Am I Ready?

Today I took my final stage check with the school's chief flight instructor in order to ensure that I am ready for my Private Pilot Checkride. The stage three check is intended to simulate an actual checkride in every way possible in order to properly prepare me.

He started with the oral part of the test, which I didn't have any trouble with at all. I believe that my grades were a 5/5 on everything except for a couple 4/5s. I'm not nervous about my checkride oral at all. I know that I know my stuff.

Then came the practical. I started by following every single item on the checklist. I was told to do a short field takeoff. I remembered to everything including starting my time. As I intercepted my course, I looked at the stopwatch and it had not actually started. Thankfully I had asked for the actual time from his watch and wrote it down before takeoff.

So I did my cross country portion and was only 30 seconds off on my estimate. I then started doing maneuvers. I remembered to do clearing turns, and then I did slow flight. I didn't have any problems with slow flight or my power off stall.

Then I did steep turns. After seeing me do a couple, he decided to show me a new trick for doing steep turns. He said that all you have to do is start banking and once you reach 30 degrees, add a little bit of power and two swipes of trim. He then demonstrated that after that you can complete the steep turn almost without ever touching the yoke. Awesome.

Then I did my ground reference maneuvers which I didn't have any problems with whatsoever. Afterwards we headed back to the airport where I started with a soft field landing. He did not like the way I would play with the throttle on final. He said it would be better for me to set power and then keep it that way all the way down. My soft field landing was not very good. Neither was my soft field takeoff. I mainly had trouble keeping the plane lined up with the centerline. I then did a go around followed by a short field landing which I did excellent on.

One interesting thing that did happen was that for my last landing, tower cleared us for touch-and-go only, because there was another aircraft landing just behind us. As soon as I landed, he told me to brake and try to make the next taxiway. I said to him, "But we were only cleared for a touch and go.." He ignored me and started commandeering the controls to get the plane on the next taxiway. I stated my concerns a second time, with which he responded, "Who is the Pilot-In-Command right now?" "You..." I said. I was fairly confused as to why he disregarded ATC. I apologized for questioning his command. Then tower came over and let us have it as we were taxiing back. This all seemed fairly unusual, but whatever.

He went over my flight with me afterwards, and showed that I had gotten eight 5/5s, two 4/5s, and 5 3/5s. My overall stage grade came out to be a 4.5. I then voiced my concerns about my checkride. He said that if I fly the same way I did today, that I would most definitely pass. My brain works better with numbers, so I asked for a percentage chance. My instructor, the assistant cheif instructor, and the cheif instructor all agreed- 95% chance of passing for me.

I can only hope I don't do something stupid and fall within that 5%.

Checkride on Tuesday the 15th.

I'm very nervous.