Grum.Man
En-Route
But it wasn't without it's challenges. The final steps in the process began 2 weeks ago. Checkride was scheduled for Sunday the 21st. That Friday after work was going to be my polish up flight and filing the paperwork. 15 minutes into the flight the low voltage light comes on, the alternator isn't charging. Drop my instructor off and head the 15 miles back to my home airport and start troubleshooting. About 12 pm that Saturday I find a broken field wire. Get that replaced and meet the instructor back at the airport that afternoon. Everything goes to plan and I leave right at sunset to head back to my airport. I noticed the gear was taking a long time to cycle and look over to see the circuit break popped.... great... I finally get the gear down and land at my airport right as it was getting dark.
Checkride is at 9am Sunday. Stay up till 1am working on the airplane jacking it up and cycling the gear. Cannot get the problem to replicate. Up again at 5 am to finish my VFR flight plan with the most current weather. Get over to the airport ill be doing the ride with no problems. Winds were brisk but not terrible. 1.5 later when we are ready to do the flight portion we step out to a direct cross wind 14 gusting to 25. Decide to give it a shot anyway. I get through 75% of the ride and on the go around from the emergency landing the gear gets stuck again. We call the ride off and get the gear down. That Monday I flew it gear down to TTA for my father (A&P/IA) to troubleshoot (which really sucked). @eman1200 was kind enough to ferry me back to get it with what we had hoped fixed the issue. Did several test flights in the pattern at TTA and the flight back went as planned.
Went up last night to polish up and on the 3rd landing the gear malfunctioned AGAIN! The examiner agreed to continue the check ride with the gear in the down position. Marked the gear inop and off we went today after waiting out IFR weather only to be greeted with 10-14 winds but at least they were somewhat down the runway. Unfortunately they were blowing 30knts at 2k so my eights on pylons were a little sloppy but acceptable to her given the conditions. All the landings were spot on and in the end got my ticket punched.
This was a challenging experience not from the training and preparation but all the set backs and stress. On the calendar to get my multi add on the 2 days after thanksgiving. Also a special shout out to @dell30rb who got my training kicked off when my usual instructor thought he wouldn't have the time to do it with me. I think I scared him off with one of my power off 180's and didn't hear from him for a while ;-). JK Ren and yes I forgot to reply to your text last week. Ren is a fantastic instructor if anyone in the Raleigh area is looking for one.
Checkride is at 9am Sunday. Stay up till 1am working on the airplane jacking it up and cycling the gear. Cannot get the problem to replicate. Up again at 5 am to finish my VFR flight plan with the most current weather. Get over to the airport ill be doing the ride with no problems. Winds were brisk but not terrible. 1.5 later when we are ready to do the flight portion we step out to a direct cross wind 14 gusting to 25. Decide to give it a shot anyway. I get through 75% of the ride and on the go around from the emergency landing the gear gets stuck again. We call the ride off and get the gear down. That Monday I flew it gear down to TTA for my father (A&P/IA) to troubleshoot (which really sucked). @eman1200 was kind enough to ferry me back to get it with what we had hoped fixed the issue. Did several test flights in the pattern at TTA and the flight back went as planned.
Went up last night to polish up and on the 3rd landing the gear malfunctioned AGAIN! The examiner agreed to continue the check ride with the gear in the down position. Marked the gear inop and off we went today after waiting out IFR weather only to be greeted with 10-14 winds but at least they were somewhat down the runway. Unfortunately they were blowing 30knts at 2k so my eights on pylons were a little sloppy but acceptable to her given the conditions. All the landings were spot on and in the end got my ticket punched.
This was a challenging experience not from the training and preparation but all the set backs and stress. On the calendar to get my multi add on the 2 days after thanksgiving. Also a special shout out to @dell30rb who got my training kicked off when my usual instructor thought he wouldn't have the time to do it with me. I think I scared him off with one of my power off 180's and didn't hear from him for a while ;-). JK Ren and yes I forgot to reply to your text last week. Ren is a fantastic instructor if anyone in the Raleigh area is looking for one.
Congrats!
