roddie
Pre-takeoff checklist
This past Sunday, I took my Private Pilot Checkride and passed! It was a longish day because of a couple of hour delay between the oral and flight portion, but I got it done and I think I did a pretty good job. Due to some logistical issues I had before and during my checkride, this is going to be more of a novel than a brain-dump, but it is what it is. Enjoy the story 
Preparation
Other than reading a few checkride experiences online, I used five main items for my preparation:
- The PTS. I cannot overstate the value of the PTS for the checkride. If I had to give only one piece of advice for the checkride, it would be: "Read the PTS." There's no magic or mystery in either part of the checkride. My DPE literally used the PTS as a guide and checked-off subjects during the oral as he asked questions about them. I used Gold Seal's version of the PTS. I found the PDF version that is abridged for ASEL to be the easiest for me. I read it three or four times.
- Captain Levy's Checkride Advice thread. Pay careful attention to items 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, and 19. They'll save you.
- King Schools Private Pilot Practical Test Course - I actually used an older version of the program which was simply two DVDs (a mock oral and a mock checkride). The current versions are probably more interactive and current, but I found the version I had to be a good prep of what to expect as far as a format and flow. People have different opinions about the King School stuff and their campy humor, but at the end of the day, they do the trick as far getting the material across. In this case, they cover pretty much everything, which is WAY more than you'll be exposed to on the actual test. They also do a good job of breaking character in certain moments to explain what the DPE is looking for and wants to hear.
- Allan Englehardt's Private Pilot Oral Exam on Youtube - As with the King Schools course, this mock checkride covers almost every topic/question that you might face during the oral. If you are comfortable with the material in these videos, then you will be just fine on the actual test.
- The ASA Private Oral Exam Guide - Regardless of how the DPE chooses to ask the questions (relating it to scenarios or a straight Q&A), the answer is likely in this little book. Again, from my experience, it's WAY more in depth than you'll need for your test, but it covers all of the material in a nice concise way. Worth a read-through, and a good way to figure out your weak areas (mine is weather).
Pre-test
I was sent a list of things to bring (the standard list that is in the book above) and was told to prepare a cross-country flight plan from KTKI to KDTN (Shreveport Downtown). After looking at the airspace in Shreveport, it was easy to see why he picked it. It's a Delta airport in the middle of Charlie airspace with Shreveport Regional on one side and Barksdale AFB. The sectional clearly states "CTC SHREVEPORT APP WITHIN 20 NM ON 119.9 335.55", and a look at the A/FD show this "ALL VFR TFC REMAIN WITHIN 1 1/2 MILES NE THRU SW FM THE CENTER OF THE ARPT DUE TO SHREVEPORT/BARKSDALE AFB CLASS C AIRSPACE." These were the things he was hoping I would notice in my planning and he asked about them during the oral. I also had to prepare a W&B and have the performance numbers ready.
We scheduled the checkride on Tuesday 11/20 for Sunday 11/25 -- I was at about 41 hours, and I needed another .5 simulated IMC to meet the requirements, which we figured we could do on Friday the 23rd. I came home on Tuesday and started to gather all of the stuff I needed for the checkride. I opened my "Flying" folder to get my Knowledge Test results out, and they weren't there. Panic. Everything else was in there; all correspondence from the FAA, my receipt from the testing center, my endorsement for the Knowledge Test from King's, but NO test results! I tore my study, car, kitchen, bathroom, and cats apart, but couldn't find them anywhere. I STILL have no idea where they could be or why they aren't with everything else. The only thing I could think of was that I took them to show my CFI back in October and I left them somewhere. Either way, I was freaked. I did some Googling and the official FAA process is to MAIL a written request up to OkC with $1, and they would MAIL the results back to you. They were explicit that no FAX or phone requests would be accepted, and no FAX or phone results would be shared. I immediately filled out the form and overnighted the request ($19 courier fee to send a $1 check) up to OkC, but I knew there was no way I would get the results back by Sunday on Thanksgiving weekend.
I called the DPE and explained my predicament and he said that since the whole system is now based in IACRA, there was no way around it. They're using IACRA to track activity, and my CFI needs to input my test results before he can sign the application and send it to the DPE. I talked to my CFI some more and he said that all he really needed was the six-thousand digit test ID (ok, it's only 17 digits) from the results. After some more digging, I found a contact number for the Airmen Certification Branch on Tuesday night. Their hours are 7:30 AM to 4:00 PM Central, so I set my alarm for Wednesday morning. It doesn't hurt to ask, right? I called them at 7:35 AM the next day (coffee delay), and after a couple of button presses I got to talk to a human. I told her my story and she said that so-and-so would be able to help me, and transferred me to her. So-and-so (I changed her name to protect her) answered the phone and told me that she handled the written requests, but if all I needed was the Test ID number, she could give me that over the phone. WOO!! I got the number, thanked her profusely, and immediately texted it to my CFI, the DPE, myself, my wife, and I even emailed it to myself so that I wouldn't lose it.
