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Checkrides
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A checkride List
1. You will find that what you're prepared to do is a lot more than what you're asked to do.

2. Talk with other people who have taken checkrides with your DE and find out what their experiences were, and what the DE asked them.

3. Treat the checkride as just more dual instruction.

4. Don't be afraid to say "I don't know".

5. If you don't perform something to your satisfaction, tell him/her that, and ask if you can do it again.

6. Don't forget to bring your camera.

Checkride
A LOT of detail. I expect an applicant to know EVERY symbol on a Sectional chart. And have a VERY good understanding of the Airspace he/she is about to go flying in. I expect the applicant to have a CURRENT AIM. Not one of those God awful FAR/AIM publications that are always out of date. I expect the applicant to demonstrate to me that the aircraft is "airworthy", meaning that it has been inspected, that all ADs have been complied with, and that
the required documents are on board. I expect the applicant to be able to fly the airplane within the parameters stated in the Private pilot Practical Test Standards. That's about it. By the way, 90% is a good test score.

I don't expect an applicant to memorize everything. But I do expect that they know where to look for an answer. That's why legends, table of contents, POHs, AFMs, etc. exist. If I asked you about a particular symbol on a chart and you weren't sure what it was then by all means use the legend or the chart user's publication to find it. Ditto an aircraft related question, rule, etc.
Rick Cremer, Desigated Examiner

Dealing with Checkride Stress:
1. Prepare thoroughly, start studying way out and always study every day on a regular basis.
2. Knowledge and certainty reduces stress.
3. Be positive attitude.and assertive to show the DE that your are capable you are.
4. Use a flight planner and complete all preflight, route and arrival planning.
5. Be confident but be willing to admit when you don't know. Offer to find the answer with references you have with you.

Checkride #1 ; Checkride #2 ; Checkride #3; Failed Checkride #4
Checkride
Exercising your power at pilot in command during your checkride may include finding another place or altitude to perform a maneuver. Doing this can be and should be a big PLUS because it shows that you accept the PIC status and will go contrary to a passenger's desires. Do not give the examiner a responsibility that is yours and do not allow him to take it.

Checkride #1
Unbelievable as it sounds, I passed my PP SEL test! Gee only took me 116 hrs.
Actual, the main credit goes to my CFI, Gene Whitt, who put up with my complaining and whining. If you need to get you PP-SEL go see Gene. If he can get me through the Private, he can....
After two weeks of prep (40 + hours of ground, flying and studying), the checkride was sort of anti-climactic. Last night I stayed up way too late and could not get to sleep. I had about 4 hours sleep before the test. To top it off, they had just worked on the plane yesterday and it had not yet been flown.

In my planning, I had a very detail flight plan from Concord to Pine Mt. Lake to Fresno. I had checkpoints very 15 miles or so, times to the seconds, step climbs, etc. I also had all the weight and balances for take off, at Pine Mt Lake, and at Fresno. Had the Standard DUATs weather brief ready to go with all winds factored into heading and times.

The examiner wanted to fly first and then to the oral. That was great with me since at 8 AM the wind would be less. We go to free flight and he watches me for a bit and then says he has to go to the bathroom. He comes back about 20 minutes later and we're off. While taxing I asking what type of landing to do and he says soft field and o by the way we are diverting to Napa as soon as we are airborne. I take off with the best soft field I have ever done and climb within 2 knots of Vy.

As We turn on course, I compute and give him the ETA to Napa. Two minutes later there is a house on fire below us. We make a minor detour to fly over head and watch the fire crews work. We go to Napa I do emergency, short field, & slip landings and were off to go do ground ref. My landings were legal, but not pretty. He points me to a train track and tells me to do S turns. We do 3 and then he points to an intersection and tells me to turn around it. We has me put on the hood, tune CCR on the VOR, and climb to 3000. I climb to 2000 keeping speed right at Vy and VOR centered. At 2000 he says my plane and puts it into an unusual attitude. I straighten it out and we climb to 3000. He has me take the foggles off and we do a power on stall, a power off stall, and some steep turns. He says time to go home. I get the ATIS and we head back. He asks me to do an emergency descent to 1500. I do it a bit too quick and scare him. He tells me to do a soft field and we land. On the way back in he says my flying is OK, but my landings are "klutzy". He says I passed the hardest part.

After I tied up the plane he points to the board and tells me to do the Weight and Balance problems, take off calculations, fuel consumption, and diagram the fuel system. It takes me about 15 minutes. He pulls out the sectional and points to 4 or 5 things and has me tell him what they are. We do aero-medical,... questions. Radio out procedures..

After about an hour were done and he wipes out his typewriter. All told the test took 4 hours. I really liked flying first. The flying was actually the least stressful part. My suggestions are to be prepared and try to get some sleep. The time will go by faster than you can imagine.

I. Preliminaries:
I went down to the field 3x in 4 days to check the a/c and log. I didn't want to be surprised if "my plane" was pulled for annual or 100-hr, squawked, or anything. Ensured ARROW paperwork all in place.

The week/half prior to the checkride date, I made sure I scheduled myself for the same a/c. The FBO has a little over a dozen C-150/2s, each with their idiosyncrasies, equipment, and set up. I wanted to minimize any lapses in reaching for a control (adj or location) such as digital vs rotary comm, detent flaps vs the one with the one-one-thousand...flaps, inop HI, seat w/crank, the shoulder belt that chronically slips off the metal post, etc.

Went down to the FBO 2 hrs early. Went over charts, secured wx briefing, calc nav log, ensured all paperwork i order (8710 form, medical/student certif, photo ID, logbook, W&B calc for 235 lb DE, etc), grab hood from CFI's desk. Flipped through FAR/AIM and Gleim books. XC destination and waypoint info was given to me by DE 10 days prior. Ample time to plan and plot.

II. ORAL
DE asked for 8710 form and logbook. Spent about 10 minutes carefully scrutinizing required totals for flight time, XCs, night landings, dual, solo....

He then asked me to pull out the sectional chart and grilled me on the following, as well as vis a vis the planned XC:
Where are your checkpoints?
Why did you pick the checkpoints?
How will you ID the checkpoints using pilotage, dead reckoning, and radio nav?
ID obstructions on chart.
ID apts and differences between hard/other surface.
ID apts w/service.
ID apts restricted/private.
ID rwy lengths.
ID airspace at various apts.
What does Class E airspace mean? (IFR traffic, VFR minimums, and SVFR expected to be explained).
If ceiling is 500' at Class E, can you t/off or land?
What are SVFR minimums?
Who specifically would you call for SVFR?
What is significance of 30nm radius (points to Bravo 30nm veil)?
Is every a/c required to have Xpdr w/n 30nm veil?
What is planned ETE for XC?
How much fuel will you use?
How much fuel does your a/c hold?
What are VFR fuel minimums?
Where do you plan to refuel?
Reviewed W&B calculations.
How arecenter-of-gravity limits determined?
XC route takes you through MOA. Explain caveats.
Can students fly into Class C?
Can students fly into Class B? Explain fully.
Explain airspace indicated by fuzzy magenta and fuzzy blue.
What does flag on chart denote?
What does [27] indicate on chart next to Delta a/space?
Is this measured in AGL or MSL?
Recite terminal forecasts for XC destinations.
Any Airmets or Sigmets today? If so, what are they?
Highlight all significant NOTAMS along XC flight.
Would you (or not) fly XC today? (I said no, due to my personal limits, some IFR, fog, and low vis along route.)
What is hypoxia? What are indications of...?
Recite minimum equipment for VFR day/nite.
When is maintenance required for a/c....Xpdr, ELT, 100-hr, annual..?
If annual has been done, will this suffice for 100-hr?
If 100-hr not done, what are limits of a/c use?
What is definition of hi-perf a/c?
As new PP, can you fly a C-172?
Who is responsible for ensuring that Annual is performed?
Who is responsible for determining if a/c is airworthy?
Where are a/c mainenance logs kept?
What is significance of temp 65, dew point 60?
What is Va of a/c?
What is reading of ASI if a/c is in a spin?
What is significance of density altitude? Recite causes and effects.
Low pressure winds revolve which way?
If you're flying with high density altitude, how does this affect your ASI?
Recite light gun signals.
What are differences in airspaces: restricted, warning, prohibited, MOA, Alpha, above refuges...
If DE wanted me to fly him to (x), can I be reimbursed?
If I'm flying to (x), can the cost of trip be split?
Would you fly PTS today? (yes)

III. PRACTICAL
Preflight of a/c...yacking at each step to explain not only what I was doing but why.
Queried on diff color/octane of fuel. What does our a/c take?
Review of ARROW paperwork.
Review of mainenance sheet for a/c.
Preflight talk to DE who is now taking "...his first flight in airplane." To this, I included briefing on wx, what I was looking for during pre-flight, chair adj, harness un/latch and adj, door/window op, primary controls (my operation), their eyes needed for traffic, headset (PIC/pax vs PIC/ATC communication), if airsick...
Normal takeoff. Start stopwatch. Sim FSS/open flight plan.
Queried on various traffic patterns used at BFI (Boeing Field).
Asked me to explain radio nav, eyeball of, and time clocked to first checkpoint. Within acceptable time tolerance?
Diverted me from XC leg and asked to track (x) VOR radial.
When would a pilot purposely track *away* from the VOR needle?
What is differemce between PILOTAGE and DEAD RECKONING?
Using pilotage, now head towards (y) airport. How long before you will arrive over this field?
If lost what would you do?
What is Xpdr code for "lost?"

HOOD WORK -
While under hood, hold 2000' @ 200 degs.
Demonstrate straight and level flight.
Slow to 70 kias, 200 deg, and 2,500 MSL.
What primary instruments are used when performing this manueuver?
Hold 70 kias, descent to 2000, hold heading 200.
Return to normal cruise.
Maintain 2000', turn to 270.
Close eyes (as he rock n rolls). Open eyes and recover from
unusual attitude. (it was a spiral - approaching yellow arc).
Hood off.

MANEUVERS -
Demonstrate POWER ON stall and recovery. ID imminent, then go to full stall.
Demonstrate POWER OFF stall and recovery. ditto (saw that I was on extended centerline to nearby, yet distant Class E, so relocated further away)
Demonstrate SLOW FLIGHT. Hold heading 180, then recover to normal cruise.
Demonstrate STEEP TURNS, 360 and 720s, both left and right turns.
Demonstrate EMERGENCY DESCENT.
Set up and demonstrate TURNS AROUND POINT.
Set up into ESS TURNS
TAKE OFFS/LANDINGS -
Head to first apt on XC and demonstrate....
SOFT FIELD LANDING....but he called GO AROUND right at flare.
SOFT FIELD LANDING....then called sim engine failure abeam numbers.
Demonstrate SLIP TO LAND on sim engine failure maneuver. FULL STOP.
SHORT FIELD T/OFF
SHORT FIELD LANDING....floated a bit as I carried a tad extra airspeed but still landed w/n specs. Should have chosen go around.
SOFT FIELD T/OFF
SOFT FIELD LANDING
Returned to BFI for normal landing.
NOTE: DE tried to pull a fast one by opening door as I was taxiing to stall. I firmly asked that he stay put until complete shutdown. He just smirked. (Mamma didn't raise a fool.) DE helped me pushback, watched me tie-down, and secure plane after I gave it a final 30-sec look over, inside and out.

IV.
Forgot to fasten my shoulder harness (nervousness?) and tried to fake it by pretending it popped loose.
On the SHORT FIELD T/OFF, I didn't raise the 10* flaps until well beyond the departure end of the rwy (ie over my obstacle). (C-152 not C-150)

On POWER OFF STALL, DE had to prompt me to idle the throttle when I left it on 1500 rpm.
On two of the clearing turns (I use left, then right 90 deg) I failed to note heading for roll out purposes. Used SOP and butt/body clock as a result
.
On one SHORT FIELD LANDING I floated a tad but still within PTS specs.
I remembered to taxi w/respect to winds, normally a chronic forget for me.
Be sure to perform clearing turns prior to each required maneuver !!! You'll never be marked down for making "excessive" clearing turns...but you can be sure you will be if you don't.
Remember to glance at switches, fuses, and settings on the chance your DE tries to set you up with a "how would you handle this?" kind of surprise.

I made a special, "Checkride Checklist" which was laid out sequentially beginning with pre-flight checklist/tips, passemger briefing hints, before start, etc like POH text, V-speeds, reminders to "start stop watch," "open/closing flight plan," TPA of local apts (in case DE picked one I was unfamiliar with, etc.... all the way to shutdown.

I constructed this partly because I needed a good one, discovering that the Jepp plastic sleeve version I've been using didn't allow me to write on them w/o pulling the page out of the plastic. When I was introduced to (DE)
a couple of weeks earlier, all he said to me was "Pretend that I'm the dumbest first-time pax you've ever flown". Then before turning away, he shook his finger at me, saying, "checklists!..checklists!..and checklists." Ergo, I made
checklists.

Show awareness of other a/c in vicinity by listening to comm radio, and on freq appropriate to your location. This seemed to impress the DE that I was savvy to the traffic around me.

