No longer a student pilot

cowman

cowman

Final Approach
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Cowman
Passed my private checkride this morning, so now have airplane and certificate and will travel.

Many have done write-ups in the past, I will just say that the DPE was much much more forgiving than the CFIs I've worked with. Compared with the training flights I've been on lately, this was actually kind of a yawn aside from the end result of course :D
 
Congrats man! Welcome to the club.
 
Awesome..... If you are like me, your first cross country by yourself you will be like, Holyy Shazow!! I can't believe they actually let me fly this thing.
 
Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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nudge. nudge. Still might be worth doing a checkride write up. There seem to be fewer recent ones up right now and a couple on here prepping for their ride.

I tend to be more curious about the oral portion just because they are so varied.
 
Congratulations!

Add me to the list of people who like reading the ride reports. Before each of my checkrides I pored over as many write ups as I could find trying to make sure I was prepared. I'll bet a write up would be helpful for others aspiring to pass as well as those of us who like to relive the experience through others' eyes.
 
cowman said:
Passed my private checkride this morning, so now have airplane and certificate and will travel.

Many have done write-ups in the past, I will just say that the DPE was much much more forgiving than the CFIs I've worked with. Compared with the training flights I've been on lately, this was actually kind of a yawn aside from the end result of course :D
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I think you nailed it. Most check rides are used as a learning experience. The DPE is usually not a booby man, rather another teacher.
 
Congrats! Very inspiring. How long from first lesson to Check Ride? Logged hours and calendar months.
 
Geico266 said:
I think you nailed it. Most check rides are used as a learning experience. The DPE is usually not a booby man, rather another teacher.
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My DPE said that he's just there to validate my CFI's work. I think it was his approach to getting me to relax - I thought I was relaxed....I was "motivated".

Congrats COWMAN.
 
Way to go, pilot! Now that you've got that license to learn in your wallet, go have fun.
 
I'll echo the broken records... Congrats!
I must say though, when I first read "No longer a student pilot" I was thinking how sad, another student is quitting :sad:
Then of course you pulled the switcheroo on us and kapowed! us with "I passed my ride" good news. :)
 
Congrats! I'm jealous! Hopefully in a couple months I'll be posting a similar thread!


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It has already been said several times, but congratulations!
 
Geico266 said:
I think you nailed it. Most check rides are used as a learning experience. The DPE is usually not a booby man, rather another teacher.
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That's the opposite of what the FAA tells them to do (I got an entire spill about how he can not teach me anything until de-brief) and I ended up with one of the strict guys. Miss a clearing turn, you bust, never mind actually messing a maneuver up.

You guys that took rides with guys who were willing to help you through are very lucky.
 
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Thanks everyone.

As far as hours and elapsed time it was pretty close to 100hrs and about 15 months or so... I had been just about ready at around 70 hours towards the end of last year, then the holidays and the winter weather hit. Then my instructor's schedule hit... and so on and so forth to the point I didn't really fly for several months. Then my instructor was off doing ATP training and some other things and wasn't really available... so I essentially switched instructors and had to play catch-up for the skills that lapsed over those months and learn a new instructor's way of doing things/expectations.

My best piece of advice to anyone working on their private now is to get up as often as you can. If you can go every other day, do it. Try not to let more than 1 week go between flights. You're building on what you learned each flight and you really don't want to spend the first 30 minutes re-learning the last lesson every time.

Anyway... I guess people want a re-cap. Busy day but I'll get in what I can.

I drug myself out of bed at 5am, called the briefer and put in all the wind correction stuff on my flight plans both to the examiner's FBO and for his cross country. Got the airplane pre-flighted and taxied over to the ramp where I met my CFI and he checked out my flight plans and gave me my endorsement to go.

Trip over was pretty uneventful. Winds were pretty light out of the south all day... lot of haze but other than that a nice day. I taxied up to the examiner's FBO... and he was already there talking to me over the radio telling me where to park. One of the FBO employees came out and asked if I needed any help bringing anything in. I already had all my airplane related documents(plus all related tools/accessories) in a suitcase in the back and all my pilot stuff in my flight bag so I just grabbed it and headed in. The examiner met me at the counter, first thing he asked after we shook hands was if my Archer was a 79... I told him it was a 78 and he informed me I had a '79 paint job. Turned out I showed up in his favorite airplane.... I think that set the tone for things right there.

This was at KMFI (Marshfield, WI) btw. Very family oriented place... my examiner was an older gentlemen and seemed to have friends and family to talk to around every corner of that FBO. I know that might bug some people... indeed he suspended the oral a couple of times(briefly) to go talk to someone who came in. But hey, I'd planned to be there all day anyway so I didn't care.

