No Pink Slip For Me

Today I took my Private Pilot FAA Practical Test.

I started out the day right getting up at 5:30am to get ready. My fiance was awesome because she got up at the same time in order to make me a good breakfast while I was getting ready. She made bacon, eggs, and waffles. Very delicious.

I showed up to the airport around 7am, before my instructor. I finished up weight and balance, performance data and cross country. The examiner was expected to show up at 8am, but he was a little bit late. I sat there and talked to my instructor in the mean time, all the while my nerves were getting the best of me.

I wasn't very nervous about the oral part of the test, but the flight part had me very much on edge. The examiner showed up, and I stood up and shook his hand, and immediately gave him his $250. He liked that.

So off to a good start already, he began going through all of the paperwork and then started asking questions. He began with questions about the sectional map and he had me go over my cross country with him. He then started asking other questions about the plane itself and he had me explain some of the maneuvers. I nailed pretty much every question right on the nose. After about 15-20 minutes of me completely owning the oral part of the exam, he decided it was time to go fly.

I went out before him and got most of the preflight inspection done. We got in the plane and I ran through the checklist and got everything set to go, went to taxi and the plane wouldn't go anywhere. I realized I had forgot to remove the chock on the wheel. I opened the door, stuck my leg out and kicked it away. I didn't think it was a big deal and it didn't really affect the safety of the flight or anything, so I wasn't too worried.

I taxied up to the runway, ran my run-up checklist and got everything ready to go. We had to wait awhile for a couple planes to land, because the airport was really busy today. He had me do a short field takeoff, which I did perfectly.

I followed my cross country course towards Parkersburg, timing my distance to each of my checkpoints. After my second checkpoint, which was the town of Salem, WV, he had me calculate my ground speed and then he diverted me to Buckhannon. That was fairly difficult because Buckhannon airport was on the other side of the fold in my map. So I had to unfold the map all the way and it took up the entire cockpit. I found the distance and the heading and calculated time enroute using my previously calculated ground speed. Afterwards, he quickly helped me clean up the cockpit and get my map out of the way. All was well.

He then told me to exchange the controls while I put on the IFR Hood to do some instrument maneuvers. He had me do a 180 degree turn, which he counted as a clearing turn. I did climbs and descents and turns under the hood. He then did unusual attitude recovery. I did not have a problem with any instrument maneuvers.

He then had me do steep turns. I started with one to the right, and I accidentally descended below PTS standards on altitude. I told him that I knew that I did not bump in enough power and that I would like to do it again. He said not to worry about it and to do a steep turn to the left this time. He covered my instruments with a clipboard so I could not tell if I was losing or gaining altitude. I used the trick the chief flight instructor of the school taught me to fly a steep turn with hands off, and I listened to hear if the plane was speeding up or slowing down. If the sound of wind going past gets quieter, it means I'm losing speed and therefore climbing, and vice versa. I did well even though I couldn't see my instruments.

Then he had me enter slow flight which took me a little longer than usual to get set up, but I did. I did two 90 degree turns in slow flight and then a power off stall. He suggested I use more rudder to help maintain heading during the maneuver. I then did a power on stall which I didn't have any trouble with. In order to get down from 4500 to 2500 for ground reference maneuvers, he had me pull the power out, pitch for best glide, and slip the whole way down. I did slips to the left and right. As we descended below 3000, the air got extremely rough. Turbulence was horrible.

We then flew down towards Weston where he had me do turns around a point around a red hangar on a private airfield. He then failed my engine at only 1000 feet above the ground, so I had to run through my checks very quickly and lined up the plane to land at this small private airport. As I was getting closer I turned to him and said, "Did you want me to land here?" He said "Yep." As I got my flaps in and was coming in to land, he told me to go around and I did. I thought it was strange he would have me land at a private airport without prior permission. He then told me to head back towards Clarksburg. All this was done with the worst turbulence I have ever flown in.

On the way back to the airport, we received the ATIS broadcast, which reported winds at the airport of 260 degrees at 15 knots. This is a pretty decent crosswind. He asked me to do a regular landing first to get a good idea of how bad the winds were. I went full flaps, got the plane lined up, and then it drifted away from the center line a bit. I still managed to touch down on the upwind wheel first. He then had me takeoff immediately with a soft field takeoff, which was also very difficult with a crosswind, but I pulled it off and he said it was a good soft field takeoff.

I then did a soft field landing. Soft field landings are the main maneuver I was concerned with doing well on this flight. Now I had to do them in a bad crosswind also. I pulled it off, though. It wasn't the best soft field landing, but he said it was good considering the conditions. I then did a normal crosswind takeoff.

For the last landing, I had to do a no flaps landing. This would be easier, since you are supposed to land with no flaps whenever a bad crosswind is present. I landed just fine, once again with the upwind wheel first. I did apparently have a bad habit of straightening the wheel as soon as I land, and he told me I needed to keep the crosswind correction in from where I already had the upwind wing low in the flare.

I then started taxiing back. I ran my after landing check- flaps up, lights off, transponder on standby- and we pulled up behind a King Air that was waiting to takeoff. Just sitting on the taxiway with hands off the controls, you could watch the yoke shift back and forth and in and out, which is the result of the wind blowing the control surfaces of the plane all over the place. That's how bad the winds were gusting. While we were waiting, he said, "You did pretty good considering how bad the wind was..."

So I asked, "Does that mean I passed?"

A nice big smile and warm feeling came over me when I heard him say, "Yep."

We went back inside, he did the paperwork, and I got my Temporary Airmen Certificate. My instructor was happy, I was happy and my mom, dad, and fiance were very happy. My fiance even got me a congratulations cake (which she ordered before she even knew if I had passed). She has been awesome to me through this major event in my life and I couldn't have done it without her.



No pink slip for me!

Now to start instrument...