Talk aloud, explaining any safety tips and moves which explain what and why you are doing something a certain way. If you know it, flaunt it. Get credit for it. The DE can't read your mind e.g "squaring the turn....lifing the wing, looking", "turning final, looking for possible a/c on a straight-in", "noting any areas below in case of forced landing". "I'm turning the landing light on during departure/approach for visibility" (AIM's "see and be seen" recommendation)

I had CFI *viciously* grill me beginning two weeks prior to checkride. He ripped me to shreds, revealing my weaknesses on FAR/AIM.. PTS booklet is good to know what, and how, you will be expected to perform in the air.

However, note that Gleim's redbook enhances on the PTS with beefed up explanations as to the whys/hows/background on each maneuver. Written in outline form in outline form for quick reading. I also read Randy Fowler's book, "Flying the Private Pilot Flight Test." This has nice narrative of PTS and how to perform maneuvers. He writes from a more systemic point of view and teaching.

Not disappointed (as I grabbed the temp airman's certificate and ran for the door), but I was a bit intrigued that the ORAL was not more intense than it was. I felt the same as I did with the WRITTEN...knowing that there were questions that I *did* have trouble with. Interesting (or lucky) that these questions didn't come up during both tests. No problemo, "ahm goin ta Dinny-land" regardless.

This is like a job interview. Go in there and show confidence, and above all, awareness of safety moves, tips, and maneuvers performed safely. On the couple of questions which I blanked out on, I paused, smiled, and said, "I don't know, but I do know where to look for the answer"....reaching for the FAR/AIM book and leafing through the index.
Good luck, and I hope some of the aforementioned stuff proves useful to you.
Completion!

Checkride #2
What started out as a challenge to overcome my fear of heights/flying last November turned into an addiction. I found my life turned upside down as I struggled with this obsession to complete flight training. All the stress that came with studying, memorizing, the apprehension, sometimes stark terror...culminated last Tuesday when I met with the DE for my checkride. After 3.75 hrs of review, it was his opinion that I possessed the modicum of skill necessary to be bestowed private pilot privileges. Hot damn!

Misc for books, charts, Flight Guide, tri-fold, plotter, E6B, flight bag, stopwatch, sunglasses, headsets, nav logs, thank-you-gift for CFI, etc.
Velcro - I made heavy use of this on all smaller items (pens/pencils, stopwatch, lights, etc) with large mating patches on tri-fold lap/board.
Pens/pencils - Funny how the smallest details can be crucial. I found that the BIC-click type pens the most useful (one hand operation) vs roller ball pens which required two hands to remove cap. Same thing goes for pencils....I went with mechanical pencils with soft lead so that it could be used as back-up, nav logs, and E6B.

Spin training - to acclimatize you to sensation, recovery techniques, and to assuage fears of stall recovery. My apprehension to stalls, espe cially to power-on stalls, disappeared after the 1.5 hr training. Ergo, my confidence rose exponentially immediately after this training session.

Visit FSS, ATC - to give you an insight to the faces and operation behind the voices and instructions. I had tremendous state/mike fright. Once I visited the services, keying the mike became less a performance on-stage rather, I grew more at ease as if I was now talking to someone I knew.

Fly IFR - with someone/CFI to see how easy one can succumb to spatial disorientation; to learn how important it is to trust and use your instruments.

Fly for fun - to remind yourself that this is why you fly and when you need a break from the stress of training.
Library - incredible number of magazine titles, all of the Tab flight books were available at the library...no doubt due to the importance of local Boeing industry. Great aeronautics collection at the library. Also, they had all the King Private Pilot videos, and Jepp books on PP training. Because they are also a Federal depository library, I was able to access most of the FAA publications.

Important that students (especially) read NTSB reports and/or reviews of mishaps. Learn from what has already occured, so that you may avoid doing same. Note conditions, frame-of-mind, the 20/20 hindsights, and "shoulda-woulda-couldas". Very helpful. Internet - rec.aviation.* were of immense help. Much was gleaned from the posts. Free access to the Internet and WWW is available at (yup, again) the library. DUAT and WX maps were easily accessed prior to each flight.
FAA Workshops - Local FSDO sponsors regular how-tos on ATC tips, accident prevention videos/discussions, new ICAO wx reporting, mountain flying, etc.

CFIs - I went through two instructors. My first instructor was a good pilot but had a one dimensional teaching style, differing from mine. I arranged to be assigned to another CFI who was more methodical, patient, and willing to work at my pace. Wow, what a difference! My comprehension and progress skyrocketed from that point on.

Checklist - Knowing my propensity for memory loss when nervous, I printed up enhanced cheat sheets covering POH info, pre-flight, V speeds, local frequencies (comm/VOR), pax briefing, open/close flight plan, clearing turns and proper altitude prior to each maneuver etc....for easy access during flight. The sheets were all sequentially laid out (similar to POH) from preflight, before TO, TO, maneuvers, landing, etc. I knew of my weakness for memory failure when nervous. This worked wonderfully during the checkride.

Flight School - I had several in mind, debating the merits of one 45 minutes away (uncontrolled airport and very low rates) vs an FBO who was only 5 minutes away (Class D, and 30% higher rates). I elected to go to Boeing Field, deciding that if wx was good, I'd be there in 5 minutes. Maintenance crew was more visible and eased safety concerns I had about getting into a plane.

Tape recorder - Patched a tiny VOX microcassette unit into the plane's intercom prior to each flight. Debriefing was done, noting areas of improvement and making mental/logistical tweeks for next outing.

When I started flight training, my fear of heights overwhelmed my ability to focus during flight. Taping of each lesson allowed me to relax at home and listen to what I may have missed. This information was logged on paper and kept in a notebook for review of wx, maneuvers, ideosyncracies of a particular plane, frequencies used in diff a/spaces, communication errors....etc all with the intent of improving with the upcoming lessons.

Ham radio - Made a minor modification to my radio, allowing me to receive the aviation frequencies. This allowed me to acclimatize myself to the verbiage used by ATC and pilots. To enhance the reception, I pieced together a 1/4 wave antenna using coat hangers and tossed it in the attic....ugly, cheap, and effective.

Cockpit management - My photographers vest proved invaluable given the plethora of pockets, allowing me to gain access to needed items quickly.
Frequency of lessons - I tried to fly a minimum of 3 hrs a week based on colleagues' advice as well as input from folks on rec.aviation.
Navigation Logs - I began using the Jepp version, migrated to the ASA logs, then decided to customize my own using Excel spreadsheet.
Medical certificate - Got mine before the 1st lesson. Read of folks who waited until just prior to soloing and surprised that they may have physical problems.
LOWS
======
Missed a 'go around' call plane did not respond to Ground and was about to cross the runway. Terse communiques followed. Replayed the tape to find that ATC's go-around instruction was blocked by another plane on the ground keying up at the same time. ASRP form submitted (students!...be sure to keep a wad of these handy :-) ATC reversed the traffic flow during my 2nd hr of solo and I didn't know this was possible (then). Some very confusing moments when tower tried to get me to understand what was happening.

Practicing TGs in the Aerobat during my low hours and disappointed that I had difficulty landing at less than 2.5 - 3 Gs. However, it WAS helpful to have a G-meter to refer to during this stage. Approaching to land and had a plane cross 4 to 2 o'clock, no more than 150' below me....nary a peep from tower. Do not DEPEND on them; YOU are still ultimately responsible for separation. Pay attention and try to be aware of readio calls from other a/c.

First unobserved solo found me snaking my way towards the runway. Run up performed and clearance requested. Tower response: "..uh... Cessna Zero Eight Kay-beck, you're at the wrong end of the runway...." They proceeded to call out the intersections and hold my hand until I was positioned at the hold-short line. Oh brother...
.
90-day solo signoff - Mine expired prior to checkride, requiring me to try and schedule time with CFI, who by now, was busy with another student/job interviews. I was unable to fly for over a month. When I wave good-bye to him and signed on with another CFI, I had to get checked out on maneuvers all over again: another $200 and another two days of review time.

Written test - To some degree, a joke. But as long as it was required I made the best of it. Many questions were of dubious quality and I hope they are reviewed someday. Nevertheless, primarily with the help of the King computer program (over and over and over....) I was able to score a 90.

Oral and Flight Test:
Induction icing - corrective action
electrical system parts and their functions, malfunctions
Airport lighting VASI, PAPI
Function of elevator and horizontal stabilizer (downward moment)
ADs as part of maintenance logs.
Everything on Sectional especially transition areas northwest of Ukiah.
Controlling agencies of MOAs
Isogonic lines
Highest point in quadrant
Weather charts
Vacuum system

Flight Test
Short/soft field operations
Use of checkpoints.. ETA to first during climb --why error?
Diversion to Rio Vista
Non-control tower procedures/departure
Emergency spiral descent
Slip to landing
Power on/off approach/landing stalls
Eights
Turns about point
S-turns
Steep turns
Hood
To CCR VOR while distracted...heavy conversation

Checkride #3
"You'll do great." That's what everyone said as I did my final preparation for the big checkride in hope of receiving my Private Pilot Certificate. Only I knew how prepared I was, and my confidence was questionable. I studies volumes of information...FARs, AIM, Aviation Weather, Private Pilot Manual, Cessna 150 POH, and reams of Gene Whitt's computer print-out of compiled information on everything and anything a proficient pilot should be know.

After spending 7 months of flying on a regular schedule and completing all the necessary requirements in flight training, (I had previous experience but dropped out for 9 months...I strongly recommend that you stay with the training till the license is in your hand.) I was finally ready for the true PIC time to begin. Reservations were made with Rich Batchelder one week in advance, and flight time was schedules with Gene Whitt CFII 3 days in a row and the checkride to follow on the fourth day. This is very helpful in becoming familiar with the airplane and current weather patterns.

On Wednesday afternoon I called Rich and got my cross-country route. I planned my cross-country; did weight & balance, and fuel calculations for distance , time and gallons.
The following morning, I called FSS for a standard weather briefing. I calculated ground speed and WCA for MH; then calculated my distance times to complete the flight plan form. Soon I was packed with a book bag and flight bag and on my way to meet him.

When he arrived we took a walk to get a cup of coffee and talked about life outside of airports (short conversations) Soon we were in a classroom getting the process on way. First in order was the log book, then review of written test results, medical license, driver's license, and application form. Rich had a few sample problems of cross country planning. "If wind is 010-degrees at 20 kts, TC 270, TAS 95K, V= 16E, temp 12-degrees Celsius, pressure altitude 4000'. what is MH, CC, Ground speed, density altitude and hemispheric rule for flight level. I had about 10 minutes figure and explain results. We then moved on to oral questions. In general we covered the sectional, cloud clearances for VFR in different airspaces, FAR questions on aero-medical, radio out procedure, private pilot privileges, and aerobatic rules. We covered AIM on airport signs, lights, beacon colors for military and land, VASI, PAPI, tricolor VASI. Weather questions covered were....What is an airmet, 3 examples, sigmets, 24 hour prognostic charts, SA reports, 9900. Know weather signs * . ;etc; radar analysis including intensities, hooks, NE 120 . Next...Airplane systems, pitot static, vacuum, fuel types & systems, purpose of oil, aileron purpose, flap purpose and spin recovery.

Finally, to the airplane for pre-flight. He watched as I did the complete preflight check. Then he questioned me of the antennas, counterweights (on control surfaces) fuel volume & type and oil volume and purpose. We boarded the plane and I briefed Rich on the seat, seatbelts, and door. Soon we taxied to the active runway with aileron controls set for the wind. Rich told me to takeoff on course for my cross-country with a short field takeoff. Mistake #1. I started to taxi to the wrong runway.

I takeoff (fair) , note time, assume direction on course to first checkpoint. Halfway to my first checkpoint Rich directs me to Byron (the old Byron field) Yuk!! Of course, it is hot, windy, and turbulent. The winds were changing directions constantly. I am asked to make a short-field landing. Unfortunately, I screwed up because suddenly I had a tail wind. I pulled off a clean go-around. Next time I get the airplane down, but not in the first 200 feet as ordered. I taxi it to the opposite end of the runway to do my next takeoff.

Meanwhile, I am always using my checklist, communicating appropriately. Next is a no flaps slip to land, then a short field landing. Rich fairly agreed that the landings were difficult in those conditions, but felt that I always maintained control of the airplane. I knew if I didn't put all my concentration into those landings he would have surely failed me.

We departed from the airport to do "S" turns, turns around a point at 900' MSL. Then we did hood work with VORs and unusual attitudes. Slow flight with and without flaps, steep turns left and right, stalls-power on, power off and departure stall. Finally we return to CCR for a soft field landing with perfect conditions. I pull off a well trained Gene Whitt landing (nose high, yoke full back, smooth) Thank God! We taxied back and Rich informed me of my results. I passed.

Always remember that you are the PIC. Don't wait for the examiner to tell you to do anything. i.e. go-arounds, descents, radio work. Use your checklist!!!! If conditions are difficult, be safe and also be aggressive to show control of the airplane.

CHECKRIDE
In general, the checkride process takes between 1 and 3 hours depending primarily on your preparation. It should be noted as an aside, that he will ask you questions to see HOW you will answer them. I.E.: If he asks you
the four basic characteristics of flight...answer him Lift, Weight, Drag, and Thrust...that's it...don't go into the rationale of why the Wright Brothers decided to fly...remember KISS(Keep it simple stupid) If he perceives a weak area, he WILL dig until you tell him why the Wright Brothers did decide to fly!

