Hi All,
Finally after a long time, my childhood dream has come true and I am now a private pilot
. I found some of the experiences and advice here very helpful and thank you for that. I thought I should just let you all know how it went.
Due to scheduling conflicts with the FAA Examiner and myself, we couldn't schedule earlier so Oct 30th was the big day.
10/29:
Flew with instructor after 2 weeks and everything looked good and then did the mock oral,IACRA etc. My instructor said to get a good night's rest and I updated my flight plan with weather but didn't really get enough time to do a last minute studying or revision which I would have liked to . Tossing and turning during the night and thinking about all kinds of questions the examiner can ask.
10/30: Got to the airport at 7:40 AM and got a standard briefing.
8:00 AM - Met with the examiner and we went over the paper work and it was a relaxed conversation about how long have I been training
and where I am from..etc
8:20 AM - The oral-exam starts:
1. Can you get paid when flying as a PPL? -
2. What documents the plane needs to have when flying?
3. He took the TAF's I had printed out and said..my wife is flying with me and she looks at it this paper and asks "what is this?".
I explained that it is an area forecast for a terminal within a 4nm radius.
He went back now for 3-4 minutes saying.."Yes but my wife is still confused and is asking what is this paper about?"
I then realized I had the METAR at the top with the TAF's and I didn't catch that initially and then I told him it is a METAR and it is a
weather observation". At this point he sighed and said "I thought for a second you didn't know what it was?"
4. He showed me a TAF and asked to interpret a line and asked what BR means?
I first bluttered "Broken" and then immediately I said "I take that back , it is mist" and he said what are the different types of cloud cover on the TAF's.
5. Showed me an Area forecast and asked what it was and what it tells us.
6. List out any 4 inspections for an aircraft..AVIATES
7. What can you tell me about MEL and where is it found? Under what circumstances can you fly a plane with inoperative equipment? 91.213, 91.213(d)
8. Special flight permit
9. Where are the placards on the aircraft we are flying and how many are there? He asked me to show it on the POH and asked if we can have more than what is listed?
If you have an inoperative equipment, the mechanic should remove it and have it placarded.
9. Can I have a glass of wine and go flying in 2 hours ?
10. What are the types of fronts? COWS - Cold fronts, Occulted, Warm front, Stationery front
11. Looked at my cross country plan and one leg of my flight was 24 mins long and proposed a better leg for that part of the flight. Almost parallel to my initial route and it had a inter-state and he explained..that it was better to fly over that instead of just flying between airports for 24 mins and not much visual check points.
12. civilian airport/military airport beacon (green/white) etc
13. Does an airplane perform better during take-off in a higher altitude airport or lower altitude? lower altitude
14. Is hot weather or cool weather good for a plane to perform? I mentioned on a hot day, the engine will need to perform more.
15. What kind of engine does your plane have? 4 cylinder,Lycoming,Hor Opposed,carb equipped,110 BHP.
16. Why do we need to do mag check? I mentioned to him that to check the engine still runs
on one of the mags and we have dual mags for redundancy.
.
so far ok..then he asked..how does the magnetos work
This is where some problem started. I explained to him that initially the battery gives the initial charge to crank the magnetos and then
it moves the rotor of the engine and then the battery is not needed.
and how many independent electrical systems do we have? I told him one - 24V DC powered, 60 AMP Alternator , 24v,14A battery.
He said..."Ok lets get back to this later"
He asked how many spark plugs and I mentioned 2. And went back to the independent electrical system question and then he said.."Lets take a coffee break and think about it"
By this time I heard him tell my instructor outside "He has been doing great but has some problem with th electrical systems"
and my instructor came and I was going over the POH and Jepperson and we concluded that the magnetos is a self contained unit and then I mentioned there are 8 spark plugs. ( 2 per cylinder)
So the independent electrical systems are - battery,alternator,2 magnetos.
After this questions on airspace -
17. standing on the ground at an airport..what airspace are we in?
18. I am with a friend and flying at 1100,1500,3000 and what is visibility requirements now and which airspace is this?
19. Night visibility for Class E - night
20. Pointed at an airport and asked me to tell the different airspace from the surface all the way to 60000.
21. In Class A, can you fly?
22. Pointed at a class D airport under a CLASS B and asked me to tell all the airspace right to the top.
23. Asked about MOA,Restricted and Prohibited areas
24. Last he said "I have a bonus question", he pointed at an airport which was in class E (Shaded magenta ) but had a shaded line around it and it said "Does not include 1500 and below".
and asked what that means? I explained that I know it is class E and whether it is class E doesn't apply below 1501. He then gave me a clue and showed an MOA.
