PP Checkride Report (LONG)

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NovemberZulu

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Zulu
PP Checkride Report (update Post #6)

Hello all, just passed my private checkride! Some of the older threads on checkrides were a huge help in knowing what to expect, so hopefully other students find this writeup useful. Some parts are already hazy in my memory so I did the best I could. Probably missing some of the questions, but hope it helps another student pilot!

Couldn't sleep the night before and I had to get up quite early to make it out to the airport. I had everything ready to go the night before so all I did in the morning was print out the weather. It looked like a great day for flying so I was feeling pretty good.

Flew out to the airport where I'd be taking my test and met the DPE inside the FBO. DPE was nice enough and started off by saying he wanted me to pass. Went over the paperwork, signed IACRA online, checked logbook, medical and student pilot certificate and drivers license. Asked if I had any questions.

After the paperwork was done we started off with the oral. I realized I had forgotten the weight and balance sheet I'd done in advance so I had to redo it there. DPE asked me to describe the flight I'd planned in advance. Basically wanted to know why I'd picked that route and altitude. I pulled out my sectional with the route drawn and all my checkpoints, top of climb and descent marked. DPE asked me to show where the top of climb was. I emphasized safety (high altitude gives more time to deal with any problems and more potential landing sites, and this route kept us clear of some glider activity, I had sectional ) DPE asked me to recalculate the first three checkpoints at a lower altitude since we were going to start our flight on the cross country plan and it would take way too long to climb to my chosen altitude. DPE was preoccupied texting while I did the calculations on the E6B and didn't check any of the numbers. I was kind of annoyed at that point because I hate the damn E6B and wasted a lot of time learning to use it, so I wanted to at least be tested on it.

After that the rest of the oral was basically just question and answer. I was definitely nervous going in but felt very prepared on most of the oral stuff so it ended up being a big confidence booster.

How would you file a flight plan? (1-800-WX-BRIEF or DUATs)
How can you open a flight plan? (Check the nearest VOR to get the FSS frequency, which in this case required talking over one frequency and listening over the VOR. DPE was pleased I knew this)
What's the difference between flight following and a flight plan?
How could you check weather while flying? (Call FSS, again know how to find FSS frequency)

Took out sectional chart and started asking questions about it.
What kind of airspace will we be in along our route? What are the weather minimums? What kind of equipment is required? (know all the airspace along your route, and how to identify the different floors of Class Echo(surface, 700', 1200', 14500' or something else if it has a zippered blue line))
What kind of airspace is above 60,000'? (Class Echo)
Pointed to an anchor symbol. What is this? (seaport)
Pointed to another symbol. What does this mean? (Glider activity in the area)
Another anchor symbol inside a lake. What does this mean? (another seaport) Would it be visible from the air? (I said maybe, but the answer is no, probably not)
When do you need a Mode C transponder? (Class Alpha, Bravo and Charlie airspace, plus inside the Mode C veil, above Class Charlie and anywhere above 10,000')
What does Mode C mean? (reports altitude)
Pointed to an uncontrolled airport under a Class Charlie shelf. Do you need a Mode C transponder if you're doing touch and goes here? (No, it's only required in and above Class Charlie, not below. DPE was pleased, said not many people know that)
If you have an emergency can you land at a Class Charlie? (yup, an aircraft in distress can do pretty much anything to be safe) What about a Class Bravo? (yup, whatever it takes to get down safely)
What are YOUR weather minimums? (glad I'd already thought about this: 5SM, at least 3000' above or below the cloud layer)
At this point the DPE said I was doing really well, great job.