On a side note, does anyone else find it silly that I have to get a number from the FAA so that I can give it to the FAA? The IACRA system has all of the same information in it that I gave for my Knowledge Test!
The rest of the time between Wednesday and Sunday was spent reviewing the material above and getting my hood time up to where it needed to be. After our flight on Friday, my CFI and I went through the IACRA process, and got that all done.
The Exam (Oral)
The DPE and I had planned to meet at 9:00 AM, so I booked the plane (C152) for 10 AM - 2 PM. I figured I would get there by 8, get the maintenance logs all bookmarked and do a pre-flight, so that we could get out in time. The night before the checkride, I logged into IACRA (don't ask me why), and there was a big message about a "potential" maintenance outage on Sunday morning between 9:30 AM and 10:00 AM. Yay. I contacted the DPE and we agreed to meet a little earlier so that we could get our stuff done before the maintenance window. I showed up a bit earlier, did what I wanted to do, and went into the FBO to get things started.
We started off with a briefing, where he went through all of my paper work and reviewed the agenda for the day. A couple of highlights:
- The test and its outcome are not going to change how I pilot an aircraft or make me a better pilot. How he put it was that my CFI signs off for me to solo because he believes I'm a safe enough pilot that I can risk killing myself. The DPE will (hopefully) sign me off because he believes that I'm a safe enough pilot that I can risk killing my family or other passengers.. No more, no less. I kept thinking of this whenever I started to get anxious or tense.
- There are three possible outcomes: pass, fail, and a discontinuance. Per the PTS, the criteria for a fail are quite specific. You consistently exceed the tolerances without taking corrective action. We've all heard this before, but it's fine to lose 125 or more ft in altitude during a steep turn as long as you notice it and try to fix it. This is what they're looking for even more than your ability to hold altitude, I believe. You WILL make mistakes on your checkride (Levy), major ones, but are you aware and in control enough to notice them and fix them. Here's where talking outloud during the flight portion helps the DPE know where your head is at (King). The other way to fail is if the DPE has to take control of the airplane because he fears for our safety -- this one is a bit obvious.
He also made it VERY clear that I was the PIC for the day. All controls were mine unless specifically stated (ie. putting on the hood), and he was simply along for the ride. He would, however, help if I asked him to do something (ie. check for traffic).
We went downstairs and completed the IACRA (yuck) process, and then I was informed that the test was beginning.
I'll say again that the oral was pretty standard. If you know most of the material in the list above, then you'll be fine. There's no magic to this stuff. You should be careful not to say too much and not dig a hole for yourself, but over-all it's a pretty straightforward exam.
First-off was a review of the airplane's maintenance records with questions about when each inspection was due and what was and wasn't required. We then moved on to questioning about what is required for a Private Pilot and what documents need to be carried in the plane and on the pilot.
We then went over my cross-country flight plane and I took him through the route, pointing out the checkpoints along the way. My route was KTKI UIM V18 EIC KDTN, which covered the PTS requirement for radio navigation, and also provided a good entry point into the Charlie airspace around Shreveport. He quizzed me about certain things along the route, and asked how I would handle radio communication when I got to the Shreveport area. We covered altitudes (odds, evens, 3000 ft. AGL), as well. We came back to the DFW Bravo area and he asked questions about it (who to contact, altitudes to fly, the TFR over GWB's house). During discussion about the TFR and Barksdale AFB, he asked me what it meant when a military jet came up beside me and tilted its wings back and forth. I didn't know exactly, so he guided me to the right place in the AIM. Interesting. I described my run-ins with T38s near Sheppard AFB during my first solo x-c.
We moved to weather, and he asked me what kind of weather information I looked up. I reviewed the standard briefing with him. It was a clear day here, so there wasn't much to talk about, but he did ask me to read the TAFs and explain what SIGMET/AIRMET was. He also asked me about what kind of wind corrections I had calculated and why. He asked me the VFR minimums in class E and G airspaces.
Next was reviewing the W&B and Performance calculations for our flight. On my CFI's advice, I had done a W&B with full fuel and empty fuel to illustrate the difference in CG (it moved forward slightly). He asked what impact it would have along with the same question for the CG moving aft. Next I covered the landing and take-off distances (standard short-field with 50 ft. obstacles), and explained why I used conservative values for temperature and pressure altitude to come up with my distances.
The last two topics we covered were Aircraft Systems operations (gauges, fuel), and Aeromedical topics like smoking (as it relates to oxygen), the rules for oxygen, drugs, and fatigue factors.
