The FAA Check Ride

I'm back! I apologize to my (few) readers for my web-logging hiatus. I have been "under the gun" so-to-speak in finishing by flight training. For those of you who were keeping up with my training, for your own purposes, I will give you an update and a description of its conclusion.

I stopped logging each flight as it became too tedious and repetitious to do so. The basic trajectory of my training went as follows -

There are two overarching parts to flight training - the actual flight experience and the ground instruction. The flight training itself is preparation for the practical check ride with an FAA examiner, and the ground instruction is preparation for the written FAA knowledge test as well as the oral portion of the check ride. In my case, since I had completed the ground school offered by my flight school several years ago, my instructor trusted me to study on my own to prepare for the written exam. I went through the ASA Private Pilot study guide, which contains every question and answer on the exam verbatim. Having this and other resources available made the actual exam quite easy.

The flight training was initially concerned with satisfying the various hour requirements set by the FAA for the student pilot. This included ten hours of cross-country flight, five of which were to be solo, three hours of night flight, three take-offs and landings at a towered airport, etc. After satisfying these requirements (which was a challenge in the Houston weather), my training took a more focused approach to preparing for the check ride.

The check ride contains two portions - a cross-country portion and a maneuver portion. The general tendency of examiners is to have the student set out on a cross-country flight to a predetermined location. After reaching the first checkpoint having demonstrated adequate pilotage and dead-reckoning skills, the examiner will give the student a diversion to an unknown airport. This exercise is intended to simulate a situation where the intended destination is under inclimate weather or such that would prevent the pilot from reaching it. On the diversion, the pilot is to turn in the general direction of the airport, and begin plotting a new course on the sectional chart. A general heading corrected for magnetic deviation and wind is to be calculated as well as distance, time enroute, and fuel consumption. These calculations are done with the E6B flight computer either manual or electronic. After these calculations are completed, the examiner will have the student perform steep turns at +- 10 KIAS and +- 100ft indicated altitude and enter slow-flight and demonstrate power-off and power-on stalls and recovery. At the same altitude, the student will "go under the hood" and demonstrate simulated instrument procedures including straight and level flight, standard rate turns, VOR tracking, and unusual attitude recovery. Subsequently, after descending to 1000 ft AGL, the examiner will have the student preform a series of ground-reference maneuvers such as turns-about-a-point and S-turns. At some point, the examiner will initiate a simulated emergency situation such as an engine-out. The student must demonstrate restart procedures and finding an adequate field to make the forced landing. This is a good time to demonstrate a slip-to-landing and go-around. Subsequently, the student will return to the airport to demonstrated short- and soft-field take-offs and landings. This concludes the check ride. If the student has demonstrated each section to satisfaction within the prescribed error margins, he or she will be awarded a private pilot's certificate.

I am happy to say, that I passed and am now a licensed pilot.

My checkride was a bit rough due to the weather and the fact that my examiner was easily distracted by other trivia going about in the flight school. We were barely able to make the required altitude for slow-flight and steep turns. If the ceiling was just 500 feet lower, we would have had to scrub the whole thing. The cross-country portion went well and very quick. He allowed me to home in on the Navasota VOR and even keep the Garmin 430 GPS up, though I did not use it. After I got my first check point, he gave me the diversion, which I quickly calculated, and we were on to the maneuvers. Because of the weather (I assume) he did not ask me to do all of the maneuvers. We did about 1.5 turns about a point, and no S-turns. The emergency procedure was an engine-out, which, at the advice of my instructors, I was warned would be close to a grass strip somewhere. As soon as he cut the throttle, I glanced at the GPS, and, sure enough, 9X9 was just behind me. After running through my re-start sequence, I turned the plane around and slipped into the approach and performed a go-around, satisfying three requirements at one time. That saved me a great deal of time that I needed because of the weather. As we climbed out, we noticed a funnel cloud about five miles to the west that was threatening to drop. Thankfully, it did not. Back in the pattern at Weiser, I finished up the checkride with my short-field and soft-field takeoffs and landings. My short-field landing was extremely hard - I mean, I really plopped the thing down. But, no matter, as long as I touch down within the 200 ft margin, it passes. I even cut the throttle so hard that the engine almost quit on me, I was barely able to get it restarted on taxi. My soft-field was fine, but again hard, partially do to a nasty crosswind from an impending thunderstorm to the south. We were just getting the downdrafts from that cell as we made our final landing. Because of the hard landings, I was a bit unsure of the outcome, so I was relieved to see Mr. Gandy whip out the yellow booklet of temporary airmen's certificates instead of the pink try-it-again-next-time slips. After the thunderstorm had passed, we took the customary photo, and I was off with my new pilot's license.

And that is that - now to build pilot-in-command hours here in Chicago and prepare to work on my instrument rating.

For all of you reading this who are or will be flying at MVP, drop me any questions, and I will be happy to answer them.