Tex|US
Filing Flight Plan
Well, I should say I'm new member here. Signed up because I kind of feel like I'm part of the club now. Read some other checkride stories, thought I might share my checkride experience with yall.
I don't think I'll ever forget this flight.
Yesterday was the day. Longest, most complicated X/C I've ever planned. Situation was a flight from KSSF (San Antonio) to KNEW (New Orleans). Our Aircraft is a Symphony 160. Planned a stop in KLCH for fuel. Simulated 30% thunderstorms and a night of drinking, followed by immediate turn around for San Antonio. Oddly enough, he never quizzed me on the simulation. Maybe it was just too obvious.
Apparently, I had worked myself up way too much. What I thought was going to be a grilling session turned out to be a brief on the flight and weather, followed by a chat about flying. "What would you do if...". "What can you expect if this-or-that happened...". "What's the escape velocity when orbiting Saturn's 3rd moon?". You know, practical questions.
I got hung up on a couple. What equipment is required for VFR night flying? Tomato Flames is burned into my skull, but I had to break out the Bible for FLAPS. In the end however, the DPE said grab your gear and lets go pre-flight. Got dinged in the walk around. Didn't have the checklist in my hand.
Take-off was a short field, planned route was reported to be awfully close to the hold point for some local Airforce Texans that shoot ILS at Stinson. In my mind, I like to think they cleared those guys out because they knew I was on my checkride. They ended up letting me fly the route. And I would swear I caught SA Approach diverting one of the Texans during climb out.
At any rate, we flew only the first couple of checkpoints. Initial turn onto a VOR radial, where the DPE had to use light prodding to get me to ID the station, and I had a moment of doubt as to whether I had picked the right radial, or not. Looking out, my visual fix was a couple of tall cell towers, and it seemed like I was approaching the radial too quickly. I plotted the radial twice as we reached the turn... and still it took me a moment to visualize my position. I was looking at it as if the towers should be inline with my course, but they were actually at a slight angle. I ended up deciding to trust my instrument and the calculations made on the ground. It worked. I only had to make a slight turn to get on course and the towers were where they were supposed to be out of the window.
So we flew to the TOC, knocked out the cruise checklist, and diverted. Using GPS! I had to ask the DPE, "Are you sure?". I felt like I had just been given a cheat sheet on a final exam. Also, I suppose I was kind of wanting the challenge of plotting and calculating the diversion. I love that stuff.
Now, we're on course to KPEZ (Pleasanton). I realize, I don't remember what the runway headings are. So I break out the AFD and clamp down on the flight stick with my knees (Sympony 160's have a stick instead of a yoke), trying my best to flip through the AFD quickly and still hold my course and altitude. That was the best knee flying I've ever done. Light winds up at 5500' that day certainly made it easier.
As soon as I get that done, DPE calls for maneuvers. Not much excitement there, but I will say.... I love steep turns.
Back to KPEZ, and here is where I make the most confusing mistake of the entire flight. For some reason, I couldn't visualize wind and runway heading. Winds at the field were 160@9kts. Runways 16 and 34. For some reason, I got it in my skull that, winds are out of the south so I need to fly 34. I called it on the CTAF: Making left traffic 34. and lo-behold a kind soul at the airfield responds: So-in-so, winds have been favoring 16 today.
I cringed... I couldn't believe that I'd just done that. Somehow, I'd flipped the runway bearings in my head. When the DPE asked me about it, I did my best to explain the addle-minded reasoning for choosing the wrong frakking runway. It was no joy. "We'll get back to that once we're on the ground...". Right there, I thought I'd failed the exam.
He had me do a spiral descent to land over the field. Field elevation is about 500ft, we're 5500. Most of the spiral down was glide 74kts-80kts. I thought it was a power-off descent, so throttle is idle. As we approach 2500ft I'm just completing a turn. It was a gut instinct guess at descent rate and time to turn, but I figured I could get one more turn in if I reduced the descent rate to 500fpm and increased the turn rate. Sure enough, I had to give up so much energy that the stall warning horn started barking.
We're in and out of that, and the DPE asks: "What is that noise?" I'm so focused on this turn that if he was concerned it didn't register, but I tell him: "That's the stall warning indicator." Right about the same time I'm looking out the left window at the runway, giving her more left rudder and cutting the turn a little tighter. Looking back, I probably shouldn't have added to his grey hairs, and just gone ahead and added a little throttle instead.