By this point my confidence was way high, as I think I only missed maybe one question, so I was more than ready to fly.
The Exam (Flight...maybe)
As we were walking to the plane, he asked me questions about the new runway/taxiway layout at KTKI (new big fat runway 18/36, old runway 17/35 turned into taxiway B with new feeders to the runway, and old taxiway A mostly tuned into a non-movement area).
Since I had already done the preflight earlier in the morning, he said I only needed to quickly review what I had checked and discuss why I checked them (because it's in the checklist, duh). As I was reviewing the preflight, he asked questions about specific parts (pitot tube, static port, and what gauges they affected.
The very last item on the preflight, and one that I HADN'T checked in the morning was verification of the anti-collision beacon. It didn't work. Crap. We tried tapping it with stuff to get it going, but nothing. I grabbed a ladder from the shed and tried to beat it to submission, but it still wouldn't turn on. I removed the red dome from the beacon and shimmied the bulb, and still nothing. I yanked the bulb out and found the contacts to be severely corroded. I tried to scrape them clean to no avail. The other C152 in the club (same owner) uses a strobe system, so we couldn't even steal one from there. The club also has a Warrior II with BOTH the beacon and a strobe, but it had taken off just as we were walking out to the plane. Argh!
During this mini-crisis, he took the opportunity to ask me if it was ok for me to change the lightbulb on my plane (after being licensed). I said yes, as it would be considered preventative maintenance; right answer.
We spent the next hour walking and driving from open hangar to open hangar begging for a 28V light bulb with me doing my best not to freak out. Fortunately for me, the DPE was very calming and assured me that we'd figure something out. He was also very eager to fly and was very helpful in our quest for light. We went to his hangar to search for a bulb and came up with nothing. He ended up putting some solder on the bulb and it tested clean, so we gathered up everything and on the way out of the hangar, the beacon cover (glass), slips from his hand and shatters everywhere.
At this point I'm convinced that someone doesn't want me to fly.
BUT, it turns out that the DPE used to own a C172 that had a similar style beacon and he still had the cover sitting on his workbench. Score!
Back we trek to the C152, I climb the ladder to put the bulb in, and still nothing. We've been at this for almost two hours by this point and are pretty much out of options for this airplane. I asked him if we could use the other club C152 for the exam if it had all of its paperwork, and he didn't see a problem with that. So off I went to do my third preflight of the day while he tied down the other plane and put the beacon assembly back together. I've flown this particular C152 a few times, but stopped flying it because its VOR receiver was a bit wonky and the inclinometer was way off.
Either way, we had a plane, I got it inspected, and it was time to fly.
The Exam (Flight...for real this time)
So by this time, I'm frazzled, a bit stressed, and just ready to get the whole thing over with; not to mention that my confidence has taken a hit. I had already not gotten much sleep the night before (nerves plus getting there early), so the lightbulb stuff just compounded it. The DPE told me to take all the time I needed and to get relaxed, so I took a few minutes and some deep breaths, and got psyched up again. Just fly the damn plane.
The first thing he said once we got moving was to pretend I was a passenger and that I was taking him along with me on my cross-country. He wanted me to do everything with that in mind until he told me otherwise. He paid careful attention to my radio work (I dispatched taxis a lifetime ago, so I'm very comfortable on the radio), and I made sure to do a good job looking for traffic while we taxied, and before takeoff (PTS).
I took off on runway 18 and we departed to the East. Wind was 180 @ 12 kt, which means there weren't a lot of people flying, so there was really no traffic anywhere. I followed my route and market off my first two checkpoints, noting the time that we passed them. He asked if we were ahead of schedule or behind schedule We were behind a few minutes because of the takeoff and climb, but the time from checkpoint #1 to checkpoint #2 was right on.
He says that we've flown into a cloud and that he would take the controls while I put the hood on (flying under the hood is my favorite part, but also my weakest). I asked him to please check for traffic while I was under the hood. He asks me what we should do, so I start a 180. He tells me that we're still in the clouds, so I should contact someone (simulated). I use the sectional to figure out which frequency handled this sector (for whatever reason this information is on the legend on the sectional and not on the actual map). I simulate calling Dallas Approach with my dilemma (I winged it, and apparently I did ok), and he responded with a squawk code/ident, which I pretended to set. ATC reported Caddo Mills (7F3) with VFR conditions, and said they would vector me there. This was the diversion portion, so he asked me questions about 7F3, runway length, lighting, pattern, etc. He had me maneuver for a while to try to get me out of the clouds and then said that I'd become "disoriented" and should close my eyes as he had the controls. Two unusual attitudes later (my favorite part, and I am good at them), he vectored me out of the clouds and said that 7F3 was at my 11 o'clock. He then said I had a "partial" power failure, and pulled the throttle most of the way out. I followed the procedures for an emergency landing and descent, but I stupidly cut my power too soon so I came in a bit short. I realized my error with plenty of time to spare, so he said I could add power and to just land normally. He did ask what I would do in this situation, and the correct answer was to just land short of the field; as if there was any choice.
