The Check-ride

I passed! Now I am officially a Private Pilot.

The last few days have been pretty stressful. Over the weekend I filled out my application online at the IACRA site. This helps by processing the certification faster than by mail. It was nice to have all of my logbook entries online at www.logshare.com. I was able to get the calculations needed much faster.

Yesterday, I had to plan the cross country required including weight and balance calculations. It was a long day because I was up at 4am to support a new software installation for my job. I worked until 2pm yesterday, and then attempted to get some sleep. An hour later I was up again. I spent the rest of the night preparing the cross-country and the weight and balance calculations.

The cross-country had three legs: Madison County Executive (MDQ) to Nashville International (BNA) to Chattanooga (CHA) and back to Madison County. I knew that I would not have to fly the cross-country; however, I planned it just as if I was really going to take the trip. It took me a few hours to plan everything to the 'T'. I wanted to make sure everything looked great for the examiner. I then prepared the weight and balance calculations for each leg. By the time I was done and getting ready for bed, it was almost Midnight. I was hoping to be done and relax for an hour or so before "hitting the sack" at 10pm that night. Unfortunately that did not happen.

The next morning I was out of bed by 7am. I checked the weather and saw something I did not want to see: strong gusty winds. I hoped for the best and left in time to arrive at LZU by 9am. Usually it takes 15 to 20 minutes to get to LZU from my house, but this morning it took 45 minutes due to construction. When I arrived, I noticed that the Cessna 172R I rented for my check-ride was not on the ramp. In the office I saw that someone had rented the plane and would not be returning it until 10am. My instructor and I had planned on being in the air at 10am.

My instructor arrived at 9:40am. We collected all of the items needed for our trip and waited for the plane to come back. By 10am, the renter had not returned the airplane. Now I was getting worried about being late. We added some padding to the time for just such unexpected situations. My check-ride was scheduled for 1:00pm Central Time. We figured that the flight out to MDQ would take an hour and a half, so we needed to depart by 11am. Finally, the renter arrived with the airplane. We checked out the airplane, verified that we had everything needed, and headed out to MDQ.

By this time my stress level was high, I had little sleep, and was worried about the strong winds. After reaching our cruising altitude of 4,500 feet, we used the GPS to set our course and activated the autopilot. With the autopilot flying the plane, I relaxed a little while just concentrating on watching out for traffic and looking at the scenery. Our ground speed was only 90 knots or so due to the strong headwinds.

On the way over, we found that one of the VOR instruments was not working. It was a good thing we checked. Luckily the second VOR was working fine. I also had to reset the directional gyro (DG) more often than normal. Things were not looking good.

After an hour and a half, I had MDQ in sight and retrieved the weather information from the station at the field. The runway at MDQ is 36/18 - a North-South runway. The wind was reported from 270 degrees (due West) at 12 knots gusting to 20 knots. I thought, "Great. There's a direct crosswind. This should be interesting." I entered the pattern and was heavily crabbed into the wind on final approach. As I crossed the threshold, I aligned the plane with the center line keeping my upwind wing low with a lot of left rudder to keep straight. I did a text book crosswind landing according to my instructor. It was a challenge with the gusting wind, but my training had paid off.

We arrived an hour early, but the examiner was already there, so I was able to start my exam early. This examiner has given nearly 8,000 check-rides! He has over 40,000 hours of time and has been flying for 50 years. He is very knowledgeable when it comes to aviation. He also has a lot of stories to tell. I was lucky to get to hear a few.

As he prepared the paperwork, he gave my two written exams: one on airspace and one on airport markings and signs. I had studied enough to know the answers backwards and forwards, so it did not take me long to finish the tests. I did not miss a single question. He said I was the 29th student to not miss a question on either test in the past 10 years. He then asked a variety of questions to check my knowledge of the airplane systems, regulations, and other questions. I answered every question correctly. He then started to ask me odd questions that I never came across in my studies. He gave me a situation where the fuel tank vent was clogged, but you did not figure this out until you were already in the air and the engine starts to sputter. He hinted that there is a way to vent the fuel tank from within the cockpit. I thought about it, wondering what he was referring to. I knew that one of the fuel sumps was under the wing right outside of the window. From his answer, you can take the fuel sample cup, stick your arm out of the window, and sump the fuel to let air into the tank. Apparently, he had that situation happen to a friend of his and that's exactly what he had to do. There's some practical advice you will not find in a training book!

