mulligan
Cleared for Takeoff
Woke up to calm winds and a beautiful forecast. Check ride is scheduled for 2:00pm. All I have to do is keep my nerves in check for a few hours. What could go wrong.
Drove to my home airport and arrived at 12:30pm. Pre-flight complete and head to the assigned airport KEKY. Very smooth flight and a decent landing. Do a touch and go just to make sure that I'm on. Another lap around the pattern and complete landing to a full stop and taxi to the FBO. The DPE is already there and said great, we can start this early lets go talk about the plan.
In our review he reminds me my first ride was a great oral and told me what he expected from this ride. Then surprises me and tells me I have a very nice plane with awesome technology and told me to use everything and anything that I wanted. He then said but most of all, relax and have fun.
Off to the airplane and had me do a pre-flight with checklist. Complete. Get in plane and asked me to set a course from KEKY to KMOB. Taxi and takeoff and head in the direction of KMOB with a climb to 4500. Wouldn't you know, he stated the engine is running ruff, we have to divert. Pick closest airport. Used my technology that he said I could use and told him KEET is the closest at 280 degrees. He said head that way. Made the turn and he said very good, now let's get setup and show me some steep turns. This is where I busted last ride. Steep turn to the left done, steep turn to the right, done. He said good work, now show me slow flight. Reduce power, flaps to full, and hit selected speed of 60kts while maintaining altitude. Performed turns to the correct headings requested and again said nice work. As long as we are dirty and slow, please show me power off stall. Perform as instructed and he says clean up and head to new direction. Level off at 4500 again and asks to see power on stall. We agreed that it would be partial power as my plane can climb through a power on stall to a pretty high pitch and all goes as expected.
Time for foggles and get directions of heading, speed, and altitudes at specified rates. On the way up was great. On the way down struggled for some reason hitting the specified descend rate. Made the corrections needed but for the first time he grabbed the pen and made a note. Yikes. Now the fun stuff. Recovery from unusual attitudes. I actually really like those.
Once recovered I get request to descend to 1500 for performance maneuvers. Turns around a point first and went ok. Then S-turns and did two sets. Once complete directed to head back to EKY. In the pattern requests short field landing. Not the best but within standards and tells me we will do again just so he can show me something. Taxi back and perform short field takeoff. Next pattern another short field and I hit my mark. Taxi back and perform soft field takeoff followed by soft field landing. All goes well. On to regular takeoff and tells me to perform no flap landing and hit the numbers. Actually went well and when we touched down he raised flaps and said takeoff. He then tells me that we will do an emergency landing and he would pull power abeam the numbers and expected me to hit the numbers. This was my best landing of the day. He then said take the 2nd taxi way and head to the FBO and wrote another note.
I parked the plane and he said did you have fun today. I said well I'll let you know when I find out how I did. He said I didn't stop you did I? I said no to which he quickly replied nice work, you passed.
We then did a de-debrief and some paper work and signed my certificate followed by a few pictures.
While he was very thorough, he was very fair and showed me a bunch of cool stuff along the way. What an awesome day that I will never forget.
Drove to my home airport and arrived at 12:30pm. Pre-flight complete and head to the assigned airport KEKY. Very smooth flight and a decent landing. Do a touch and go just to make sure that I'm on. Another lap around the pattern and complete landing to a full stop and taxi to the FBO. The DPE is already there and said great, we can start this early lets go talk about the plan.
In our review he reminds me my first ride was a great oral and told me what he expected from this ride. Then surprises me and tells me I have a very nice plane with awesome technology and told me to use everything and anything that I wanted. He then said but most of all, relax and have fun.
Off to the airplane and had me do a pre-flight with checklist. Complete. Get in plane and asked me to set a course from KEKY to KMOB. Taxi and takeoff and head in the direction of KMOB with a climb to 4500. Wouldn't you know, he stated the engine is running ruff, we have to divert. Pick closest airport. Used my technology that he said I could use and told him KEET is the closest at 280 degrees. He said head that way. Made the turn and he said very good, now let's get setup and show me some steep turns. This is where I busted last ride. Steep turn to the left done, steep turn to the right, done. He said good work, now show me slow flight. Reduce power, flaps to full, and hit selected speed of 60kts while maintaining altitude. Performed turns to the correct headings requested and again said nice work. As long as we are dirty and slow, please show me power off stall. Perform as instructed and he says clean up and head to new direction. Level off at 4500 again and asks to see power on stall. We agreed that it would be partial power as my plane can climb through a power on stall to a pretty high pitch and all goes as expected.
Time for foggles and get directions of heading, speed, and altitudes at specified rates. On the way up was great. On the way down struggled for some reason hitting the specified descend rate. Made the corrections needed but for the first time he grabbed the pen and made a note. Yikes. Now the fun stuff. Recovery from unusual attitudes. I actually really like those.
Once recovered I get request to descend to 1500 for performance maneuvers. Turns around a point first and went ok. Then S-turns and did two sets. Once complete directed to head back to EKY. In the pattern requests short field landing. Not the best but within standards and tells me we will do again just so he can show me something. Taxi back and perform short field takeoff. Next pattern another short field and I hit my mark. Taxi back and perform soft field takeoff followed by soft field landing. All goes well. On to regular takeoff and tells me to perform no flap landing and hit the numbers. Actually went well and when we touched down he raised flaps and said takeoff. He then tells me that we will do an emergency landing and he would pull power abeam the numbers and expected me to hit the numbers. This was my best landing of the day. He then said take the 2nd taxi way and head to the FBO and wrote another note.
I parked the plane and he said did you have fun today. I said well I'll let you know when I find out how I did. He said I didn't stop you did I? I said no to which he quickly replied nice work, you passed.
We then did a de-debrief and some paper work and signed my certificate followed by a few pictures.
While he was very thorough, he was very fair and showed me a bunch of cool stuff along the way. What an awesome day that I will never forget.
I pointed it out to my CFI later and he laughed, "I didn't realize I did that to you, but it's a good thing you passed, eh?" He would have put a round-trip endorsement in there if he were thinking about it, but we were just sitting there doing logbook checks and prep and he remembered he needed to endorse me to fly to the test airport... GRIN... 