I made my landing at 7F3, making sure to use CTAF to announce everything and he had me back-taxi and make a short-field takeoff followed, left pattern, and short-field landing. I did most of these well, if a little slower than I should have, but I kept control of the plane, which he was happy with. Then he asks for another back-taxi and a soft-field takeoff and landing. During takeoff, I realized outloud that I had forgotten to add flaps JUST as I was leaving the ground so I put them in (probably a really stupid thing to do), but I still maintained control, got my ground effect, and took off. During landing, he said that someone had driven a truck onto the runway, so I did a go-around.
He told me to head South from there and up to 2000 ft (1500 AGL) and when I got there to do a power-on stall. I told him that I usually practiced my stalls at 3000 or higher and even though I knew I was supposed to not lose much altitude during the stall, I felt more comfortable up there. He told me to do whatever I was comfortable with (he later commended me for this decision). During the departure stall I didn't have enough right rudder in, and my left wing dropped (I thought I had enough). I recovered fine, EXCEPT, that I instinctively gave it right aileron when the wing dropped, a no-no. My power-off stall was fine.
Then came steep turns, done well, followed by a drop to 1500 ft. for some turns about a point (windy ones) and some S-turns across the road (better than my turns about a point).
He then tells me to head home. I knew where we were, but it took me a minute to get my bearing straight. He was impressed that I climbed a bit to make sure I could see the usual landmarks in the area and that I was worried about busting airspace.
As we were getting to the downwind, he said that I put in flaps and only one side worked; what should I do? I said put the flaps back up and slip to landing, so he said to do that, making sure I leave myself enough altitude to actually do the slip. I love slipping, so it was going well, right down the middle and sideways, when tower tells me to go-around on the left side of the runway. WTF? I know there was no traffic and nothing on the runway, but I still took a mental second to look while I straightened out and executed the go-around. At about mid-field tower told me it was pre-arranged with my Examiner and that I could turn crosswind when able and I was cleared to land. Jerks.
For my final (hopefully) landing, he said that he wanted a soft-field, since we never got to do one at Caddo Mills. I came in with a good landing, but again a bit slow, and taxied to parking. Just as we were getting there, I saw my CFI in a twin doing a BFR for a friend. He later agreed that my soft-field landing was too slow, but it looked good otherwise. Funny enough, every landing and practice I had done until this day had been good or too fast.
We parked the plane and he shook my hand; I was now licensed to kill my family, or something like that.
Back in the terminal we went through a short debrief. He only had a couple of small comments other than what he'd already shared. A few of my landings were a little slow for his tastes, but I was always able to control the airplane and get us down smoothly, so he was cool. He noted that my second checkpoint was probably a bit too far from the route to be realistic. It was a small town, Farmersville, that was easily visible, but he suggested that I should have said "over the tracks South of Farmersville." Makes sense.
A couple of other things to share for the flying portion.
- Make a big deal about checking for traffic. It's in the PTS, and DPEs love that stuff. Do it always, in the pattern, before every turn, and before every maneuver.
- Make clearing turns before your bigger maneuvers (ie. stalls). I do 90 degrees left, and 180 degrees right. He said he usually does 90 and 90, but he was happy with those.
- He liked that I was constantly talking about things as I was doing them (King). For example, the intent of the short-field ("approaching at 54 kts, ok, cleared the obstacle, cutting power now"), etc. He also liked that I would say something whenever I caught myself making a mistake (losing or gaining altitude, deviating from the assigned heading). He said it gave him confidence that I was aware, I knew what to do, and had control of the airplane.
More IACRA crap, printed my temporary certificate, and I was done -- 5 1/2 hours after arriving at the airport!
Next Steps
If you made it down this far, I'm impressed.
I feel that I haven't written enough, I'm going to bore y'all with what's next for me. This weekend, my son has a hockey tournament in Houston, so I'm taking the club C172S (with a G1000!), and flying the family to KSGR for the games. One of his teammates is going to take his hockey gear, so I shouldn't have any W&B issues. The plan is to stop at a diner in Brenham, TX on the way down, and a different place in College Station on the way back up. Weather permitting, of course. This has been my goal for months, and is the reason I made a push to get done by the end of November.
I'm going to start working on Instrument training sometime next year. I'll probably do as much of it as I can in a simulator for cost reasons. Most of the reason I want to get my Instrument rating is because I actually enjoy reading charts and procedures and such.
