Passed my Checkride!!

duc750sport

Pre-takeoff checklist
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duc750sport
Whew!! Passed my checkride Friday!! 8 months and 72 hours.. I learned a lot from here. Thanks everyone!! I'll do a debrief at some point tonight and post it.
 
Congrats. Now go out and enjoy your rating.
 
Congratulations! Who will you take as your first passenger and where will you go?
 
Congrats!! Now go out there and start finding all those really good $100 Hamburger/BBQ/breakfast joints!!

Also, schedule and execute a longer (200nm+) flight. You'll hear from many pilots that's where you really start learning things and putting the puzzle pieces together a tad more snug. That's what happened to me and each one that I do helps build more confidence in my skills.

When you're ready, start working on the IFR. Once you have that, it will really increase both your knowledge and the utility of your certificate
 
Whew!! Passed my checkride Friday!! 8 months and 72 hours.. I learned a lot from here. Thanks everyone!! I'll do a debrief at some point tonight and post it.



So my check ride started with me flying to a Class D here in Jersey and it turned out to be crazy busy. I finally got the to the school I was meeting my examiner and waited. She was about 25 minutes late so I looked over some stuff and just tried to relax. Easier said than done! After she arrived and we exchanged the pleasantries we started the oral part of the exam which was totally just two people talking about flying with a few scenario based questions in there. Later, I realized that just by us talking she really asked quite a bunch of questions which I had down with no problem. I had all my paperwork in order and she liked that. Everything with a post it on it and my FAR/AIM with post it's EVERYWHERE. She looked over the cross country which she gave me to plan and the only comment she had on the entire thing was one section of altitude over water which she said I might have wanted to choose 6500 instead of my chosen 4500. After about sixty minutes she gave me a "bonus" question..She drew a runway hold short diagram on a piece of paper and asked me what it was. She said if I got it right "we go fly"!! I knew it right away.
After a 10 min break I went out to preflight by myself. It was well below freezing.. Lucky her.. Although I gather she might have been glancing from inside. I took off ( Soft field) and started the XX.. As soon as I got to my first check point (my home airport :) ) she pulled the power. After best glide I told her .." Hey theres a great little airport right below us" what do you know!
I had it made and the landing went well. I definitely got a little more comfortable after that. We went on to do all the maneuvers. I struggled with holding altitude during the steep turns and slow flight but nothing out of tolerance. She demonstrated a steep turn after she covered the altimeter and she was dead on after the 360! She commented that I was letting the plane fly me. Power on and off stalls were good, S turns good (She liked that fact I checked weather from he closest ATIS). Then foggle work. The unusually attitudes were fine. Recovered quickly and safely. She then had me turning different vectors and towards the end different altitudes. When she asked " where are we?" I took a minute dialed in two local VOR's and she vectored us right back to the airport! She said take off the foggles and I was 8 miles inbound with the airport in sight! She made that really easy. All in all, she was great! Made me feel at ease right from the start. I was soooo nervous. For no reason really. My instructor had me ready. I flew with two other instructors the week before and I found this a big help. The flight back to my airport was the best! In fact, when I made my 6 mile out call my instructor was up in the air and said "Great job Captain".. Looking forward to keep learning and starting my instrument this summer. For now I just want to breathe and fly!
Again, lurking here and posting was a big help so thanks everyone!:D
 
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Congrats!! Now go out there and start finding all those really good $100 Hamburger/BBQ/breakfast joints!!
I second that Congrats:yesnod:, and make sure you post all the neat places you find so we may add them to our future flight plans .
 
I also flew with two different instructors before my checkride, my CFI was great, but I learned from the other two also. Highly recommend that tip. Congratulations!
 
I also flew with two different instructors before my checkride, my CFI was great, but I learned from the other two also. Highly recommend that tip. Congratulations!

If anything it showed me that there isn't always the 100% way of doing things. This kind of made me feel at ease. There's definitely a lot of different techniques and Points of view on staying within the standards..
 
Sounds like a prefect checkride.
And the nervous for no reason comment... I think after it is over everyone feels that way.

Nicely Done!

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