and spins
The ignition system
- Talk about the two magnetos and why there are two
- What happens if you lose electrical power?
Electrical system
- be studied up
- talk through the different busses
- be familiar with low voltage warning and what may be causing it
- If you lose all electrical power, will the plane still run?
Hypoxia
- what is it, symptoms, what to do
- what if you are flying at 2000 and start to exhibit similar symptoms (CO poisoning)
- what actions to take
- Talk about effects of scuba diving, bends, what actions to take
- In all of these situations, the golden words were “get on to the ground and seek medical attention”
Night Vision and night flying
- describe rods and cones
- black hole and false horizon effects
- you are flying along and suddenly all lights, stars and moon disappear. What happened? You flew into a cloud. How to get out of it (do a 180 and at no more than 20 degrees of bank, and reverse course, fly by instruments)
- identifying taxiway and run lights at night
Next were scenario-based questions:
- what considerations would you make flying into a high altitude area/airport?
- Taking off and landing at max weight?
- Effects of a tailwind or headwind?
- What if you hear the tower report the 152 in front of lost 10 knots of airspeed on approach? Wind sheer, and you need to add 10 knots.
- What about gusting winds? Add half of gust to your approach speed.
- Emergency approaches – what to do in case of engine loss, electrical failure, engine fire, wing fire, lost comms (I memorized them all but even so, they came back to haunt me in the practical)
- What are my personal weather minimums (think about those ahead of time)?
Finally, he asked questions about the aircraft itself – make, model, year, engine, horsepower, electrical, AC/DC, battery, alternator, amp meter.
And that was about it.
He moved very quickly, from one thing to the next. I felt that I really had to know my stuff, and have immediate access to responses.
Then it was on to the practical:
Here it was no surprise, other than the speed at which he moved from one maneuver to the next.
We started with a soft-field take-off (and then he asked me at about 800 agl if that was a short field or a soft field. The question sort of threw me, although I was positive I’d just done a soft field takeoff).
There was quite a bit of this “rattling” – what was that? What do you think that was? Are you sure? At one point, he asked me “you don’t really think that’s going to work do you?” That was in my engine out, when I was navigating for a field. I was hot, stressed, and actually thought it would work…but again, think this may have been done to unsettle my decision making.
We went straight into:
First leg of the XC
GS speed check
Diversion
VOR tracking
Hood work (challenging ascents and descents)
Unusual attitude recovery (I love these so they were fun)
Slow flight
Power off stall
Power on stall
(Those came so fast together; he was asking for a Power On while I was still recovering from the Power Off)
Steep turns
Engine Out/Engine Fire (here I was very rattled)
Turns about a point
S turns (walk in the park at this point)
Back to KPWT for: normal landing, short field take-off, short field landing, normal takeoff, soft field landing, and finally a power off landing. Everything was near perfect, on the numbers, and on centerline. I was happy about that.
At this point, we had started at 1pm, and it was close to 5:30.
But the check ride was still going, so I figured maybe I had a shot! We taxied back to the ramp, and he shook my hand, then left me to secure the plane and wring out my t-shirt.
Other things:
Use checklists
Do clearing turns, or he will tell you he’s got it, and not to bother
Nail your altitudes and headings at all times
My DPE made zero small-talk, and at times, sounded very irritated with me (during the engine fire). I think, in retrospect, he was attempting to throw me. I stayed super cool, although I wasn’t sure what was going on at that point of the check ride…turns out, he settled down again once we got up to altitude again.
After the check ride, we de-briefed, and said I needed to work on emergency procedures more. But otherwise, said it was a "good check ride". Who knew? I'm glad it's over, and am already thinking about flying places, and getting my instrument!
While this is still fresh, I wanted to write up a check ride report. Enjoy!
And please let me know if you have any questions.
Anna
Oral:
Prove to me that the plane is airworthy:
Maintenance Logs
ADs – what are they, are they current?
Registration – does it expire, yes
Airworthiness Cert – how long is it good for?
Weight and Balance – where is it, is it equal to the W&B in the POH?
ELT, Transponder – how often are inspections due?
100 hour inspection – what does it entail?
Nav log – he spent a good bit of time studying it.
Didn’t really ask any questions. I just sat there.
Asked me to pull out my charts. Drew a line from my home base (KPTW) to another airport and asked me to take a few minutes to map out my route.
Lots of airspace considerations, MOAs, Prohibited, Restricted, alert, and sanctuary areas.
Asked about a Special VFR.
Asked about other airspace in the area. Expected quick, immediate responses and when I hesitated once, when recalling high G at night, he was quick to jump in and express the need for thorough airspace knowledge.