The club also has a C120, so I might elect to do trail-dragger training in the meantime.
Oh, and tomorrow night will be my first flight since I got my license. I'm going to get night current, and then take my wife up for a few minutes, just because I can
Preparation
Other than reading a few checkride experiences online, I used five main items for my preparation:
- The PTS. I cannot overstate the value of the PTS for the checkride. If I had to give only one piece of advice for the checkride, it would be: "Read the PTS." There's no magic or mystery in either part of the checkride. My DPE literally used the PTS as a guide and checked-off subjects during the oral as he asked questions about them. I used Gold Seal's version of the PTS. I found the PDF version that is abridged for ASEL to be the easiest for me. I read it three or four times.
- Captain Levy's Checkride Advice thread. Pay careful attention to items 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, and 19. They'll save you.
- King Schools Private Pilot Practical Test Course - I actually used an older version of the program which was simply two DVDs (a mock oral and a mock checkride). The current versions are probably more interactive and current, but I found the version I had to be a good prep of what to expect as far as a format and flow. People have different opinions about the King School stuff and their campy humor, but at the end of the day, they do the trick as far getting the material across. In this case, they cover pretty much everything, which is WAY more than you'll be exposed to on the actual test. They also do a good job of breaking character in certain moments to explain what the DPE is looking for and wants to hear.
- Allan Englehardt's Private Pilot Oral Exam on Youtube - As with the King Schools course, this mock checkride covers almost every topic/question that you might face during the oral. If you are comfortable with the material in these videos, then you will be just fine on the actual test.
- The ASA Private Oral Exam Guide - Regardless of how the DPE chooses to ask the questions (relating it to scenarios or a straight Q&A), the answer is likely in this little book. Again, from my experience, it's WAY more in depth than you'll need for your test, but it covers all of the material in a nice concise way. Worth a read-through, and a good way to figure out your weak areas (mine is weather).
Pre-test
I was sent a list of things to bring (the standard list that is in the book above) and was told to prepare a cross-country flight plan from KTKI to KDTN (Shreveport Downtown). After looking at the airspace in Shreveport, it was easy to see why he picked it. It's a Delta airport in the middle of Charlie airspace with Shreveport Regional on one side and Barksdale AFB. The sectional clearly states "CTC SHREVEPORT APP WITHIN 20 NM ON 119.9 335.55", and a look at the A/FD show this "ALL VFR TFC REMAIN WITHIN 1 1/2 MILES NE THRU SW FM THE CENTER OF THE ARPT DUE TO SHREVEPORT/BARKSDALE AFB CLASS C AIRSPACE." These were the things he was hoping I would notice in my planning and he asked about them during the oral. I also had to prepare a W&B and have the performance numbers ready.
We scheduled the checkride on Tuesday 11/20 for Sunday 11/25 -- I was at about 41 hours, and I needed another .5 simulated IMC to meet the requirements, which we figured we could do on Friday the 23rd. I came home on Tuesday and started to gather all of the stuff I needed for the checkride. I opened my "Flying" folder to get my Knowledge Test results out, and they weren't there. Panic. Everything else was in there; all correspondence from the FAA, my receipt from the testing center, my endorsement for the Knowledge Test from King's, but NO test results! I tore my study, car, kitchen, bathroom, and cats apart, but couldn't find them anywhere. I STILL have no idea where they could be or why they aren't with everything else. The only thing I could think of was that I took them to show my CFI back in October and I left them somewhere. Either way, I was freaked. I did some Googling and the official FAA process is to MAIL a written request up to OkC with $1, and they would MAIL the results back to you. They were explicit that no FAX or phone requests would be accepted, and no FAX or phone results would be shared. I immediately filled out the form and overnighted the request ($19 courier fee to send a $1 check) up to OkC, but I knew there was no way I would get the results back by Sunday on Thanksgiving weekend.
I called the DPE and explained my predicament and he said that since the whole system is now based in IACRA, there was no way around it. They're using IACRA to track activity, and my CFI needs to input my test results before he can sign the application and send it to the DPE. I talked to my CFI some more and he said that all he really needed was the six-thousand digit test ID (ok, it's only 17 digits) from the results. After some more digging, I found a contact number for the Airmen Certification Branch on Tuesday night. Their hours are 7:30 AM to 4:00 PM Central, so I set my alarm for Wednesday morning. It doesn't hurt to ask, right? I called them at 7:35 AM the next day (coffee delay), and after a couple of button presses I got to talk to a human. I told her my story and she said that so-and-so would be able to help me, and transferred me to her. So-and-so (I changed her name to protect her) answered the phone and told me that she handled the written requests, but if all I needed was the Test ID number, she could give me that over the phone. WOO!! I got the number, thanked her profusely, and immediately texted it to my CFI, the DPE, myself, my wife, and I even emailed it to myself so that I wouldn't lose it.