Moving into weather, I pulled out the weather I had printed that morning: METARs, TAFs, Area Forecasts, Winds Aloft chart, Low Level Significant Weather Chart.
METAR: (super easy, just read two of them out loud in plain English. All of my METARs were CLR or SKC. Read out SLP133 is 1013.3 mb of pressure, T01170089 is precise temperature 11.7C and dewpoint 8.9C.)
TAF: (Know which time period is valid for you. My mental math skills decided to take a hike during this part. I messed up a simple subtraction problem and DPE asked are you sure? Fortunately I had my calculator out from redoing my flight plan and figured it out. DPE not impressed by my math skills.)
Area Forecast: (again, be able to convert from UTC to local) Would you actually fly this cross country today? (No, the forecast shows broken clouds at 1000 feet for our destination airport) Are broken clouds a ceiling? (yes)
Low Level Significant Weather Chart:
-Asked about most of the lines and symbols (Dashed blue line showed freezing level at 12,000' along planned route of flight. Funny little line with an arrowhead for thunderstorms. Dashed orange lines for areas of turbulence. Red line for IFR. Blue scalloped lines for marginal VFR.)
-Asked about a front with triangles on one side and half circles on the other. (I screwed this up. Said it was an occluded front. DPE asked what an occluded front is. I said when a cold front is traveling faster than a warm front and overtakes it. DPE kept asking and I realized OOPS, it's a stationary front, the triangles and half circles are on OPPOSITE sides of the lines)

My memory is a bit hazy on the rest of the oral, so the rest is probably out of order but I think you can get the gist of it.

DPE starts telling a story about flying in crappy weather and asking me questions along the way.
There's a big cloud forming ahead (forget the description, but basically wanted me to say it's a thunderstorm)
What are the requirements for a thunderstorm to form?
What is an embedded thunderstorm?
SIGMETS and Convective SIGMETs
Three types of AIRMETs and what are they issued for?

IMSAFE checklist? (Basically wanted me to recite it)
Alcohol? (8 hours bottle to throttle, can't fly with a BAC over .04 but I said honestly if your BAC is .04 eight hours later you're still probably under the influence and have one hell of a hangover)
Scuba Diving wait times? (Up to 8000 feet, at least 12 hours after a nondecompression dive, at least 24 hours after a decompression dive. Above 8000 feet, at least 24 hours after any dive)
Oxygen Requirements (I started at the bottom and worked my way up. 5000' FAA recommends it at night, 10000' during the day, 12500-14000 required for crew if staying there more than 30 minutes, above 14000 crew required to use it, above 15000 passengers required to have access to it, but don't actually need to use it)
What is hypoxia? Symptoms? Corrective actions?
Emergency Descent, what would you do? (forget what I said, but she asked what a bank would do to help. It would decrease vertical component of lift)
Effects of high density altitude? (less air for engine, propeller moves less air, less air flowing over the wing means less lift)
Basically asked me to recite ATOMATOFLAMES, then gave a scenario that I found fuel gauges were showing zero during a preflight, even though I knew the tanks were full. What would I do? (I started to say fuel gauges are required to show zero when empty, and DPE sort of cut me off and asked if it's needed or not. I pulled out 91.205(b): "For VFR flight during the day, the following instruments are required: (9) Fuel gauge indicating quantity of fuel in each tank." So no, it's not airworthy)

Do you use any decision making checklist? Such as DECIDE? (think the DPE just wanted me to recite it, but I confessed I didn't know the acronym too well. I was pretty sure the D was about detecting a change and the last E was about evaluating whatever corrective action you'd taken, so I said something like "I think the most important thing is to evaluate whatever course of action you take." Nope, most important thing is to realize something is wrong. If you don't notice something is wrong, you don't even have a chance of fixing it)
Gave me a scenario the oil pressure gauge is low but the oil temperature gauge is normal. What would you do? (It could just be the gauge is broken, but land as soon as practical, watch the oil temperature gauge and be prepared to make an emergency landing if necessary)
Another scenario. The engine is running rough. What could it be? What could you do to fix it?
-(Carb ice. Try turning carb heat on.) You put carb heat on and that doesn't help. What else could it be?
-(detonation?) It's not detonation, but since you mentioned it, what is detonation, and what causes it? (explosive burning of fuel/air mixture, caused by using a lower grade fuel) What else could it be?
-(really not sure now. Preignition?) Nope, not preignition, but what is it and what causes preignition? (fuel/air mixture ignites before the spark plug fires, could be caused by a hot spot)
-Do you have any checklist that you could use if your engine is running rough? ("checklist" was the lightbulb moment. I went through my engine troubleshoot checklist and basically the DPE was looking for: carb ice, wrong mixture setting, a bad magneto or the fuel primer wasn't locked)

Tell me about the engine. (I had the POH description memorized)
Would the engine run if I turned the master switch off? (yes, it has magnetos)
Tell me about the fuel system.
What does the primer do? (sends fuel directly to the cylinders) How many cylinders does it go to? (Wow, good question. I have no idea. DPE said the fuel primer sends fuel to three of the four cylinders in the C152) Why do you make sure the fuel primer is in and locked? (if it's not locked it could send more fuel to the cylinders and make the mixture too rich)
Describe the pitot static system. (Altimeter and VSI use static line, AI uses pitot line and static line. Was expecting more questions on this but DPE was satisfied and didn't ask any more.)