Started off pretty simply, he asked for my application form, medical/student certificate, and logbook. Then we got out my aircraft logbooks and went through them. He certainly checked everything, but he didn't go digging very hard for problems either. I'd dug up all my documentation for ADs for example and he didn't even ask for that. Just verified the annual, transponder, and ELT checks had all been done. Similar for my logbook.. he just checked I had the right hours in the right spots quickly and moved on. He asked me how long my medical was good for and how long my student pilot certificate was good for.... I think one or two other things. I was kind of over prepared so nothing really difficult came up. Only thing he really go me on was a question about the ELT.... if I'd been flying for an hour and discovered my ELT had been on the whole time, could I continue? The answer lied in the useful life of the batteries... I did eventually get it.

He asked to see a weight and balance that I'd done beforehand, just looked over it and didn't ask much. Asked to see the cross country I'd planned... again just looked over it a little and made sure I'd put in my wind correction angles more/less correctly. I thought he might ask me to calculate something but he didn't, seemed satisfied with what I'd given him.

We got out a sectional and went over all of the different types of airspace on it, he asked me the visibility requirements for everything, what I needed to enter different types of airspace, what specifically had to be said on the radio to enter B, C, D airspace. He gave me a couple of hypothetical scenarios for weather and asked if I could depart/land in different places. Asked me about SVFR clearances, I had not known that you were required to cancel one and he told me a story about being in a holding pattern waiting for some pilot to be tracked down so they could cancel his SVFR so that he could be cleared to land. Advice to anyone... know your sectional and your airspaces. I was fortunately ready to go here so it was no sweat.

He asked what my service ceiling was and asked if I'd need floatation devices to cross lake Michigan. I said that I did and he told me it wasn't actually a requirement but it was probably a good idea. We got out my performance charts to see what my glide range would be from 12,500(just under the service ceiling) and figured out that we'd only have a few minutes out of glide range of land crossing the lake at that altitude.

He asked me what I planned for fuel burn and I told him I used 10 but it was actually probably closer to 8.... this was what he used for his Archers as well. He asked me for some airspeeds... Va, Vx, Vy... I think that was it. He asked me a couple of generic questions like how many HP I had, how many cylinders, that sort of stuff. Nothing difficult. Asked me what I had for anti-ice equipment... pitot heat, window defroster, carb heat.

We went over to his computer and he had me read a METAR, a TAF, and we looked at a few weather charts. Mainly just had to be able to identify a warm from from a cold front and he was happy.

I think we were at it 1.5-2 hours, chit-chat breaks included. I'll continue with the flight portion...
 
He told me to take a minute and get my stuff together, then go out and pre-flight my airplane and he'd join me.

Now I don't know if he was looking out the window. Actually my bet would be he went off to talk to a buddy or one of the kids who running around. But I made darn sure to make a really good show of a pre-flight with my checklist out and everything.

He came out and had a few words of airplane admiration. We got in and I started with a passenger briefing- he stopped me and said it wasn't necessary, he knew how to get in and out of an Archer. I had no doubts.

Started to go through my normal start-up procedure and he stopped me when I reached for the primer and told me I didn't need that. He pumped my throttle lever up and down a couple of times and told me to start it. I'd heard somewhere this wasn't a good practice but he was the examiner with a lifetime more of experience than me and it started so I wasn't about to argue. He also didn't like where I'd set my throttle friction or how I held the throttle but said this was all personal preference and he just wanted me to know what he thought worked better.

During the runup he told me that even though the checklist and POH said to run it up at 2000RPM, that was too much and I didn't want to pull all that dirt through the prop... followed by advice on which prop I should buy after this one needed replaced.

We started out with a normal crosswind takeoff and landing(just as an aside this airport had runways that were right traffic. I only made one landing with him on one of these, also what I did on arrival but probably something he looked for). Takeoff was fine, the landing in all honesty wasn't great... I didn't like any of my landings with him except the last one but I guess they were all good enough. I think next we did a soft field.. I gave it a touch too much power on touchdown and bounced a little. He didn't say anything about that...

Then we did a short field.... and he didn't like my technique at all. My CFI and I had reviewed the POH which says to accelerate to 41-49kts depending on weight, back pressure to rotate, then accelerate to 45-54kts depending on weight, then accelerate to Vx which is 64kts. We had settled on rotate at 50, accelerate to 55 until clear then Vx to give us a couple of knots of safety margin. For landing we'd been trying to hit the POH approach speeds of 75, and 66 on final. I'd been practicing for the past few weeks in my lighter than average glide-happy Archer with an instructor in the right seat barking at me to get the power back sooner and get the flaps in quicker... "you can't descend and slow down at the same time! Get her slowed down before you turn!".

Well that wasn't what the examiner wanted to see. He told me that was too slow and I thought I was done... but then he said he knew I was trained that way and made some comment about how it was probably a cessna guy who taught me that. (it was). He did a demonstration for me... he rotated at my normal rotation speed of about 60 and pitched for Vx... and made what was practically a normal landing to me... pulling power back a lot less and only reducing further in steps on final. I couldn't get over how he was handling the controls... soon as we broke ground he barely even touched the yoke.... just kinda bumped it with his hand a couple of times to correct it. You could really tell he had a lot of skill. Most importantly though, he didn't tell me I failed.

