OkieAviator
Pattern Altitude
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2014
- Messages
- 1,865
- Display Name
Display name:
OkieAviator
I am happy to say I passed the oral and the checkride this morning and now have my very own Temporary Airman Certificate... sounds a little depressing calling it that though. Figured I would do a write up about it.
Oral went really smooth. I had to track down some extra paperwork for the logs on a reoccurring AD and there was an answer I had to look up. I was over prepared for this to compensate for my extremely average written score. For the last 3 months I have continued to study and learn. I did 2 mock orals which were a huge help. This took 45 mins or so and this DPE typically takes 1.5 hours, so I guess it pays to know the material.
Checkride took a little over an hour. He watched me preflight, I gave the brief and then carried on like a normal flight. I used my checklist and talked through out loud everything I was doing. I think talking out loud helped him understand my thought process. We went to the 2nd checkpoint on my XC and diverted to another airport. I was diligent in using comms, keeping altitude and overall control of the plane.
Did the slow flight, steep turns and stalls all within PTS, wasn't perfect but wasn't bad either. Did emergency descent... now I had never been taught this, so I was a bit confused as I understood emergency descent to be an engine out emergency. What he was looking for was reaction to maybe hypoxia or to drop out of icing, something to get low. I just talked through what I would do if I really needed to do this; throttle out, pitch and don't exceed Vne, if I wanted to go slower I would full flap and stay at the top of Vfe. My CFI said that was a good answer and apologized at lunch for not covering that with me.
We followed that with a engine out drill and then finally ground reference maneuvers. Ended it with performance take off and landings at the towered airport we started. I had concern on my short field landing and in reality that may have been out of PTS but I think since I did well on the oral and the rest of the maneuvers he made a call about it.
Ended with me taxing back to the Hangar, him shaking my hand and congratulating me. Overall much less stressful than I thought it would be however I am happy I got it behind me.
Training timeline for me was from April to today, so roughly 7 months. That being said the summer was extremely busy so I entered August with my solo done and 18 hours. I started today with 48 hours, so really if I would of planned it around the slow times with my work I could of done it realistically in 3 months. However there's a ton of studying outside of flying that I did so I might not have had the time... who knows.
Cost wise I did all but maybe 8 hours in a 172. I flew a 152 for spin training and some solo. I'm 205lbs and my main CFI is larger than that, so 2 of us squeezing in a 152 wasn't going to happen. Here's a breakout of my costs... now there's some CFI time built into my rentals at Crabtree, the other times I used a private CFI (And I pay for ground time). Again I had 48 hours total flight time.
3rd Class Medical $175
CRABTREE AIRCRAFTCO INC $3,647.59
Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) $450
FAA State Board Exams (Written)$140
HANGER 1 FLIGHT CENTER OF $3,172.5
Private CFI $1,135
Grand Total $8,720.09
I'm happy with those costs. I anticipated about $10,000 so I'm below my expected number. I didn't include my bag, headphones, gas to drive to the airport, study material ect..
If I had to do anything different I would of waited to take my written till the end part. I learned so much over the last month alone that if I took it today I'm sure I would get a 100%.. but I guess it doesn't matter in the end.
I'll be sticking around the boards because next up is Instrument!
Oral went really smooth. I had to track down some extra paperwork for the logs on a reoccurring AD and there was an answer I had to look up. I was over prepared for this to compensate for my extremely average written score. For the last 3 months I have continued to study and learn. I did 2 mock orals which were a huge help. This took 45 mins or so and this DPE typically takes 1.5 hours, so I guess it pays to know the material.
Checkride took a little over an hour. He watched me preflight, I gave the brief and then carried on like a normal flight. I used my checklist and talked through out loud everything I was doing. I think talking out loud helped him understand my thought process. We went to the 2nd checkpoint on my XC and diverted to another airport. I was diligent in using comms, keeping altitude and overall control of the plane.
Did the slow flight, steep turns and stalls all within PTS, wasn't perfect but wasn't bad either. Did emergency descent... now I had never been taught this, so I was a bit confused as I understood emergency descent to be an engine out emergency. What he was looking for was reaction to maybe hypoxia or to drop out of icing, something to get low. I just talked through what I would do if I really needed to do this; throttle out, pitch and don't exceed Vne, if I wanted to go slower I would full flap and stay at the top of Vfe. My CFI said that was a good answer and apologized at lunch for not covering that with me.
We followed that with a engine out drill and then finally ground reference maneuvers. Ended it with performance take off and landings at the towered airport we started. I had concern on my short field landing and in reality that may have been out of PTS but I think since I did well on the oral and the rest of the maneuvers he made a call about it.
Ended with me taxing back to the Hangar, him shaking my hand and congratulating me. Overall much less stressful than I thought it would be however I am happy I got it behind me.
Training timeline for me was from April to today, so roughly 7 months. That being said the summer was extremely busy so I entered August with my solo done and 18 hours. I started today with 48 hours, so really if I would of planned it around the slow times with my work I could of done it realistically in 3 months. However there's a ton of studying outside of flying that I did so I might not have had the time... who knows.
Cost wise I did all but maybe 8 hours in a 172. I flew a 152 for spin training and some solo. I'm 205lbs and my main CFI is larger than that, so 2 of us squeezing in a 152 wasn't going to happen. Here's a breakout of my costs... now there's some CFI time built into my rentals at Crabtree, the other times I used a private CFI (And I pay for ground time). Again I had 48 hours total flight time.
3rd Class Medical $175
CRABTREE AIRCRAFTCO INC $3,647.59
Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) $450
FAA State Board Exams (Written)$140
HANGER 1 FLIGHT CENTER OF $3,172.5
Private CFI $1,135
Grand Total $8,720.09
I'm happy with those costs. I anticipated about $10,000 so I'm below my expected number. I didn't include my bag, headphones, gas to drive to the airport, study material ect..
If I had to do anything different I would of waited to take my written till the end part. I learned so much over the last month alone that if I took it today I'm sure I would get a 100%.. but I guess it doesn't matter in the end.
I'll be sticking around the boards because next up is Instrument!
Last edited:
