jpower
Cleared for Takeoff
As some of you may (probably not?) know, I finished up my sport pilot last summer as a stopgap until I could make more money to get to my private. Well, this summer, I yet again worked some and flew some. It took me longer than I hoped, but I finally finished! So here's the obligatory writeup--it's very long, but I hope you find it interesting! It certainly wasn't a completely "normal" checkride, I don't think. Pouring down rain, dramatic unexpected and unsolicited control inputs by my examiner, a screwy altimeter, and an F-bomb. Oh my!
My checkride was originally scheduled for a Saturday in late July, but that got pushed off to this past Friday for various reasons. The week before the exam, I was glued to the weather. It wasn't looking good all week...they were calling for rain or thunderstorms all day.
The Wednesday before the exam, I went up with my dad acting as a sack of potatoes (read: examiner's weight) and went through a bunch of maneuvers. I found out to my delight (sarcasm alert) that they had replaced the attitude indicator and the DG with one of these abominable things (a Gemini ADI). There's no 45 degree mark for steep turns. Mostly, though, the frustration comes from the miniscule, impossible to read heading. Ew. Spent my flight with Dad flying the first part of my cross country and familiarizing myself with the ADI through a bunch of steep turns. Dad was nice enough to do that with me
. Finally got a great one in at the end of the day--rock solid altitude, airspeed, and 45 degree bank, and I even ran over my own wake.
Fast forward to Friday. I was driving over the Bay Bridge in pouring down rain with maybe half-mile visibility. People were driving 30 mph across it when they normally do 60-70. All the way across I was just laughing to myself. I figured that we'd get the oral done and call it a day. When I got to the airport, I ran out in the downpour to get the weight and balance data from the airplane (I didn't have it earlier, because I was switched into this particular plane at the last minute...it was the third airplane I was scheduled in for various reasons) and was never more grateful to fly a high-wing airplane. I did all the performance calculations my examiner asked me to do and waited for him to arrive.
The oral was pretty straightforward. We went through the maintenance records and then ran straight down the list of special emphasis areas. I got everything just fine except for some reason spin recovery. During my preparation, I always skipped over it, because I could visualize myself in the cockpit recovering--power back, neutralize ailerons, opposite rudder until rotation stops, pull out. But for some reason (checkride nerves most likely) I couldn't verbalize that clearly. But I was able to get it out enough that he could tell I knew my stuff. For some reason, he had crosswind operations on his own personal list of super duper special emphasis areas. We spent a ton of time talking about crosswind takeoffs and landings. He told me how he loves to critique the crosswind operations of airline pilots by scribbling a note on a napkin and handing it to them at the end of the flight, and he showed me precisely how to tell if the pilot of a commercial airliner is not putting the right correction in by watching the people in the cabin bounce around. Not something I would think would be on a PPL oral, but I went with it.
He then moved on to the more situational stuff as we reviewed the route I planned out for our cross country flight (W29-ACY-HGR-W29). For example, he asked me, "Okay, you're sitting on the ground at Atlantic City, which is a Class C airport as you told me. What's the first frequency you make contact with?" I responded with something along the lines of "The ATIS would probably tell me to contact Clearance Delivery." Apparently I'm the only person he's ever had get that question right. Seemed simple enough to me, but I guess not. He also suggested a different turning point that would be easier to find.
With that, he told me that I was one of the best prepared applicants he's ever had, and that if I flew as well as I did my oral, he would shed a tear. Success in my book!
Meanwhile, the clouds had cleared enough to go flying. If barely. My go/no-go decision was to take off and see if we couldn't find a hole to do our airwork, and if we couldn't, to hit the takeoffs and landings. He agreed, so as we were finishing runup, we decided to turn out to the South after takeoff, because it looked relatively clear down thataway. He threw me for a loop when he decided about 2 minutes after takeoff (we're requested to wait before turning South for noise abatement) that we were going on our cross country after all. So I started the timer and got out my planning and chart.
He threw me another curve ball when he diverted me right after my first checkpoint, which was about 2 minutes after he decided to do our cross country. For my sport checkride, we went much farther. Also, he picked my diversion field for me--it was the 4th or 5th closest field...not at all where I had figured I'd divert to. So I take a quick glance over in the direction where I'm going to turn, start a slow right turn towards the general direction of the field, and go to figure out an actual heading when suddenly he jabs the left rudder to the floor. He practically screamed at me "you will NOT turn this airplane without looking. That is NOT safe." I had looked, I just didn't say it out loud, but after he jabbed at the rudder a few more times all I could muster was a weak "yes sir" or something along those lines after being berated a little more.
So we turned to the diversion, I got us going in the right direction, did a little mental math as to when we'd get there and all that yada yada, and we broke off to do the airwork. We found a little hole in the clouds that we did all our airwork in...but on the way, our altimeter went screwy. He had me call Potomac to get a Mode C check, and we reset our altimeter to the pressure altitude. He said we should pick up flight following too, because we'd be working in a pretty small hole in the clouds, so we did. Wasn't expecting this either, though it was nice to have. We got one traffic call, but he became no factor pretty quickly.
