aanderson81
Pre-takeoff checklist
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2014
- Messages
- 138
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aanderson81
First off, I am officially a Pilot.
Started off this morning, I had the exam scheduled with the DPE at 9am, so I got to the airport about 8:20. I had flown at the end of the day yesterday so the plane had the fuel for the flight and was left pretty much ready to go. I already had my "piles" in order from the evening before, one for me with my logbook and endorsements all with post it notes, same with the plane's logs.
I finalized my morning briefing for the planned cross-country from 7B2 to POU. I was told to plan this as a straight route and be ready to discuss any airspace or issues that would be present if I were to fly that route. I like to pre-plan in skyvector and then print out a screen grab as sort of a executive summary of the planned flight. I also had the AOPA airport printouts of the airports that I thought would be useful (7B2, POU, as well as 0B5 and KORE as assumed diversions) On these printouts I had the TPA as well as all the frequencies highlighted and then folded these and had them with my kneeboard. The morning of I used LMFSS to do a brief, I printed a nearly full brief including weather and NOTAMS as well as the weather charts. Came out to about 10 pages in total for that. I then highlighted winds, ceilings, pressure and any other relevant weather info in this packet and then completed the calculations for WCA, heading, time and fuel use. I also had the W&B printed out as well.
At about 8:40 the DPE arrived and was chatting with the instructors there and about 8:45 I decided I was ready and we started a few moments early. We took care of the paperwork things and he spent probably 15 minutes checking all of my endorsement and paperwork before we started the exam.
We started with the oral, started with standard what documents does the aircraft need, went over AROW, then showed the engine and aircraft logs which already had flags to the 100 hour and annual inspections. I then pointed out the binder with the AD / SD but did not go into them. He seemed pretty satisfied, we went over minimum equipment GOOSE A CAT and then he asked is that all? I went over goose a cat one more time just as a bit of a mental checklist to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything, he then clarified with thats what the FAA requires, is there anywhere else where you might find additional information on your aircraft? At that point i realized he was referring to the POH.
Next we covered the Aeromedical stuff, standard questions What is Hypoxia, carbon monoxide poisoning, how do you correct for these? What is spacial disorientation and what do you do then? do you need a medical? if you went to the doctors and found that you were slightly diabetic what then? What are the rules due to alcohol use? (I remembered 8 hours bottle to throttle, but spaced a little on the 0.04, and said it was low and around .03-.04 but in all honesty i didn't give that number a second thought as I don't really ever drink) Then he asked if I SCUBA dive, and i said no, but i know that there is a waiting period and i believed it was 24 hours due to the increased gases in your blood, and if there is anything else he would like to know i can look it up for him. He was satisfied that i was aware of the risk.
Next we moved onto aerodynamics, discussed stalls, the 4 forces, ground effect, the various v speeds. We then got onto left turning tendencies, I actually got a bit twisted up here partly because we got our wires crossed, we got into P factor, slip stream, gyroscopic, newtons 3rd law, we really started to go into the weeds before i said, maybe I am not quite understanding or explaining something right and opened my book and realized what he was looking for was a bit more about p factor and how the descending blade takes a bigger bite out of the air. We both seemed relieved when we finally got out of that hole and we moved on.
Finally got onto airspace and the flight plan. Got pretty much the standard questions about B,C,D sign off requirements, transponder use in B,C and under / over B,C space. was told to tell him what i could about an airport from the chart (GBR) mentioned the field elevation, that it had services available on field, that lighting was available but to see the AFD for use details and that its likely pilot controlled, and gave the CTAF. Was asked what the MVA number was and then we went over the flight plan. He was quite impressed with the printouts and the weather charts, we actually spent a few moments discussing LMFSS vs DUAT(s) and he actually didnt know about LMFSS. I explained the pressure systems in the area and what they meant for todays flight, we discussed icing as there was an icing airmet in the area. Especially with that Icing requires visible moisture and with the ceilings in the area it would not effect us. He did discover an error on my part with the nav log. I had forgotten to include the magnetic deviation with the WCA when I calculated the heading. He asked me a question about where I got that number and as i walked through the first I has an "Oh ****" moment and then corrected it. Being that i clearly caught it he clearly didn't hold it against me.
