WannFly
Final Approach
I will make this a multi post long debrief for other students out there who are sweating their **** off like I was and hopefully it will easy you a little or not, it didn't for me.
please note, I am a freshly minted pilot, and I am just sharing my experience, take it with a grain of salt. check and verify with your CFI.
Get your paperwork in order, your CFI should help you with this, if not ensure IACRA is done, keep a paper copy, all your endorsements are in order (if its close to 90 days since your solo endorsement, get another one), if you are taking the ride in your plane , be prepared to carry all log books for mx records and any relevant AD paperwork and know your (or the rental) airplane in and out. during my ride my DPE told me that there are lot of people who don't always knows what certain instrument in their plane does. you are not doing yourself any good there.
I called my DPE and gave him 3 days I could fly, he was available for the first one and I snatched it. he gave me a XC to plan, gave his weight etc. I clarified if he would be carrying any bags etc. he also asked me if I was going to use a EFB to plan the flight, I told him yah and he said good, plan with real-time weather. I clarified if he would like me to do a nav log by hand, he asked me .... next weekend if you go to Duluth with your buddy, would you do nav log by hand? if not, don't do it, I know u can (my DPE is also the chief flight instructor of my flight school and all instructors are required to teach how to do nav log by hand, I had to do it 3 times for 2 xc and once for the mock check ride). so yah, I know how to do it, but in real world, I wont be doing it by hand. your mileage may vary, check with your DPE. I also clarified if its ok to do W&B in my app, he said do whatever u will do in real world.
next stop, I planned my XC, posted here and got some great feedback and things to watch out for, spoke to a local student pilot in FCM - all these are resources available to you as a pilot when u are going to an unfamiliar airport and things are sketchy with bravo shelf hanging over your head and as a student pilot without a Bravo endorsement , you are not legal to fly into Bravo.
my written exam was not to long ago and I remember most of it, all I did was just brushed up on airspaces. I did not try to cram the night before, it doesn't help. in fact, I got hold my CFI the morning of my ride and flew for an hour reviewing steep turns, engine out and specialty landings. it retrospect, I probably didn't need it, but I just couldn't stay at home and look at my EFB and do nothing till mid afternoon.
during the practice flight that morning, my CFI was specially hard on me. after my check points, he failed my GPS, MFD, iPad, Phone and asked me to divert to the nearest field. the nearest field didn't have a VOR, I had to tune to another VOR, extrapolate the radial for the uncontrolled field and use pilotage and some VOR to get there. then he had me do a dead stick landing. did some soft field take off and short field landings and then came back to fargo, he asked me to stay high and do a forward slip to land.
I came at pattern altitude within 3 miles of the runway and got a call from tower that I never thought I will get "Cherokee slow down, there is a Cessna and a cub on short final". not sure what the Cessna was doing, I tried to get a right 360 and rejoin final, instead got a clear to land when I am on top of the numbers, still 1000 ft AGL. the Cessna was asked to go around. while I was preparing to go around, CFI said, you got a engine failure, no go around for you. I slipped like a mad man and landed with 2000 ft runway left on a 6k runway. gave a huge boost to my confidence, but I will tell you right now that I wont be pulling off a stunt like that anytime soon, but good to know that I can and land in that situation without bending anything.
next oral portion.
please note, I am a freshly minted pilot, and I am just sharing my experience, take it with a grain of salt. check and verify with your CFI.
Get your paperwork in order, your CFI should help you with this, if not ensure IACRA is done, keep a paper copy, all your endorsements are in order (if its close to 90 days since your solo endorsement, get another one), if you are taking the ride in your plane , be prepared to carry all log books for mx records and any relevant AD paperwork and know your (or the rental) airplane in and out. during my ride my DPE told me that there are lot of people who don't always knows what certain instrument in their plane does. you are not doing yourself any good there.
I called my DPE and gave him 3 days I could fly, he was available for the first one and I snatched it. he gave me a XC to plan, gave his weight etc. I clarified if he would be carrying any bags etc. he also asked me if I was going to use a EFB to plan the flight, I told him yah and he said good, plan with real-time weather. I clarified if he would like me to do a nav log by hand, he asked me .... next weekend if you go to Duluth with your buddy, would you do nav log by hand? if not, don't do it, I know u can (my DPE is also the chief flight instructor of my flight school and all instructors are required to teach how to do nav log by hand, I had to do it 3 times for 2 xc and once for the mock check ride). so yah, I know how to do it, but in real world, I wont be doing it by hand. your mileage may vary, check with your DPE. I also clarified if its ok to do W&B in my app, he said do whatever u will do in real world.
next stop, I planned my XC, posted here and got some great feedback and things to watch out for, spoke to a local student pilot in FCM - all these are resources available to you as a pilot when u are going to an unfamiliar airport and things are sketchy with bravo shelf hanging over your head and as a student pilot without a Bravo endorsement , you are not legal to fly into Bravo.
my written exam was not to long ago and I remember most of it, all I did was just brushed up on airspaces. I did not try to cram the night before, it doesn't help. in fact, I got hold my CFI the morning of my ride and flew for an hour reviewing steep turns, engine out and specialty landings. it retrospect, I probably didn't need it, but I just couldn't stay at home and look at my EFB and do nothing till mid afternoon.
during the practice flight that morning, my CFI was specially hard on me. after my check points, he failed my GPS, MFD, iPad, Phone and asked me to divert to the nearest field. the nearest field didn't have a VOR, I had to tune to another VOR, extrapolate the radial for the uncontrolled field and use pilotage and some VOR to get there. then he had me do a dead stick landing. did some soft field take off and short field landings and then came back to fargo, he asked me to stay high and do a forward slip to land.
I came at pattern altitude within 3 miles of the runway and got a call from tower that I never thought I will get "Cherokee slow down, there is a Cessna and a cub on short final". not sure what the Cessna was doing, I tried to get a right 360 and rejoin final, instead got a clear to land when I am on top of the numbers, still 1000 ft AGL. the Cessna was asked to go around. while I was preparing to go around, CFI said, you got a engine failure, no go around for you. I slipped like a mad man and landed with 2000 ft runway left on a 6k runway. gave a huge boost to my confidence, but I will tell you right now that I wont be pulling off a stunt like that anytime soon, but good to know that I can and land in that situation without bending anything.
next oral portion.
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). doing a morning solo flight, weather is supposed to be beautiful around here with 5 kt wind predicted for the whole day, i might spend the better half of tomorrow in the air. next week is getting sketchy