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PRIVATE PILOT CHECKRIDE |
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I woke up at about 5 am to prepare my weather for the flight. My DE, Bobby Baldock, had me plan a cross-country from Mesa, AZ to Santa Catalina Island, CA. I was a bit surprised to see that he wanted me to plan a flight so far away, but it gave him the chance to really see that I knew my stuff. After planning the current day’s winds and weather I did a bit of final studying. My dad showed up about 6:30 or so and we went over everything I needed for the test. My gut was in an uproar! I have never been so nervous about something. We headed off to Falcon Field. I got the airframe and engine logs from dispatch to go over them before the DE arrived. The DE arrived on time and he met me in the testing room. My dad/instructor was with me and stayed throughout the oral exam. We went over the basics… personal info, paperwork and of course the $300 DE fee. After that the DE said we’d begin the oral portion of the test. He started off by asking me about airframe and engine logs and inspections. He asked about all the FAR’s regarding maintenance and compliance with AD’s. He asked what documents are required to be in the aircraft during operation. Using the “AROW” acronym I fired back the answer without delay. He then proceeded to ask me about the weather reports for the planned trip. I had printed out the weather from DUAT the night before and highlighted any areas of concern. Overall the weather was beautiful and made planning easy. After he was sure I knew the weather was good for our trip he asked me to pull out the charts and flight log. I was very proud of my flight log. I had spent 5 hours preparing it the day before. 5 hours may seem like a lot but I wanted to be extra thorough, plus I learned a few things just by being extra vigilant. I chose to transition west through PHX class B and proceed to Buckeye VOR. My DE was surprised to see that I planned it that way. He said that most people seem to avoid Class B like the plague. I told him while it may be a bit intimidating I see no reason to avoid it. Besides the more you do it the less you will be afraid of it. During the planning of the flight I chose to use visual landmarks as well as VOR navigation. My flight log had a checkpoint listed for every landmark I chose and times and distances were calculated. He then pointed to several sectional chart symbols and asked if I knew what they were. I nailed every symbol perfectly. That’s certainly one thing I would suggest…. Know your chart symbology. It will really impress your DE. After the charts we briefly went over the weight and balance calculations and performance calculations. A few questions later he said, “Let’s go fly”. By this time I had a feel for him and was beginning to feel much better. I got the keys to N734TW and headed out to the ramp. I began the preflight on the plane just about the time the DE was walking up. I proceeded to explain what I was looking at and why. As I neared the front of the plane to check the oil he began to BS with me about flying and why I decided to become a pilot. I answered his questions and as I was talking I noticed he leaned on the prop and turned it a bit. At first I though maybe he did it by accident so I said nothing, but then he casually did it again, all the while trying to distract me by talking to me. I immediately stopped him and said if I saw someone turning the prop I would tell them to stop and remind them that it was very unsafe to do so. The DE smiled and chuckled and said “OK… sounds good to me” We both kinda chuckled. It felt weird cause I knew he knew not to do that and I knew I knew not too, but to see him do it was just funny. Anyhow, I then finished the preflight… he asked a few goofy questions like, “what are those bolts right there by the rudder”. They were the rudder limit stop bolts. He asked a couple questions about DME and Xponder antennas and the pre-flight was complete. It was time to hop in and face the challenge! My heart was racing, but at the same time I was mentally ready. I conducted the engine start checklist, fired up, got ATIS and taxied out. I demonstrated proper ground movement and safety because ground control instructed me to look out for a Mooney that was going to cross my path. I looked in the proper direction, found the Mooney and adjusted my taxi speed to fall behind it. I noticed his head gave an approving nod. As we approached the run-up area I noticed an A-Star helicopter on the ground with the blades spinning. I told him I would keep an eye on the craft and if it lifted off and flew over the run-up area I may elect to slow down or stop to allow the wake to clear. Again, he gave a smile and approving nod. We completed the run up and he instructed me to