Checkride - Brainfart and Full Rundown

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brooklyn26point2

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brooklyn26point2
It was all going so well. Oral went smoothly, weather was essentially perfect, picked up the first few checkpoints of the x-c without an issue, and then the wheels came off. The DPE gave me the diversion, and I was ON it. I'm in the zone, I had my heading, distance, time, and fuel burn within a minute - except that my heading was off by 30 degrees. I used the "match the two points with a pencil and then move it to a compass rose" strategy, and did one of two things: either read a 6 as a 9 (should've been heading around 060, ended up going to 090) or I twisted the pencil. Either way, I was far enough off that I never got to the airport (I thought i found it; it turned out to be a road). He gave me time to find my way around, but it didn't help. I'd gotten myself so far into a "where the hell am i, what's going on here?" mode that all common sense became lost. Didn't use the nearest VOR properly (was so convinced I knew where I was that I ignored what it was telling me) and I failed to notice the victor airway with a nice, published magnetic heading that was going DIRECTLY to my diversion airport. While I hate failing anything, it's even worse when it's entirely out of stupidity. So, checkride busted. Oh well - worse things have happened.

I glued the wheels back on for the rest of the ride. He let me continue with everything else, which all went well. Stalls were smooth; normal and soft-field landings were as greased as they've been. For all the time I've spent working on and struggling with the technical stuff; it's hard to fail it for something so simple.

DPE was a wonderfully nice guy, and hit me with his hat afterward for making him fail me. He used every opportunity he had to teach (especially in the debriefing) and I learned a lot from my few hours with him.

for those getting ready to take their exam that want the "what did they cover" rundown, here it is:

Oral:
*all the documents you and the plane need to be legal
*currency requirements
* based on the flight plan, everything about the airspace (entry requirements, weather minima)
* aerodynamics
*weight and CG, including load factors
* weather sources (briefly)

Flight:
He gave me a preflight briefing, which was largely - BE SITUATIONALLY AWARE. Do clearing turns before everything, look around -above all else, be safe!

* He joined for part of the preflight inspection, and asked questions along the way. Nothing too crazy
* Gave him a quick preflight briefing, and off we went.
* first takeoff was normal, wind calm
* Hit first 3 checkpoints right on time, then got diversion. See above description of how that went to hell
* Hood work and Unusual Attitudes
* Slow flight
* Stalls
* Steep Turns
*Engine Out. He put me right over an airport and did it; I chose a field a little farther away since I could see it.
* Turn around a point
* Headed back to home airport for performance takeoffs and landings.
 
Sorry , good that you finished,now go back and do it right.
 
Bummer....but you'll ace it next time, I bet!

Get back on the horse.
 
not sure why but I'm a lil nervous about the diversion portion as well. anyways, it sounds like you got 1 thing wrong out of like 100 (between the oral and checkride) so try not to beat ur self up too bad, I'm pretty sure it could happen to any one of us. the good news is that now when u retake it, I think you'll ONLY do the XC/diversion, so you can be fully focused on that. and then you'll have ur PPL ASEL and hopefully you can look back on this (eventually) and laugh about it :)
 
Oh well... Remember, all those lines are either 0°/180° or 9°/270°, always take a moment when you have it all figured out to look at the chart and think, "Does this look right?" and then verify it if possible.
 
I had the same issue on my diversion, I even knew where the DPE liked to divert.

He called it, and all my brain power instantly went to mush. Thankfully, I found a road to follow, and some conservative estimations and he was happy.

You will knock it out next time, schedule it sooner than later.

brooklyn26point2 said:
It was all going so well. Oral went smoothly, weather was essentially perfect, picked up the first few checkpoints of the x-c without an issue, and then the wheels came off. The DPE gave me the diversion, and I was ON it. I'm in the zone, I had my heading, distance, time, and fuel burn within a minute - except that my heading was off by 30 degrees. I used the "match the two points with a pencil and then move it to a compass rose" strategy, and did one of two things: either read a 6 as a 9 (should've been heading around 060, ended up going to 090) or I twisted the pencil. Either way, I was far enough off that I never got to the airport (I thought i found it; it turned out to be a road). He gave me time to find my way around, but it didn't help. I'd gotten myself so far into a "where the hell am i, what's going on here?" mode that all common sense became lost. Didn't use the nearest VOR properly (was so convinced I knew where I was that I ignored what it was telling me) and I failed to notice the victor airway with a nice, published magnetic heading that was going DIRECTLY to my diversion airport. While I hate failing anything, it's even worse when it's entirely out of stupidity. So, checkride busted. Oh well - worse things have happened.