On a side note, does anyone else find it silly that I have to get a number from the FAA so that I can give it to the FAA? The IACRA system has all of the same information in it that I gave for my Knowledge Test!
The rest of the time between Wednesday and Sunday was spent reviewing the material above and getting my hood time up to where it needed to be. After our flight on Friday, my CFI and I went through the IACRA process, and got that all done.
The Exam (Oral)
The DPE and I had planned to meet at 9:00 AM, so I booked the plane (C152) for 10 AM - 2 PM. I figured I would get there by 8, get the maintenance logs all bookmarked and do a pre-flight, so that we could get out in time. The night before the checkride, I logged into IACRA (don't ask me why), and there was a big message about a "potential" maintenance outage on Sunday morning between 9:30 AM and 10:00 AM. Yay. I contacted the DPE and we agreed to meet a little earlier so that we could get our stuff done before the maintenance window. I showed up a bit earlier, did what I wanted to do, and went into the FBO to get things started.
We started off with a briefing, where he went through all of my paper work and reviewed the agenda for the day. A couple of highlights:
- The test and its outcome are not going to change how I pilot an aircraft or make me a better pilot. How he put it was that my CFI signs off for me to solo because he believes I'm a safe enough pilot that I can risk killing myself. The DPE will (hopefully) sign me off because he believes that I'm a safe enough pilot that I can risk killing my family or other passengers.. No more, no less. I kept thinking of this whenever I started to get anxious or tense.
- There are three possible outcomes: pass, fail, and a discontinuance. Per the PTS, the criteria for a fail are quite specific. You consistently exceed the tolerances without taking corrective action. We've all heard this before, but it's fine to lose 125 or more ft in altitude during a steep turn as long as you notice it and try to fix it. This is what they're looking for even more than your ability to hold altitude, I believe. You WILL make mistakes on your checkride (Levy), major ones, but are you aware and in control enough to notice them and fix them. Here's where talking outloud during the flight portion helps the DPE know where your head is at (King). The other way to fail is if the DPE has to take control of the airplane because he fears for our safety -- this one is a bit obvious.
He also made it VERY clear that I was the PIC for the day. All controls were mine unless specifically stated (ie. putting on the hood), and he was simply along for the ride. He would, however, help if I asked him to do something (ie. check for traffic).
We went downstairs and completed the IACRA (yuck) process, and then I was informed that the test was beginning.
I'll say again that the oral was pretty standard. If you know most of the material in the list above, then you'll be fine. There's no magic to this stuff. You should be careful not to say too much and not dig a hole for yourself, but over-all it's a pretty straightforward exam.
First-off was a review of the airplane's maintenance records with questions about when each inspection was due and what was and wasn't required. We then moved on to questioning about what is required for a Private Pilot and what documents need to be carried in the plane and on the pilot.
We then went over my cross-country flight plane and I took him through the route, pointing out the checkpoints along the way. My route was KTKI UIM V18 EIC KDTN, which covered the PTS requirement for radio navigation, and also provided a good entry point into the Charlie airspace around Shreveport. He quizzed me about certain things along the route, and asked how I would handle radio communication when I got to the Shreveport area. We covered altitudes (odds, evens, 3000 ft. AGL), as well. We came back to the DFW Bravo area and he asked questions about it (who to contact, altitudes to fly, the TFR over GWB's house). During discussion about the TFR and Barksdale AFB, he asked me what it meant when a military jet came up beside me and tilted its wings back and forth. I didn't know exactly, so he guided me to the right place in the AIM. Interesting. I described my run-ins with T38s near Sheppard AFB during my first solo x-c.
We moved to weather, and he asked me what kind of weather information I looked up. I reviewed the standard briefing with him. It was a clear day here, so there wasn't much to talk about, but he did ask me to read the TAFs and explain what SIGMET/AIRMET was. He also asked me about what kind of wind corrections I had calculated and why. He asked me the VFR minimums in class E and G airspaces.
Next was reviewing the W&B and Performance calculations for our flight. On my CFI's advice, I had done a W&B with full fuel and empty fuel to illustrate the difference in CG (it moved forward slightly). He asked what impact it would have along with the same question for the CG moving aft. Next I covered the landing and take-off distances (standard short-field with 50 ft. obstacles), and explained why I used conservative values for temperature and pressure altitude to come up with my distances.
The last two topics we covered were Aircraft Systems operations (gauges, fuel), and Aeromedical topics like smoking (as it relates to oxygen), the rules for oxygen, drugs, and fatigue factors.
By this point my confidence was way high, as I think I only missed maybe one question, so I was more than ready to fly.
