Wow this is the best community on the internet
thanks everyone!!!
Today I'll write down how my experience went, as well as some gotcha's (areas where I kinda stumbled during my Oral/Checkride).
Important note: this was taken from my memory, not a recording! I might of remembered things he said incorrectly, and I might not be properly relaying his message as he intended. Just keep that in mind this is being written from memory A DAY AFTER the checkride was done. It could be full of factual errors, and should be taken as "My version of history".
(No doubt my DPE would have a very different version)
Oral Portion
For example: FAR 61.57
He expected me to be able to rattle off:
"The required takeoffs and landings were performed in an aircraft of the same category, class, and type (if a type rating is required), and, if the aircraft to be flown is an airplane with a tailwheel, the takeoffs and landings must have been made to a full stop in an airplane with a tailwheel."
He said the language is important. I gave him a vague relay of it, and he stopped me and asked me to look up the reg in the FAR and "rethink my answer" while he got some coffee. It set the tone for the rest of the oral exam.
At the end he said that learning to find information in the FAR was about as important as being able to read it, but he said to not glance read it, it was meant to have every word read when you read a paragraph and at the end, see if it wants you to continue reading somewhere else for more information. Look for keywords like "Could, Should, Must". This seemed important to him.
Another area that seemed to be very important to him, he spent a lot of time talking to me during the Oral about emergency landings, optimal glide. He asked some interesting questions about max-G's a body can take, what kinda g's I'd expect in different types of landings. "What does a hard tree in florida look like?".
One thing I took away from the oral I think more than anything was when he said when he thinks about lining up for an emergency landing at altitude.
He said: "Don't aim your glide towards your target, pick the start of your base-to-final and put yourself at 1k feet there, aim for that.. it will be easier to get down safe than trying to judge exact landing after establishing best glide."
He didn't spend much time talking about it, but it was something after he said i decided to make a note to myself to think about after the exam, he felt it was important I understood that.
Flight portion:
Pre-Flight: I left my water-bottle on the cowling and didn't notice it until i was in the cockpit. This was concerning to him. He said "This indicates something in your process is broken. Flying is most importantly about discipline." What I was hoping would be an absolute perfect pre-flight was botched. I was so heads down in my checklist, I missed something so obvious that wasn't on my checklist. (Forest/Trees things)
Takeoff: Please remember to start your timer for your cross country ATA tracking. (Yes , i forgot, and remembered when i got to 1k')
Cross country portion: He announced that weather has changed, doesn't look good. Show me how i'd get this in-flight because our briefers outlook isn't matching what we're seeing in the sky?
I then proceded to ho-and-hum, I was struggling to find a way to get in-flight weather without my ADS-B and ipad. He got a little annoyed when I didn't have a good answer for this. I did tell him I could call FSS and get inflight from that.
(this is what i was looking at on the sectional:
He asked me to do it, I struggled with my maps for a minute or two looking for a close VOR but after a few minutes he asked me if I knew what a RCO was. Sadly, I said no. He found a hole in my knowledge but didn't beat me up on it. He simply said to not be overly reliant on the technology and divert to "X05" 'Pilot Country' airport for those in the area, a small strip that is a flying community about 25 miles north of tampa or south of Brooksville.
Anyway, other than that everything went very well. Hit my landings smoothly, procedures where in line with PTS. Steep turns, I slipped out of PTS on altitude (climbed) but quickly corrected and the DPE found it acceptable.
He asked me to head back to KPIE after all was done, where I'd do my last (dreaded) maneuver the short field landing.
I asked him if I could pick my landing point on Short final : ) He promptly said no. I chose intersecting runway (cleared by AT to land 4, and chose 36R intersection as my touchdown point):
Touched down wheels on the intersection, rolled off the runway and he said "Congratulations, you've passed your checkride. Lets get back to the FBO and do some paperwork."
The feelings and emotions where pretty intense, there is a part of me that is sad that this part is over. I've worked hard to do this, but I also really enjoyed the process. I've become friends with my flight instructor(s) (Dave/Caitlin at v1) and really enjoyed the constant state of learning. The late nights of reading manuals, the endless youtube videos and webinars. I'm anxious to now take my spouse up with me, I -REALLY- want her to enjoy this as much as I do. I'm terrified to take my kids up, but I want to share this experience with them. All of that was going through my mind as I was sitting at the table with this ex-military grey-haired DPE debriefing me and talking about how things are going to go forward with my cert., etc.
As for my plans moving forward, I have a few things I want to start working on:
1. Communicating more with Flight Watch while in-flight.
2. Getting more comfortable with FF.
3. Get used to and practice getting clearance through Bravo (TPA) instead of skirting out to the West and flying under the shelf.
4. Practice flying to new airfields in the area.
5. Actually filing VFR flight plans.
After i'm comfortable with all of that, begin IFR training