DPE said to take a quick break and we'd meet out at the plane in ten minutes. I called and got a standard weather briefing and weather was still good. I ordered fuel to top it off, then gathered up all my stuff (which took awhile since I'm a packrat) and headed out to the plane.

To be continued....
 
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awaiting the rest of the story.
 
This is great! I'm be reading this one again when I get close to my checkride. Love that you're also including your answers and when you didn't give the answer the DPE was looking for (and that you still passed ;) ). Also eager for the rest of the story!
 
Part 2:
It’s a long and HOT walk out to the plane from the FBO and I made it out to the plane just as the fuel guy got there. I started fumbling around with the keys to unlock the door and put my stuff inside the plane when the DPE appears out of nowhere and scolds me for standing next to the fuselage while it’s being fueled. At this point the fuel guy is just moving the ladder next to the wing, hasn’t actually started fueling so I mumble something about just putting my stuff down and back away from the plane feeling stupid. After it’s done, I show the DPE the airworthiness certificate, registration, point out the operating limitations in the form of instrument markings, placards and the POH, and weight and balance information. Then I pull out the maintenance records and show it’s complied with all the required inspections. I had gone through the maintenance logs with my CFI and put it post its on all the inspections so they were easy to find. DPE didn’t ask any questions, just wanted to see it.

I start my preflight and DPE hangs out in the shade under one of the wings and didn’t ask any preflight questions. I say the plane looks good and the DPE reminds me that he needs to see clearing turns, a verbal transfer of controls and wants me to get flight following. Most importantly, take my time to get setup and remember he wants to pass me. I give him a SAFETY briefing, say I’m going to be PIC, and explain the procedure to transfer the flight controls. Remind the DPE again he actually needs to fasten his shoulder harness (he hadn’t, so I think I caught his trick). After starting, I get the current ATIS and ask the DPE if he’d like to test the brakes. He does, I check mine, I pull out the taxi diagram and we taxi over to the runup (Unlike my home airport, the runup area is inside the movement area so I didn’t need to call ground. I’m used to my routine at home and have that annoying “something’s not quite right” feeling since I’m doing things out of order). I check and double check the wind sock as we taxi over, since I’m afraid I’ll forget to position the controls appropriately, but there’s just no wind (should make my landings easier, but it also means I have no excuses if I f--- it up). As we taxi over the DPE asks me a question, something about time required to our top of climb, I start to answer and then say “Just a minute, I’ll answer when we get stopped.” DPE laughs and says “I wouldn’t try to distract you now, would I?” By the time I get settled at the runup I completely forgot to answer the question and DPE doesn’t ask me again.

Runup goes smoothly, I sort of read the checklist as I’m going through it and DPE doesn’t ask any questions. I ask what kind of takeoff he wants and he says I can pick. I pick soft field since I want to get it out of the way and double check we’ll be starting our cross country. I explain my abort plan, and since the ground frequency is out of service, I call up the tower and request a left crosswind departure and ask what frequency I can get flight following on. Tower instructs me to taxi over to the runway, I check the wind sock again and there’s no wind. At the hold short line I watch several planes land and anxiously await my clearance to take off. After sitting there for several minutes in silence, DPE finally says aren’t you going to call someone? Oops, I’d ASSumed since I’d already spoken to tower I didn’t need to call again. I quickly call, say I’m holding short of the runway, and get an immediate clearance to takeoff. I note my time off, check the wind sock and we’ve got a very light left crosswind.

