Ok, is the story of my checkride, while it's still fresh in my mind.
The story actually starts a month ago, when I finished up the requirements. We scheduled a checkride but then I had to leave town on business unexpectedly. Then we scheduled another and the weather was bad. We went through this process several times before we finally got to last week. During this period, I kept flying, both solo and dual with my CFI. The most remarkable thing about the last month was how it seemed like my flying skills were deteriorating on a daily basis. My landings got worse and the more I flew the worse it was. At the end of last week, I went up with CFI on one day and had some really good landings. The next day, we did the same thing and I couldn't pull off a good one. Still, he maintained his confidence in my ability to pass a checkride. (I thought he was nuts and truly questioned my skill level.)
We got it scheduled for Sunday, so I went up solo late on Saturday afternoon. My plan was to fly for a little while just to have fun, make a few landings and relax. I flew from Argyle to Glens Falls and landed with a thud. Not truly bad but not particularly pretty, either. So I went around and made another. And another. One bad landing led to another. Short field, soft field, you name it. I stayed for more than 2 hours, doing landing after landing. Eventually, they started all coming together and all getting better again. I made 23 landings in a row and then went back to Argyle.
I was nervous about the checkride but had to do the flight plan. He wanted a plan from Argyle (1C3) to Wiscasset, ME (IWI). I decided to plan a route using airports, rather than direct. I knew we wouldn't fly much of it, so airports would be easy to find and easy to handle on a checkride. My proposed route was 1C3-B01-KRUT-KLEB-KLCI-KPWM-KIWI. I'd flown 1C3-B01-KRUT twice before as part of solo and dual cross-countries, so I thought that would be ok. I planned the flight, got the winds and the weather and tried to sleep. But I couldn't sleep at all, no matter how I tried. I got up in the morning to an incredibly beautiful day. The briefer I talked to said "I can't imagine a more beautiful day to fly this route." And no wind at all!
I got to Argyle with a large cup of coffee at 11:00 AM. There was quite a lot going on outside (it's a very small airport with one grass strip) but my CFI was ready with the application and we got going. The DE is a great guy who is very professional, very meticulous and very concerned that things be done correctly and safely. We started shortly after 11:00 AM with him using a printed outline. He went through it and told me how the day would go and what the possible outcomes would be. I remember sitting there, thinking about my terrible flying skills over the last month, wondering if I'd fail on the first maneuver.
We started with questions about flying privileges and what kinds of planes I would be able to fly and what restrictions I'd have. He had a fair number of questions about regulations. Just then the phone rang and he told me that the schedule had gotten screwed up. Another instructor was coming over to do a BFR with a young pilot but we had the plane reserved and we took priority. I suggested that they could do it while we were doing the oral, so he told them that and we got back to work. We pulled out the sectional and started going over it. The other guys arrived and took the plane and left. We went over the sectional in great detail. He'd point out a feature and ask me what it was. He'd ask about airspace and regulations and how weather would affect flying in an area. He wanted to read and decode the information for an airport. Then the same thing for a VOR. He pointed to "RP" on airport descriptor and asked what it meant.
We went through this for a while and then he started going through scenarios. Suppose I'm flying here and I get low on fuel, what am I going to do? What if ATC won't give me special VFR? One scenario led to another to another. At times, I'd ask him questions. It was a very long, very relaxed conversation. He's a great guy and I truly enjoyed the oral. We went over the flight plan in detail. Then he pointed to a small private airport along the route and asked "Suppose we're flying this route, could we land there?" When I said yes, he told me to take the POH and the performance charts and prove it. He wanted to see if we could land and then take off.
It went on like this for five and a quarter hours. He wasn't charging me more, so he was actually giving me more: I was benefiting from his experience and I was enjoying the conversation.
We then did a very thorough preflight. He asked me various questions about what I was doing, but generally I simply explained every single thing I was doing. He offered only a couple of suggestions: actually tugging on the rod connected to the trim tab and sometimes opening up the engine hatch and looking in to verify that there is nothing that looks suspicious in there.