All the airwork was pretty normal with a couple exceptions. For some reason, we didn't do a departure stall, but I didn't realize this until I was driving home. I'm pretty sure it was just that the examiner forgot, because he didn't miss anything else. Though he did make the decision not to test my turn around a point or my S turns, because our hole was over water with no suitable roads or points. Instead, he said he'd be looking really closely at my pattern legs and be testing my rectangular course. Emergency descent wasn't anything spectacular. Got an electrical fire, apparently, and brought her down in a 45 degree bank a few knots under redline. Right as I was rounding out of the emergency descent, the examiner broke my engine. At this point, I gave him the checklist and asked him to find the forced landing without engine power checklist, but he apparently couldn't find it...
Anyway, once our engine magically fixed itself, we climbed back up and he took the controls for another emergency descent for his own gratification. Apparently, the airplane flying handbook states that you should lower full flaps and spiral down at 60 degrees or more. He could only get a 1000 fpm descent or so that way, but I was getting 1700 and could probably have pushed it a little faster.
On to the landings. I was worried for these, because I hadn't dealt with a crosswind literally all summer. Either it was dead calm or the wind was coming straight down the runway. First came a no-flap landing. When I was on base, I asked the guy that had just landed what the winds at the surface were doing (our AWOS transmitter is currently OTS), and he said they were basically negligible. By the time I was on final, they had kicked up to maybe 7-10 knots and variable in direction. Not fun in a light sport airplane! My first no-flap approach ended in a go-around, because I was too hot, but on the second I landed just fine.
Takeoff was a soft-field departure. Remember all the emphasis he placed on crosswinds? Well, on this departure, I was thinking more about the soft field than the crosswind, so I didn't put enough correction in. As we were rolling down the runway, I got pushed to the right to the point that my left main gear was tracking the centerline. When I put more correction in, it was too little too late. Right as I lifted off, the examiner looked over at me and said, "Allll that talk, and you really f****d it up." Not really knowing how to reply (and not knowing if I had passed or not) I said something like "Yup. I did." Apparently that satisfied him enough, and he knew I knew my stuff, because of our long discussion in the oral, and he said something like "You're going to show me another one of those, and we're going to track the centerline perfectly." I haven't taken a look back at the PTS, but I think the first one may have been passable. I'm not sure, and I don't really want to look into it.
Everything else went smoothly. While we were taxiing back, I mentioned to him that he probably didn't shed a tear, and he sorta chuckled and gave me a friendly jab in the ribs. During the debrief, he said that I was all around extremely solid. I mentioned that it wasn't quite what I was hoping for, but he said that they never are, because they're checkrides.
Though he may not have shed a tear, I still got a great workout, passed, and learned a bunch. And of course, that's what counts!
My checkride was originally scheduled for a Saturday in late July, but that got pushed off to this past Friday for various reasons. The week before the exam, I was glued to the weather. It wasn't looking good all week...they were calling for rain or thunderstorms all day.
The Wednesday before the exam, I went up with my dad acting as a sack of potatoes (read: examiner's weight) and went through a bunch of maneuvers. I found out to my delight (sarcasm alert) that they had replaced the attitude indicator and the DG with one of these abominable things (a Gemini ADI). There's no 45 degree mark for steep turns. Mostly, though, the frustration comes from the miniscule, impossible to read heading. Ew. Spent my flight with Dad flying the first part of my cross country and familiarizing myself with the ADI through a bunch of steep turns. Dad was nice enough to do that with me
. Finally got a great one in at the end of the day--rock solid altitude, airspeed, and 45 degree bank, and I even ran over my own wake.Fast forward to Friday. I was driving over the Bay Bridge in pouring down rain with maybe half-mile visibility. People were driving 30 mph across it when they normally do 60-70. All the way across I was just laughing to myself. I figured that we'd get the oral done and call it a day. When I got to the airport, I ran out in the downpour to get the weight and balance data from the airplane (I didn't have it earlier, because I was switched into this particular plane at the last minute...it was the third airplane I was scheduled in for various reasons) and was never more grateful to fly a high-wing airplane
. I did all the performance calculations my examiner asked me to do and waited for him to arrive.The oral was pretty straightforward. We went through the maintenance records and then ran straight down the list of special emphasis areas. I got everything just fine except for some reason spin recovery. During my preparation, I always skipped over it, because I could visualize myself in the cockpit recovering--power back, neutralize ailerons, opposite rudder until rotation stops, pull out. But for some reason (checkride nerves most likely) I couldn't verbalize that clearly. But I was able to get it out enough that he could tell I knew my stuff. For some reason, he had crosswind operations on his own personal list of super duper special emphasis areas. We spent a ton of time talking about crosswind takeoffs and landings. He told me how he loves to critique the crosswind operations of airline pilots by scribbling a note on a napkin and handing it to them at the end of the flight, and he showed me precisely how to tell if the pilot of a commercial airliner is not putting the right correction in by watching the people in the cabin bounce around. Not something I would think would be on a PPL oral, but I went with it.