I perform a nice soft field takeoff and can see the DPE’s hands hovering over the controls until we’re climbing. We hit top of climb at 3000’ exactly on time, I level off and set the heading indicator to compass, notice we’re off course about 15 degrees and quickly correct it. DPE asks what time we’ll hit our second checkpoint and I tell him. I call up and get flight following, and DPE asks again about what time we’ll hit the second checkpoint. I look out the window and realize we’re directly over the highway I’d picked but two minutes early, so I say we must have a bit of a tailwind.

“Ok that’s boring, let’s divert somewhere” the DPE says. He gives me an airport that’s very close by, so I turn in it’s general direction and the DPE asks how long it will take to get there. I glance down at my sectional (which I had on a clipboard with the plotter clipped down too) and realize the plotters gone. I tell the DPE and ask him to hold my sectional while I search for it. He offers to take the controls, which makes me nervous since I think it’s an automatic failure if the DPE has to take the controls, but I agree, say “You have the flight controls,” and search for the plotter. Still can’t find it, but I say my thumb’s about 10 NM on a sectional and I can estimate that way. Just when I find the plotter the DPE says I can see the airport straight ahead, how much fuel would it take to get there? I look out the window, can’t spot the airport but it’s got to be close so I guess it’s five miles and tell him how much fuel it would take. I get the flight controls back and DPE says we’ll go do maneuvers first.

Steep turns are up first, which have been hit or miss in training. I do my clearing turns, find a sort of decent landmark and note the heading indicator. Roll into the left and I didn’t pitch back enough so I lose about 60’ of altitude initially, but I fix it and we roll out almost exactly on our initial heading and altitude. I have a momentary brain freeze and I’m not sure if I need to do clearing turns again before my steep turn to the right, so I do them again just in case. Steep turn to the right is good, then a power on stall. The DPE asks what an accelerated stall is while I’m doing my clearing turns. Umm, umm, I KNOW this, I KNOW I’ve talked to my CFI about them. “I think it’s a stall in a turn,” I say and the DPE confirms it. For the power on stall, I see the DPE’s hands hovering over the controls again, but it’s textbook and the DPE says “Good. Outstanding.” Slow flight full flaps, and the DPE asks for a power off stall while I’m in slow flight. I do my clearing turns while holding altitude at 35 knots, and my power off stall receives another “Good.”

Uh oh, the engine’s on fire. We’re over farmland and directly over a field with lines of green crops. Not ideal, but we’re only at 2700’ and I’d guess the elevation is three hundred feet, so I’m not sure if I can glide to a better field, plus I see power lines around some of the others. I circle over it, go through my checklist and tell the DPE we’ll be going around at 500 feet. DPE keeps asking me where I’m planning to land. I keep saying we’re circling over the field and start getting worried. I turn downwind, base and final. If it were really an emergency I’d need to slip a bit to get down, but I say it’s 500 feet we’re going around. DPE tells me I picked a bad field because those green crops are actually baby Christmas trees. NOT going to be a smooth landing on those.

Moving on, it’s time for turns around a point. I spot some farmers plowing, but I really can’t tell which way the wind is blowing the dust. Finally I realize the wind’s so light it’s just not moving much. I pick a point and the DPE points out a tiny dust devil and says we shouldn’t fly over it. I pick another point, circle over it and DPE hands me my foggles. A couple climbing turns and descents, then unusual attitudes. He doesn’t rock the plane too much but the instrument work combined with my nerves made me a bit nauseous. Foggles off and we’re going to the diversion airport for landings. I’ve never been there before and although I’d made a list of airports, runway numbers, traffic pattern altitudes and directions on my kneeboard, this airport wasn’t on my list. DPE tells me the runway numbers and it’s left traffic(From reading other checkride reports, it sounds like the DPE was pretty generous giving me this info. I was ready to pull my AFD out and look it up). I get the ASOS, make my radio calls, spot the field and enter on the 45 to the downwind. DPE gives me a choice, so I pick a normal landing with a touchdown point at or beyond the first centerline stripe.