I glued the wheels back on for the rest of the ride. He let me continue with everything else, which all went well. Stalls were smooth; normal and soft-field landings were as greased as they've been. For all the time I've spent working on and struggling with the technical stuff; it's hard to fail it for something so simple.

DPE was a wonderfully nice guy, and hit me with his hat afterward for making him fail me. He used every opportunity he had to teach (especially in the debriefing) and I learned a lot from my few hours with him.

for those getting ready to take their exam that want the "what did they cover" rundown, here it is:

Oral:
*all the documents you and the plane need to be legal
*currency requirements
* based on the flight plan, everything about the airspace (entry requirements, weather minima)
* aerodynamics
*weight and CG, including load factors
* weather sources (briefly)

Flight:
He gave me a preflight briefing, which was largely - BE SITUATIONALLY AWARE. Do clearing turns before everything, look around -above all else, be safe!

* He joined for part of the preflight inspection, and asked questions along the way. Nothing too crazy
* Gave him a quick preflight briefing, and off we went.
* first takeoff was normal, wind calm
* Hit first 3 checkpoints right on time, then got diversion. See above description of how that went to hell
* Hood work and Unusual Attitudes
* Slow flight
* Stalls
* Steep Turns
*Engine Out. He put me right over an airport and did it; I chose a field a little farther away since I could see it.
* Turn around a point
* Headed back to home airport for performance takeoffs and landings.
Click to expand...
 
Jumping back on the horse tomorrow. Also, based out of Northeast Philly.

And eman1200, don't be nervous. just do a few of them soon before your ride and you'll be FINE. it becomes muscle memory.
 
hey brooklyn you have a good attitude about it, and you're from brooklyn thats even crazier! I was born there have family there, and there all the time. Curious where did you fly out of?

And you sound like your going to go out within a few days and just do your last few things with DPE and pass! Congrats on getting this far do not worry which it sounds like your not you'll clearly pass next time and you will be a PILOT and that'll be that whats a few more days after training.

I fly out of monmouth Executive in Belmar NJ
 
Think of it this way. You just paid a little extra for a great "mock" checkride." :D

Seriously though, good use of monies already spent. At least you'll know exactly what to expect next time. I often hear about busted check rides where the frustrated pilot-to-be just hands over the controls. As my Mentor put it, there are no failures, just extra practices.
 
Sorry to hear this but you will pass next time. Does your plane have a GPS? I used the nearest airports function on the Garmin 430 which really helped a lot after finding the airport on my chart for the diversion. Still was the challenging part of the entire checkride.
 
Henning and marc - yep, I fly out of Hortman (at PNE)

And marc - I took the exam with Joe Miller. Can't say enough nice things about him.
 
skynewbie said:
Sorry to hear this but you will pass next time. Does your plane have a GPS? I used the nearest airports function on the Garmin 430 which really helped a lot after finding the airport on my chart for the diversion. Still was the challenging part of the entire checkride.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the encouragement. Nope, no GPS.
 
I didn't get lost on my checkride but the DPE did quiz me as to what I'd do if I was lost right NOW. And I told him that if I couldn't figure it out with pilotage and my sectional, I'd tune in the two nearest VORs to figure out where I would be at.
 
LandSickness said:
Think of it this way. You just paid a little extra for a great "mock" checkride." :D

Seriously though, good use of monies already spent. At least you'll know exactly what to expect next time. I often hear about busted check rides where the frustrated pilot-to-be just hands over the controls. As my Mentor put it, there are no failures, just extra practices.
Click to expand...

thanks - Yeah, that was my thought process. Was frustrated, but (a) I was already in the plane (b) the weather was too good to pass up, and (c) I didn't want to have to block out another whole day for this.
 
Sorry to hear about your brain freeze. You'll get it done next time.

Joe is good guy. Funny thing is, on my ride I started fumbling with the chart to do the work for the diversion and he says "why dont you just use the GPS"
 
The best part about mistakes in a safe environment is that you learn from them without harming yourself. Bet you won't make that mistake again...

You'll get 'er done next time.
 
eman1200 said:
not sure why but I'm a lil nervous about the diversion portion as well.
Click to expand...
I've taken students like that out and done an hour or more of diversion drills -- "Take off and head north", then "OK, take me to XYZ" which is 12-15 miles away in another direction. When the trainee sees and correctly points out the airport, it's "OK, take me to PQR", and so on, and so forth, until the trainee is nailing it and confident. Actually, kind of a fun afternoon in the plane -- pretty good sightseeing. I'd suggest you and the OP ask your instructors to play that game with you.

