ajyeary
Pre-takeoff checklist
So, I just took my check ride this morning. MASSIVE SPOILERS/tl;dr version: I passed.
(Extremely) long version:
Last Friday, I was scheduled to fly with my instructor to put some finishing touches on ground reference maneuvers in preparation for my check ride. I headed towards MGY, and things were... not great. 800 foot ceilings reported, varying from 600 to 1200. No good. I decided to go to the airport anyway since I had nothing better to do all day, and at the least I figured I'd get some ground work in with my instructor.
Well, when I got there, my instructor was sitting with the local DPE, just chatting, and they waved me in to join them. So I sat down and ate my breakfast while my instructor and the DPE talked about a few things, then the conversation somehow suddenly shifted to me. The DPE had heard that I was going to go for my checkride soon and wanted to know if I'd be available to do it that weekend! Unfortunately, weather wasn't looking so great, and I had plans with the girlfriend on Monday, so the earliest opportunity was going to be Tuesday after work. Considering I wasn't even expecting to be taking it for another couple weeks... this came as a bit of a surprise. It's nice to have people I hardly know going to bat for me!
So anyway, we scheduled for Tuesday and the DPE told me to plan a flight to STL for it, with 3x 170 pax, pilotage only. Then I hung around the airport with my instructor until we got a break in the weather. Taxied one of the 172Ses out to the run-up area at MGY... and the engine ran rough on the right mag check. Whomp. So we put her back, filed a squawk, then switched to the other 172S; this one ran just fine at the run-up. We departed, went out and did some maneuvers, and came back with a grand total of 0.5 on the Hobbs, then went in and spent some time with IACRA and logbook endorsements. Good times!
Tuesday came around, and I went in after work to finish my preflight planning with updated winds and such. Walked in to the DPE's office with all my material, and we did the IACRA stuff and he discussed the options for the way the test can end - discontinuance, rejection, or a shiny new temp. cert.. We chatted to a bit, I guess to try to relieve some of my nervousness, then he asked me to show him the planned flight. I explained my flight - we could make it to STL with sufficient fuel, but I wouldn't have been comfortable with it, so I planned a stop in between. He looked at the nav log I had filled out, and apparently I've been using checkpoints that are too close.
So he threw that nav log out and showed me his preferred method.
We then discussed weather minimums, classes of airspace, the usual. The way ASI at MGY does flight training, they have mock checkrides at the end of the last training stage, so I was pretty comfortable with the questions asked. Only issue I really had was trying to parse out what he was looking for on some of his comments/questions. We discussed systems, required equipment, and a few more things, then he asked if I was ready to fly! We looked at the radar images for the area, and things looked fine, but I looked out the window to the west/southwest and things were looking ugly. I decided to postpone the flight portion and he filled out my letter of discontinuance. We rescheduled for Friday morning, and off I went. I was walking out to my car when my instructor pulled into the lot and asked how I did. I explained the postponement and we chatted for awhile (and then VanDy showed up... apparently we share instructors! My instructor had mentioned his name before but I didn't really make the connection until I saw his face and recognized him from the Buckeye Aviation page), then back home I went.
After a few days of stress and worrying (partially about work stuff, partially about flying), today was the day. I went down towards the airport and forgot two things: I forgot to wear a watch, and I forgot that there was construction going on between my house and the airport. I got there a few minutes late, but the DPE didn't seem to mind. I got my weather briefing, updated my nav log, and we went out to the plane - preflight was as expected, he watched me and asked a few questions, then I hopped in and we discussed passenger briefings. After that, he still seemed satisfied, so I got my "office" in order and started the engine. Someone flew the plane earlier this morning, so I used the warm start procedure and it started after a few stressful seconds of worrying the engine wasn't going to start on me
Taxied on out of the parking area, made a turn, then right after I turned onto the main taxiway, a highway patrol plane turned from another taxiway... facing me. D'oh. Luckily, he was going to the parking area in front of ASI, so there wasn't any contention there - I just stopped and let him do what he needed to do. We got down to the end of the taxiway off of 02 and I did my run-up, discussing various things the whole time. Content with the engine's performance, I made my departure radio call and off we went, a normal takeoff and a departure turn out to the west as planned. I climbed to the planned altitude of 4500, then he said "now, let's say there are some clouds out there and you wanna get under them - give me a descent to 2500." Did so, then got out to my first checkpoint, then he diverted me out to Miami University-Oxford's field. When we got to the airport, I did a normal landing, short-field takeoff, short-field landing, and soft-field takeoff. I was fairly happy with my performance on these, and apparently he was too, as he took us out to the north to do ground reference maneuvers!