The Exam (Flight...maybe)
As we were walking to the plane, he asked me questions about the new runway/taxiway layout at KTKI (new big fat runway 18/36, old runway 17/35 turned into taxiway B with new feeders to the runway, and old taxiway A mostly tuned into a non-movement area).
Since I had already done the preflight earlier in the morning, he said I only needed to quickly review what I had checked and discuss why I checked them (because it's in the checklist, duh). As I was reviewing the preflight, he asked questions about specific parts (pitot tube, static port, and what gauges they affected.
The very last item on the preflight, and one that I HADN'T checked in the morning was verification of the anti-collision beacon. It didn't work. Crap. We tried tapping it with stuff to get it going, but nothing. I grabbed a ladder from the shed and tried to beat it to submission, but it still wouldn't turn on. I removed the red dome from the beacon and shimmied the bulb, and still nothing. I yanked the bulb out and found the contacts to be severely corroded. I tried to scrape them clean to no avail. The other C152 in the club (same owner) uses a strobe system, so we couldn't even steal one from there. The club also has a Warrior II with BOTH the beacon and a strobe, but it had taken off just as we were walking out to the plane. Argh!
During this mini-crisis, he took the opportunity to ask me if it was ok for me to change the lightbulb on my plane (after being licensed). I said yes, as it would be considered preventative maintenance; right answer.
We spent the next hour walking and driving from open hangar to open hangar begging for a 28V light bulb with me doing my best not to freak out. Fortunately for me, the DPE was very calming and assured me that we'd figure something out. He was also very eager to fly and was very helpful in our quest for light. We went to his hangar to search for a bulb and came up with nothing. He ended up putting some solder on the bulb and it tested clean, so we gathered up everything and on the way out of the hangar, the beacon cover (glass), slips from his hand and shatters everywhere.
At this point I'm convinced that someone doesn't want me to fly.
BUT, it turns out that the DPE used to own a C172 that had a similar style beacon and he still had the cover sitting on his workbench. Score!
Back we trek to the C152, I climb the ladder to put the bulb in, and still nothing. We've been at this for almost two hours by this point and are pretty much out of options for this airplane. I asked him if we could use the other club C152 for the exam if it had all of its paperwork, and he didn't see a problem with that. So off I went to do my third preflight of the day while he tied down the other plane and put the beacon assembly back together. I've flown this particular C152 a few times, but stopped flying it because its VOR receiver was a bit wonky and the inclinometer was way off.
Either way, we had a plane, I got it inspected, and it was time to fly.
The Exam (Flight...for real this time)
So by this time, I'm frazzled, a bit stressed, and just ready to get the whole thing over with; not to mention that my confidence has taken a hit. I had already not gotten much sleep the night before (nerves plus getting there early), so the lightbulb stuff just compounded it. The DPE told me to take all the time I needed and to get relaxed, so I took a few minutes and some deep breaths, and got psyched up again. Just fly the damn plane.
The first thing he said once we got moving was to pretend I was a passenger and that I was taking him along with me on my cross-country. He wanted me to do everything with that in mind until he told me otherwise. He paid careful attention to my radio work (I dispatched taxis a lifetime ago, so I'm very comfortable on the radio), and I made sure to do a good job looking for traffic while we taxied, and before takeoff (PTS).
I took off on runway 18 and we departed to the East. Wind was 180 @ 12 kt, which means there weren't a lot of people flying, so there was really no traffic anywhere. I followed my route and market off my first two checkpoints, noting the time that we passed them. He asked if we were ahead of schedule or behind schedule We were behind a few minutes because of the takeoff and climb, but the time from checkpoint #1 to checkpoint #2 was right on.
He says that we've flown into a cloud and that he would take the controls while I put the hood on (flying under the hood is my favorite part, but also my weakest). I asked him to please check for traffic while I was under the hood. He asks me what we should do, so I start a 180. He tells me that we're still in the clouds, so I should contact someone (simulated). I use the sectional to figure out which frequency handled this sector (for whatever reason this information is on the legend on the sectional and not on the actual map). I simulate calling Dallas Approach with my dilemma (I winged it, and apparently I did ok), and he responded with a squawk code/ident, which I pretended to set. ATC reported Caddo Mills (7F3) with VFR conditions, and said they would vector me there. This was the diversion portion, so he asked me questions about 7F3, runway length, lighting, pattern, etc. He had me maneuver for a while to try to get me out of the clouds and then said that I'd become "disoriented" and should close my eyes as he had the controls. Two unusual attitudes later (my favorite part, and I am good at them), he vectored me out of the clouds and said that 7F3 was at my 11 o'clock. He then said I had a "partial" power failure, and pulled the throttle most of the way out. I followed the procedures for an emergency landing and descent, but I stupidly cut my power too soon so I came in a bit short. I realized my error with plenty of time to spare, so he said I could add power and to just land normally. He did ask what I would do in this situation, and the correct answer was to just land short of the field; as if there was any choice.