After this was wrapped up, he told me to go preflight the plane and asked how long i needed, i said 10-15 minutes, he said thats fine, he'll be out in a bit, he doesn't need to watch (dont blame him as it was in the low 20's). As i was finishing the preflight he came over, we spent a moment where he asked the kind of things I was looking for. I more or less stated check the fuel for qnty and contamination and other fluids to make sure they are still there, check the control surfaces for damage and ensure that they move smoothly, check the hinges and bolts to make sure every bolt has a nut and everything is secured. He then got into the plane. I made sure to go over how to secure and remove his belt as well as how to close and open the canopy as well as the emergency release to the canopy in the event of a jam.
I then did the startup and run up by the books, we did a normal take off and i departed the pattern along our course. One thing that was helpful was that during the warmup I did set the heading bug to the course because he did fail the GPS right as we left the traffic pattern. after a few moments he said ok, lets divert to KORE, so i started to divert. He didnt say anything at first of like "hey there is weather" or anything so I continued on course for a moment because I wanted to circle a well defined landmark while I did my plot on the chart and measured and came up with the new calculations. during this he was like, what are you doing? There is weather up ahead. So this was not as smooth as a start as i had hoped, I then started a rough turn to the direction and then worked with getting the course and distance. Once back on course we continued this way for a bit until we were in our practice area for 7B2 and he said to do a pair of steep turns, my choice where to start them. I did my clearing turns and made my radio call that I was in the practice area maneuvering (GPS is still failed at this point, so thankfully I knew the area and knew about how far away I was fairly easily). Those went well, then was asked to do stalls. These also went well. The entire time I was stating what I was doing, and pointing out the 2-3 signs before the actual stall and then recovering. I then did slowflight, he asked for a bit slower than I normally do them at. He asked for 40, when I generally do around 43-45. During the slowflight i lost a bit more altitude than I would have liked and I think he noted it, but it wasn't mentioned at any point.
Next came turns around a point. I have no idea what happened here, but my brain just turned to mush and this was the only real part that I knew sucked. I think my issue is that I didnt go low enough I was a bit over 1000' agl and PTS calls for 600-1000' agl. For some reason I thought it was to be done 1000' agl. He asked me a few questions about what I was doing, he was giving me a chance to correct myself, but since i thought i was doing it right and his questioning me just really threw me off, once that happened my mind started overthinking things the turns themselves were awful. I tracked poorly and the entire maneuver was not good. With that done I was told to head back to 7B2 (no "would you like to continue" thankfully, so i know i didnt fail on turns around a point at least).
On the way there we did engine failure, I did best airspeed, located a field, quick troubleshoot from memory (check fuel pump, check fuel shutoff, engine idle, carb heat on, attempt restart), then did the engine out procedures from checklist. he seemed good with that and then had us continue after circling the field once around. back at the field we did the following take off and landings, short, soft, go around then normal. all of them were acceptable. All were average, the soft was a bit harder than I would have liked, but he didnt seem to comment on it. We exited the runway and the hold short line is a bit further back on the taxi way than he was expecting and he asked me if i was forgetting anything, I replied back "once im past the hold short i will make my clear of runway call and clean up the aircraft" of which he mentioned that he didnt notice we were not clear yet. I asked if I got extra credit for that one, he said i didnt need it and I passed. We then went inside for the debrief.
During the debrief he stressed KISS for the diversion, assume for what ever the reason that you are diverting you are doing so for some reason of urgency, don't treat it like a lost procedure, turn to a rough heading and figure it out along the way, use rule of thumbs and the compass rose on the chart to estimate where you are going, but get going there. Other than that he said i clearly had the knowledge part down and had good control of the aircraft. the turns around the point did come up and we both more or less admitted they were ugly and clearly i let my nerves get the better of me there.
My take away's from this are 1) be over prepared with your materials. In all honesty I think the oral was so straight forward because I had everything ready and laid out for him and it clearly showed that I had been over the material and gave it some thought. I had my FAR/AIM with flags as well as my study book with flags on areas that I thought I may have asked of me that I knew would go beyond my memory. 2) If he asked a question I would give him the answer, but didnt go much deeper than that. I showed him I knew the subject, but didnt let him ask "what do you mean by x" (this is how we really got into the weeds on the left turning tendacies, i didnt follow this bit of advice or the next). If he wanted more info I let him ask it as a follow up question. 3) if I felt i didnt know the answer I told him I know this generally, however if you would like I can pull it up here.