While doing my S-turns across a road, he reached over and pulled the throttle out on me. Luckily, this is southwest Ohio - there are fields all over the place! I chose a field and made my approach, which was fine (although after getting closer to the ground, I didn't like my choice of field - it would've been survivable, but it wouldn't have been pleasant). He took the controls and recovered for us while he had me slip some foggles on. He had me do some maneuvers and VOR tracking, then we did the "fun" part: unusual attitudes. I recovered from those pretty easily (he's nowhere near as aggressive as the stage check instructor was!), then he had the foggles come off. We did some stalls, steep turns, then he told me to use the GPS to take us back to MGY. I was a little excited at this point and accidentally flew towards MWO instead, completely disregarding the GPS - I realized the error after a bit and got myself corrected, a little embarrassing though!
We got to MGY and he wanted a soft-field landing, and I gave him one of my best ones! It wasn't my absolute best, but it was definitely my second best ever. He told me to park the plane and he grabbed my logbook and information for IACRA, then headed inside while I tied her down.
I got the plane tied down, grabbed all my stuff, and headed in, still not 100% sure I had passed. I mean, I had done everything he asked and everything required, but the ride felt like it was too short! I was sure I had messed up somewhere and he just called it short... but nope! I made it inside and he had a temporary Private Pilot certificate printed out for me!
A handshake, a call to my instructor to fill him in (I seriously thought about telling him I failed just to yank his chain), then I called up family and friends to fill them in on the news.
Sorry for the excessively long report, but... check your six, there's a newbie in the air.
(Extremely) long version:
Last Friday, I was scheduled to fly with my instructor to put some finishing touches on ground reference maneuvers in preparation for my check ride. I headed towards MGY, and things were... not great. 800 foot ceilings reported, varying from 600 to 1200. No good. I decided to go to the airport anyway since I had nothing better to do all day, and at the least I figured I'd get some ground work in with my instructor.
Well, when I got there, my instructor was sitting with the local DPE, just chatting, and they waved me in to join them. So I sat down and ate my breakfast while my instructor and the DPE talked about a few things, then the conversation somehow suddenly shifted to me. The DPE had heard that I was going to go for my checkride soon and wanted to know if I'd be available to do it that weekend! Unfortunately, weather wasn't looking so great, and I had plans with the girlfriend on Monday, so the earliest opportunity was going to be Tuesday after work. Considering I wasn't even expecting to be taking it for another couple weeks... this came as a bit of a surprise. It's nice to have people I hardly know going to bat for me!
So anyway, we scheduled for Tuesday and the DPE told me to plan a flight to STL for it, with 3x 170 pax, pilotage only. Then I hung around the airport with my instructor until we got a break in the weather. Taxied one of the 172Ses out to the run-up area at MGY... and the engine ran rough on the right mag check. Whomp. So we put her back, filed a squawk, then switched to the other 172S; this one ran just fine at the run-up. We departed, went out and did some maneuvers, and came back with a grand total of 0.5 on the Hobbs, then went in and spent some time with IACRA and logbook endorsements. Good times!
Tuesday came around, and I went in after work to finish my preflight planning with updated winds and such. Walked in to the DPE's office with all my material, and we did the IACRA stuff and he discussed the options for the way the test can end - discontinuance, rejection, or a shiny new temp. cert.. We chatted to a bit, I guess to try to relieve some of my nervousness, then he asked me to show him the planned flight. I explained my flight - we could make it to STL with sufficient fuel, but I wouldn't have been comfortable with it, so I planned a stop in between. He looked at the nav log I had filled out, and apparently I've been using checkpoints that are too close.
