Private Pilot Checkride - Full Writeup

jbrinker

jbrinker

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Jbrinker
A bunch of people asked, so I did a full writeup for my checkride. Starting with prep a month before all the way through to the end. Hope this is able to help others. I know I was pretty nervous leading up to this time, and some advice/writeups/etc. I had access to really helped me.

Private Pilot Checkride writeup
Ride date: October 17, 2017

Total hours 89.5, training for almost exactly 3 years part time.

Pre-Checkride Preparation:

I started about a month before the scheduled date. I began getting the following things in order:

- Required hours – using a chart, I made note of all the dates and times for the various requirements. Night, XC, Solo, etc. I also tabbed these in my logbook with some colored tabs for easy reference later. Checked my logbook for proper totals, signatures, and endorsements. Note- ALL your endorsements need to be correct, even for your early stuff. My instructor had messed up on this with another student and I was on top of it.

- Made contact with the examiner. Had a nice phone call, my instructor had already talked to him about me. We set a date for the ride out about 4 weeks (his schedule was conflicting).

- Worked with instructor to be sure the plane was going to be ready. I gave it my own extensive check-over and asked him to change the tires before my checkride. He did this and a number of other things including a fresh annual (it was nearly due anyway).

- Started taking “mockrides”. Even if only an hour lesson, I would make him treat me like the applicant. We would only debrief (i.e he would only offer criticism or advice) after a maneuver or group of maneuvers was completed. I made sure to start right from the office as if I was on a checkride. Preflight, briefings, etc. I did this about 4-5 times in the month, each concentrating on different areas of flight.

- Started studying in my spare time, tried to get at least 4-5 one hour sessions in a week. Re-study everything from the written, and tried to put it into practical form. Bought the King ACS checkride videos (These were very good, and although a bit long, they are quite realistic and give lots to think about and ideas for how to study). Spent many evenings just reading and rereading the FAR/AIM.

- Once a week, I would pick a day and plan an XC somewhere from the location I would be taking the check ride. I planned for about 2-3 hour flights toward decent sized cities. I would go through the whole thing just like I was going to fly it. Get real weather, calculate wind corrections, calculate fuel burn, ETA, and so on. Picked GOOD VFR checkpoints every 10 miles. Got real weather briefings. I did three of these. All “with paper chart/navlog and calculator/E6B” and also re-did them with online flight planning (AOPA and/or skyvector) and cross checked my results. If the results were different – I figured it out.

Two Weeks to Checkride:

- I started a notebook and condensed all the need-to-know/hard to remember stuff into about 2-3 pages of notes. TOMATOFLAMES, AV1ATE, IMSAFE and all the other acronyms. Airspace. Night. Weather. Etc. Looked up the regs/references in the paper FAR/AIM, and wrote down the reg numbers/AIM reference on each. Tabbed out the FAR/AIM. (If nothing else, this gets you really ready to talk about this stuff, and it helped me remember it to the point where I only had to look up one thing – which was quick.)

- I bought a nice 3-ring binder with 5 or 6 tabbed dividers. Organized everything that would relate to the checkride into it- my quick reference notes, my Private Pilot requirements checklist, medical, test result paper, Cross country plan, weather briefing, NOTAMS, etc.

- More Mockrides with instructor, as many as I could fit in.

- Created a 2-sided (8x10 sheet folded in half the short way) checklist for ACS maneuvers on one side, and landing/takeoff types and emergencies on the other side. Highlighted “CLEARING TURNS” and all emergency procedures.

- Created a single page passenger briefing sheet (checklist). Also created a “passenger briefing card” similar to an airline card to hand to him.

One Week to Checkride:

- Final mockrides with instructor, final check of logbook, final endorsements, do the IACRA application online and have instructor sign off. Send it to the DPE. Double check logbook, airplane logs, required documents, check off the checkride requirements checklist.

- Start watching the weather. Plan another mock XC and get a real briefing for it. Spend an hour each night reviewing material. Re-watched the King videos, re-read the great notes and suggestions of others posted online.