Started off this morning, I had the exam scheduled with the DPE at 9am, so I got to the airport about 8:20. I had flown at the end of the day yesterday so the plane had the fuel for the flight and was left pretty much ready to go. I already had my "piles" in order from the evening before, one for me with my logbook and endorsements all with post it notes, same with the plane's logs.
I finalized my morning briefing for the planned cross-country from 7B2 to POU. I was told to plan this as a straight route and be ready to discuss any airspace or issues that would be present if I were to fly that route. I like to pre-plan in skyvector and then print out a screen grab as sort of a executive summary of the planned flight. I also had the AOPA airport printouts of the airports that I thought would be useful (7B2, POU, as well as 0B5 and KORE as assumed diversions) On these printouts I had the TPA as well as all the frequencies highlighted and then folded these and had them with my kneeboard. The morning of I used LMFSS to do a brief, I printed a nearly full brief including weather and NOTAMS as well as the weather charts. Came out to about 10 pages in total for that. I then highlighted winds, ceilings, pressure and any other relevant weather info in this packet and then completed the calculations for WCA, heading, time and fuel use. I also had the W&B printed out as well.
At about 8:40 the DPE arrived and was chatting with the instructors there and about 8:45 I decided I was ready and we started a few moments early. We took care of the paperwork things and he spent probably 15 minutes checking all of my endorsement and paperwork before we started the exam.
We started with the oral, started with standard what documents does the aircraft need, went over AROW, then showed the engine and aircraft logs which already had flags to the 100 hour and annual inspections. I then pointed out the binder with the AD / SD but did not go into them. He seemed pretty satisfied, we went over minimum equipment GOOSE A CAT and then he asked is that all? I went over goose a cat one more time just as a bit of a mental checklist to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything, he then clarified with thats what the FAA requires, is there anywhere else where you might find additional information on your aircraft? At that point i realized he was referring to the POH.
Next we covered the Aeromedical stuff, standard questions What is Hypoxia, carbon monoxide poisoning, how do you correct for these? What is spacial disorientation and what do you do then? do you need a medical? if you went to the doctors and found that you were slightly diabetic what then? What are the rules due to alcohol use? (I remembered 8 hours bottle to throttle, but spaced a little on the 0.04, and said it was low and around .03-.04 but in all honesty i didn't give that number a second thought as I don't really ever drink) Then he asked if I SCUBA dive, and i said no, but i know that there is a waiting period and i believed it was 24 hours due to the increased gases in your blood, and if there is anything else he would like to know i can look it up for him. He was satisfied that i was aware of the risk.
Next we moved onto aerodynamics, discussed stalls, the 4 forces, ground effect, the various v speeds. We then got onto left turning tendencies, I actually got a bit twisted up here partly because we got our wires crossed, we got into P factor, slip stream, gyroscopic, newtons 3rd law, we really started to go into the weeds before i said, maybe I am not quite understanding or explaining something right and opened my book and realized what he was looking for was a bit more about p factor and how the descending blade takes a bigger bite out of the air. We both seemed relieved when we finally got out of that hole and we moved on.
Finally got onto airspace and the flight plan. Got pretty much the standard questions about B,C,D sign off requirements, transponder use in B,C and under / over B,C space. was told to tell him what i could about an airport from the chart (GBR) mentioned the field elevation, that it had services available on field, that lighting was available but to see the AFD for use details and that its likely pilot controlled, and gave the CTAF. Was asked what the MVA number was and then we went over the flight plan. He was quite impressed with the printouts and the weather charts, we actually spent a few moments discussing LMFSS vs DUAT(s) and he actually didnt know about LMFSS. I explained the pressure systems in the area and what they meant for todays flight, we discussed icing as there was an icing airmet in the area. Especially with that Icing requires visible moisture and with the ceilings in the area it would not effect us. He did discover an error on my part with the nav log. I had forgotten to include the magnetic deviation with the WCA when I calculated the heading. He asked me a question about where I got that number and as i walked through the first I has an "Oh ****" moment and then corrected it. Being that i clearly caught it he clearly didn't hold it against me.