And I always save the ratty little grass airport for last. :wink2:
 
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One thing that really helped me with diversions was to pick out airports en route to the main training airport via pilotage and then try to match them to the sectional chart. Really helped a lot.
 
You only failed the diversion, right? Sounds like everything else went swimmingly!

Without emotion, review diversions, practice them, get them right, and retake! You'll be glad you did, and we'll see you back here very soon as a PILOT!
 
Want to say thanks for posting this. I am about three weeks from my checkride, we are working on the checkride practice now.

Your post has really helped me understand that if it does not go well it is okay. I have read a great deal of posts and most talk about how great they did.

Your experience has truly reduced my stress level about the checkride and made me realize that if I do not pass on the first one that I do still live after the fact and can do it again.

Thanks for the honesty and the experience truly helps all of us that are entering that phase.
 
I got lucky. I knew the 2 places my DPE would divert too and I had practice flown my simulated XC a couple times so I had it down. Fortunately, he picked the airport that had a VOR just north of the field, so it was pretty easy to find it at that point.

Good luck - you'll do great!
 
duc750sport said:
Can you use Fore-flight on your check ride? I didn't think so..
Click to expand...

You can. And while you're JUST about to get a bearing on your diverted airport the examiner will tell you that your portable electronic device just suffered a simulated failure ;)
 
tngarner said:
Want to say thanks for posting this. I am about three weeks from my checkride, we are working on the checkride practice now.

Your post has really helped me understand that if it does not go well it is okay. I have read a great deal of posts and most talk about how great they did.

Your experience has truly reduced my stress level about the checkride and made me realize that if I do not pass on the first one that I do still live after the fact and can do it again.

Thanks for the honesty and the experience truly helps all of us that are entering that phase.
Click to expand...

No problem; glad it helped!
 
duc750sport said:
Can you use Fore-flight on your check ride? I didn't think so..
Click to expand...

:confused: Why not? It's a VFR check ride and Foreflight is a VFR tool. That said, the examiner may 'fail' your iPad (same as he could fail a GNS 750 and G-600) and you still have to be able to do your navigation without it.

Remember, the examiner is evaluating how you think probably more so than how you do. My buddy proved that a checkride can survive most any mistake as long as you catch and correct it before they do. He came within inches of doing a gear up in a Seneca on his CMEL ride, but got it out of there and passed the ride.

The main mistake that the OP made was to quit evaluating his situation.
 
brooklyn26point2 said:
I know (and I have it)! But, wasn't allowed on the ride. It should've been fine; I did all my training without using the gps.
Click to expand...

Who disallowed it, your CFI or DPE? I bet if you were on your way to your diversion and pulled out your GPS device stating "something doesn't look right", you would have passed. Getting lost wasn't what failed you, not being able to get unlost is what failed you.;)
 
Henning said:
Who disallowed it, your CFI or DPE? I bet if you were on your way to your diversion and pulled out your GPS device stating "something doesn't look right", you would have passed. Getting lost wasn't what failed you, not being able to get unlost is what failed you.;)
Click to expand...

You make a good point. I was never explicitly told I couldn't use it for the checkride (and the DPE did in fact ask if I was planning on using paper charts or foreflight before we started). And, yes, my inability to quickly figure out where in New Jersey I was became more of a problem than that I'd ended up in the wrong place. It can best be illustrated by this: :mad2:
 
brooklyn26point2 said:
You make a good point. I was never explicitly told I couldn't use it for the checkride (and the DPE did in fact ask if I was planning on using paper charts or foreflight before we started). And, yes, my inability to quickly figure out where in New Jersey I was became more of a problem than that I'd ended up in the wrong place. It can best be illustrated by this: :mad2:
Click to expand...

Oh well, live and learn. Now, here's a hypothetical, you're in Central NJ lost again, you have no electronic devices to help you find your way, your comm radio is down as well, and you have about 30 minutes of fuel left, what are you going to do?
 
Henning said:
Oh well, live and learn. Now, here's a hypothetical, you're in Central NJ lost again, you have no electronic devices to help you find your way, your comm radio is down as well, and you have about 30 minutes of fuel left, what are you going to do?
Click to expand...

I suppose I'd VOR my way out of there. Lots of VOR's on or nearby an airport within 30 minutes of anywhere in jersey.
 
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