asgcpa
En-Route
I woke up this morning thinking this was supposed to be check ride day and for once, it was GORGEOUS. Calm winds in the Chicago area, bright, sunny...yeah there would be thermals in the afternoon (probably) but what a day. Oh well....my luck.
I had the DPE and plane scheduled for all day....so, my son used the first two hours of my scheduled airplane and DPE time to get a club checkout. He's home for the summer from college, and needs to fly. I freed up part of the day for the plane so others could enjoy.
When my son completed a successful check out, the DPE came back to the club office. I told him I wanted some ground regarding approaches. We covered that and he was quizzing me about all sorts of things, weather, flight planning, personal minimums, scenarios, fuel rules, aircraft systems etc. etc. None of the topics were too long, but by the time we were done with what I wanted to cover and his questions, it was 2.5 hours later. I told him I needed to fly....
I had previously filed an IFR flight plan to a nearby airport that he told me we were going to. After pre-flighting, I got clearance, set up Garmin, freqs, flight plan, initial altitude etc. Received taxi clearance, did instrument check, then tower clearance and instructions. He jotted a couple of things down. Took off and the duck bill went down over my eyes at about 200 feet. Switched to Chicago Departure, hand flew the radar vectors, climbed to altitude, and set auto pilot, listened to the ATIS of the airport, did first pass of landing checklist, approach and missed briefs, set radios (airport was only 15 minutes from my departure field), was handed off to Milwaukee approach told them what we wanted, was told Roger and to expect VOR approach, and loaded approach into Garmin. When triggered by ATC I activated the approach. Did the full VOR approach (procedure turn) into a missed and published hold. I beat myself up a bit as I didn't like my performance on the miss and hold. I was instructed to request the exit from the hold and into an ILS. After I got clearance from ATC, we landed, got clearance to back taxi and received clearance for take off. We then did unusual attitudes (did not do partial panel as I had not had the instruction yet), did a GPS approach and landed.
During debrief, imagine my surprise when he said the only two things I did wrong were a brief altitude excursion (he said that wouldn't have busted me as I quickly corrected without him prompting me), and a 20 foot drop below MDA (I would have been busted for that). He suggested I set the altitude bug for an altitude slightly higher than MDA, as he wouldn't bust me for maintaining a slightly higher min altitude. He then said I was put through a quasi mock checkride and that (1) he had never seen me fly so well (2) other than the MDA slight excursion, there was nothing in my performance to indicate a failing performance (granted we didn't do partial panel as I had not practiced yet - that will be done this next week). Imagine my surprise and a confidence boost.
Due to his schedule and the plane schedule, my ride will be in 2 weeks (5 days before my wedding), so I have time to polish up with my instructor. My fiancee is being more and more supportive about this endeavor and she says she is happy and proud.
So there it goes.....
I had the DPE and plane scheduled for all day....so, my son used the first two hours of my scheduled airplane and DPE time to get a club checkout. He's home for the summer from college, and needs to fly. I freed up part of the day for the plane so others could enjoy.
When my son completed a successful check out, the DPE came back to the club office. I told him I wanted some ground regarding approaches. We covered that and he was quizzing me about all sorts of things, weather, flight planning, personal minimums, scenarios, fuel rules, aircraft systems etc. etc. None of the topics were too long, but by the time we were done with what I wanted to cover and his questions, it was 2.5 hours later. I told him I needed to fly....
I had previously filed an IFR flight plan to a nearby airport that he told me we were going to. After pre-flighting, I got clearance, set up Garmin, freqs, flight plan, initial altitude etc. Received taxi clearance, did instrument check, then tower clearance and instructions. He jotted a couple of things down. Took off and the duck bill went down over my eyes at about 200 feet. Switched to Chicago Departure, hand flew the radar vectors, climbed to altitude, and set auto pilot, listened to the ATIS of the airport, did first pass of landing checklist, approach and missed briefs, set radios (airport was only 15 minutes from my departure field), was handed off to Milwaukee approach told them what we wanted, was told Roger and to expect VOR approach, and loaded approach into Garmin. When triggered by ATC I activated the approach. Did the full VOR approach (procedure turn) into a missed and published hold. I beat myself up a bit as I didn't like my performance on the miss and hold. I was instructed to request the exit from the hold and into an ILS. After I got clearance from ATC, we landed, got clearance to back taxi and received clearance for take off. We then did unusual attitudes (did not do partial panel as I had not had the instruction yet), did a GPS approach and landed.
During debrief, imagine my surprise when he said the only two things I did wrong were a brief altitude excursion (he said that wouldn't have busted me as I quickly corrected without him prompting me), and a 20 foot drop below MDA (I would have been busted for that). He suggested I set the altitude bug for an altitude slightly higher than MDA, as he wouldn't bust me for maintaining a slightly higher min altitude. He then said I was put through a quasi mock checkride and that (1) he had never seen me fly so well (2) other than the MDA slight excursion, there was nothing in my performance to indicate a failing performance (granted we didn't do partial panel as I had not practiced yet - that will be done this next week). Imagine my surprise and a confidence boost.
Due to his schedule and the plane schedule, my ride will be in 2 weeks (5 days before my wedding), so I have time to polish up with my instructor. My fiancee is being more and more supportive about this endeavor and she says she is happy and proud.
So there it goes.....
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