Then it was time for flight portion. I took off and turned on my first heading. I had decided on 7,500', so we were climbing. He had asked for my first two checkpoints: heading and time to the checkpoint. As we were nearing B01, I started to panic a bit because all of the colorful leaves were making it hard to find. I'm continuing to look and to use the chart to find it and finally I spot it. Phew! (It turns out that he used to instruct there.
) I say "we should be over it in 2 minutes." He looked at his watch and said "that would be right on time." Yes! We get there and he asked what altitude we were heading for. I said 7,500' and we were currently at 7,000' He told me to level off and asked for the heading to my next checkpoint, KRUT. I said 071 and he asked me to turn to that heading. He pointed to the mountains. Through one set of peaks, we could see Rutland, VT. Through the next set of peaks, we could see the airport: absolutely, directly where the plane was pointing. Yes! He said "Good job. Turn around and descend to 5,000."
I descend and he pulls out the foggles and has me put them on. He has me fly a heading, then turn to another while maintaining altitude. Then another turn. Then a descending turn. So far, so good. He takes the controls and asks me to look down. He flies for a while and makes various turns and changes in attitude. Then I can tell from the sound of the plane that we're going a lot faster. Suddenly he says "OK, you have the controls." I look up and we're in a steep turning descent, with rapidly increasing airspeed. I recovered immediately and smoothly and he's happy with that.
At this point, he wanted steep turns. So I demonstrate those -- using trim. I'd been practicing them both ways and then explained to him that I wasn't sure about whether it was a good idea or not. He said "let me show you." So he does a steep turn with what looks like no apparent effort at all. It was almost like he wasn't doing anything. Smooth as silk and rock steady. Then he said "You can do that, too. Let me show you." So he proceeded to walk me through exactly what he had done (no trim!) and there I was, just as steady as he had been. In two minutes of instruction, my skill with steep turns improved measurably.
As we headed over to a practice area, I asked if he knew about box canyon turns. I'd been reading about them a couple of nights before. He said he knew about box canyons but what was a box canyon turn? I described it as a steep turn at a slower speed with full flaps, to get a small radius turn. He said "that's not how I'd turn around in a small space." I asked what he'd do and he said "I'll show you." Remember that this guy is 70 years old. He takes the controls and all of sudden I'm looking straight up at sky and then the right wing is coming up and I'm looking down at the ground and then we are completely turned around and level and I'm shouting "Holy Sh__! Holy Sh__! What was THAT?" He started laughing and said "that was a wingover". I couldn't get over it and I was saying "That was the coolest thing I've ever seen!" He said "don't go trying that on your own until you get some instruction."
Then he wanted slow flight, so I demonstrated that. All the while, I'm being careful to do clearing turns and to keep my head on a swivel. He wants to see that and mentioned it at least twice during the oral. Then he wanted to see stalls and I ask which one first. He said he didn't care so I set up for a power-off stall and did that. As I did it, he said "a power-on stall is done with power on." I said, "No, I said I'd do the power-off stall first." He said, "Oh, ok, well that one was alright. " I then did a power-on stall and was careful to keep the nose perfectly straight. It stalled and dropped cleanly forward without and dipping of either wing and I recovered with barely any loss of altitude and he was happy with that. So he said "let's go to Glens Falls and do our landings."
I descend, head over there and enter the pattern. First he wanted a regular landing, so I did that and it was smooth and soft. He wanted a full stop followed by taxiing back and short-field takeoff. Then he wanted a soft-field landing which, thankfully, was like kissing the ground. Another full stop followed by a soft-field takeoff. He didn't like that as much because he thought I had the nose a little too high in the air and got out of ground effect a little too soon. He wasn't failing me on it, but rather offering tips. He also suggested using some nose-down trim to help stay in ground effect. I hadn't heard that before but I tried it today and it works. Cool.