do a normal take-off. I called Tower and requested clearance for a right downwind departure. Tower gave back a “position and hold” clearance to which I read back properly. Tower also stated a Warrior was on left base for the runway I was on. I saw the Warrior as I taxied onto 4R. The airport was VERY busy and radio chatter was frequent. I sat there holding on 4R for a few moments longer than I though was normal… I decided I should let tower know I’m on the runway. “Tower, 4TW is holding on 4R for take-off” Tower came back with a “4TW cleared for IMMEDIATE departure runway 4R, traffic is Warrior on short final” I told tower we were rolling. It was busy enough that the tower forgot I was on the runway. My DE said what I did was an excellent move. He said he was just about to key the mike and inquire as to what was going on. He said when I did it first he knew I really knew my stuff and was keen on situational awareness… He said lots of guys would just sit there fat dumb and happy waiting for a take off clearance. I was secretly grinning inside. We proceeded on with the flight and I requested clearance into PHX class B. It must have been busy because we were told to remain VFR and we were not cleared to enter. We went another 5 minutes or so and I told the DE we ought to just skirt outside the class B because they seem busy. He agreed. I then referenced my terminal chart to verify the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the class B. I explained to him how I decided to navigate around it. We passed over the first checkpoint on time and changed course towards checkpoint 2. About 5 minutes after course change he told me that we needed to divert. He showed me were he wanted to go on the map. I pulled out my plotter and figured out the new course. The new airport, Grand Valley, was about 90 degrees left at about 21 miles. It was a small uncontrolled strip that had a 50' x 3000' paved runway. I told him I would have gotten on with Prescott FSS and told them of my diversion. It was about half way to the diversion airport when I became a bit lost. It’s amazing how you can become slightly lost even in an area you know and on a course you just plotted. Especially since the visibility was only about 10 miles. I think it was the nervousness also. I had inadvertently begun to fly a course to a VOR by flying the needle on the FROM side. It was only about 3 minutes later when I noticed I was going the wrong direction. It took me a minute to figure out what I had just done. I felt a little dumb, but I did manage to find the airport within 5 minutes. Once I called the airport in sight he gave an approving grin and said "I wondered if you would catch that. You did good, that's what I like to see...." We broke off from the field and did some steep turns, stalls and instrument maneuvers before going back to the field for take-off's and landings. Those went well. He commented that they were excellent and I was flying at commercial pilot standards. That definitely made me feel better! I even shocked myself when I didn't lose even 20 feet, pegged the speed at 90 kts. and rolled out exactly on heading during the steep turns. He then told me to perform a short field landing. There was a pretty good crosswind from the left which was good because it took care of that maneuver as well. After the short field was a soft field, followed by short and soft field take offs. They were all pretty good except the soft field landing. I locked up the mains for a split second.... My DE jokingly made a reference to the POH calling for "Maximum Braking" and said I certainly did do the maximum part. We both chuckled. We didn't even do any ground reference maneuvers but I'm sure it was due to the fact that there were some good crosswinds at the field which would obviously prove whether or not I could do them. After the pattern maneuvers he said let’s go back to Falcon. I let out a silent sigh of relief. I knew so far everything was good. We just chatted for about 10 minutes on the way back about all sorts of stuff. The guy was just plain cool! I flew the Willie VOR (IWA) back to Mesa and called up Falcon for a touch and go. My DE said all he needed to see was a slip to landing and a go-around. I performed a slip to about 20 feet off the deck when he yelled “there’s a cow on the runway” I laughed a little as I powered up for the go around…. Thinking, why do instructors always say there’s a cow on the runway when you do a go-around??? How often have you seen a cow on a runway that just appears from nowhere???!!
We then did a full stop landing and taxied back for
parking. It was over! Now that I look back I realize I shouldn’t have been so nervous. It was actually a very fun ride! Plus, I learned a few tricks. I’m so glad to be a private pilot!
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