Although this is an accurate assessment of my test with Rich and he does not materially change the test from exam to exam, additional aeronautical knowledge is essential in passing the checkride(in other words, just don't study these pages for your checkride!)

He will go through every area within the Private Pilot Practical Test Standards, not every question, just the areas. A good study guide is the 64 question/answer sheet he made up.(ask Gene Whitt for a copy)

Be able to recite the following FAR's in your sleep: 61.87, 61.91,61.93, 61.95, 61.102, 61.103, 61.118, 67.17, 91.1xx, 91.205, 91.213, 91.215, 91.4xx
He will move on to the weather section next and concentrate on areas such as reading Surface aviation weather reports, Terminal forecasts, area forecasts, winds and temps aloft, inflight advisories(know Sigmets/Airmets cold and give example of each). He will give you Surface analysis charts and point to specific examples of station models in various sections of the country.

He will ask what the different concentric rings mean in a Radar Summary Chart and ask you to identify tops and bases in certain areas of the country.

The Weather depiction chart is one of his favorites to focus on because it has to do with VFR, MVFR, and IFR weather areas which shows your ability to determine which are safe areas to fly into. KNOW THIS CHART
THE LOW LEVEL SIGNIFICANT WEATHER PROGNOSTIC CHART
is another favorite....know that the bottom section is for 12 hour(left) and 24 hour(right) for the surface...and the top section is for 12 hour (left) and 24 hour(right) from surface to 24,000 feet. Also know the signs for turbulence, intermittent rain, continuous rain, and the direction and speed of pressure center movement.

Know in general the following: Corriolis affect, Different cloud types, affects of density altitude, characteristics of warm and cold fronts, Microbursts, wind-shear, ground affect, and high/low pressure systems

After weather, he will want you to go over a sectional or TCA chart. YOU MUST KNOW EVERYTHING ON THESE CHARTS, MANDATORY.

He focuses in on the areas around TCA's and will ask what levels of flight are acceptable and which ones aren't. Other things I was asked were: Isogonic lines and meaning, Control zones and characteristics, ATA and speeds within, Requirements in and around an ARSA, the difference between Prohibited, Warning, and Alert areas. Uncontrolled and controlled airspace requirements, Continental Control area, Positive Control area, He will ask you to give him the longitude and latitude of a point he picks on the map(Mount Shasta), know the oxygen limitations and requirements as well.

He will move on to the Electrical system and overall knowledge of the aircraft. He will ask you how many amperes and volts there are in the alternator and battery. This is the part I got nailed on. He will ask you general questions and find your areas of weakness and then go into very minute areas. Just study from the Private Pilot Manual by Jeppesen and you'll be fine. Other areas to know specifically are: Pitot static system, Vacuum system, BHP and engine, effects of carb ice and how to eliminate, what to do if your alternator goes out, what to do if your engine sounds rough, hot magneto check, every V-speed for the plane!

He'll give you about three-five problems to do: 1) weight and balance of the aircraft, 2) calculate the Magnetic Course, Compass Course, Ground Speed and what altitude to fly given certain x-country info and 3)given P-alt is 4000, OAT is 7 degrees C, and CAS is 100 find D-alt and TAS.

You are now done with the oral...congrats, it either took 30 minutes or 1 1/2 hours...you move on to the flying!
General comments: USE A CHECKLIST ANYTIME YOU EVEN THINK OF LOOKING AT THE AIRCRAFT, I MEAN IT!!! He will bust you before you even get airborne...another way to bust the checkride before your wheels feel air, is not using the correct position of the yoke with relationship to the wind...JUST DO IT EVERY TIME YOU GET IN THE PLANE, IT WILL BECOME A HABIT.

Go thru regular preflight, make sure his safety harness is on and his door is shut, check the fuel selector...twice. TAXI @ 800 RPM unless you have to get the aircraft over a hill...he may ask you for a short field takeoff when you start the plane and then a soft field takeoff when you are at runup...WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN ON YOUR HAND WHERE YOU CAN READ IT...You might get to your 2nd checkpoint and he'll divert you to either Byron or Rio Vista...use him for a table with all your charts etc...keep a watchful eye on Altitude and speed, not doing so is the most likely way to go home early.

He will have you do all the stalls, eight's around a point, rectangle,circle, descending around a point @ 60 degrees bank, tracking and intercepting a VOR, unusual attitudes, possibly spin recovery(his recent area of concern), and emergency procedures. On landings, he will ask for soft field, short field, xwind, and slips.

You are expected to do a power-off landing. Once abeam the tower reduce the power to idle. Glide to landing. Control the airspeed by pitch to make the runway. This will help you develop your emergency landing skills. You are allowed to confirm engine operation during the descent.

If you make sure your airspeed does not bleed below 60kts in the Cessna 150 you're ok. You must land within 200 feet of the markings on the runway. Iif you're short, add power, keep the yoke locked until you have the runway made and pull power...if the aircraft balloons while in ground effect, execute a go-around...it is exactly what the examiner is looking for...correct pilot judgment.

After touchdown, the last few things the examiner will be looking for is correct yoke position according to wind. This should be followed by taxiing @ 800 RPM to the parking location and shutdown according to your Checklist. These are the items covered by my checkride one day ago with Rich Batchelder. Take these notes to heart. He admittedly does not change this test regularly because he is bound by the questions he can ask by the FAA. Study this material in addition to the aeronautical books you have and your Private Pilots license is made.

# 4 Failed Checkride
I went for my checkride last week and unfortunately things did not go so well. I thought I’d post the story here in hopes that someone else may benefit. In retrospect, it was alarming to me that despite being a generally cautious person, my decision making broke down completely.

First of all, let me say that I don’t blame my CFI, the school or the DE…this was on me.

The ride was originally scheduled for early April. With the weather in New England this year, it had been cancelled twice already. Of course, it was hard to get lessons in during that time also. With an early May date, I got in some solo time but my CFI was transitioning out of single
engine training and had to cancel the last 2 lessons before the ride. By the time I went, it had been almost 1 month since I’d flown with an instructor. I was concerned that at only 55 hrs, and so long out of the plane, that it would be easy for me to have developed some bad habits
that a CFI could easily pick up and correct. I talked to my CFI but he was certain that I had demonstrated the required skills to him and that a brush up flight the morning of the checkride would be sufficient. >>Lesson#1. Instead of trying to squeeze the test in, if !I! didn’t feel confident, I should have cancelled the test and got another instructor whose schedule was more compatible with mine.

The weather the day of the ride was good but the winds were supposed to pick up as the day went on. By the time we took off, it was getting pretty blustery. In fact, the DE even gave me a hint when he asked if my CFI let me fly in these conditions. I acknowledged they were just
above my solo endorsement and it would be a challenge. This came back to haunt me when I made my landing at my diversion airport and it was clear the wind had become well beyond my capability.

>>Lesson#2. Despite the guy giving me a hint, I chose to fly into conditions beyond my raining. It’s the same as "continued flight into IMC." The irony is that as I said, I’m generally a cautious person. In fact, I was talking to a guy I work with that week and I had said that I thought that my solo endorsement would probably be good personal minimums until I could build some more experience…and yet still, I went ahead.

It’s alarming to me that I recognize in my own story the same themes that lead to tragic accidents…feeling "pressured" to get the ride in (like get-home-itis)…going ahead when something (training) didn’t feel right…continued flight into conditions beyond my ability. That scared me more than anything else.

So where do I stand now? Frankly, I thought very seriously about quitting. I really scared myself and wondered whether it was worth it. However, after talking it over with friends and family, I’ve decided to continue my training and take the test again. Hopefully, I’ll always remember this feeling and will always fly in conditions within my abilities.

Follow up on a Failed Checkride
Thanks for this post. I have read so many terrific posts on r.a.s. that I hesitate to say this, but...I think this may be the best I've read. It was surely the bravest.

The pressure to get the checkride over with, especially after several delays and cancellations, can build to a level that leaves some of us (maybe any of us) with the feeling that we just can't take it anymore...we have to get it over with. Better to fail than continue to live with the frustration, self-doubt and the pressure.

I bet you learned more on that checkride and the self-analysis you've gone through since than you have learned in any other experience in life (flying or otherwise). Just thinking through your experience is almost like living it.

Now, for what it is worth, I'd like to offer you a different perspective. Let's look on the upside. All you did was fail your first checkride. That's not much of tragedy and it's an experience yous share with a lot more pilots than you'll ever know. You're the first I've seen brave enough to advertise it here and to put the blame where it belonged. You tried it under adverse conditions and without the recency of experience you felt you needed, deferring to your CFI on the latter point. You didn't succeed. I think you're lucky you didn't succeed. Success would have reinforced the wrong lesson. Now, can you think of a better setting to learn the lesson you did?

You'll never forget it because that pink slip is such a sharp slap on the nose, but...you took nearly zero risk to anything but your ego. The DE wasn't going to let you put yourself (or him) in any real danger and I'm sure you didn't fly into anything he couldn't have handled well within his comfort zone had that been necessary. The best part is that he warned you and then let you make the mistake.

Pilot in Command means just that. I'd be willing to bet that the next time you take that checkride and on every flight after for a long long time, you are going to be just that...starting with the go/no-go decision. As a student pilot you have been used to deferring to your CFI and relying on his superior experience to convince you that you can do things you're not sure you can. It's going to be a long time before you let somebody talk you into that again. It may be that you never think like a student pilot again. You bought that lesson cheap but posting it here (where it will surely do the most good) took some character.

Thank you again.

Commentary on Checkride
Sometimes the best learning comes from the times when you scare yourself. The trick is to do it in small bites that you can manage, under controlled situations.

Sounds like you did a lot of learning on your checkride about human factors. It's really easy to talk about making rational go/no-go decisions on nice days. The real hard part is making them in the face of a long series of frustrations such as extended bad weather.

While it's certainly a bummer to come away from a checkride with a pink slip, it's happens even to the best pilots. Don't sweat it. Learn from the experience and come back for another checkride.

First, good for you for posting this story. Lots of people don't get their ticket on the first try. Hopefully they will take some comfort from the fact they are not alone.

Secondly I think this experience leaves you off much better off then you were before. You obviously found out what happens when you try and push your limits. You did it with the safety of a very experienced pilot with you so you weren't in any real danger.

I think just about every pilot faces a situation like this and the ones that survive get the same lesson, but only after scaring the sh*t out of themselves.

Flying skills can be learned and polished up with some practice, judgement skills are harder to come by sometimes. You seemed to have taken this lesson to heart and that will make you a much safer pilot in the future.

Kind of like that credit card commercial:
Price of plane for failed checkride: $100
Price of DE for checkride: $250
Value of lesson learned: Priceless

You definitely got the better end of the deal.

Checkride
 Passed my checkride after 115 hours, one year in process.
Here is what I learned...
....It is of no use comparing your time to anyone else's. I did probably double the time I expected. But it was what time was necessary for me to learn what I needed to learn. Everybody - EVERYBODY - learns at his or her own rate, and it doesn't mean anything one way or the other whether one learns quickly or slowly as long as one learns.
....Patience is a necessary tool because nothing happens when it is expected, due to weather, due to CFIs, due to mechanics and a hundred other factors. I learned, after bunches of delays with getting to my solo, delays getting to my checkride, and delays which split my checkride into two separate sessions, that you can't fret over delays. In fact, the lesson in patience may save my life one day rather than try to rush into the air when weather or mechanics would dictate otherwise.
....Humility. Although I am a respected professional in my business, it is a humbling experience being a rank junior all over again, willing to learn from someone who is much younger than myself, and respecting his talents. I am humbled by the knowledge that I don't know what I don't know. Fortunately, I have years of flying to find out.
....Fear is a good thing. It shows me where there are gaps in my knowledge and drives me to continue to train and learn. Although I would love to fly as "easily" as my CFI, I hope I never become so complacent nor cocky as to think that the plane can't get ahead of me.
Finally, I learned how important a support group of other student pilots is - as a collective mind and a virtual hug or pat on the back when needed. Thank you to all the participants of this news group. Particularly to Gene W. whose writings have been every bit as valuable as my books. I'll continue to stay with this group because I know my student days have really just begun. Blue Skies, especially to all the new students. Dan Katz, PP-SEL as of today!

Checkride
As promised, here's the story. I'll try to keep it brief.
The DE and I met on Thursday and completed the oral. It lasted about 2 hours and there were no surprises. He and I are about the same age (45) and were able to talk easily and found that we share some political and ideological views so that helped loosen things up a bit. However, I must say, he was a master at making conversation and picking my brain at the same time. He is very good at what he does! We covered everything you'd expect and spent a good deal of time on airspace in particular.

He seemed especially pleased that I had come prepared and that my flight plan and w/b were neat. We didn't get to do the practical part of the test that day because of the winds so I went home glad to have gotten the oral finished.

Saturday morning I got a call from the DE's wife who does all his scheduling that we could finish the test at 12:30! I was still lounging around in my jammies drinking coffee! Anyway, I managed to fanagle the airplane for the afternoon, got a quick shower and ran out the door. Flew from my home field (DVO) to STS for the flight...no time to even get nervous. I won't recount every detail, except to say we covered everything in the PTS and he was fair and very professional. I did well with most everything, but power-on stalls (which have never been my favorite thing anyway) were only marginal and he told me so. He said they were passable, but recommended that I practice them a little more to "polish up" a bit.

My short and soft field landings were ok, but not my best so on the way back to STS he said he wanted "just a normal landing...and show me some finesse". So I did a smooth touchdown and he seemed happy.

When we got back to the parking area I shut down the airplane and he said Congratulations, you passed and then signed and handed me my certificate there in the airplane. He also gave me an 8x10 cerificate to have framed for my home which is very nice.

Like I said...it was a great day. It sure felt good flying back to DVO with that little white piece of paper in my flight bag :)

Checkride
It rained relentlessly all weekend; no last-minute practice flying, though we did three hard hours of ground study. Today dawned clear and cool, perfect. By ten I was too nervous to stay home, so I hauled the books, flight bag and papers off to the airport. Wound up in a computer testing room, as every other surface was already covered with other students' paperwork. Turns out there were FOUR checkrides scheduled today! The examiner got there early, while I was in the throes of last-minute brain-freeze about weight & balance and fuel consumption calculations. He went off to visit buddies at the airport, I finished and did the preflight mostly to wear off the willies.

This same examiner flunked a guy last week on an airspace question, so we'd drilled that. The instructor asked if he could sit in, and (to my surprise) was allowed. I'd done the cross-country as four separate flight plans, to allow for a long stop for fuel on the way there and back again. It was clear to International Falls, and he didn't seem to mind seeing it broken into segments.

Glad I've seen people comment on how the examiner seems to skim over so much stuff: he only looked carefully enough to ensure my numbers were right, then did fifteen minutes on how I really KNEW how much fuel the plane burns per hour. "Are these calculations based on leaning it out above 3000 feet? Then how can they be good even if you think you're using a conservative estimate? Do you use exactly the same technique to lean it as they describe?"

The dreaded trick question: you're 20 miles from the final destination, and call for weather. (We did quite a bit on who you can contact from out there in the boondocks, and whether MSP Control can hear you even if they ARE the authority in that region) You're told the ceiling's 6000 but visibility is only 2 miles because of smoke. (There have been hundreds of wildfires this spring, and the Forest Service is preparing for forest fires because of a massive tornado that downed millions of trees in the northern forests.)

Bottom line: you're already out of Class E visibility. He let me sweat a while, then nudged me into realizing I could descend to 1200 feet and be in Class G…until the airport, which is E to the ground. Before our cram sessions, I would have failed to realize that not being a student any more; I could request Special VFR clearance to land there. That answer got me past that deadly spot.

Can you take cold pills, if they DON'T have warnings about drowsiness and operating machinery? (Have I mentioned how valuable all the discussion in this newsgroup has proven?) WHY do you use 2300 RPM as cruising speed?

With the instructor looking calm across the table, I was nearly speechless a couple times fighting the desire to say "I'd like to call a friend on that one."

He didn't say I'd flunked the oral, so we went to the plane. After I'd moved my seat way up, it suddenly slid back…and I'd swear he hit the latch. As a Short Person, I always check the seat lock first thing. But I humbly agreed with his lecture about making sure it's locked in position. Talking, I missed both the first checkpoints but calmly noted it about two minutes late each time and logged the time, comparing it with my plan. That was the right thing to do: "so your fuel-burn figures are good?" Yes.

We diverted to a small airport until I could swear I saw it, then did steep turns after adding clearing turns he didn't suggest, and making sure we were high enough, something he's nailed other people on. Slow flight was next ("why do you lose power on turns?" Horizontal component of lift, whew) and right into a power-off stall with a decent recovery but enough nose-down to make him almost grab for it. I never stop at a mere "imminent." Then we did my very first ever-turning stall. I didn't tell him I'd never done one before. Didn't seem wise.

Altitude wandered badly while we cruised, but I kept it good for a few minutes of hood work and then headed to Anoka to drop him off. After a power-off landing and a couple plain ones, he noted my crosswind landings still need work, then patted my head and smiled for the first time: "but I'll pass you."

Checkride # 5
Finally had the checkride yesterday. Typical summer California weather, low clouds in the morning burning off. Really hectic day. My wife just became a citizen and had the swearing in ceremony in the morning. Had to go meet instructor for last minute logging of ground instruction. Then celebration lunch. Then over to the field to finish XC planning, landing and TO performance, W&B, final DUATS printout. Still in the process when DE walks in, 40 minutes early. I keep on working. Finally get done and we begin.

Start with the paperwork. ID, give my passport, if passport need another ID, try AOPA card, nope, needs picture, try expired driver's license (current was was stolen with flight bag when car broken into), no good not current address, maybe a gas bill, garbage, etc., nope, all at home, how about FBO file, try with copy of current DL, OK, good. Current medical, and logbook, dual time, solo, solo XC, long XC, night dual, sim inst, yadda, yadda, all OK (124 total, I'm over on EVERYTHING). Completed form 8710 (or whatever) OOPS, had left times blank to fill in after Monday's flight, furiously add up times while he goes for aircraft logs, looking completely disorganized in the process (it was at the top of my checklitst too, bad boy, smack!). Sign and date. Asks about validity of my medical. OK.

Logbooks. Do AV1ATE. He asks me about the currency for the ELT inspection, not the battery. Don't know. Say I'll look up and he lets me, points out the releveant FAR. I find, one year. Goes into spiel about the usefulness of ADs as to keep in mind the possible failure modes of an aircraft one not familiar with. OK. Asks about documents on aircraft, recite AROW, fine. Asks about what I need. OK. We go on to cover powerplant, effects of turning off master on same (i.e. nothing), vacuum driven instruments, flaps, flap failures (tells me to put back lever if no effect, in case it gets unstuck), V speeds.

On to physiological factors, hypoxia, hyperventialtion, IMSAFE. No problems. Let's see XC flight plan. OK. Look on sectional. Trace out route. Investigate aispaces, visibility, cloud clearances, confuse E and G below 1200AGL but strighten it out. Asks about requirements to enter and operate in class C and B. Goof on that one. Said that I needed to talk to SFO Tower to enter SF class Bravo, correct is Bay Approach, I though that the delimiter was the Class B itself, Tower inside, Approach outside. Not so. Learning already. Move to some Class E with 700AGL floor, Restricted, and what's this? Third goof. A-862 I think. Find in the legend and ident hours of operation, but not the type. Controlling agency is NO A/G (whatever that is) so no help. Worse, I'd gone through it on my long XC, so no excuses. He finally points out that it specifies ALERT in the heading. Doh!

Looks at performance and W&B numbers. Asks where the basic numbers were obtained, I answer from the W&B report in the plane, he looks happy at this. We look at the DUATS printout. Looks pretty good and improving, but an AIRMET for light to moderate turbulence in our whole area. He explains that at this point the practical has not started and that we can discontinue, or if we run into non-predicted adverse weather, but if there is known weather and it affects the flight it is a disaproval (don't know if it's a canned speech but it set alarm bells ringing in my head), I said that I would talk to briefer and let him know. Dial up FSS and tell the briefer that I'm going on checkride so to take no chances. Looks clearer than the printed, but still turbulence, decide to go. Tell DE and he says to go out and preflight, I'm surprised he didn't want to watch.

I preflight and get all the things set in the right place, POH and AFD on right, sectional, plotter, and E-6B on left. Go back and get DE and hood. He explains that he is a complete zero and I don't have to passenger brief him (I've read the post on CRM and using the DE, but looked at the text and it may be a little suspect, leave for another thread, I decided not to push it). Said he doesn't even log it as dual given. I go through start up chcklist, no problem, get ATIS, call ground, and start taxi. Check my brakes, say "Your controls", he looks a little surprised and says "OK" and taps the brakes, I say "My controls" and continue. Not a very positive exchange but let's leave it at that. The wind is right down the runway, but swinging from left quarter to right quarter, I keep swinging the ailerons, probably look spastic.

Get to runup area, turn too far from edge, leave in the middle, gross. Set instruments and run it up, fails mag check, he perks up at this. Aside here: the ship was scheduled for maint Monday all the way through my ride, they were going to take cylinders off to look at a possible ring problem leading to fouling, mechanic said if anything happened to go full power, full rich, for three seconds. Never heard that one before. If it didn't work to come back and they would have me gone in ten minutes after cleaning it. So I try it and it works. Should probably go talk to mech and ask about it.

Hold short of 31R and announce to tower, get cleared and go. No problems with comms (yet) always flown from controlled field. He asks for a short field TO. So I do. Wind is all over the place and pitch control is difficult, obstacle cleared, transition to Vy, turn for noise abatement (that could be a bust according to PTS) and turn cross, then down wind, pitch and roll control still rough, but rudder is OK (took long enough to get THAT automatic!). Log time off and calculate TOC time. Do some shallow S turns for visibility. Planned to go to 5500MSL but before I get there he wants me to divert. I as for an altitude and he says my discretion, so I choose 3500MSL so have to set and trim to cruise, set power, AND divert. And were still getting bounced around, none of maintaining roll attitude with the rudder, I keep having to use pretty solid aileron thrusts. Somehow manage to measure 10nm distance and 20 east of south true so 160 true so 145 magnetic. Turn to and record time. So he asks when we get there. So I say roughly 5 min. He says how rough, so I spin madly on the E-6B and come up with 5.5 min.

He made very clear that I had all the radios so I dial in the field CTAF and announce. He asks for some clearing turns so I do 90 left 90 right. Now steep turns. Bump the throttle, trim nose up and go into right. Still bumpy but I keep the altitude within limits, roll out on heading but no chance of feeling my wake like I was doing during practice. He has me do another to the left, but no better (but no worse) than the first. So far so good.

Now he asks for slow flight, flaps 40, 55 KIAS. pull power, white arc, flaps, trim, power, but not enough to keep altitude, behind the power curve and the plane, pathetic. Maintain co-ordinated flight, and work to get to entry altitude under some semblance of non-panic. He asks fro turns to heading and I work them, still creeping to altitude. OK, now stall. So I power up and start to retract flaps and he asks me what I was doing. I say a stall like I was taught, can't stall from here?

Well, OK (Do or die now, stalls are one of my weakest areas, together with GR, landings, you name it). So flaps back out, GUMPCCUPS real fast, power idle and pull back, buffet, horn, stall, pitch, cram, clean, climb, lost about 100, one of my best stalls ever. So I'm cleaning flaps at Vy, and he pulls my engine. Glide, grass, gas. Set pitch, start lazy turn to the field 3 mi away and start my mental checklist, simulate nothing worked, get out my checklist and confirm. He asks where I'm going and I tell him about the airfield I chose. Still way high so I mosey over to see the windsock, announce the simulated engine failure, and do figure eights at the approach end getting down. I explain that I'll kill the master after flaps and before we TD. Decide to turn final, am high, so I slip, slip some more (before putting any flaps in, the checkride is NOT usenet, even though I have The Shirt and believe in it), hang out the boards, master off (simulated), and am STILL high, but the wind is honking, I still have to slip some, and I'll make midfield. Totally botch the flare and drop it in from two feet up. But we're down. He says "OK off we go", so I put in power, retract flaps, cut the power and explain that I landed too long for comfort, we'll taxi back.

No follow TO and landings and pattern, of which the details blur. Except for the constant fight to maintain attitude, the sloppiness of the crab on the legs of the pattern, and calling that I had turned a left crosswing when I had done right, so I had to correct myself. Several other planes out there and I did keep good SA throughout, and generally good comms. We do a straight out heading home and he tells me to don the hood (or is it hood the Don?) and we do climbing turns, straight and level, VOR nav, all OK. Turbulence is less and that helps. Unusual attitudes. The first one is a doozy. Recover. I'm nose high, so power up, pitch down and roll level, oops I'm also fast, so power back. Happened in less than a second, and I didn't exceed Vno so OK. Next one. I'm nose down, so power back, level, and pitch. We're done.

He tells me to get ATIS and tell tower we're inbound. He takes the plane and starts talking about how I can improve my flare, so I figure I've got it. He talks about the illusion changing from plane going to runway to runway going to plane as an indicator for flaring. Never hear that one either. Does a couple of patterns and tells me to do one. I do one fairly acceptable landing for the conditions (more wind than I had seen in moths). So he tells me to park and meet him in his office. Just now the heart rate is going down. 1.4 on the Hobbs.

In the office he asks how I think I did and I tell him that by regs if he hasn't told me already I've passed. He says that it was a very solid performance, but I point out the pitch problems, the flaring, the GR, the comms snafu. He says that smoothness will come, that the outcome of a maneuver was never in doubt. Great day. Many thanks to all that have contributed here and that have played no small part in this milestone. Thanks one and all.

PS. I see that I missed the discussion of alternator failures, and the one go round (which has to be demonstrated anyway, doesn't it).

Hello all!
I've only posted here a few times in the last 6 months but I've been an avid reader and learned a great deal from all of you. I was hoping to get the checkride out of the way a month ago before I went on vacation for two weeks but it was raining on the day of the checkride. We got the oral out of the way that day anyhow. Then I went on vacation for a couple weeks, then practiced some more for a week, then played phone tag with the DE for a week. Friday night the examiner called me up at 9pm and said that if we can get a plane we can do the ride the next morning.

My flight school was of course all booked up for the weekend but the examiner owns a 152 that his local club uses which happened to be free available. I was rather concerned about flying an aircraft I had never seen before on my checkride. I whipped out the cross country planning that night (we had to change the route from the one I had planned a month ago due to marine layer conditions on the coast), reviewed some procedures, and tried to get some sleep.

We met at Montgomery Field the next morning at 10am. By 11 the marine layer overcast cleared to haze and we were off. Fortunately, his 152 was pretty much identical to the 152's I had flown before. Once we were in the air I completely forgot that it was a new aircraft to me. Everything went relatively well. My biggest problem was he used terminology slightly different than my instructor. I got a little confused in using VOR but got it figured out after a bit of thinking about what he was asking. He also asked me to slow it down to the no-flaps minimum controllable airspeed and turn to a heading. I had never heard MCA used in reference to a 152. It took me a second to realize he was asking me to do slow-flight.

The only other glitch I ran into was when he pulled the power on me. When my instructor and I usually do this we do it in the nearby practice area. But we were a couple thousand feet above pattern altitude over the runway of a busy uncontrolled airport (I hear rumors that they are trying to make it a controlled field). I did the 7 S's while coming up with a plan for what I was going to do. The other traffic made things kinda tricky. I spiralled down out away from the pattern and then entered on a close-in downwind with the appropriate announcements (I am rather proud I remembered how to do that because I've only flown into uncontrolled fields a couple of times before) for my first key point for a short approach which should have easily put us on the runway. Unfortunately there was another aircraft on final right where I wanted to turn in. I skipped flaps and tried to stretch downwind out behind him and then turn in close behind him which put things way off and left us without decent spacing and probably not enough glide distance to do an actual touchdown on the runway like he wanted. At that point I was screwed so I powered up and said we weren't going to make it. He agreed that I easily would have made it if that other aircraft had not been on final. Had it been an actual emergency I would have declared it to the other traffic and made them get the heck out of my way and made the landing. His only complaint was that I should have circled down right over the numbers instead of out past the downwind. Had there been no other traffic or in an actual emergency I would have done so but it didn't seem like a good idea at the time. We would have come down right on top of the guy on final. He was satisfied that I kneww what I was doing and we went on to do the steep turns, s-turns, turns about a point, etc. which went perfectly. My steep turns have improved a whole lot since I started out!

I then navigated back to Montgomery and just for kicks he had me fly the ILS in. Once established I had two in the doughnut all the way down to where he told me to look at the runway. Sweet! Yes, this 152 was a full IFR airplane! I've never seen a 152 with so much equipment jammed in it. Overall my flying was smooth, landings were great, and I had a good time. First pax next weekend! :) IFR ticket and other great fun, here I come!
Tracy Reed http://www.ultraviolet.org
PP-ASEL

 Checkride
Took my checkride yesterday. In spite of all the work and studying, I was still a bit nervous. After the oral we went out to the plane to fly part of the cross-country that the D.E. had me plan. Got as far as 15 miles southeast of Livermore airport (My flight plan was to RBL - Red Bluff Airport, CA) and she had me divert to Byron Airport (C83). I demonstrated stalls, soft & short-field takeoffs and landings,,,, and more. Some manuevers I knew that I normally do much better,,, still she didn't say a word (i.e., she had told me that if she didn't say anything, it meant the test was going well). At some point she told me to fly back to my home airport (RHV) on any heading, my choice.

I kept thinking all the way back that she hadn't said that I failed anything yet, but I still wasn't certain. Called tower, reporting over Calaveras Reservoir (which is northeast of the airport). The controller recognized my voice and thought I was calling from Coyote Lake,,,, since I often would practice manuevers at some airports south of my home airport. Anyway, he cleared me to land, straight-in on runway 31R, which of course would only be possible if I were approaching from the south. I paused for a moment, trying to think if there was any other possible interpretation of the controller's instruction and couldn't think of one. I called position again and asked if the tower understood that I was reporting at a location North-North-East of the airport. The controller promptly corrected his clearance for a 45 into the downwind, #2 cleared landing. As I was on final the controller said a twin was gaining on me and asked me to do a go-round. Not a problem, back into the pattern again.

The D.E. wanted me to demonstrate a short-field landing, which I did and after receiving clearance from ground I taxied to the tie-down area. Once I shut down the plane the D.E. turned to me and shook my hand, congratulating me on passing my checkride. First word out of my mouth was "really????!!!", not that I thought I did badly, it was just almost dreamlike hearing her say those words.

She told me she would go into the FBO and fill out the paperwork while I tied-down the plane. Felt like I needed to pinch myself,,, I said the words to myself "I am a licensed pilot,,,," over and over to reassure myself that I was not just having a great dream.

Checkride
Private Pilot Checkride! I spent all day yesterday working my cross-country numbers for today's event. I got up at 5:30 am and called Flight Service for the weather and the winds aloft had changed. Re-worked my numbers and made it out the door a little after 7:15 a.m. Spokane weather: Foggy, with the ceiling just above my kneecaps.

I hit the door at Felts Field Aviation right on time to meet the Designated Examiner, Jim Bening. We chat for a few minutes then he starts with the questions. Aircraft logbooks, (take my advice, get 'em early, and study them closely). Then on to the general knowledge. Now, I got a 97 on the written test and over the last year, I have studied this stuff to the max. I have read every book on this subject in the Spokane library. When I got through all their books, I cleaned out the Aviator Store at Boeing Field every time I was in Seattle on Business. I have an aviation
library to die for.

I know this stuff cold. Do any of these books present the information the same way Jim asks the questions? NOT! He is everywhere. A seemingly innocent story from him turns into a grueling question. After 45 minutes, I'm worn out and depressed. The receptionist leans in and tells Jim that there's a call on the Unicom for him. He looks puzzled but heads out. I lean back in the chair for a brief respite. He comes back in. "That was your instructor, Tom, checking in to ask how you were doing." I must be one of the first PP candidates to have their instructor check in from a Northwest Airlines 757, SEA to MSP flight.

OK, a lighter moment, now back to the torture. We do my X/C numbers. I'm off a few degrees here and there, and Jim shows me a nifty trick or two to do this better. Now airspace: I know this stuff. Not so fast little student. He pulls out the chart and gives me a quick flight scenario with the question: "Is it legal?" Low ceiling and visibility flight, from Class G, Class E (or is it?) into a non-controlled Class E airport. What can you do? Who can you call for Special VFR clearance? Another 20 minutes of him drawing out my knowledge and imparting some of his. on this topic. I'm a wreck. Time for a break.

Back at it. Chart symbols. Alright, something I finally know. No problem, can't fool me. To make a long story short, this was three hours of sheer mental gymnastics and he's got me wrapped around the parallel bars with no net. Again, he's a nice guy, but this is brutal. A few more questions and it seems that this little portion is coming to a close. I figure that I am toast. Jim asks how I think I have done. I'm honest. I'm not impressed by me. He goes over my performance and gives me a C+. Yep, I pass the oral. It was a three-hour ordeal! Whew!
However, we peek outside and the fog is still there. The ceiling is a little higher but still way below pattern altitude. It's 11:00 a.m. and the bottom line: If there's no improvement by 1:00 p.m., it'll be another day.

Take a break, get some lunch and check in a little later. First I go to the quickee stop for a Diet Pepsi, then I wander over to the hanger and optimistically put my stuff in the plane and putter around for a few minutes. I step back outside and the flying gods have smiled! The fog is gone, ceiling at 2,000. Back I go, grab Jim, and we're on for the flying stuff! I do the pre-flight ,and all is well. I taxi, and all is well. A short field take off, and all is well. I head for my first heading on my cross country, and all goes to hell. "Al, pull out your chart and let's see your first checkpoint. Where's my chart? Carefully tucked in the bag that I had for all the oral stuff. When I fly, I just
carry my little bag with my headset and those flying things. My chart is always in my flight bag.....until today. I have all my x/c calculations on my sheet on my kneeboard, but the chart witrh the little lines on it is in the car. Whatcha gonna do? Am I finished? Not yet.

There's always a chart in the plane, it just doesn't have my little lines on it. It's good enought for Jim. I know where I'm going, my courses are on my sheet. I'm back on. But that's just the start. If I thought he was tough on the oral, I wasn't ready for this! We hit my first checkpoint and oh no!

Bad weather, divert to the nearest paved airport to the east. I pick it, and turn to it. (It helps to study the charts and to have lived here forever.) To St. Maries, Idaho, we go. I make the heading and it's on with the hood. We do some turns, descents, and climbs. I have a little trouble with my altitude but correct it. Then turn to the Spokane VOR. No problem. Unusual attitudes. No problem. Off with the hood. Slow flight. So so. Steep turns. OK. Now stalls. A power on stall first. OK. Power off stall, with flaps. Flaps? What flaps. The flaps are toast. They are stuck in the up position. We play for a while, (and I still fly the plane). Oh, well. Do some S turns across a road. I do them, but sloppy. No, turns around a point. Trouble. I can't get set up. Too high, too low. It takes a couple of tries to get it right . I do a couple. Emergency landing, we need an emergency descent, no flaps. I try a slip. Not good, don't get it right.

Sloppy. I make the field, (it's a harvested wheat field). We, of course, do not land but drop to a couple hundred feet. Climb out and it's time to head home. I'm not impressed with my performance. I've blown altitude several times and I think he has to give me too much advice on some of my manuevers. Now the flap thing. Jim says that we may have to reschedule because we still have some landings to do that require flaps. I putter back to Felts Field and make a nice no flaps landing. We tuck 457BC back into the hanger and Jim says, "let's go rent a plane and knock off those remaining landings." Hmmm. Does that mean that all the crap I've been doing is acceptable? Hmmmm.

We check out a C-172 from Felts Field Aviation. I do the pre-flight. Oh, oh. Trouble. In the last 14 months, every plane I have flown has an airspeed indicator with miles per hour. This puppy is in knots. I'm screwed. OK, I'll give it a shot. Different plane. Different airspeed indicator. Different instrument locations. What the heck. What else could go wrong? I taxi to runway 21R. A soft field takeoff. It's good. My pattern sucks though. I forgot about the knots thing. I get set up on down wind. It's a soft field landing. A good touchdown, keep the nose up. I make it and take off again. I set up for a short field landing over a 50 foot obstacle. Watch the airspeed. Watch it....watch it..watch it....over the threshold at 50 feet, power off. Settle down. A little fast with some float. Touch down. A little slow on the brakes, but I make the first turnoff. "Good landings, Al, " he says. Whew! Taxi to parking. I chat with Jim. How do I think I did. I relate all my faults over the day. I'm depressed. I could have done this better, that better. Yada yada yada.

I figure, a few more sessions with Tom and I can give it another try. Jim reminds me that he would have never gotten the second plane if I hadn't done OK. Hmmmm. He's right. And the landings were good in plane number 2. Hmmmmm. He's right! "Tie it down," he says. "I've got some paperwork to do." Hmmmm. He's right. I passed. (1.5 hours/60 hours total) Private Pilot Certificate Issued.

It's been 14 months and 55 flights for a total of 60 hours in the air. I don't think I'll add up the money. PP-ASEL after my name was worth it. Thanks to everyone in the group that gave me advice (whether they knew it or not).
Happy Flying.
Al Gilson,

Wow - it took a year and a half but I finally did it - passed my checkride this morning!

I was supposed to meet the examiner around 7:00am so I got up around 4:30 so I could get the winds aloft and finish my cross-country flight plan from Addison to Tulsa. Managed to get to the airport right at 7:00 (thanks to Dallas traffic) and talked with my instructor (who showed up early to make sure everything was in order) and the examiner for a few minutes before we got down to business. Im not sure if all examiners are like this guy, but he was great - made me feel totally comfortable and we went through the entire oral as if it was just a
conversation between two pilots. Didn't try to stump me or trick me at all. He wanted to make sure that I knew the difference between Sigmets and Airmets, what the required documents were, airplane (and parts) inspection frequency, a few airspace questions, fuel question, weight and balance question (just asked if it would be possible to take 350 lbs of gold bars safely in the airplane - yes if you use both the baggage and passanger compartments), and a few other minor questions about weather. But the way he conducted it it didn't even feel like I was being quizzed - really great guy.

The oral part done, we left Millionaire (where we met for the oral) and headed to FlightLine to get our plane. I had previously given him my flight plan to Tulsa so he could look it over and couldn't remember if he had given it back to me or if he had kept it. I started to worry until he showed up and said he still had it, but that we wouldn't use it - he just wanted me to show that I knew how to plan a cross-country flight.

We get the plane started up and I notice that while I can hear the ATIS recording in my headset, I can't hear him nor myself. We shut down thinking it might be a headset problem and I go to the desk to exchange
it for another. Same problem. By now Im thinking that I wont get to go today because there's a problem with the plane itself. I never had this problem before but all it ended up being was a switch on the radio where you select who can talk on the radio, Pilot, Crew and Passengers. Can't remember which one it was on Passengers?) but we got it switched to the correct setting and taxied out to the runway.

The winds were calm at the airport but it was fairly cool - probably about 45, so despite us both being big guys, the plane climbed like a rocket and we headed off to our first checkpoint which was AeroCountry. We flew straight and level the whole way, until we got a few miles north of Aerocountry, abeam a city called Gunter (sp?) when he said that we had imaginary thunderstorms in front and behind us, and he wanted to get to McKinney, which was about 10 miles to the South. He asked what I would do if I only had about 3 miles viz and needed to get to McKinney - I told him I'd do basically a 180 and head just a little to the southeast until I hit the airport. He suggested that I follow a very prominent road (I-75) since it directs you almost straight in. We did exactly that and called McKinney tower to ask for permission to do touch-and-goes, which was no problem for them since there were only 2 other planes in the pattern. We get set up on a left downwind and the first landing is a short field which goes amazingly well. He tells me not to put the brakes on when we touch down and we go directly to a rolling short-field takeoff. From there, back around and do a soft-field landing - not as smooth as it should have been - and into a rolling soft-field takeoff. One more time around for a
normal landing and about 100 feet up he calls for a go-around and we exit the pattern.

Now time for hood-work. Put the foggles on and he has me do some climbs and descending turns to a heading - nothing too difficult. Take the foggles off and we do some stalls. First one is a power-off clean stall. No problems there. Next one is a power-off dirty in a left-hand turn. Finally we do a power-on clean in a right-hand turn, and one power-on dirty in a left hand turn. Recover from both amazingly well.

I was expecting some ground reference manuvers at this point, but we started to head back to Addison, and discussed VOR tracking on the way. He even showed me how to track to the outer marker and use the glide-slope as if we were flying IFR... guess he was pretty confident with my VFR abilities.

He commented how well my landing was back at Addison and he shakes my hand as we turn off the runway and says, "Congratulations, you're now a private pilot!" I park the plane and meet him inside a few minutes later to take care of the paperwork and told him before I left how much I enjoyed flying with him.

As far as Im concerned, all I have is a license to learn - there's still so much about flying that I dont know and from what I've heard, will probably never know 100%. Im just going to try to keep the shiny side up, the wheel side down, and not swap paint with anyone else, on the ground or in the air.

I just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you in this newsgroup for being so supportive and helping me answer alot of questions over the past year and a half. And to those of you just starting - keep your chin up and dont get down on yourself when times are hard! The end result is worth it!

The big day finally arrived, December 13. It was time to meet the DE to take the oral exam and check ride for a private pilot certificate. I made a point to get to the FBO early and get the aircraft maintenance logs and other documentation ready. Went out to look over the airplane.

Not good, it had been setting out all night and was covered with frost. Mechanics had something going on and refused to make a spot in the hangar to thaw it out. Oh, well. At least it was pointed into the rising sun, maybe it would thaw a little bit during the oral exam.

Called for the current weather briefing for the planned cross-country flight. A good thing this was only for practice, VFR flight was not recommended due to ice, snow and reduced visibility along the route. I was doing one final review of the paperwork when the DE arrived.

Started the oral exam with some questions on Part 61, certification, privileges and responsibilities of a private pilot. Then moved on to Part 91, required inspections and a review of the aircraft log books. That seemed to go pretty well, after about a dozen questions the DE looked at his watch and said "This won't take long, you know what you are doing." Surprised me as he had to prompt me a bit on a couple of questions. Then did the obligatory questions on alcohol.

Next was aerodynamic principles, how does a wing work, what is adverse yaw, what is relative wind. Holding up a plastic airplane at a 60-degree nose up angle and asked "What would be the relative wind if this were an F-16? What if it were a Cessna 172?". Then a brief glance at the cross country navigation logs I had filled out for a flight from Colorado Springs (COS) to Wichita (ICT). A suggestion to always write course headings in three digits and a positive comment about the runway sketches for airports along the route that I had made in the notes section. Then he had me do a fuel burn computation on the E6B and that ended the cross country and navigation part of the exam.

This DE has a reputation for really stressing how to read the sectional charts. He informed me that the sectional is not a map. Aviation uses *charts*. He was satisfied with my answers for the various airspace classes, entry and equipment requirements and visibility minimums. At least until we got down to class G airspace. (I think the G stands for all the Goofy changes to the visibility rules.) He had to prompt me for some answers and most of the answers were wrong. He gave some tips on how to remember the various visibility rules and altitudes. I think he liked that I was taking notes on all of the tips he was passing on. Then he had me read various bits of information off of the sectional. What does this symbol represent, decode this line of information, is this a lighted airport, what are the traffic pattern direction and altitude? He then pointed to a 2500 foot private strip at 6200 feet M.S.L. and asked if a Cessna 172 could be safely operated from it. Off to the takeoff performance charts and decided that whoever owned that strip had something with a whole lot more performance than a 172. A couple questions on weight and balance ended the oral review.

A brief discussion about what to expect during the flying portion of the test. My instructor had put the heater on the engine and was finishing removing the frost when we went out to the airplane. Thank you, Mike! Started the pre-flight and promptly got yelled at for lowering the flaps. "Don't take any more energy out of a cold battery than absolutely necessary. Save it for starting!". So if I hadn't lowered the flaps would he have dinged me for not following the checklist? Didn't feel brave enough to ask though.

Started to do the spiel about seat belts and doors and got a "Yeah, yeah. Lets get going." for my efforts. Ran down the checklist for starting the engine. Gave it four shots on the primer and drew a comment "That's too much.". Not exactly helping to keep the confidence level up. Taxiing out was OK other than having to dodge snowploughs cleaning some packed snow off the taxiways. I'm going down the centerline and preparing to swing left to avoid a plough 500 feet ahead when the DE said "You'd better get over now.". Gee, hope he didn't think I was planning on ramming the plough.

Takeoff was normal but I forgot to note the time. Remembered it on climb out and made an estimate of the actual takeoff time. Got on the appropriate radial to the VOR for the first leg of the cross country. DE said "A wall of weather just developed to the North and East and the Colorado Springs airport is on fire. Where are you going to go?" Turned south to the Pueblo airport, tuned in the VOR and set a course. A quick measurement with the sectional and plotter to get the distance and a mental calculation to get a time estimate and the diversion to an alternate was completed.

"Lets do slow flight." Thanks to constant nagging by my instructor, I remembered to do a clearing turn instead of just barging into the maneuver. Had the flaps fully extended but we were still slowing through 55 knots when the DE said "Give me a 90 degree turn to the right and resume cruise." That's all? Gee, my instructor always made me get down to 44 knots and do 360 degree left and right turns. This was too easy. Next was a departure stall. Set up the climb while in the clearing turn, pulled the nose up and induced the stall. Right wing dropped a bit in the stall which I wasn't expecting but otherwise the recovery went well. "OK, give me an approach stall." Another clearing turn and set up for approach attitude. Got the glide stabilized and induced the stall. So far, so good. At least I thought the stall recoveries went well. Next up were steep turns, one to the right and one to the left. Had to fight a bit to keep from losing too much altitude but otherwise the turns were OK. It seemed like throughout the entire flight I was constantly chasing the altimeter. Never got a really good trim and was constantly bobbing up and down seventy to eighty feet. Not good, altitude control is another pet peeve for this DE.

Time to put the Foggles on for instrument reference work. Did some basic straight and level flight and turns to a specified heading. Next, tuned in the Black Forest VOR and set a course to fly directly to the VOR. Those maneuvers went well, next was a couple of unusual attitude recoveries. One nose high and banking, the other nose low and banking. "OK, give me a standard rate 270 degree turn. What course heading will we come out on?" and I correctly answered "North, zero degrees". Set up the turn and feeling good when I hear "Descend to 8000 feet." Pulled the throttle back to start the descent and "Why are you reducing power?" He had actually said "Turn out on 080 degrees." Oops, big goof on my part.

"Remove the Foggles and descend to 7500 feet and pick a pond or windmill to do turns around a point." There just happened to be (yeah, right) a windmill coming up about a half mile to the left side and we were heading downwind. OK, this is easy, rolled into the turn and managed to gain 300 feet of altitude. Argh! Corrected the altitude and continued the turn. Rolled out on the initial heading when he said "Pull the power. You just lost your engine.". Set for best glide speed, identified my landing spot and rattled off the rest of the restart procedure. "Your engine didn't start, now what are you going to do?". Recited the forced landing checklist and he decided I would make it to the chosen landing spot. Add power and climb back up to 7500 feet.

"Get the current ATIS and head in for some touch-n-goes.". Still fighting with holding altitude, I'd trim for level and a minute later we would be 200 feet high. Got a couple comments about "We don't need to go any higher.". Managed to do a semi decent approach to 17L and a nice landing. Only thing wrong was that I was 20 feet to the right of the centerline. Nuts! OK, take off and set up for another landing. Got a comment about needing to turn base sooner after reducing power. During each of the approaches I was verbalizing what my mistakes were and what I was doing to correct to show that I at least knew I wasn't totally lost. Still had a slight crab when the mains touched but at least this time I was only ten feet right of the centerline. DE said there appeared to be a tricky low-level wind that I wasn't compensating for.

He then asked me to request a full stop. Were the normal landings so bad he didn't want to see how bad I could mess up soft and short field landings? ATC had to get the snowploughs off of runway 17R for my full stop landing and had me extend my upwind. Managed to come in high this time and again landed to the right of the centerline. For my final goof, I forgot to read the after landing checklist but did the steps from memory and forgot two. Pretty bad for a four step checklist. Aside from the necessary instructions and a few comments, during the entire flight the DE sat in the seat with his arms crossed and giving absolutely no feedback on how good or bad I was doing. Very disconcerting. During the taxi in the he started talking a bit more and gave me some tips on setting up approaches and dealing with the crosswind.

By now I knew I had blown the ride. If the botched landings weren't enough, my failure at holding a constant altitude was. Shut down the plane and the DE said he would meet me inside. Finished tying the plane down and locking it up. The flight was only 1.3 hours but I was totally drained. That walk into the FBO was a lot longer than it had ever been before. Trudged into the office where the DE was typing up what I assumed to be the failure notice when my instructor held out his hand and said "Congratulations!". Could have knocked me over with a feather I was so surprised. Even a full day later it's still hard to believe that I passed.
Dave Martin - A still stunned but proud new PP-ASEL

What a month. After a 10 month break in flying due to work, I started flying again last September. Only flew 17hrs in three months, but my instructor was confident that I was more than ready to take the checkride. Before the ride, I did not get a chance to study a whole lot, and was worried about not passing the oral....but I was fairly comfortable with my flying, stalls being my forte.

Got to the airport early on December 3rd and checked the maintenance logs.

DE arrives and we start on the oral. Aside for a few prompts here and there, the oral part goes amazingly smooth. DE says that I seem to know enough and let's go fly. We go out, I pre-flight the plane (no comments), and we strap ourselves in. Taxi, runup, takeoff all go fine and I follow my cross-country plan. He has me deviate to nearby airport and everything's going fine. Asks me to do steep turns to the left and right, and I absolutely nail them. DE compliments me on "excellent" steep turns. Has me put on foggles and track to a nearby VOR. With the foggles on, he then has me do a few turns, and then unusual attitudes.

Up to this point everything looks just great. He has me take off the foggles. We do slow flight, and then he asks me for a power on stall. The wing drops considerably, and even though I recover my confidence is shaken. He then has me do a power-on stall in a right hand turn, and this one is worse...now I'm stressing out. He then asks for a power-off stall (looking for improvement), but by this time I'm not thinking, and the airplane goes through a quarter turn spin when I recover. Then he says the dreaded words "I think you need more practice in stalls, let's go back". I am shattered. My mind reels, but I fly normally and enter the pattern, and make very nice normal landing, smooth and straight down the center line. DE says "nice landing". We go in, and he writes out the pink slip. I am humiliated, ashamed, and angry at myself. The DE is very nice and understanding. He seems just as broken up at having to fail me.

The next week I go up with my instructor, and my confidence in stalls is gone. It's so bad that I don't even let the airplane break before I let the nose down. We do softs and shorts and then end the lesson. At this point, I'm doubting my abilities to be a pilot, and postpone lessons a couple of times making excuses about work, even though I could have flown.

I finally decide that I've invested too much time, effort and money into this to give up...plus, I really like flying. So I schedule a lesson, go to the airport and spend an hour and a half with the instructor doing nothing but stalls...my confidence starts creeping back. We do few landings and call it a day.

A month after my initial bust, I find myself back at the airport, ready to "finish" the ride. I'm really concerned about my lack of practice with ground reference maneuvers. I pre-flight the plane before the DE arrives, and he says he does not need to see me do a pre-flight. We do a short field take-off and head to the practice area. He has me do a power off stall, and it goes fine. "That's the way to do 'em" is his comment. He then has me do a power on and that goes fine. Next is again a power off, but in a left hand turn. Miracle of miracles, I recover flawlessly. He then has me descend and show him an S-turn. My performance in that, in my opinion, was shameful...and I'm thinking "I can't believe I'm busting a second time". But the DE remains quiet and then asks me for turns around a point. That goes a little better. He then asks me to go back to the airport and go a short field to a stop and then a soft-field takeoff. The landing and takeoff are good. Then he asks me to do a soft-field landing and park the airplane. The soft-field in my opinion was not soft enough, but I at least hold the nose wheel off. I park the plane, and the DE smiles and says "Starting today, you can take passengers". Suddenly all is right with the world.