Then he wanted a short-field landing. He said "don't land shorter than the numbers 19". I came around, came in slowly and dragged it in with a little power and landed just after the "19". That's exactly how he likes it done, where you're setting up a situation where you are going to be short and you drag it in at the end with a little power. It's how Kyle taught me to do them and it works every time if the airspeed is right. Then it was time for a crosswind landing. Glens Falls has crossing runways. But, guess what? The wind was calm. There wasn't a breeze. So no crosswind landings.
I was almost disappointed but I wasn't going to complain.
As we were coming around again, I turned crosswind to left downwind for 19 and he pulled the power. I pitched for best glide and decided to land on 19. 19 is 5000' long and I decided I might not make a full pattern, but I certainly could glide a long way down, make a base turn and land on 19 with ample to room to stop. As I'm setting up for this, he asks what runway I'm going to land on and I tell him and he says "but you've got 30 right here." I look down and agree and turn and descend. I made several S turns and was setting up to land and would have landed with plenty of room to land. However, I didn't add flaps and he told me to go around and that I had failed the maneuver.
We head south and he wanted a turn around a point. I did that and it was fine. Then he wanted a S turn and said "don't think about the emergency landing. Think about what you're doing." He could see the disappointment on my face. It was close to seven hours at this point. I'd finished my cup of coffee at 11:00 am and it was now 6:00 pm. I'd had nothing more to eat or drink and was working on three hours of sleep -- all excuses but true, nonetheless -- and I made a truly lousy S turn.
He laughed and said "That was really awful!" I laughed and agreed and he told me to do another and I did and it wasn't much better so we went back to Argyle. He said "As long as you have to go up with Kyle for an emergency landing, let's have you do another S turn." Then, as we're sitting on the ground, he turned to me and said "I know you're disappointed, but there is a lot of good news here. You fly the plane beautifully. You're fly it safely and you exercise good judgment. We'll get you through this in short order. Let's see if we can get Kyle here in the morning." It was 6:15 pm, 7 hours and fifteen minutes after I started.
I headed home with the notice of disapproval and called Kyle. He said that he could meet me at 9:00 am. We met and talked for a while. I was still exhausted because last night all I could think of was that failing a checkride the SECOND time would really start to look bad. But we took off and found a straight road. It was another day without any wind. I did an S turn and it was fine. So he asked for another and it was fine, too. So he said "they're fine. Just do one like that for him and you'll be past that."
Argyle is out in the middle of farm land and small hills, so there are fields everywhere. As I was climbing through 1,700', he pulled the power. I looked down, chose a field and headed down. Seven emergency landings later, he was satisfied that all was well on that front, too and we headed back. We were crossing the field at 1C3 at 2,100' as I banked the plane to look down at the windsock. As I was in the middle of peering down, he pulled the power. I looked at him and said "you're going to give me a heart attack!" But I circled down and came in for what would have been a nice emergency landing. He asked for a go around and we did three power-off 180s from abeam the numbers. All worked out just fine. So he said he was satisfied and to land. We met Dick, got the logbook signed and the paperwork taken care of and then Dick and I were off.
I told him there was a straight road nearby and he said that would be fine. So I headed back to the same road, made an S turn and he said "Much better!" He then asked me to climb to 1,700 and fly south. As we were flying, he reached over and pulled the power. Ironically, we were over a field I had just used for an emergency landing with Kyle 30 minutes before. So once again, I circled down, added flaps (!!!!!) and came in for what would have been really a good landing. He was happy, said "OK, you've passed the test, let's go home".
As we were climbing, he pointed to an island in the Hudson River with a small, short grass strip and asked if I'd ever landed there. I said no, so he said "this isn't part of the test. Let's go have fun." So we went over, flew overhead, came around and landed. There was no wind, so we just turned the plane around in place and took off in the direction we had just come from. It was fun
As we were going back, I thanked him. I told him that I knew he had been working on my behalf and I appreciated it. I told him that I thought of this as just the beginning of my learning and said "the more I learn about flying, the more I realize how much I don't know." His response was "Yes, but you've got a damned fine foundation." Cool.
You're welcome.