It was a constant give and take on the way down, pitch for 500fpm, let the stall warning horn sound, pitch for best glide. Back to 500fpm, stall horn, pitch for glide. Sure enough though, just as we rolled out on the downwind, that beautiful Symphony was at pattern altitude.
From there, we did a normal landing, full-stop. Taxiing back, he asked me about the wind and runway selection again. I admitted that I didn't know what I was thinking. I knew better.
If there is one thing that flying does for me, it takes all external factors and pushes them way out of mind. I forgot about what he said, and just focused on flying the aircraft. Which was good because, the next performance was a short-field, forward slip to landing.
Pattern was good, approach was mostly solid, until we got close. I came in a little shallow on the flare and touched one of the wheels down in the displaced threshold, ballooned slightly a couple times, and set her down. We still made the first taxiway, but again I was kicking myself with the realization I had just landed in a displaced threshold, even if it was only one wheel. DPE debriefs the landing with a very "You know what you did wrong?" kind of tone in his voice... but lets me keep going.
We eventually get out of there after a power-off 180 and do some ground reference. Climbed out, heading for home. Then comes the foggles and unsual attitude recovery. Followed by emergency descent. All standard, no screw ups. Fortunately.
We make it back to Stinson's pattern, and I managed to squeak in a 1-in-a-million touchdown. I've done a LOT of pattern work. And I still only have 4 or 5 of those.
It wasn't all ice-cream and cake from there. We debriefed with the Chief Flight Instructor and talked about the mistakes I made. The DPE mentioned that if that short-field had been a true short-field, he might have touched down in the displaced threshold, too. Not that it's an excuse, but it sure helped to hear that from him. Oh, and the Chief wasn't too happy with some of the mistakes I made either, but I think it's safe to say that I learned some lessons that I'm not going to be forgetting anytime soon.
And that's my checkride story. It was a wild ride, and not just the checkride. For me personally, the path to getting my first rating has been a hell of an adventure. I've put a lot of time and effort into this dream. I've got a lot of learning left to do, and as they say, now I've got the license to do it.
I don't think I'll ever forget this flight.
Yesterday was the day. Longest, most complicated X/C I've ever planned. Situation was a flight from KSSF (San Antonio) to KNEW (New Orleans). Our Aircraft is a Symphony 160. Planned a stop in KLCH for fuel. Simulated 30% thunderstorms and a night of drinking, followed by immediate turn around for San Antonio. Oddly enough, he never quizzed me on the simulation. Maybe it was just too obvious.
Apparently, I had worked myself up way too much. What I thought was going to be a grilling session turned out to be a brief on the flight and weather, followed by a chat about flying. "What would you do if...". "What can you expect if this-or-that happened...". "What's the escape velocity when orbiting Saturn's 3rd moon?". You know, practical questions.
I got hung up on a couple. What equipment is required for VFR night flying? Tomato Flames is burned into my skull, but I had to break out the Bible for FLAPS. In the end however, the DPE said grab your gear and lets go pre-flight. Got dinged in the walk around. Didn't have the checklist in my hand.
Take-off was a short field, planned route was reported to be awfully close to the hold point for some local Airforce Texans that shoot ILS at Stinson. In my mind, I like to think they cleared those guys out because they knew I was on my checkride. They ended up letting me fly the route. And I would swear I caught SA Approach diverting one of the Texans during climb out.
At any rate, we flew only the first couple of checkpoints. Initial turn onto a VOR radial, where the DPE had to use light prodding to get me to ID the station, and I had a moment of doubt as to whether I had picked the right radial, or not. Looking out, my visual fix was a couple of tall cell towers, and it seemed like I was approaching the radial too quickly. I plotted the radial twice as we reached the turn... and still it took me a moment to visualize my position. I was looking at it as if the towers should be inline with my course, but they were actually at a slight angle. I ended up deciding to trust my instrument and the calculations made on the ground. It worked. I only had to make a slight turn to get on course and the towers were where they were supposed to be out of the window.
So we flew to the TOC, knocked out the cruise checklist, and diverted. Using GPS! I had to ask the DPE, "Are you sure?". I felt like I had just been given a cheat sheet on a final exam. Also, I suppose I was kind of wanting the challenge of plotting and calculating the diversion. I love that stuff.