So he threw that nav log out and showed me his preferred method.We then discussed weather minimums, classes of airspace, the usual. The way ASI at MGY does flight training, they have mock checkrides at the end of the last training stage, so I was pretty comfortable with the questions asked. Only issue I really had was trying to parse out what he was looking for on some of his comments/questions. We discussed systems, required equipment, and a few more things, then he asked if I was ready to fly! We looked at the radar images for the area, and things looked fine, but I looked out the window to the west/southwest and things were looking ugly. I decided to postpone the flight portion and he filled out my letter of discontinuance. We rescheduled for Friday morning, and off I went. I was walking out to my car when my instructor pulled into the lot and asked how I did. I explained the postponement and we chatted for awhile (and then VanDy showed up... apparently we share instructors! My instructor had mentioned his name before but I didn't really make the connection until I saw his face and recognized him from the Buckeye Aviation page), then back home I went.
After a few days of stress and worrying (partially about work stuff, partially about flying), today was the day. I went down towards the airport and forgot two things: I forgot to wear a watch, and I forgot that there was construction going on between my house and the airport. I got there a few minutes late, but the DPE didn't seem to mind. I got my weather briefing, updated my nav log, and we went out to the plane - preflight was as expected, he watched me and asked a few questions, then I hopped in and we discussed passenger briefings. After that, he still seemed satisfied, so I got my "office" in order and started the engine. Someone flew the plane earlier this morning, so I used the warm start procedure and it started after a few stressful seconds of worrying the engine wasn't going to start on me
Taxied on out of the parking area, made a turn, then right after I turned onto the main taxiway, a highway patrol plane turned from another taxiway... facing me. D'oh. Luckily, he was going to the parking area in front of ASI, so there wasn't any contention there - I just stopped and let him do what he needed to do. We got down to the end of the taxiway off of 02 and I did my run-up, discussing various things the whole time. Content with the engine's performance, I made my departure radio call and off we went, a normal takeoff and a departure turn out to the west as planned. I climbed to the planned altitude of 4500, then he said "now, let's say there are some clouds out there and you wanna get under them - give me a descent to 2500." Did so, then got out to my first checkpoint, then he diverted me out to Miami University-Oxford's field. When we got to the airport, I did a normal landing, short-field takeoff, short-field landing, and soft-field takeoff. I was fairly happy with my performance on these, and apparently he was too, as he took us out to the north to do ground reference maneuvers!
While doing my S-turns across a road, he reached over and pulled the throttle out on me. Luckily, this is southwest Ohio - there are fields all over the place! I chose a field and made my approach, which was fine (although after getting closer to the ground, I didn't like my choice of field - it would've been survivable, but it wouldn't have been pleasant). He took the controls and recovered for us while he had me slip some foggles on. He had me do some maneuvers and VOR tracking, then we did the "fun" part: unusual attitudes. I recovered from those pretty easily (he's nowhere near as aggressive as the stage check instructor was!), then he had the foggles come off. We did some stalls, steep turns, then he told me to use the GPS to take us back to MGY. I was a little excited at this point and accidentally flew towards MWO instead, completely disregarding the GPS - I realized the error after a bit and got myself corrected, a little embarrassing though!
We got to MGY and he wanted a soft-field landing, and I gave him one of my best ones! It wasn't my absolute best, but it was definitely my second best ever. He told me to park the plane and he grabbed my logbook and information for IACRA, then headed inside while I tied her down.
I got the plane tied down, grabbed all my stuff, and headed in, still not 100% sure I had passed. I mean, I had done everything he asked and everything required, but the ride felt like it was too short! I was sure I had messed up somewhere and he just called it short... but nope! I made it inside and he had a temporary Private Pilot certificate printed out for me!
A handshake, a call to my instructor to fill him in (I seriously thought about telling him I failed just to yank his chain), then I called up family and friends to fill them in on the news.
Sorry for the excessively long report, but... check your six, there's a newbie in the air.