I made my landing at 7F3, making sure to use CTAF to announce everything and he had me back-taxi and make a short-field takeoff followed, left pattern, and short-field landing. I did most of these well, if a little slower than I should have, but I kept control of the plane, which he was happy with. Then he asks for another back-taxi and a soft-field takeoff and landing. During takeoff, I realized outloud that I had forgotten to add flaps JUST as I was leaving the ground so I put them in (probably a really stupid thing to do), but I still maintained control, got my ground effect, and took off. During landing, he said that someone had driven a truck onto the runway, so I did a go-around.
He told me to head South from there and up to 2000 ft (1500 AGL) and when I got there to do a power-on stall. I told him that I usually practiced my stalls at 3000 or higher and even though I knew I was supposed to not lose much altitude during the stall, I felt more comfortable up there. He told me to do whatever I was comfortable with (he later commended me for this decision). During the departure stall I didn't have enough right rudder in, and my left wing dropped (I thought I had enough). I recovered fine, EXCEPT, that I instinctively gave it right aileron when the wing dropped, a no-no. My power-off stall was fine.
Then came steep turns, done well, followed by a drop to 1500 ft. for some turns about a point (windy ones) and some S-turns across the road (better than my turns about a point).
He then tells me to head home. I knew where we were, but it took me a minute to get my bearing straight. He was impressed that I climbed a bit to make sure I could see the usual landmarks in the area and that I was worried about busting airspace.
As we were getting to the downwind, he said that I put in flaps and only one side worked; what should I do? I said put the flaps back up and slip to landing, so he said to do that, making sure I leave myself enough altitude to actually do the slip. I love slipping, so it was going well, right down the middle and sideways, when tower tells me to go-around on the left side of the runway. WTF? I know there was no traffic and nothing on the runway, but I still took a mental second to look while I straightened out and executed the go-around. At about mid-field tower told me it was pre-arranged with my Examiner and that I could turn crosswind when able and I was cleared to land. Jerks.
For my final (hopefully) landing, he said that he wanted a soft-field, since we never got to do one at Caddo Mills. I came in with a good landing, but again a bit slow, and taxied to parking. Just as we were getting there, I saw my CFI in a twin doing a BFR for a friend. He later agreed that my soft-field landing was too slow, but it looked good otherwise. Funny enough, every landing and practice I had done until this day had been good or too fast.
We parked the plane and he shook my hand; I was now licensed to kill my family, or something like that.
Back in the terminal we went through a short debrief. He only had a couple of small comments other than what he'd already shared. A few of my landings were a little slow for his tastes, but I was always able to control the airplane and get us down smoothly, so he was cool. He noted that my second checkpoint was probably a bit too far from the route to be realistic. It was a small town, Farmersville, that was easily visible, but he suggested that I should have said "over the tracks South of Farmersville." Makes sense.
A couple of other things to share for the flying portion.
- Make a big deal about checking for traffic. It's in the PTS, and DPEs love that stuff. Do it always, in the pattern, before every turn, and before every maneuver.
- Make clearing turns before your bigger maneuvers (ie. stalls). I do 90 degrees left, and 180 degrees right. He said he usually does 90 and 90, but he was happy with those.
- He liked that I was constantly talking about things as I was doing them (King). For example, the intent of the short-field ("approaching at 54 kts, ok, cleared the obstacle, cutting power now"), etc. He also liked that I would say something whenever I caught myself making a mistake (losing or gaining altitude, deviating from the assigned heading). He said it gave him confidence that I was aware, I knew what to do, and had control of the airplane.
More IACRA crap, printed my temporary certificate, and I was done -- 5 1/2 hours after arriving at the airport!
Next Steps
If you made it down this far, I'm impressed.
I feel that I haven't written enough, I'm going to bore y'all with what's next for me. This weekend, my son has a hockey tournament in Houston, so I'm taking the club C172S (with a G1000!), and flying the family to KSGR for the games. One of his teammates is going to take his hockey gear, so I shouldn't have any W&B issues. The plan is to stop at a diner in Brenham, TX on the way down, and a different place in College Station on the way back up. Weather permitting, of course. This has been my goal for months, and is the reason I made a push to get done by the end of November.
I'm going to start working on Instrument training sometime next year. I'll probably do as much of it as I can in a simulator for cost reasons. Most of the reason I want to get my Instrument rating is because I actually enjoy reading charts and procedures and such.
The club also has a C120, so I might elect to do trail-dragger training in the meantime.
Oh, and tomorrow night will be my first flight since I got my license. I'm going to get night current, and then take my wife up for a few minutes, just because I can
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