After this was wrapped up, he told me to go preflight the plane and asked how long i needed, i said 10-15 minutes, he said thats fine, he'll be out in a bit, he doesn't need to watch (dont blame him as it was in the low 20's). As i was finishing the preflight he came over, we spent a moment where he asked the kind of things I was looking for. I more or less stated check the fuel for qnty and contamination and other fluids to make sure they are still there, check the control surfaces for damage and ensure that they move smoothly, check the hinges and bolts to make sure every bolt has a nut and everything is secured. He then got into the plane. I made sure to go over how to secure and remove his belt as well as how to close and open the canopy as well as the emergency release to the canopy in the event of a jam.
I then did the startup and run up by the books, we did a normal take off and i departed the pattern along our course. One thing that was helpful was that during the warmup I did set the heading bug to the course because he did fail the GPS right as we left the traffic pattern. after a few moments he said ok, lets divert to KORE, so i started to divert. He didnt say anything at first of like "hey there is weather" or anything so I continued on course for a moment because I wanted to circle a well defined landmark while I did my plot on the chart and measured and came up with the new calculations. during this he was like, what are you doing? There is weather up ahead. So this was not as smooth as a start as i had hoped, I then started a rough turn to the direction and then worked with getting the course and distance. Once back on course we continued this way for a bit until we were in our practice area for 7B2 and he said to do a pair of steep turns, my choice where to start them. I did my clearing turns and made my radio call that I was in the practice area maneuvering (GPS is still failed at this point, so thankfully I knew the area and knew about how far away I was fairly easily). Those went well, then was asked to do stalls. These also went well. The entire time I was stating what I was doing, and pointing out the 2-3 signs before the actual stall and then recovering. I then did slowflight, he asked for a bit slower than I normally do them at. He asked for 40, when I generally do around 43-45. During the slowflight i lost a bit more altitude than I would have liked and I think he noted it, but it wasn't mentioned at any point.
Next came turns around a point. I have no idea what happened here, but my brain just turned to mush and this was the only real part that I knew sucked. I think my issue is that I didnt go low enough I was a bit over 1000' agl and PTS calls for 600-1000' agl. For some reason I thought it was to be done 1000' agl. He asked me a few questions about what I was doing, he was giving me a chance to correct myself, but since i thought i was doing it right and his questioning me just really threw me off, once that happened my mind started overthinking things the turns themselves were awful. I tracked poorly and the entire maneuver was not good. With that done I was told to head back to 7B2 (no "would you like to continue" thankfully, so i know i didnt fail on turns around a point at least).
On the way there we did engine failure, I did best airspeed, located a field, quick troubleshoot from memory (check fuel pump, check fuel shutoff, engine idle, carb heat on, attempt restart), then did the engine out procedures from checklist. he seemed good with that and then had us continue after circling the field once around. back at the field we did the following take off and landings, short, soft, go around then normal. all of them were acceptable. All were average, the soft was a bit harder than I would have liked, but he didnt seem to comment on it. We exited the runway and the hold short line is a bit further back on the taxi way than he was expecting and he asked me if i was forgetting anything, I replied back "once im past the hold short i will make my clear of runway call and clean up the aircraft" of which he mentioned that he didnt notice we were not clear yet. I asked if I got extra credit for that one, he said i didnt need it and I passed. We then went inside for the debrief.
During the debrief he stressed KISS for the diversion, assume for what ever the reason that you are diverting you are doing so for some reason of urgency, don't treat it like a lost procedure, turn to a rough heading and figure it out along the way, use rule of thumbs and the compass rose on the chart to estimate where you are going, but get going there. Other than that he said i clearly had the knowledge part down and had good control of the aircraft. the turns around the point did come up and we both more or less admitted they were ugly and clearly i let my nerves get the better of me there.
My take away's from this are 1) be over prepared with your materials. In all honesty I think the oral was so straight forward because I had everything ready and laid out for him and it clearly showed that I had been over the material and gave it some thought. I had my FAR/AIM with flags as well as my study book with flags on areas that I thought I may have asked of me that I knew would go beyond my memory. 2) If he asked a question I would give him the answer, but didnt go much deeper than that. I showed him I knew the subject, but didnt let him ask "what do you mean by x" (this is how we really got into the weeds on the left turning tendacies, i didnt follow this bit of advice or the next). If he wanted more info I let him ask it as a follow up question. 3) if I felt i didnt know the answer I told him I know this generally, however if you would like I can pull it up here.
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