So after a year and a half, lots of work, money, uncountable weather cancellations, and a busted checkride, I'm a private pilot. All I can say is "What a ride". I'll be starting my instrument rating training soon, and the saga continues.......
Thanks for listening,
-Nadeem
PP-ASEL

Greetings from My Checkride
As promised, this post has the full details of my private checkride, which I completed successfully day before yesterday, 11/15/00. (Yeah! :-)

At the risk of damaging the entertainment value of the story ("Always leave them wanting more," my dad says), I've tried to report as many of the details as I can recall, since I got a lot out of other people's detailed checkride posts. And before I get into it, let me say that this group has been a tremendous resource for me over the past 5 months. Thank you all for your stories, comments, links, and advice!

I have been flying with Executive Flyers Aviation out of Hanscom Field (BED), Bedford, Massachusetts USA. This is a busy Class D GA airport, with an increasing amount of commuter (Dash-8), corporate (Hawker, Citation), and charter (727) traffic. EFA is a high-class outfit, and I feel like I've gotten a rigorous flying education there. I started in mid-June, so my training has occupied 5 months. I had a bit over 70 hours before my checkride, meaning I've been able to log a bit under 4 hours per week.

My progress was pretty steady, though they closed runway 5-23 for resurfacing just as I was trying to polish my landings for solo. Coincidentally, the wind was almost always 220 at 11 for the next month, which meant I learned to land on 29 in a 70 deg left xwind. This took me a bit longer than planned, and going on vacation for 3 weeks didn't help. 5-23 is supposed to reopen next week, but anyway...

My instructor recommended Ray Collins as the right DE. He is a Delta captain and frequent examiner with a reputation of being rigorous but fair. His fee was $200. My checkride was originally scheduled for last Thursday, the 9th.

On Sunday the 5th, my CFI and I met and filled out form 8710 with all my info and logbook times. He wrote it, which is good, because his handwriting is much neater than mine. He had me pull together the 8710, my sealed written test report, my student pilot/medical certificate and my logbook. He then copied the checklist out of the front of the PTS and made sure I understood what other items I needed to pull together. He stressed the importance of having all the paperwork correct and well ordered. Lastly, he assured me that if I just flew like I did with him, I'd have no trouble passing.

I got a couple good tips from him and the Chief Pilot:
o If you're en route west on your (pretend) xc at 4,500 feet, and he asks for a 180 deg turn, don't forget to descend to 3,500 feet, or to <= 3,000, since you're now headed East! (I'm sure this would have caught me...)
o Don't forget to add half the gust speed to your approach speed, if it's gusty.

I was assigned to plan a xc from BED to Utica, New York. I picked UCA out of the AFD as the "right" Utica field, though there's a smaller Class G field nearby, not to mention Griffis (ex?) AFB.

The xc planning took a little longer than usual. The first decision was whether to refuel. Even with pretty strong headwinds (23kts, say), the flight would take about 2.5 hours. The plane (C152) carries about 3:45 usable (assuming a conservative 6.5gph burn rate), so even with a 1 hour, 6.5 gal reserve, the flight would leave 15 mins of fuel before starting on the reserve.

Yah right! Of course I decided on a fuel stop - it was an opportunity to demonstrate "a disciplined conservatism about fuel use." I would probably have planned the stop even if it wasn't my checkride because an hour and a half in a 152 is plenty long enough so I need to stretch my legs. Going the full 2.5 without stopping doesn't appeal.

Next question was how far I could use the Gardner VOR (GDM), and would I be able to pick up the Cambridge (CAM) VOR without losing GDM? For this, I got out my AIM and found the section on VOR service volumes. Very educational - above 1800 ft, you get 40nm radius. GDM and CAM are about 67nm apart, so no problem. I did mark the overlap on my course line, noting a good river/highway combination to use as a waypoint for switching. This let me go around the Albany Class C without adding unduly to the distance.

Then I looked and saw the straight shot to GDM VOR took me through R-4102, a restricted area near our practice area. Wasn't going to be caught by that one! I picked my first leg to go north of it via Fitchburg (FIT). The sectional (at the bottom) says 4102 is only active on Saturdays, but I asked FSS and they said every day. So, that confirmed my plan to go around.

Lastly, I saw that UCA lies inside the Griffis TRSA, so I read up on those. Looked to be little different from flight following or Class C operation, so no big deal. I can turn to a heading and hold an altitude. <g> Still, I had to applaud the DE's assignment - it ensured I had to grapple with some issues my student solo xcs hadn't raised.

Once I was done with the xc plan, I started studying for the oral. I spent two days of moderately hard review, focusing on FAR part 91, sectional symbology (reputed to be a pet subject of the DE), and the PTS. In particular, I made sure I understood all the PTS requirements.

I flew with the Chief Pilot Monday morning, and the airwork went OK. He had asked me what I wanted to practice, and I said steep turns and ground reference maneuvers. I did OK on those, thought he helped me clean them up a bit. He threw some hood work and unusual attitudes at me, and that was fine. However, my landings were a bit ugly. He properly diagnosed that I was fixating on the ASI, and "chasing" it with pitch and power changes, making it hard to establish a good, stabilized approach. The result was I was a bit low and slow on final, leading to somewhat dropped-in landings.

On Tuesday morning, I was going to solo in the pattern to work on my landings, but my CFI bummed a ride. He promised to be quiet, but I think the bossman had spoken to him about my landings, and he was looking to see how I was doing. I wasn't much better, so he went into coaching mode, and that helped.

On Wednesday afternoon, I went to the hangar and got a tour of the mx logs so I could show off the annual inspection and the ADs. That was educational, and the mechanics were all really helpful and nice. I put a big postit on the 5406H's logbook saying "DON'T TOUCH - checkride 11/9" and went home.

I was still bugged by the landing issue, so I got out "Stick and Rudder" and flipped to the section on glides. And there I was! He described my error explicitly as one of the typical student errors, and had the fix. I needed to stay higher on short final than I had gotten into the habit of flying, and keep the nose pointed at my aiming point, especially as I went to 30deg of flaps. That plus trusting in the landing configuration and not chasing the ASI would fix things, I felt sure. See, I had gotten in the habit of flying kind of nose high ala slow flight on final, and if you pick up excessive sink rate that way, there's not much you can do about it that close to the ground.

I got up on the 9th, and the wx was as crappy as forecast. Low ceilings and IFR. However, the Worcester TAF held out hope for the ceiling lifting to 4,500 by 1pm, high enough to do the checkride. My CFI had said it would be a bad idea for *me* to cancel the checkride for wx, so I had to go ahead and finish preparing. I got my actual wx briefing and the one for my pretend xc to UCA. The answer on that was an easy No Go due to IFR conditions. Nevertheless, I worked my E6B and filled in my magnetic headings, groundspeed and fuel burn for both legs. I was interpolating up a storm - it was beautiful.

I couldn't do the weight and balance, though - I had forgotten to get the weight and balance info the day before. I filled in what I could, packed up and headed over to the FBO at about 12. That gave me an hour to retrieve the logbook, check the ARROW docs in the plane, and finish the weight and balance. I had put on the biplane tie and tie-tack my wife had gotten me for luck, so while nervous, I was also eager to get it done.

I grabbed the book, grabbed the keys, checked the papers, noted the basic empty weight, the arm and the moment, and headed back inside. It was about 12:30. That's when I heard from my CFI the DE had scrubbed due to the wx. I was pretty disappointed, especially that he hadn't at least wanted to do the oral. I was eager to get the talking out of the way before I forgot the Class G VFR rules again. Not only that, but the wx was forecast as lousy for several days, so it wasn't going to happen soon. I kind of stalked out of the FBO, harrumphed my way to the hangar to drop off the logbook, and decided to go drown my frustration in a milkshake. Of course, the ice-cream place was closed. I didn't bite anyone, but went home and growled for most of the rest of the afternoon...

CFI rescheduled for Wed the 15th at 10 am. I didn't think that would work, since I had a meeting at 2 pm and would need to be in my car departing at 1:30. DE said he'd get it done by then for sure, so we went with it. I actually found that encouraging, because it meant a 3 hour oral (like I've read about here) would be impossible.

Sun afternoon and the wx was nice, so I grabbed the chance to solo. Sure enough, I fixed my landings! Phew. Also saw a Pitts and an Arrow flying formation in the pattern behind me, but not on purpose! They were less than 75 feet apart, with the Pitts at the Arrow's 12 o'clock high. I was trying to figure out what to say to ATC when the Arrow clued in and slowed up. ATC didn't call them on it, but it was a near thing. Never a dull moment at BED, especially on a nice, "remain outside the Class Delta, right 360, extend your downwind, I'll call your base, square your turn to final, can you give me some S turns, go around", busy, Sunday afternoon.

Forecast for Wed looked bad, but CFI encouraged me to prepare anyway, and what else could I do? He also cautioned me not to over-study, which I am wont to do. So I tried to take it relatively easy. I did go through the PTS again and filled in the actual 152 speeds for all the "1.2 Vs0 +10/-5" bits. I even "chair flew" some maneuvers like steep turns and stalls while wearing my headset at the kitchen table.

Spent 7:30 to 9:30 Wed morning re-working my xc plan with the actual wx. Once again, the UCA call was a No Go due to icing and SHRASN (rain and snow showers) west of Albany. However, ceilings and visibility were good for the checkride!

Only issue: wind was forecast as 30018G32. I thought about that a bit. On the one hand, 32kt gusts are pretty big bumps. On the other, they'd be right down the runway on 29. I'd flown in 27kt gusts and done OK with my CFI along. Plus, I remembered all the posts here from pilots in Kansas and Oklahoma about how they always fly in winds like that. I decided to go. I also figured the wind would make a good cover story for any sloppiness on my part...)

Got to the FBO, grabbed the logbook again (I had called the afternoon before to make sure it would be there), grabbed the key and went out to pre-flight. Got back inside at 10pm on the dot, feeling smug the timing worked so well. Then I waited 15mins for the DE. I had just decided that he must have scrubbed again on account of the wind and my CFI hadn't got his message yet when the DE walked in.

I introduced myself, calling him "sir" and "Mr. Collins." I had my biplane tie and tie-tack on again with khakis and penny loafers - I was trying to look like I'd dressed up a bit for the occasion, but without overdoing it. I think it helped some. He had on slacks and a flannel shirt, no tie.

He was very businesslike, and was not trying to make a friend of me. He asked for the paperwork, which I was able to lay out before him handily due to having gone through the PTS checklist in advance. That was a plus I'd say. He looked it over, did not pause over the 97 score on my written (I was a bit in fear that I'd get extra grilling because of that) and quickly filled in a couple boxes on the 8710. Then he told me the basic outline would be review of paperwork, logbook, mx logs, xc plan, W&B, oral exam and then flying.

He then went through my logbook, apologizing for how long it would take and mildly complaining that this was the hardest part of his job. We spent about 10 minutes of silence while he did this, but fortunately I had everything done and totaled, so there was no issue.

Then we went over the mx logs, and he actually read most of the annual notes. He lectured me that despite looking at the logs, it's very hard for a renter pilot to really know that the plane is legal. You must rely upon the competence of the FBO, but should not take that for granted. You need to assure yourself the FBO is good, and he noted that fortunately, EFA is. I found this refreshingly sensible.

We discussed the xc, and I started with a summary of the plan. Then I noted the No Go call and showed the TAFs I had printed off of http://adds.awc-kc.noaa.gov/ to support the decision. He asked some questions: why the fuel stop, what about R-4102, what's up with the TRSA, what are your pilotage landmarks? Pretty easy to answer. He looked at both the chart and my plan/log pages while we talked.

Then he told me we'd only use the first leg - and only part of that - on the simulated xc portion of the flying. Said if we got more than 20nm from BED, something would be very wrong. That made me happy, since I didn't want to keep up the "I'm going to Utica" charade more than I had to. We also agreed that the 6,500 feet I'd put on the plan wouldn't work locally at that time, and so picked 3,000 feet as our target altitude. (And I silently stopped worrying about descending from West to East and vice versa.)

At this point, he went into a several minute description of how he'd evaluate me (no tricks - phew!), what he'd be looking for, and what he didn't want to see. For the oral, he wanted to focus on sectional symbols (yes!), some systems, V speeds, a bit of National Airspace System, wake turbulence avoidance, right of way and the new anti-runway-incursion questions. Didn't plan to cover regulations much because that had already been covered on the written.

For the practical, he explained that he would select one maneuver from each section of the PTS, not all of them. Might be any of the ground reference maneuvers, but not all. One stall, but could be clean or with flaps, power or not, turning or level. We would do all of normal, short and soft takeoffs, as well as normal, short, soft and no-flap landings. Hood work, one unusual attitude, steep turns.

As for no-nos, he said to make sure I was looking outside of the aircraft, that was his most important warning. (I mentally chanted "Don't fixate on the ASI, don't fixate on the ASI.") Don't fail to use the checklists. Don't begin a maneuver until I'm ready, because once I say I'm in it, he's judging it. He stresses that _I_ am PIC, and he's a passenger, so "fly like you're PIC."

Then it was oral time. He asked the questions as he'd outlined them. We did spend a lot of time on the chart, and I handled everything except that I forgot what an L means on an airport label ("lighted"). I fessed up promptly, said I knew where to find it, and he was satisfied. He drew two runways with displaced thresholds, but one had arrows and one had chevrons. He asked me what the difference was, and I erred slightly: I knew chevrons meant no taxing or takeoff, but I thought arrows meant taxi only. However, arrows mean taxi and takeoff, just no landing, as he explained. So those were my oral errors.

The rest of the questions I could answer. It was a brief exam. I guess I looked like I didn't have an attitude, as he displayed no need to establish that I don't know everything despite my written score. I was glad of that, as I will freely admit I don't know everything - I didn't want it proven through an inquisition.

Then it was time to fly. I re-checked the fuel, oil and control surfaces, since my pre-flight had been over an hour previous. He asked me what the fuel vent was (I knew), what the cabin air vent was (ditto), and what the little scoop intake on the side of the cowling was for? That I didn't know - he said it's to let in air to cool the avionics...

We got in, and I started the checklist. From that point on, I was verbalizing everything I did and why. Checklist went fine, though I had my lapdesk on my lap instead of the floor because I wasn't certain when I'd need to refer to my xc plan. I explained that "this is where I would brief my passenger on the door, the seat belts and what to do in an emergency" instead of role-playing an attempt at an actual briefing (tip from CFI).

I got cleared to taxi to 29, so I looked for people nearby, pulled out and checked the brakes _gently_ (tip from Chief Pilot), then I invited him to check his (tip from my CFI), and he did. I picked the path with fewest turns and made the appropriate xwind corrections as I taxied. I kept it on the yellow line and was scrupulous about saying "clear left/clear right" as we approached intersections.

No one else was flying (scared of the wind?), so for a change, we had the runup area to ourselves. I pulled up nice and smooth and did the engine runup checklist. My nerves showed in that I skipped the ammeter check, but I caught it immediately and took care of it. Did my flow check and DE said we'll do the pattern work first since it's empty. Wanted to see a normal takeoff followed by a normal landing, whereupon I'm to set the flaps for a soft field takeoff.

I pulled up to the hold short line and called "Hanscom Tower, Cessna 5406H holding short, like to stay in the pattern." Get told to hold short for landing traffic, but the radio's a bit hard to hear - uh oh (DE diddled the squelch just as I was thinking to reach for it and all was fine thereafter). A Piper landed and we got cleared to position and hold. DE said he's changed his mind and wants a short-field takeoff, so I put in flaps 10 and pulled out, as close to the end of the runway as I could get.

As I pulled out, Tower cleared me to take off. I acknowledged, lined up on the centerline, held the brakes and went to full power, but just for a couple seconds. I had discussed and cleared this in advance with the DE - since BED is so busy, once you're cleared to go, you can't sit at ull power for 30s as per the POH, you'll surprise the controller and screw up the sequencing. I released the brakes and off we went. Engine instruments green, air speed alive, xwind correction out. At 54kts I pitched up and hoped like heck I had the Vx pitch attitude because I was only glancing at - not fixating on! - the ASI.

Leveled, accelerated, flaps up, and pitched for Vy. Scanned for traffic, then around the pattern in left closed traffic. I was careful about rudder use on the turns, but the plane is rigged poorly and needs a little right rudder in a left turn. I'm sure I could have been better coordinated, but I tried to not use the rudders much at all, and it worked out.

Whoops, I got more than 100 feet above pattern altitude - doh! I began to suspect the tach was reading low, because I was going too fast and with too much lift for 2000 rpm. No comment from DE on altitude, hoped I was OK. Cleared to land, told DE I'm using flaps 20 due to the wind, and we discussed adding 1/2 the gust to approach speed. He says in an MD-11 they add all the gust plus half the wind - but this isn't an MD-11, so do what I think is right.

I was high on final, so I did a slip to a landing, probably my best ever. Took care of _that_ requirement. Slowed down, went flaps 10, added full power, pulled back on the nose, and off we went on the soft field takeoff. It worked OK, although my ground effect flying was not long lived. <g> He says this is the start of the xc, so I call the tower and request a straight out departure, which is granted. I forgot to take out the flaps until he pointed this out at about 600 ft whoops.

I scanned for traffic, recorded the departure time, and then realized I'd forgotten the VOT during runup. So I quickly tuned the NAV to 110.0, got the ident sounding, and verified 000 gave FROM and 180 gave TO. Then I tuned in GDM and set the course to show I'm thinking ahead a leg. (I should've done both things during runup - doh.)

My xc flying was the worst I've ever done. I was S-ing over my heading +/- 10 degrees and at one point managed to gain 200 ft. I never do that! Also, with the engine at the firewall, the tach reads just 2300 rpm, further evidence it's miscalibrated. That's why I'm gaining altitude, yeesh. But I think the wind covered for me.

I switched to the practice area frequency and made a call - nobody there. Then DE spotted a Cessna at 11 o'clock about 200 feet above us. I elected to descend to about 2600 and it passed well over us. Finally, I was relieved when he told me to put on the hood. Positive exchange of controls, and he had me turn and climb, turn and descend, then climb and descend wings level. I remembered to work the carb heat and throttle appropriately, and did ok (I've never had a problem with hood work).

One mistake was, on my first turn, I got impatient with standard rate and increased the bank angle. The nose started to come down, and he had to mention it. I confessed my impatience, and his reply was to "Focus not on getting around to the desired heading, but focus on doing the aneuver right - then you won't feel impatient." Good advice.

Then it was unusual attitude time. Quick set of bounces and I had no idea which end was up. He called the recovery and I looked at the ASI - increasing! Reached for the throttle and actually bumped it up (uh oh!) a bit before pulling it out while leveling the wings and leveling off. But he didn't fail me on the spot, so I was still hopeful.

He had me take off the hood and I saw we were over Lowell, about 10nm NE of BED. He asked me to show him slow flight at 50 kts, heading 090, no flaps. I pulled power to 1500, slowed it down until the stall horn was screaming it's first pitch and the ASI showed 50. No problem! Until he pointed out I was losing altitude. I caught it just after 100 ft, but rats. After that, nailed the turns while maintaining speed and altitude, AND I remembered to scan for traffic. Spotted some, too, but no factor. He had me recover, which was a simple matter of full throttle, carb heat in, 3000 ft, power to cruise.

He then picked out a mountain to be my visual reference and asked me to show him a steep turn to the left. Now, something was niggling at me about my setup, but after a couple seconds of hesitation, I started the turn. He said, "You're going to need more power to hold your altitude." Sure enough, when I had reduced the power earlier, I had gotten it too low for the steep turn. I added power and around we went. It was good, fortunately! I think that was the first time I did a steep turn to the left correctly on my first try.

But at this point I've had altitude excursions and he's had to prompt about 4-5 things. In the back of my mind, I was really wondering whether I'd have to do the whole practical over again.

He suggested we get the ATIS and head back to land. After a brief discussion about where we are, wherein I find I have two major highways confused and so am 90 degrees off (ack - another mistake), I acknowledged he was correct, and he chuckled and said "That's why they pay me the big bucks." This was his first bit of any sort of joviality, and it rekindled hope in me. I got the ATIS, reset the altimeter, called the field, got told to report midfield right downwind, and did a pre-landing check. Spotted some more traffic before the DE did. (My final score was 3 for 4. :-)

I descended smoothly at 500fpm all the way to pattern altitude at entry (yes!), and mentioned that, due to the wind, I was aiming considerably upwind of midfield. As we got close, a King Air was crossing behind and above us. ATC cleared it number one, so we had to keep an eye on it as it went behind, passed on the left, and got in front. DE said he wanted a short field landing, so I turned base as soon as the King Air turned final. Brought it in pretty high, but still made it with a nice steep descent at 60kts (added a bit for wind) and landed it OK despite a bit
of rolling during the flare due to gusts.

Was off by the first taxiway no problem, and then realized I couldn't find the checklist. I had sort of nonchalantly tossed it behind me, and now I couldn't feel it, doh. I explained the situation, told him I had it memorized, and he said fine. So flaps up, carb heat in already, mixture max lean, radio to ground. Got my taxi clearance and headed back, with xwind corrections the whole way.

Pulled up and did the engine shutdown checklist from memory. I was afraid to say anything, but the first thing he said was, "Well, you passed - congratulations." Then, he went over his feedback. Good things: hood work, landings ("You weren't bothered by the wind at all"), comms, pattern, taxiing. Not so good: S-ing around on xc portion, being behind the airplane sometimes, like entering the steep turn with too little power. "However, you showed you were ahead of the airplane with your comment about aiming upwind on pattern entry," quoth he, so maybe that one comment saved my bacon!

He said I'd done well overall and not to be thin-skinned about his criticism. Which I sure wasn't - he was dead right, and I'm comforted that I know I average better. I think I was a bit task-overloaded due to nerves and verbalizing everything.

He headed in to do the paperwork and I tied 06H down and gathered all my junk. Went inside and got my temporary certificate and a reiteration of the feedback. Then he shook my hand and I got the heck out of there - I wanted to leave before he changed his mind! My CFI walked over to the hangar with me while I told him the brief version of this story, and we shook hands.

I still can't believe I've done it. It's sinking in slowly. Next comes 172 transition and then flying friends for $100 hamburgers. I'm really looking forward to those!

So anyway, that's my ridiculously long checkride story. I hope someone finds it helpful, if only to see that it's not as hard as the PTS would lead you to believe. I guess it was easier than I expected, but I flew worse than I'm capable of, so it evened out. <g>
Blue skies! -- Peter
PP-ASEL--
Peter H. Schmidt

After some 86 hours and an ungodly number of landings the aviation gods smiled upon me in the end and I'm now a genuine Private Pilot! It was tough, but in the end I think the most rewarding and satisfying thing I've ever done. It seemed like today was to be yet another of those days when everything that could go wrong would go wrong, but it worked out in the end.

The checkride was scheduled for today (11/17) about a week ago and I've been watching the nasty weather creep in from the west all week. Getting up this morning, it was heavily overcast with a light, spotty rain falling. The winds were moderate, about 9 knots on average with gusts to 12 or so. I wasn't worried about that much. The reported ceiling was 4000 and forecast to get worse, developing into snow later towards afternoon. I was thoroughly convinced there'd be no ride today, but saddled up and went to the airport anyway around 8:30 AM.

I fly from Burlington, VT which is Class C airspace though the traffic volume is sporadic. All my training has been in Cessna 172s and most has been in N6555J. Like most trainers, she has a few quirks which I'd gotten used to. Unfortunately, she was unavailable and I ended up in N180TA, which I hadn't flown in probably 2-3 months. I was concerned about that as the avionics suites are quite different and 180TA handles a bit differently due to the long range tanks and some other oddities between the two. For example, 55J's artificial horizon is actually off a bit and a level horizon on the gauge will actually get you a slow right turn. I had to remember not to compensate for that today.

So I arrive at the FBO and, what do you know, the weather computer is on the blink. Last METARs, TAFS, etc. are 5 hours old. My instructor reboots it, but still no dice. Looks to me like weather blocking the satellite signal. The clouds look really thick, dark and nasty. We do the necessary forms and some last minute review of key topics and then my instructor must bail out for King Air ground school. He goes to Charter service in a week or so, and I'm feeling some pressure to get this done before I lose him. After he leaves, I'm getting my ducks in a row when I realize he hasn't made my log endorsement and didn't sign the back of the FAA application. Uh-oh. Well, nothing to be done about it now; perhaps I can catch him after the oral if the DE doesn't mind.

At 10 AM, as scheduled, the DE shows up and after finding the weather computer out has me just go and call FSS anyway. He likes to do his landings and takeoffs over at Clinton County, an uncontrolled field on the NY side of Lake Champlain so that's what I've planned. They're reporting ceilings at 3300 with light rain and winds from the southwest at 9 knots. The briefer suggests, when prodded, that he thinks things are going to deteriorate by afternoon but doesn't really give a timeframe. The DE takes this all in and asks me what I'd like to do. Uh-oh, key decision here. Will he think I'm too aggressive or too wimpy? I don't much like the forecast either, but my schedule and the DEs have been tough to get together, so I ask if he can get me in again before December 9, when I have to travel to Florida for business until Christmas Eve. He cannot accommodate that. We decide to go outside and eyeball the sky ourselves and after a minute or two of that, he says "Tell ya what, let's go fly now before it gets worse. We'll get up and take a look and if we don't like it, we'll just come back." Sounds good to me, so off we go.

I preflight with him kind of just hanging around. He tosses out the occasional question about why I'm checking this or that, but he generally just observes. We need fuel and oil, contrary to what I'd been told, so I get that taken care of and we hop in. He seems pleased that I take the time to make sure I have charts, plotter, E6B etc. easily available to me. I ask if he'd like a passenger briefing, and he would, so I run through that using a script I'd prepared and practiced - Operating the seat belts and doors, hands off controls, emergency procedures and my requirement for a sterile cockpit during takeoffs and landings. He mentions that he explicitly warns his passengers not to brace on the yoke or pedals during a crash. We do a normal startup and runup check. I talk through everything, so I think I cut off some of his questions simply by reciting the mag drop limits, etc. I call for clearance to Clinton County VFR and am directed to runway 19, holding short of 15 on taxiway Alpha. That's a pretty normal light-plane departure here at BTV. I'm careful to note the winds and make sure I'm holding proper control positions as we taxi, so he has nothing to complain about there :^) As we taxi, he describes the procedure he will follow - takeoffs and landings at Clinton County, hood work and