- Made a quick flight to the location of the checkride (in my case its not my home drome, but one I’ve never been to). Wanted to have been there once, and check out the FBO where the oral would be held.

Two Days Before Checkride:

- Two days before I called the DPE as instructed. Had a good talk, he gave me the XC to plan. As I expected, no GPS would be used, and to my surprise, no VOR to be included at all. Strictly pilotage and dead reckoning. Destination about 2.5 hr flight away. He suggested I “consider my route and plan accordingly.” Set the time to meet for the checkride (9am) and he told me to let him know if I would be attending the scheduled ride on that date once I had the weather information the evening before. (“Its up to you – you are the pilot not me.”)

Day Before Checkride:

- Day before: Finished planning the XC route and created an extra big route planning sheet/navlog. Considered my route carefully – turns out that a “direct” route is probably not ideal for dead reckoning. If I take a few turns, I can follow a major highway city to city all the way with only a little more time. I’ll have to deal with a class C in the middle, but we can overfly that or just transit (guess what some questions are going to be about?). Watched some of the king videos again to calm my nerves.

- Night before: Called DPE to confirm that we were go for 9am, then first thing I did was make a checklist for the morning of the checkride: Log Book, Binder, FAR/AIM, Pilot cert, medical, E6B, foggles, Extra pencils, extra batteries, plotter, charts, etc. Don’t forget stuff like: Eat breakfast, take 2 water bottles, take a few powerbars, dress in removable layers, etc. You will be stressed in the am and you do not want to forget anything.

- Weather briefing for local ride looks great. For the planned XC, destination weather is not great but will be likely improving before the planned arrival. Got best available winds aloft forecast, destination weather, and it looks like it would be a go. Got all the other documentation snapped into the binder, printed off the AOPA Airports kneeboard format for every single possible divert airport along the route. Printed off full size airport diagrams for all available INCLUDING the airport where the checkride will begin. Added all this to binder. Added local (KSYR) and exam airport (KRME) kneeboard prints to kneeboard. Created a passenger briefing printout and added that to kneeboard. Added my earlier created two-sided checklist for ALL ACS maneuvers to kneeboard. Stressed out until about midnight. Went to bed. Tried to sleep…
 
OK, The actual check-ride:

- Woke up at 5am. Got latest weather, no major changes. Recalculated all winds and the whole navlog based on newest winds aloft. Re-ran the online navlogs. Filled out the flight plan (not submitted) and added to the binder. Ate breakfast. Gathered everything and headed out. Note: I suggest allowing an extra couple hours in the morning compared to a normal morning. I’m very glad I did. Arrived at KSYR at 8am, instructor was there and plane was outside waiting. Relaxed for 20 mins, took a bathroom break, preflighted and loaded it up. TAKE YOUR TIME AND USE THE CHECKLISTS FOR EVERY. SINGLE. THING. ALL DAY. EVERYTHING. SLOW DOWN.

- 8:30am, off the ground for KRME. Flight no issue, greased in the landing and taxied to the FBO. First time ever at an FBO, first time being marshalled. Need to brush up on some of those signals. Drag everything out and into the (VERY nice) FBO where DPE was already waiting. One thing about Millionair: Cookies. Popcorn. Free drinks. Nice… Now onto the oral.

- Started off with “qualify the pilot”- went through logbook, and he checked off all the requirements. Note: make DAMN sure your instructor has ALL the proper endorsements. He told me about many screw-ups in this area. Can’t start if you are not qualified. Make sure YOU have checked your time and noted what counts for what, as well as all your totals add up correctly.

- Moved on to the aircraft: “Show me that this aircraft is legal” No leading here, you need to know what to show. But it’s easy because I tabbed this stuff out 2 days ago. Here’s the annual, the 100 hour, the VOR, etc. He asked questions along the way “How long is that good for?” “How do you tell when the ELT battery is expired?” (A: its printed ON THE BATTERY and should be noted in the logs). Anything else? Yes, here is a list of the AD’s and dates complied with. “what’s an AD?” this is where the king videos shine. If you have watched them a few times, this will seem like acting out the videos…