I still couldn't figure out and he said the MOA's are excluded in that circle area.
He said "Ok great..lets take a 10 min break and go and fly".
Practical:
1. During the initial check, he came and pointed at the Pitot tube ,brakes,alternator and asked what it was?
and looked at the brake and said "These use the electrical system right?" and I mentioned "No they are hydraulic".
Pointed at the Elevator and asked what it was and looked at the trim tab and said "oh look the elevator has a hole..it is probably broken" and I told him it was the trim tab.
2. Did the passenger brief with him, contacted ground,did taxi,runup and did a soft field takeoff.
3. Flew on cross country and did climb checklist,cruise checklist and then told him when to expect the first check point.
4. After this when we were about to reach the second checkpoint..he gave me a diversion and that I could plan to fly from my
second check point.
I asked him to take controls for a few and gave him the time,fuel and distance and we flew the diversion to the first checkpoint.
When he was flying the plane as I was planning, I asked him to stay to the left as we have a navy base close by and he was happy to note that.
5. Once we reached first checkpoint - we did slowflight which went good.I thought I could have done better but kept my mouth closed and didn't utter a word.
6. Steep turns - first one was ok and little off and he said "it is not bad" and then the next steep turn in the opp direction was good
7. Power on stalls, Power off stalls
8. On the hood - unusual attitudes
9. On the hood - asked to fly a VOR and climb and maintain an altitude.
10. Headed back to the airport for touch and go's but I was thinking "Oh he hasn't tested engine failure, have i done well so far or did he forget?"
11. Came to the airport and we did soft field,short field landings/take offs and normal landing.
12. He wanted me to land with almost close to when you can hear the stall warning and he felt my first landing was fast (62-65 kts)
13. In the end we were going to do a full-stop and on downwind he took controls and climbed to 1500 (500 above pattern altitude). He brought the throttle to idle and said..ok land now.
did my usual check and then we were really close to the runway and then he said "You know I set you up way high for this..let me come down" And he brought it down to 400 feet and then asked me to land..at this point we were almost at the start of the runway and I landed it and he said "very good"
After we reached he said "Very good flight, Congratulations, I will see you inside for the paper work".
After this, I still wondered if this was a dream or is this real!
Finally after a long time, my childhood dream has come true and I am now a private pilot
. I found some of the experiences and advice here very helpful and thank you for that. I thought I should just let you all know how it went.Due to scheduling conflicts with the FAA Examiner and myself, we couldn't schedule earlier so Oct 30th was the big day.
10/29:
Flew with instructor after 2 weeks and everything looked good and then did the mock oral,IACRA etc. My instructor said to get a good night's rest and I updated my flight plan with weather but didn't really get enough time to do a last minute studying or revision which I would have liked to
. Tossing and turning during the night and thinking about all kinds of questions the examiner can ask.10/30: Got to the airport at 7:40 AM and got a standard briefing.
8:00 AM - Met with the examiner and we went over the paper work and it was a relaxed conversation about how long have I been training
and where I am from..etc
8:20 AM - The oral-exam starts:
1. Can you get paid when flying as a PPL? -
2. What documents the plane needs to have when flying?
3. He took the TAF's I had printed out and said..my wife is flying with me and she looks at it this paper and asks "what is this?".
I explained that it is an area forecast for a terminal within a 4nm radius.
He went back now for 3-4 minutes saying.."Yes but my wife is still confused and is asking what is this paper about?"
I then realized I had the METAR at the top with the TAF's and I didn't catch that initially and then I told him it is a METAR and it is a
weather observation". At this point he sighed and said "I thought for a second you didn't know what it was?"
4. He showed me a TAF and asked to interpret a line and asked what BR means?
I first bluttered "Broken" and then immediately I said "I take that back , it is mist" and he said what are the different types of cloud cover on the TAF's.
5. Showed me an Area forecast and asked what it was and what it tells us.
6. List out any 4 inspections for an aircraft..AVIATES
7. What can you tell me about MEL and where is it found? Under what circumstances can you fly a plane with inoperative equipment? 91.213, 91.213(d)
8. Special flight permit
9. Where are the placards on the aircraft we are flying and how many are there? He asked me to show it on the POH and asked if we can have more than what is listed?
If you have an inoperative equipment, the mechanic should remove it and have it placarded.