Next, the examiner reviewed my cross-country and asked my questions about items on the sectional chart. He reviewed my weight and balance calculations and my weather briefing. He liked my detailed planning. He told me, "If you can fly as well as you answer knowledge questions and plan cross-countries, this will be an easy exam."

Finally, the oral part was over. He asked me to get an updated weather briefing then pre-flight the plane. I walked into the lobby for a second just to overhear a local pilot talking with the employees there about where he was going today. I then headed outside to get my bottled water that I had left in the plane. As I was outside, I could feel the wind pushing on me. After grabbing the almost empty water bottle, I started walking back to the building and noticed the windsock was completely straight out and indicating a direct crosswind. I opened my hand that was holding the water bottle, but the bottle did not fall. The wind was so strong; it was holding the bottle against my hand. As I entered the lobby again, the same pilot I had overheard earlier was walking back in with his bag and saying "There's no way I'm flying in this wind!" Now I was getting concerned.

I went to the briefing room and collected the latest weather. The winds aloft were about the same. The surface winds however were stronger than when I first arrived. The wind was now from 260 degrees at 17 knots gusting to 24 knots. My instructor kept saying "You'll do fine." The maximum demonstrated crosswind for the C-172R is 15 knots. You can land in more than this, but it is not recommended for safety reasons. There was no turning back at this point, though.

As I was checking the fuel during the pre-flight, the fuel was spraying towards me due to the wind blowing. I had to move off to the side to keep from getting fuel in my eyes. I kept telling myself that I could do this, and had a very capable pilot with me just in case I could not. Soon after, I was on my way to the runway for takeoff.

The very first thing I had to do was a soft-field takeoff. That was interesting with a near 17 knot crosswind. It was a little rough since I had never performed a soft-field takeoff with strong winds. I did alright though, and proceeded to follow the departure procedure the examiner gave me on the ground.

I tracked a VOR radial first. I then had to use pilotage and ded-reckoning to fly the first leg of my cross-country course. I had to calculate my ground speed in the air using my manual E6B. He then had me divert to Fayetteville airport. As I approached I noticed the windsock indicated a direct crosswind. The examiner simulated an engine failure at this point. I went through my checklist and set up to land at Fayetteville. I then had to perform a forward slip to the left followed by a forward slip to the right.

As I was about to touchdown, I had to do a go-around. I then performed a short-field landing, a short-field takeoff, then a soft-field landing. I felt better after doing excellent on the soft-field landing.

After the landings I had to perform turns-around-a-point and S-turns. I did those without much of a problem -- even with the 20 knots winds.

I then had to wear the hood and perform all of the simulated instrument flying necessary for the exam. This included unusual attitudes. I did fine on all of these.

I removed the hood and performed slow flight after doing clearing turns. From slow flight, I did a power-off stall. Then the examiner asked me to perform a turning power on stall with a 20-degree bank to the right. During my training, I had performed a turning power-on stall once, but I knew exactly what to do and pulled it off without a problem. Finally, I did my steep turns -- first to the right, then to the left. Again I received complements from the examiner on my performance.

At the end of the check-ride, the examiner made me put on the hood again so that I would have to fly by instruments only. He was simulating getting stuck in IFR conditions. He was ATC telling me what headings to fly, at what speed, and decent rate. He had me fly all the way to touchdown by instruments only. That was pretty exciting!

On the ground, he said if I could get him to the ramp safely, I pass. Of course I did, so I passed. I was happy it was over.

Afterwards, we finished up the paperwork required. He then gave me my temporary pilot certificate. I should be getting the permanent one in three weeks or less. I still could not believe that it was over. It was like finally graduating from college.

My instructor and I departed at 6pm EST for our flight back -- my first flight as a Private Pilot. I felt great for accomplishing something that only 1/2 of 1% of the population has accomplished.

This is only the beginning. The training continues, but the teacher will be experience. Once I gain some time and get checked out in some other airplane types, I'll make the goal of getting my Instrument Rating. Until then, I'll enjoy all the VFR flying I can.