its debrief time. i will start with the short one for all you impatient folks:
Short Version
Called in to schedule and gave 3 dates, he was open the first one and i snatched it. as it turned out, it was the only decent flyable day in a 7 day window. Think i passed the weather portion just by choosing a calm day to fly in ND :d:d
showed up with a crap load of log books, papers and everything he could ask for. IACRA, log book review, aircraft mx review was done in first 30 mins. reviewd XC planning (FCM was my XC, and hence the other thread on that and thanks to everyone who commented on it, especially
@Sinistar ). told DPE that i got inputs from other pilots and a local pilot about the field, he considered it to be "use of all resources available to you as a pilot". the oral section was done in an hour.
flight portion started with flying per my nav log, check off few way point, went about 25 miles from KFAR. He unsuccessfully tried me to focus me on a plane 2000 ft below me at my 7 o clock, i glanced at it once and ignored him for the rest of the time. moved to hood work for .3 hrs, 360 turns holding alt, 360 turn and loose 500 feet, climbing 180 turn to a specific alt. then usual attitude. i was trying hard to "listen" for the speed increasing or decreasing, no joy. when asked looked at the instruments and i was at 60 left bank. hood work done. engine out next, there wasnt any field nearby so i chose the field right in front of me and started a spiraling decent and did a bunch of checklist stuff
steep turn, then went to slow flight (had too much energy going there and dumped all the flaps and ballooned quite a bit, noticed it and recovered. ). 360 turn in slow flights takes forever. then to power of stalls followed by power on stalls (well its Piper, so more like a nasty buffet and no nose drop), then turns around a point (twice on the same direction, he asked me to choose the direction and i chose right, cuz i am good at right turns..donno why), then S turns
came back to KFAR, overshot final, still had time to get back, initiated go around, next time did a slip to soft field land (i volunteered, i knew he would want to see one anyway) and a short field take off, bounced the landing and realized i didnt put in the last notch of flaps
. followed by soft field take off, short field landing on 500 ft marker... he asked me to take the first taxi out to the flight school. waited till i executed my shut down checklist and took the keys out and chocked the plane. asked me to show my teeth so that he can take a pic at which point i knew i was a "certificated" pilot.
feels AWESOMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE