Hi All,
I have been lurking around for a couple months, using all the great advice here and finally passed my private pilot check ride last week! Just a little background on me and my flying - I have moved quite a bit, and by time I got my certificate I had been through 3 flight schools, and 5 instructors over the course of 2 years.
Finally after graduating college I moved to Washington DC, and wanted to pick up my flight training again and finish it up out in Manassas. After reading through all the previous check ride write ups and how helpful I found them, I figured I would return the favor and provide a write up from my check ride!
When I was finally approaching my check ride and had the applicable sign offs, my flight instructor and I realized that the plane that I had been flying would be going in for a 100 hr, and there wouldn't be enough time to get the check ride in. The head CFI and my instructor suggested I move from the 172R to the 172SP, it made me a little nervous switching planes right before my checkride, but they were similar enough that learning the new plane wasn't too difficult. The checkride was originally scheduled for July 2nd, but due to a pretty nasty storm that came through the weekend before, a lot of people had lost power and the examiner needed to reschedule. The original checkride was scheduled for 10:30am, and we rescheduled for the next day July 3rd, at 8:30am (worked out in my favor to be able to fly earlier in the day).
He asked to plan a flight of at least 150nm to a place that I would likely fly with my new certificate, I planned the flight, and checked and re-checked it meticulously the night before. I went to bed early, and got a pretty good nights sleep. I woke up at 4:30am to get everything ready, get my briefing, and finish the flight plan. I finished everything with plenty of time, but I wanted to give myself enough time so I didn't feel rushed. I drove out to the airport and got there an hour early to do a pre pre-flight, and to get everything set up on the table for the oral exam.
8:30am came, and went...and I waited around for the examiner to show up. At 9am he arrived and he started by reviewing my logbook and and finishing the IACRA application. We finally sat down at the table, and he gave me a briefing on how the test would be conducted, and the standards that I was expected to meet. What added to the stress was my instructor sitting at the table as well, but once the test actually got started, I relaxed quite a bit. The oral exam was much easier then I was expecting - very practical questions such as "Say you are a pilot 3 years from now, what will you have to have done to still be current to fly passengers?" we moved into the aircraft logbooks and everything looked good (I had everything tabbed and marked before hand). We then moved over to my cross country flight plan and he quizzed me on airspace, minimum weather requirements, and some of my checkpoints. After he was satisfied with that, we checked out my weight and balance and performance calculations.
We talked in length about the different airspaces, the SFRA and some of the restrictions, and the requirements to operate in each of them. We talked a little bit about aircraft systems "what does it mean when the Low voltage light is illuminated?". After about an hour and a half of the oral, he said I had 20 minutes to get the SFRA flight plan filed and get started on pre-flighting the airplane.
I got out to the airplane, and get everything organized and started the pre-flight. He came out and asked me a couple questions about the static port, pitot tube, the trim tab, and some of the antennas on the aircraft - and he said "I guess we should go fly then". So we hopped in and I got the aircraft started.
We taxied out, did the run-up, and he asked for a short field take-off. After lowering the nose and accelerating to Vy he commented on how nicely it was done. I marked the time for the start of the cross country and started a turn on course. We cleared the SFRA and Potomac Departure told us to squawk VFR, he mentioned that he liked my decision to wait a few minutes until actually squawking VFR (it's my responsibility not ATC to be clear of the SFRA, so it doesn't hurt to wait). We crossed the first check point, and then flew to the second before he wanted to do some hoodwork. He tuned a VOR and had me fly to it, did some unusual attitudes, and some standard rate turns. We then took the hood off, and he then asked for some steep turns, the horizon was a bit hazy from the heat and humidity, but the steep turns went very well, we went directly into slow flight with a couple of turns and then went into the approach to landing stall, and directly into the departure stall. We didn't do the departure stall to full break, only until we could feel the aerodynamic buffeting. After cleaning up the aircraft, he pulled the power on me, I ran through the checklist and set up to land at Culpepper (CJR). We were high so I did some descending spirals over the landing point, when I turned onto downwind we were still high so I started inputting flaps, we turned final and were still high so I started a forward slip, he didn't have me go around, we did an actual landing and touched down around mid-field. We departed and did a turn around a point, and headed back to Manassas. He was visibly frustrated with how I was set up to come back into manassas (not controlling my altitude, and not being a head of the aircraft in terms of preparation). This was the only time he was visibly upset with anything I was doing, so I started getting a little tense on not screwing anything else up.
We got back to Manassas, and he wanted a short field landing, I nailed it right on the target point, and he asked for me to taxi back to the ramp. I shut down the engine and he shook my hand and said "Congratulations, pilot".
During the debrief he mentioned the only areas of concern was my emergency landing and how I turned downwind too high, and my approach into Manassas was sloppy - but he mentioned with the number of hours I had, he was very happy with my performance and knowledge of the aircraft.
Hope this helps someone preparing for their check ride, and I'd love to hear any comments.
Thanks!
I have been lurking around for a couple months, using all the great advice here and finally passed my private pilot check ride last week! Just a little background on me and my flying - I have moved quite a bit, and by time I got my certificate I had been through 3 flight schools, and 5 instructors over the course of 2 years.
Finally after graduating college I moved to Washington DC, and wanted to pick up my flight training again and finish it up out in Manassas. After reading through all the previous check ride write ups and how helpful I found them, I figured I would return the favor and provide a write up from my check ride!
When I was finally approaching my check ride and had the applicable sign offs, my flight instructor and I realized that the plane that I had been flying would be going in for a 100 hr, and there wouldn't be enough time to get the check ride in. The head CFI and my instructor suggested I move from the 172R to the 172SP, it made me a little nervous switching planes right before my checkride, but they were similar enough that learning the new plane wasn't too difficult. The checkride was originally scheduled for July 2nd, but due to a pretty nasty storm that came through the weekend before, a lot of people had lost power and the examiner needed to reschedule. The original checkride was scheduled for 10:30am, and we rescheduled for the next day July 3rd, at 8:30am (worked out in my favor to be able to fly earlier in the day).
He asked to plan a flight of at least 150nm to a place that I would likely fly with my new certificate, I planned the flight, and checked and re-checked it meticulously the night before. I went to bed early, and got a pretty good nights sleep. I woke up at 4:30am to get everything ready, get my briefing, and finish the flight plan. I finished everything with plenty of time, but I wanted to give myself enough time so I didn't feel rushed. I drove out to the airport and got there an hour early to do a pre pre-flight, and to get everything set up on the table for the oral exam.
8:30am came, and went...and I waited around for the examiner to show up. At 9am he arrived and he started by reviewing my logbook and and finishing the IACRA application. We finally sat down at the table, and he gave me a briefing on how the test would be conducted, and the standards that I was expected to meet. What added to the stress was my instructor sitting at the table as well, but once the test actually got started, I relaxed quite a bit. The oral exam was much easier then I was expecting - very practical questions such as "Say you are a pilot 3 years from now, what will you have to have done to still be current to fly passengers?" we moved into the aircraft logbooks and everything looked good (I had everything tabbed and marked before hand). We then moved over to my cross country flight plan and he quizzed me on airspace, minimum weather requirements, and some of my checkpoints. After he was satisfied with that, we checked out my weight and balance and performance calculations.
We talked in length about the different airspaces, the SFRA and some of the restrictions, and the requirements to operate in each of them. We talked a little bit about aircraft systems "what does it mean when the Low voltage light is illuminated?". After about an hour and a half of the oral, he said I had 20 minutes to get the SFRA flight plan filed and get started on pre-flighting the airplane.
I got out to the airplane, and get everything organized and started the pre-flight. He came out and asked me a couple questions about the static port, pitot tube, the trim tab, and some of the antennas on the aircraft - and he said "I guess we should go fly then". So we hopped in and I got the aircraft started.
We taxied out, did the run-up, and he asked for a short field take-off. After lowering the nose and accelerating to Vy he commented on how nicely it was done. I marked the time for the start of the cross country and started a turn on course. We cleared the SFRA and Potomac Departure told us to squawk VFR, he mentioned that he liked my decision to wait a few minutes until actually squawking VFR (it's my responsibility not ATC to be clear of the SFRA, so it doesn't hurt to wait). We crossed the first check point, and then flew to the second before he wanted to do some hoodwork. He tuned a VOR and had me fly to it, did some unusual attitudes, and some standard rate turns. We then took the hood off, and he then asked for some steep turns, the horizon was a bit hazy from the heat and humidity, but the steep turns went very well, we went directly into slow flight with a couple of turns and then went into the approach to landing stall, and directly into the departure stall. We didn't do the departure stall to full break, only until we could feel the aerodynamic buffeting. After cleaning up the aircraft, he pulled the power on me, I ran through the checklist and set up to land at Culpepper (CJR). We were high so I did some descending spirals over the landing point, when I turned onto downwind we were still high so I started inputting flaps, we turned final and were still high so I started a forward slip, he didn't have me go around, we did an actual landing and touched down around mid-field. We departed and did a turn around a point, and headed back to Manassas. He was visibly frustrated with how I was set up to come back into manassas (not controlling my altitude, and not being a head of the aircraft in terms of preparation). This was the only time he was visibly upset with anything I was doing, so I started getting a little tense on not screwing anything else up.
We got back to Manassas, and he wanted a short field landing, I nailed it right on the target point, and he asked for me to taxi back to the ramp. I shut down the engine and he shook my hand and said "Congratulations, pilot".
During the debrief he mentioned the only areas of concern was my emergency landing and how I turned downwind too high, and my approach into Manassas was sloppy - but he mentioned with the number of hours I had, he was very happy with my performance and knowledge of the aircraft.
Hope this helps someone preparing for their check ride, and I'd love to hear any comments.
Thanks!
