ebykowsky
Cleared for Takeoff
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2012
- Messages
- 1,405
- Display Name
- goalstop
First of all, I just wanted to say what an awesome community this board has been, and I hope to spend many more years here learning from and getting to know all of you. You have all truly made me feel welcome, and I have yet to meet an unfriendly poster on the forums. You've all been extremely helpful to me through my training, and I love the atmosphere of the board where I can corrupt someone's wish in one forum, then talk aviation on another, all while trying to keep up with the ridiculous off-topic turns each thread takes and attempting to stay away from the forums when I have work to do... Altogether, I'm glad to call POA my home!
Anyway,
I finally got out today after three weeks to find all of SC in perfect VMC with winds straight down the runway of KOGB--I got in the plane around 8AM and landed around 8:45. We did a quick pre-flight briefing, checked IACRA and the maintenance logs, and hopped into the plane after I did my preflight. I'd never flown her before yesterday, and I wasn't used to the old K model 172, with 40deg. flaps, carb heat, and an old flap lever that doesn't just go where you put it (you have to stop the flaps where you want them). We took off into a 6kt wind, flew the first 15nm of the ride (first checkpoint was 20nm), and I was maybe a minute early, since we were able to depart straight out. He told me to divert, at which point I plugged the airport identifier into the GPS and flew towards the new airport for about a minute, and the DPE said that was good enough. We then did stalls, steep turns, hood work, and ground reference maneuvers, and the DPE pretty much led me through the whole thing. After the last turn around a point, he told me to exit at a heading of West, and that set us up for a perfect 45 degree entry into the pattern for rwy 5. After a soft field landing to a full stop on the runway followed by a short field takeoff from that point and a short field landing, I was told to taxi back to parking and shut her down! From wheels up to touchdown was 40 minutes... much shorter than I'd expected.
A few things I'd expected but didn't see:
Emergency descent (although we did do an emergency landing approach)
Slip to a landing: there were only 2 takeoffs and landings; neither had a slip.
Pilotage on diversion to new airport: I was allowed to use the plane's GPS for this, which made everything really easy.
He actually told me which altitudes to perform the maneuvers, so I didn't have to worry about that.
Things I messed up on:
Carb heat--this really got the best of me since I never fly carburetor aircraft. However, he just said that as long as the engine didn't quit, he didn't mind.
Called the wrong name on the UNICOM (said Fairfield instead of Orangeburg--this wasn't a big deal to him though).
Took a little while to identify the roads we were going over, but ultimately figured it out after a couple of minutes.
Things I'm glad I knew:
Runway incursions! Thank you guys for telling me to look out for this! When taxiing to parking when I first got in, I blew right through the crossing runway, and realized my mistake at about the centerline of the rwy. Thankfully, the DPE was not in the plane yet (the ride hadn't started) and I realized how bad that would be to do during the ride.
Just to stay calm: The DPE wasn't out to fail me, and I knew he wanted to get the ride over with, since he had a vacation to leave for as soon as the ride was over. So, if you're 120 above altitude, just start correcting, and he'll notice what you're doing.
All in all, looking back, it was an enjoyable experience and I'm glad to say it's over. The ride was pretty stressful at the time, knowing that he could just say "the ride is over" at any time and I'd have to go through all this stress again, and have to spend even more time and money getting my license. Fortunately, that didn't happen, and it was an amazing feeling when he told me to taxi back to the ramp! All in all, I got the ticket with about 50-55 hours, and could have easily gotten it done in 40-45 if I'd stayed in SC for all of my training. The examiner said that I had done a "great job" and that it was one of the better checkrides he's given.
After the test, I hopped back in the plane and headed back to KFDW a certified pilot. Taking advantage of my newly discovered freedom, I took a slight diversion to do a touch-and-go at KCUB, where I did the majority of my training... I really wanted to have my first landing as a certified pilot back at CUB where I had started everything, and I made it a greaser! Flew the rest of the way to FDW and did a 0G pushover to celebrate, but then I flew a right traffic pattern instead of a left pattern because I thought I had done that the day before, but realized it was wrong on final (DOH!), and set her down with a pretty rough landing
Thankfully the ride was over and nobody was watching 
so my pride was not that hurt. All in all, a great way to spend a day. Now, I'll be trying to lure my parents into the plane with me sometime over the next week.
Anyway,
I finally got out today after three weeks to find all of SC in perfect VMC with winds straight down the runway of KOGB--I got in the plane around 8AM and landed around 8:45. We did a quick pre-flight briefing, checked IACRA and the maintenance logs, and hopped into the plane after I did my preflight. I'd never flown her before yesterday, and I wasn't used to the old K model 172, with 40deg. flaps, carb heat, and an old flap lever that doesn't just go where you put it (you have to stop the flaps where you want them). We took off into a 6kt wind, flew the first 15nm of the ride (first checkpoint was 20nm), and I was maybe a minute early, since we were able to depart straight out. He told me to divert, at which point I plugged the airport identifier into the GPS and flew towards the new airport for about a minute, and the DPE said that was good enough. We then did stalls, steep turns, hood work, and ground reference maneuvers, and the DPE pretty much led me through the whole thing. After the last turn around a point, he told me to exit at a heading of West, and that set us up for a perfect 45 degree entry into the pattern for rwy 5. After a soft field landing to a full stop on the runway followed by a short field takeoff from that point and a short field landing, I was told to taxi back to parking and shut her down! From wheels up to touchdown was 40 minutes... much shorter than I'd expected.
A few things I'd expected but didn't see:
Emergency descent (although we did do an emergency landing approach)
Slip to a landing: there were only 2 takeoffs and landings; neither had a slip.
Pilotage on diversion to new airport: I was allowed to use the plane's GPS for this, which made everything really easy.
He actually told me which altitudes to perform the maneuvers, so I didn't have to worry about that.
Things I messed up on:
Carb heat--this really got the best of me since I never fly carburetor aircraft. However, he just said that as long as the engine didn't quit, he didn't mind.
Called the wrong name on the UNICOM (said Fairfield instead of Orangeburg--this wasn't a big deal to him though).
Took a little while to identify the roads we were going over, but ultimately figured it out after a couple of minutes.
Things I'm glad I knew:
Runway incursions! Thank you guys for telling me to look out for this! When taxiing to parking when I first got in, I blew right through the crossing runway, and realized my mistake at about the centerline of the rwy. Thankfully, the DPE was not in the plane yet (the ride hadn't started) and I realized how bad that would be to do during the ride.
Just to stay calm: The DPE wasn't out to fail me, and I knew he wanted to get the ride over with, since he had a vacation to leave for as soon as the ride was over. So, if you're 120 above altitude, just start correcting, and he'll notice what you're doing.
All in all, looking back, it was an enjoyable experience and I'm glad to say it's over. The ride was pretty stressful at the time, knowing that he could just say "the ride is over" at any time and I'd have to go through all this stress again, and have to spend even more time and money getting my license. Fortunately, that didn't happen, and it was an amazing feeling when he told me to taxi back to the ramp! All in all, I got the ticket with about 50-55 hours, and could have easily gotten it done in 40-45 if I'd stayed in SC for all of my training. The examiner said that I had done a "great job" and that it was one of the better checkrides he's given.
After the test, I hopped back in the plane and headed back to KFDW a certified pilot. Taking advantage of my newly discovered freedom, I took a slight diversion to do a touch-and-go at KCUB, where I did the majority of my training... I really wanted to have my first landing as a certified pilot back at CUB where I had started everything, and I made it a greaser! Flew the rest of the way to FDW and did a 0G pushover to celebrate, but then I flew a right traffic pattern instead of a left pattern because I thought I had done that the day before, but realized it was wrong on final (DOH!), and set her down with a pretty rough landing
Thankfully the ride was over and nobody was watching so my pride was not that hurt. All in all, a great way to spend a day. Now, I'll be trying to lure my parents into the plane with me sometime over the next week.