He then moved on to the more situational stuff as we reviewed the route I planned out for our cross country flight (W29-ACY-HGR-W29). For example, he asked me, "Okay, you're sitting on the ground at Atlantic City, which is a Class C airport as you told me. What's the first frequency you make contact with?" I responded with something along the lines of "The ATIS would probably tell me to contact Clearance Delivery." Apparently I'm the only person he's ever had get that question right. Seemed simple enough to me, but I guess not. He also suggested a different turning point that would be easier to find.
With that, he told me that I was one of the best prepared applicants he's ever had, and that if I flew as well as I did my oral, he would shed a tear. Success in my book!
Meanwhile, the clouds had cleared enough to go flying. If barely. My go/no-go decision was to take off and see if we couldn't find a hole to do our airwork, and if we couldn't, to hit the takeoffs and landings. He agreed, so as we were finishing runup, we decided to turn out to the South after takeoff, because it looked relatively clear down thataway. He threw me for a loop when he decided about 2 minutes after takeoff (we're requested to wait before turning South for noise abatement) that we were going on our cross country after all. So I started the timer and got out my planning and chart.
He threw me another curve ball when he diverted me right after my first checkpoint, which was about 2 minutes after he decided to do our cross country. For my sport checkride, we went much farther. Also, he picked my diversion field for me--it was the 4th or 5th closest field...not at all where I had figured I'd divert to. So I take a quick glance over in the direction where I'm going to turn, start a slow right turn towards the general direction of the field, and go to figure out an actual heading when suddenly he jabs the left rudder to the floor. He practically screamed at me "you will NOT turn this airplane without looking. That is NOT safe." I had looked, I just didn't say it out loud, but after he jabbed at the rudder a few more times all I could muster was a weak "yes sir" or something along those lines after being berated a little more.
So we turned to the diversion, I got us going in the right direction, did a little mental math as to when we'd get there and all that yada yada, and we broke off to do the airwork. We found a little hole in the clouds that we did all our airwork in...but on the way, our altimeter went screwy. He had me call Potomac to get a Mode C check, and we reset our altimeter to the pressure altitude. He said we should pick up flight following too, because we'd be working in a pretty small hole in the clouds, so we did. Wasn't expecting this either, though it was nice to have. We got one traffic call, but he became no factor pretty quickly.
All the airwork was pretty normal with a couple exceptions. For some reason, we didn't do a departure stall, but I didn't realize this until I was driving home. I'm pretty sure it was just that the examiner forgot, because he didn't miss anything else. Though he did make the decision not to test my turn around a point or my S turns, because our hole was over water with no suitable roads or points. Instead, he said he'd be looking really closely at my pattern legs and be testing my rectangular course. Emergency descent wasn't anything spectacular. Got an electrical fire, apparently, and brought her down in a 45 degree bank a few knots under redline. Right as I was rounding out of the emergency descent, the examiner broke my engine. At this point, I gave him the checklist and asked him to find the forced landing without engine power checklist, but he apparently couldn't find it...
Anyway, once our engine magically fixed itself, we climbed back up and he took the controls for another emergency descent for his own gratification. Apparently, the airplane flying handbook states that you should lower full flaps and spiral down at 60 degrees or more. He could only get a 1000 fpm descent or so that way, but I was getting 1700 and could probably have pushed it a little faster.
On to the landings. I was worried for these, because I hadn't dealt with a crosswind literally all summer. Either it was dead calm or the wind was coming straight down the runway. First came a no-flap landing. When I was on base, I asked the guy that had just landed what the winds at the surface were doing (our AWOS transmitter is currently OTS), and he said they were basically negligible. By the time I was on final, they had kicked up to maybe 7-10 knots and variable in direction. Not fun in a light sport airplane! My first no-flap approach ended in a go-around, because I was too hot, but on the second I landed just fine.
Takeoff was a soft-field departure. Remember all the emphasis he placed on crosswinds? Well, on this departure, I was thinking more about the soft field than the crosswind, so I didn't put enough correction in. As we were rolling down the runway, I got pushed to the right to the point that my left main gear was tracking the centerline. When I put more correction in, it was too little too late. Right as I lifted off, the examiner looked over at me and said, "Allll that talk, and you really f****d it up." Not really knowing how to reply (and not knowing if I had passed or not) I said something like "Yup. I did." Apparently that satisfied him enough, and he knew I knew my stuff, because of our long discussion in the oral, and he said something like "You're going to show me another one of those, and we're going to track the centerline perfectly." I haven't taken a look back at the PTS, but I think the first one may have been passable. I'm not sure, and I don't really want to look into it
.Everything else went smoothly. While we were taxiing back, I mentioned to him that he probably didn't shed a tear, and he sorta chuckled and gave me a friendly jab in the ribs. During the debrief, he said that I was all around extremely solid. I mentioned that it wasn't quite what I was hoping for, but he said that they never are, because they're checkrides.
Though he may not have shed a tear, I still got a great workout, passed, and learned a bunch. And of course, that's what counts!