9. Can I have a glass of wine and go flying in 2 hours ?
10. What are the types of fronts? COWS - Cold fronts, Occulted, Warm front, Stationery front
11. Looked at my cross country plan and one leg of my flight was 24 mins long and proposed a better leg for that part of the flight. Almost parallel to my initial route and it had a inter-state and he explained..that it was better to fly over that instead of just flying between airports for 24 mins and not much visual check points.
12. civilian airport/military airport beacon (green/white) etc
13. Does an airplane perform better during take-off in a higher altitude airport or lower altitude? lower altitude
14. Is hot weather or cool weather good for a plane to perform? I mentioned on a hot day, the engine will need to perform more.
15. What kind of engine does your plane have? 4 cylinder,Lycoming,Hor Opposed,carb equipped,110 BHP.
16. Why do we need to do mag check? I mentioned to him that to check the engine still runs
on one of the mags and we have dual mags for redundancy.
.
so far ok..then he asked..how does the magnetos work
This is where some problem started. I explained to him that initially the battery gives the initial charge to crank the magnetos and then
it moves the rotor of the engine and then the battery is not needed.
and how many independent electrical systems do we have? I told him one - 24V DC powered, 60 AMP Alternator , 24v,14A battery.
He said..."Ok lets get back to this later"
He asked how many spark plugs and I mentioned 2. And went back to the independent electrical system question and then he said.."Lets take a coffee break and think about it"
By this time I heard him tell my instructor outside "He has been doing great but has some problem with th electrical systems"
and my instructor came and I was going over the POH and Jepperson and we concluded that the magnetos is a self contained unit and then I mentioned there are 8 spark plugs. ( 2 per cylinder)
So the independent electrical systems are - battery,alternator,2 magnetos.
After this questions on airspace -
17. standing on the ground at an airport..what airspace are we in?
18. I am with a friend and flying at 1100,1500,3000 and what is visibility requirements now and which airspace is this?
19. Night visibility for Class E - night
20. Pointed at an airport and asked me to tell the different airspace from the surface all the way to 60000.
21. In Class A, can you fly?
22. Pointed at a class D airport under a CLASS B and asked me to tell all the airspace right to the top.
23. Asked about MOA,Restricted and Prohibited areas
24. Last he said "I have a bonus question", he pointed at an airport which was in class E (Shaded magenta ) but had a shaded line around it and it said "Does not include 1500 and below".
and asked what that means? I explained that I know it is class E and whether it is class E doesn't apply below 1501. He then gave me a clue and showed an MOA.
I still couldn't figure out and he said the MOA's are excluded in that circle area.
He said "Ok great..lets take a 10 min break and go and fly".
Practical:
1. During the initial check, he came and pointed at the Pitot tube ,brakes,alternator and asked what it was?
and looked at the brake and said "These use the electrical system right?" and I mentioned "No they are hydraulic".
Pointed at the Elevator and asked what it was and looked at the trim tab and said "oh look the elevator has a hole..it is probably broken" and I told him it was the trim tab.
2. Did the passenger brief with him, contacted ground,did taxi,runup and did a soft field takeoff.
3. Flew on cross country and did climb checklist,cruise checklist and then told him when to expect the first check point.
4. After this when we were about to reach the second checkpoint..he gave me a diversion and that I could plan to fly from my
second check point.
I asked him to take controls for a few and gave him the time,fuel and distance and we flew the diversion to the first checkpoint.
When he was flying the plane as I was planning, I asked him to stay to the left as we have a navy base close by and he was happy to note that.
5. Once we reached first checkpoint - we did slowflight which went good.I thought I could have done better but kept my mouth closed and didn't utter a word.
6. Steep turns - first one was ok and little off and he said "it is not bad" and then the next steep turn in the opp direction was good
7. Power on stalls, Power off stalls
8. On the hood - unusual attitudes
9. On the hood - asked to fly a VOR and climb and maintain an altitude.
10. Headed back to the airport for touch and go's but I was thinking "Oh he hasn't tested engine failure, have i done well so far or did he forget?"
11. Came to the airport and we did soft field,short field landings/take offs and normal landing.
12. He wanted me to land with almost close to when you can hear the stall warning and he felt my first landing was fast (62-65 kts)
13. In the end we were going to do a full-stop and on downwind he took controls and climbed to 1500 (500 above pattern altitude). He brought the throttle to idle and said..ok land now.
did my usual check and then we were really close to the runway and then he said "You know I set you up way high for this..let me come down" And he brought it down to 400 feet and then asked me to land..at this point we were almost at the start of the runway and I landed it and he said "very good"
After we reached he said "Very good flight, Congratulations, I will see you inside for the paper work".
After this, I still wondered if this was a dream or is this real
!
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