- “Now on to the cross country – show me what you have planned for us – and I hope it’s a good one.” Pulled it out, and started explaining my route, and my reasoning. This is what he’s looking for – WHY did you choose that route. Did you pick GOOD VFR landmarks? If there is an area with few landmarks to use, why did you pick the “least bad one” and how hard might it be to see? What else might you be able to do there in that spot? Questions about airspace (know it ALL, I mean ALL). Questions about WHY airspace might be arranged in a certain way (low, slow, NORDO planes in class G 1200 AGL, separation of big guys and small guys, IRF approaches near class D airports, etc). Know everything on the chart. It’s all fair game. MOA’s, Restricted Areas, Prohibited Areas, TFRs. What are they? How do they differ? How do you know if you can go? Show me. (Chart legend, numbers on the chart, etc) I had to look up one thing on the chart legend, stupid – I forgot the actual star above the airport symbol meant rotating beacon. How I forgot I have no idea, but I did. Just look it up quickly. This led to questions about rotating beacons (what color is military? Civilian? – see how this works, a little mess up leads to deeper questioning). Explain why your route is what it is – NOT just “because I connected the departure with the destination with a big straight line” or “I planned it on skyvector/foreflight and copied it to the chart”.

- Next we delved deeper into the flight plan, he gave various diversion scenarios at various points on the chart, and asked where we might go and why. “To this airport, it has services, its near a decent sized city, and I can probably get a hotel and gas if I need to”. Why not this one just to the north? Its closer? “Because you said the ceiling was lowering and we are down at 3000’, and its located in a valley with 2200’ mountains surrounding it. These questions were easy for me because when I planned my route I thought about this sort of thing. Basically “chair fly” the route all the way and think at each point what you might be asked about. A few more things like that, and its on to the navlog.

- Navlog: Prepare to show how to do it from ground zero – where did the information come from (Demonstrate measuring the course on the chart with plotter, distance with ruler, and refer to your weather plan for your winds source). Do the calculations to find MH. Where did you get the variation? Show on the chart. Why did you use different variation later in the plan? Show on the chart. What winds go with what part of the plan? Show your winds aloft forecasts and where those winds are forecast for. Full calc of everything on the navlog. Whether you use a manual E6B or an electronic one he did not care, but thinks everyone should be able to do simple time-distance and fuel on a whiz wheel as its quicker and safer in the cockpit. I did some on each, but I’m not a whiz at the wheel so I used the electronic one from here on out.

- Weather: Go over your full weather briefing. I printed it ALL out and had it all in the binder. I even brought my laptop and planned to log into 1800wxbrief.com to get an updated briefing in real time, but we did not do that. (And in my case it was stupid anyway as the FBO has an entire flight planning room with computers and printers etc. you can use) He asked a bunch of questions around the current WX charts. What do these symbols mean (fronts) where is the cold air? What direction would the winds be around this High? What kind of weather would you expect in these various places? Why? Wind charts – be able to read them and discuss. Prognostic charts, be able to discuss. Types of weather be able to discuss, especially the “bad stuff” like thunderstorms and turbulence. SIGMETS/AIRMETS – know what they are and what information they convey. There was an AIRMET TANGO for the afternoon we had the checkride. What does that mean?

- Back to the plan – show me the weight and balance, how are we doing? I demonstrated the W&B calc and how I got the number and where we are on the chart. Hmm, well uncle Frank decided he wants to go with me on this trip for the day, and take me to dinner after my meeting. What do you think about that? (KING VIDEO). Cover all the ADM related to this, and I also asked “how big is Ted?”. Oh he’s tiny, 120lb. He really wants to go though. Re-do W&B, miracle, he fits and we are within the envelope (BARELY). More ADM discussion. Turns out Frank has never been in a small plane before (ASK) and to boot he has a headcold… (inner ear + plane = bad). OK, Frank’s not going.

