I went to Sheble Aviation to prepare for, and receive my check ride. I spent four days there, being drilled from sun up to sun down at a cost of around $1,500.00 if I recall correctly. They furnished the DPE, who I had to pay another $400.00 in cash for the check ride, which lasted the better part of the day.
Prior to that I had over four years of flight training with one school and two private instructors.
Sheble drilled me on the ground portion for the better part of a day, with two of their instructors trying to make me miss at least one question....they didn't.
I had never flown a high wing, and that is all that was available for the test. The bulk of my time spent with Sheble was in the air, becoming familiar with a C-172. Being a mono vision pilot, I had trouble getting used to landing the 172 since one eyed people rely more on shapes & perspective rather than hight above the ground, although that is used as well, but not to the degree that full vision people do.
So it does take folks like me a little more time to get used to judging hight from different airplanes.
My very first air task with Eddy, after the nit picking paperwork portion and drilling, was to navigate and fly to a long dirt landing strip in the desert. I had never landed on a soft sand strip in my life. I found the strip on my first attempt, which was not easy, since it is the identical color of all the surrounding terrain, and I executed a perfect landing and taxi the full length of it, which was a long desert strip. I kept the nose wheel off the ground the entire length.
We did a full stop and went into the restaurant where Eddy spent several hours continuation of the ground portion. I then worked up a flight plan to another airport, and executed a perfect run up and take off from the sand strip. About a third of the way, he had me execute a diversion. Then he ran me through all the maneuvers, unusual attitudes, etc. He then had me divert one more time to Bullhead City class D airport. Make an approach and land to a full stop. We taxied back and took off again. He then did the emergency engine out, which I passed again. He then had me take us back to Sheble, about ten miles south.
Anyway you look at it, it was a full and complete check ride.
All of this nonsense only adds to my belief that our dependency on bureaucracies with their overall incompetence, along with their total inability to use reasonable judgment, is what is eventually going to lead this nation to it's own destruction. It is not just the FAA, it is all of them. Millions of people doing nothing more than busy work to while away their lives at the expense of all those who are unfortunate enough to fall within their jurisdiction of bureaucratic power.
They are destroying industries, GA, the environment, education, as well as turning the legal system into a complete joke by overwhelming all of them in nothing more than petty regulations and redundant laws that do little or no good at all.
My, wasn't that a swell rant. I feel much better now.
-John