I make my radio calls and on final, everything’s looking good, but as I enter my flare I realized it’s too high. My home runway is quite small and narrow, and this one’s much wider. I fell for the runway illusion and thought we were lower than we actually were. We start floating and I know I’m not going to touchdown within 400 feet, so I go around and tell the DPE why. He says it’s a good decision and he needed to see a go around anyway. More radio calls and I tell the DPE I’ve got the plane on final in sight, turn final and I’m determined to make this good. It’s a bit firm, but it’s on the centerline and I take the first turn off the runway and go through my after landing checklist. I’m about to turn right onto the parallel taxiway to taxi back when the DPE slams on the brakes. My heart is pounding like crazy and I’m terrified I just failed since the DPE hit the brakes. But he just wants to let the airplane that landed before us go ahead since it’s much bigger and faster than us, even though I’d had room to go ahead. We sit for a minute in silence as I’m shaking like a leaf and wait for the other plane to pass. I was REALLY glad I’d read the PTS since I knew he had to tell me if I failed, so I realized I was still ok as long as he didn’t say it.

My normal takeoff is fine. I come around for my short field landing, which is on the firm side but at least it’s within 200 feet, stop, quickly reconfigure and perform a short field takeoff. DPE says it’s time to head back. I’m thinking “that’s it?” It was so short. We call the tower, enter on a left base and the DPE asks for a soft field landing, and to demonstrate a forward slip. I wait to add flaps and reduce power so we come in a touch high. I slip a little bit and the DPE asks about the power. Oops, I’d left some power in. Come out of the slip and need to add power because we’re too low. Correct it and land, a bit firm for a soft field but the DPE doesn’t say anything. After landing checklist, taxi back to parking. DPE says I did good, but I ALWAYS need to pick up the wing to clear final. At a towered airport, ATC could make a mistake and at an untowered field someone might not have a radio so it’s up to me to double check final’s clear.

I taxi back, park and the DPE heads back to the FBO. I secure the plane and realize I have no idea what I’m supposed to bring back to the FBO. I couldn’t remember reading anything about what to do now. Does the DPE need to sign my logbook? I don’t know so I dither about for a few minutes trying to figure out what to carry back (my flight bag was quite heavy and full of books and miscellaneous stuff that I didn’t want to lug all the way back to the FBO since I was already dripping sweat). I finally settle on my wallet, pen, logbook and a folder with all my paperwork and certificates. When I get to the FBO I’m told the DPE is upstairs printing out my temporary certificate (oh my god this might actually be happening) and I spend a few minutes pacing and anxiously waiting. DPE finally appears and hands me the paper with the magic words: AIRPLANE SINGLE ENGINE LAND; [LIMITATIONS]: ENGLISH PROFICIENT. Under other circumstances I might quibble over that limitation, but OH MY GOD I’M A PILOT!!!!

Final Thoughts:
-Make sure you bring your IACRA login information and FTN.
-Show up prepared. Having a good oral was definitely a confidence booster.
-DPE definitely wasn’t looking for perfection. My CFI on the other hand….
-I walked away thinking "Gee, that wasn't nearly as bad as I thought."
-My wallet is considerably lighter than before I started this crazy adventure. I need to win the lottery.
-What's next? I'm not quite sure. I just passed the checkride and I already miss flight training. I'm worried I'll get bored just flying around for $100 hamburgers, plus it's tough to convince my friends and family to go up with me. I love having a goal to work towards and I already have this weird empty feeling now that the checkride is done and I don't need to study for it. Haven't had a chance to go up again since my checkride even though I've been bugging friends and family. I'll be starting my instrument training at the end of the year so that's something to look forward to and start reading up on.

ETA:
-Studying: In hindsight, I really didn't need to buy as much stuff as I did. I got the ASA textbook which I liked a lot, Rod Machodo's book which was good and did a better job keeping me awake than the FAA handbook(tried reading it, fell asleep), and used Gleim Online Ground School and the free version ofSportys Study Buddy for the written test. I basically just memorized the questions on Sportys and most of the questions were identical. For the oral, I bought the ASA prep book but I didn't actually read through much of it because it was quite boring. Best thing I did was go through the PTS a couple times and make sure I had studied all the subjects.
 
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"...the DPE appears out of nowhere and scolds me for standing next to the fuselage while it’s being fueled."

What? Why? Were you about to use your cell phone and cause a Mythbusters explosion?
 
That was great to read, I remember my flight. The DPE distracted me by looking out my left window and as I did that he reached down and released my seat, sliding my seat back FAST!! I maintained control of the plane and fixed my seat. Bust scared the CRAP out of me.
 
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