He had me climb out to I believe 3200 and start following my cross country route. He wanted me to identify a couple of towns(apparently he's consistent enough that my CFI already know which towns). This was very rural WI and there was nothing but fields and clusters of farm buildings. One of the towns was only identifiable as a slightly bigger cluster of buildings than all the farms which made this difficult but I got it. He tuned in a VOR and had me find the course to fly there. Then he had me do a couple of clearing turns and go into slow flight. I quickly found out there was no -100' for him, only +100' for altitude so I put myself just a hair above 3200. He wanted 3200 and 52kts.... and I did that for a while. CFIs have made me do turns, climbs, and descents like this. He just wanted to see me hold it straight and level for a while. He had me bring the speed back up and we did another clearing turn. He had me slow again and perform a power-off stall which went great. Then a power on stall.... I though I blew that one because I started my recovery a bit prematurely but he was fine with it.

We did a steep turn to the left.. partway through he reached over and covered up my attitude and airspeed indicators to make sure I could really do it visually. We entered another steep turn to the right and before I finished it he pulled my power. I pitched to the correct airspeed and started looking for a spot. He only seemed to be concerned that I knew how to troubleshoot.... emphasizing the most likely reason this would happen is running a tank dry.

He then tuned in an NDB on my ADF and asked me to take him to that airport. I turned to the course indicated and followed it for a bit, then he had me descend a little more... I forget where but we did turns around a point, then some s-turns across a road. I didn't think my S-turns were very good, misjudged my bank a bit but I wasn't too far off and again he didn't say anything bad.

Then he wanted me to take us back to the airport. At first he wanted to shut off my garmin 430 but I think he figured I needed it for the radio or something so he left it on. But he wanted me to use my ADF to get us back there so I used that instead of the 430. Not much of a problem. It was hazy out and that airport is a little hard to spot. I finally found it as I was about to pass it... the needle started swinging over which was a pretty good clue. Had already gotten the weather and entered right downwind(RT runway), then he had me use the landing technique he demonstrated earlier. Came down just a little firm but otherwise perfect. Taxied off the runway, did my after-landing checklist, went back to the ramp and shut down. He asked me if I had any questions, I said "well, you didn't tell me I failed..." He said nope, but he discussed that short field technique with me again and told me I should work on that and keep my speeds higher. He said he thought I was going to be a good pilot and encouraged me to get my instrument rating.

Went inside, he had his office people work through the paperwork. Thursdays at noon there's free pizza at KMFI so we sat and ate and chatted for a bit. Got introduced to various friends and family around the FBO, wrote my check, got my temporary certificate, and left for home.
 
Thanks for the write up. Being very new, this is the first one I've read. Congratulations on the certificate. Hope to join you some day.
 
My checkride was brutal. I had the oral on one day, the flying on another. He read from five pages of questions he had and wanted a complete answer to every question.

He didn't want to give the cross country assignment until the night before because he said 'I dont want you to get help from your CFI'. I had to do calcs in front of him for the whole cross country despite having it in a navlog generated from iFlightPlanner online.

He wanted a complete description of all the weather products, and a read-off of untranslated METARS, TAFS, FDs and Prog Charts. And he expected every NOTAM for the route and airports to be processed.

Then the sectional grilling. Complete airspace knowledge, even ADIZ, environmental areas, MOAs, Restricted and TFRs.

Oh yea, I had to give him every V speed and stall speeds at ever flap setting.

The flying was even worse. Though I have an all glass cockpit and Garmin GPS, I was not allowed to use them. He wanted dead reckoning and pilotage. We did a tour in a Class C, then flew half a cross country, then a diversion with foggles and unusual attitudes.

Then every PTS maneuver in the book, including steeps both directions, slow flight and stalls. Every turn, point, ess, rectangle. I even had to do stalls in slow flight turns (not even trained for that one). He stared at the altitude and speed like a hawk waiting for an exceeding.

On the emergency engine out i even had to do a mock emergency call and fly to withing 500 feet of the ground. I actually thought I was gonna have to land on the spot I chose for a second.

Then landings on short, narrow, unfamiliar. Then back home for the rest of the landings while he was chatting away in the pattern trying to distract me. Short field, Soft field, go around not announced till crossing the numbers, fast touch and goes, slip to landing on short final with a touch and go....

Shirt soaking wet, two and half hours, fuel nearly gone, finally got to taxi back...once back, silence. Scribbling on a pad...no comments, no smile, all business. Finally after what seemed like hours, he turned and said, lets go up to the office and I'll print off your temp license...

Waited for that, took it, shook his hand without a smile, and went home...
 
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