Now, we're on course to KPEZ (Pleasanton). I realize, I don't remember what the runway headings are. So I break out the AFD and clamp down on the flight stick with my knees (Sympony 160's have a stick instead of a yoke), trying my best to flip through the AFD quickly and still hold my course and altitude. That was the best knee flying I've ever done. Light winds up at 5500' that day certainly made it easier.
As soon as I get that done, DPE calls for maneuvers. Not much excitement there, but I will say.... I love steep turns.
Back to KPEZ, and here is where I make the most confusing mistake of the entire flight. For some reason, I couldn't visualize wind and runway heading. Winds at the field were 160@9kts. Runways 16 and 34. For some reason, I got it in my skull that, winds are out of the south so I need to fly 34. I called it on the CTAF: Making left traffic 34. and lo-behold a kind soul at the airfield responds: So-in-so, winds have been favoring 16 today.
I cringed... I couldn't believe that I'd just done that. Somehow, I'd flipped the runway bearings in my head. When the DPE asked me about it, I did my best to explain the addle-minded reasoning for choosing the wrong frakking runway. It was no joy. "We'll get back to that once we're on the ground...". Right there, I thought I'd failed the exam.
He had me do a spiral descent to land over the field. Field elevation is about 500ft, we're 5500. Most of the spiral down was glide 74kts-80kts. I thought it was a power-off descent, so throttle is idle. As we approach 2500ft I'm just completing a turn. It was a gut instinct guess at descent rate and time to turn, but I figured I could get one more turn in if I reduced the descent rate to 500fpm and increased the turn rate. Sure enough, I had to give up so much energy that the stall warning horn started barking.
We're in and out of that, and the DPE asks: "What is that noise?" I'm so focused on this turn that if he was concerned it didn't register, but I tell him: "That's the stall warning indicator." Right about the same time I'm looking out the left window at the runway, giving her more left rudder and cutting the turn a little tighter. Looking back, I probably shouldn't have added to his grey hairs, and just gone ahead and added a little throttle instead.
It was a constant give and take on the way down, pitch for 500fpm, let the stall warning horn sound, pitch for best glide. Back to 500fpm, stall horn, pitch for glide. Sure enough though, just as we rolled out on the downwind, that beautiful Symphony was at pattern altitude.
From there, we did a normal landing, full-stop. Taxiing back, he asked me about the wind and runway selection again. I admitted that I didn't know what I was thinking. I knew better.
If there is one thing that flying does for me, it takes all external factors and pushes them way out of mind. I forgot about what he said, and just focused on flying the aircraft. Which was good because, the next performance was a short-field, forward slip to landing.
Pattern was good, approach was mostly solid, until we got close. I came in a little shallow on the flare and touched one of the wheels down in the displaced threshold, ballooned slightly a couple times, and set her down. We still made the first taxiway, but again I was kicking myself with the realization I had just landed in a displaced threshold, even if it was only one wheel. DPE debriefs the landing with a very "You know what you did wrong?" kind of tone in his voice... but lets me keep going.
We eventually get out of there after a power-off 180 and do some ground reference. Climbed out, heading for home. Then comes the foggles and unsual attitude recovery. Followed by emergency descent. All standard, no screw ups. Fortunately.
We make it back to Stinson's pattern, and I managed to squeak in a 1-in-a-million touchdown. I've done a LOT of pattern work. And I still only have 4 or 5 of those.
It wasn't all ice-cream and cake from there. We debriefed with the Chief Flight Instructor and talked about the mistakes I made. The DPE mentioned that if that short-field had been a true short-field, he might have touched down in the displaced threshold, too. Not that it's an excuse, but it sure helped to hear that from him. Oh, and the Chief wasn't too happy with some of the mistakes I made either, but I think it's safe to say that I learned some lessons that I'm not going to be forgetting anytime soon.
And that's my checkride story. It was a wild ride, and not just the checkride. For me personally, the path to getting my first rating has been a hell of an adventure. I've put a lot of time and effort into this dream. I've got a lot of learning left to do, and as they say, now I've got the license to do it.
Last edited:
one of the best ways to gain XC experience and hours needed for future ratings.