Asked about who I’d communicate with, and how- FSS and Approach for FF
Would I need to contact the tower? No.
What kinds of communication do I need to enter D, C and B airspace? Dialog, Communication, and Permission.
What kind of equipment for each airspace?
How high each air space goes to?
Weight and Balance
- does it include the oil? Yes, in my case.
- what would be the solution to bring it in to CF? Lose some fuel.
- what are characteristics of forward/aft CG, including stability, take-off and landing distance, and stall speed? Quick, one after the other, questions here.
Density Altitude
- what is it? PA corrected for temp.
- how does the airplane respond? Takeoff, cruise, landing responses.
- Why is the landing distance longer?
- How does DA affect true vs indicated airspeed?
Required Equipment
- know the difference between R and optional, and where to find it.
- An equipment list is not a Minimum Equipment List, why?
What makes the airplane stall and spin (long conversation at this point)
- how to recover from stalls and spins
The ignition system
- Talk about the two magnetos and why there are two
- What happens if you lose electrical power?
Electrical system
- be studied up
- talk through the different busses
- be familiar with low voltage warning and what may be causing it
- If you lose all electrical power, will the plane still run?
Hypoxia
- what is it, symptoms, what to do
- what if you are flying at 2000 and start to exhibit similar symptoms (CO poisoning)
- what actions to take
- Talk about effects of scuba diving, bends, what actions to take
- In all of these situations, the golden words were “get on to the ground and seek medical attention”
Night Vision and night flying
- describe rods and cones
- black hole and false horizon effects
- you are flying along and suddenly all lights, stars and moon disappear. What happened? You flew into a cloud. How to get out of it (do a 180 and at no more than 20 degrees of bank, and reverse course, fly by instruments)
- identifying taxiway and run lights at night
Next were scenario-based questions:
- what considerations would you make flying into a high altitude area/airport?
- Taking off and landing at max weight?
- Effects of a tailwind or headwind?
- What if you hear the tower report the 152 in front of lost 10 knots of airspeed on approach? Wind sheer, and you need to add 10 knots.
- What about gusting winds? Add half of gust to your approach speed.
- Emergency approaches – what to do in case of engine loss, electrical failure, engine fire, wing fire, lost comms (I memorized them all but even so, they came back to haunt me in the practical)
- What are my personal weather minimums (think about those ahead of time)?
Finally, he asked questions about the aircraft itself – make, model, year, engine, horsepower, electrical, AC/DC, battery, alternator, amp meter.
And that was about it.
He moved very quickly, from one thing to the next. I felt that I really had to know my stuff, and have immediate access to responses.
Then it was on to the practical:
Here it was no surprise, other than the speed at which he moved from one maneuver to the next.
We started with a soft-field take-off (and then he asked me at about 800 agl if that was a short field or a soft field. The question sort of threw me, although I was positive I’d just done a soft field takeoff).
There was quite a bit of this “rattling” – what was that? What do you think that was? Are you sure? At one point, he asked me “you don’t really think that’s going to work do you?” That was in my engine out, when I was navigating for a field. I was hot, stressed, and actually thought it would work…but again, think this may have been done to unsettle my decision making.
We went straight into:
First leg of the XC
GS speed check
Diversion
VOR tracking
Hood work (challenging ascents and descents)
Unusual attitude recovery (I love these so they were fun)
Slow flight
Power off stall
Power on stall
(Those came so fast together; he was asking for a Power On while I was still recovering from the Power Off)
Steep turns
Engine Out/Engine Fire (here I was very rattled)
Turns about a point
S turns (walk in the park at this point)
Back to KPWT for: normal landing, short field take-off, short field landing, normal takeoff, soft field landing, and finally a power off landing. Everything was near perfect, on the numbers, and on centerline. I was happy about that.
At this point, we had started at 1pm, and it was close to 5:30.
But the check ride was still going, so I figured maybe I had a shot! We taxied back to the ramp, and he shook my hand, then left me to secure the plane and wring out my t-shirt.
Other things:
Use checklists
Do clearing turns, or he will tell you he’s got it, and not to bother
Nail your altitudes and headings at all times
My DPE made zero small-talk, and at times, sounded very irritated with me (during the engine fire). I think, in retrospect, he was attempting to throw me. I stayed super cool, although I wasn’t sure what was going on at that point of the check ride…turns out, he settled down again once we got up to altitude again.
After the check ride, we de-briefed, and said I needed to work on emergency procedures more. But otherwise, said it was a "good check ride". Who knew? I'm glad it's over, and am already thinking about flying places, and getting my instrument!