- Dang it, meeting at destination ran long, and its now almost night. Can we still come home? (Night currency). Is it a good idea? (ADM, new pilot, maybe not). If you do go, how will you navigate? (my route has a city every 15-20 miles, nav by the highways and the cities –they are yellow on the chart for a reason – that’s how it looks at night) What else can you use? (VORs) Explain VOR nav, and what radial you would be on etc. What does the airplane need at night? (FLAPS checklist)

- Back to the chart, asked a few more things about comms – VOR’s, Remote comms with FSS over a VOR and how that works, 121.5, 122.2, approach into class B, Mode C veil (how big, how tall, regs, what can you do if your transponder fries in flight? What if you are outside class C but need to enter? Other ways to get help if the alternator dies (NORDO procedures, light signals, CELL PHONE). Inoperative equipment and legal flights - TOMATOFLAMES, MEL, etc. Plackard and disable for non-required equipment. Brief discussion of ferry flights and FSDO.

- How much fuel do we really need for this trip? Why? How do we know that fuel burn? Plane cruises at what speed? HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT? (Note: “that’s what instructor said to use” and “that’s what we always use” are NOT the correct answer. I stumbled a bit here. Get out the performance charts in the POH and your density altitude – ideally you have already calculated that – and calculate the cruise speed, fuel burn, and landing/to distances) I had done these calcs the night before, but he wanted to see them done in front of him. He wanted to know I knew where these numbers come from, AND that they are not just "rules of thumb".
 
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Bathroom break, then lets go preflight. Phew passed phase I.


- EAT and DRINK here. I ate a couple powerbars and drank some water. Its amazingly easy to forget to eat and drink.

- Out to the plane, pulled the checklist and treated him like a 1st time passenger. Walked around and inspected everything PER THE CHECKLIST, and he asked quite a few questions. Whats this? (fuel vent) what’s it do? What are you checking for? Etc. Things he asked me to explain:

o Aileron and flap connection rods, what looking for.
o Aileron counterweight attach point
o Fuel vent/cap/cap vent
o Fuel (water) what does it look like? What to do if found?
o Engine oil, how much, how little is too little? What will happen if low?
o Engine baffles/birds/mice/condition/overheating
o Alternator belt – what if it fails? (no battery charge, limited electric time, land soon, etc)
o Brake fluid, primer lines (can crack, what would happen? Cyl run lean, possible fire if primer not locked)
o Pitot static – what if clogged? What instruments use that? Why/how?
o Stabilator – what looking for.
o Rudder – what if loose (bungee on Cherokee)

- I explained how to enter the aircraft, to be careful, where handle was and demonstrated how to get in. I put his bag in, and then got in. FULL passenger briefing including everything. Added positive change of controls for check ride.

- USE THE CHECKLIST

- Engine start, radios on, get weather, talk to ground, request SE departure ~30 miles for maneuvers with eventual return.

- TAXI CHECKLIST

- Taxi to the intersection departure, #2 for takeoff behind a Cessna. Guy must have been new too, he took FOREVER to do the runup. I mean like 10+ minutes. DPE offered that I could do it now, but I declined as I like to do it right before takeoff to ensure plugs stay unfouled.

- Eventually he departed, we did the PRE-TAKEOFF CHECKLIST and it all looked good. Called tower. Departed – “Normal takeoff”.

- Now my first screwup – I climbed to 1000’ and started a turn. He looked concerned but did not say a thing. I thought “**** I was not cleared on course yet” and started to turn back. Just then tower called and cleared me on course and handed me to departure. Not a good start, and we both knew it.

- Climbed to 3500 (We agreed on this before departure even though the real XC would be at 5500). I oriented myself, noted the first checkpoint approaching, and noted that we were a bit south of where we should be, so I corrected. Noted departure time on flight log (this was LATE I should have done this asap after climb out). Got out my E6B in prep for the next leg, which he would want me to calc a ground speed.

- He had me tune a VOR, I did so, IDENTIFY the VOR with morse code! (I did this and he said a LOT of PPL forget to do that). Correlate our position with landmarks, and the VOR. Crossing first checkpoint. 10 mins, calculated was 8 but I did not figure climb speed in my calculation. So about right. Note time for 1st checkpoint and correct course for next checkpoint. “Where is the wind from at this altitude?” (Use your drift to figure it out)

- Fly to 2nd checkpoint, take time and calc groundspeed. Nothing special there, just know how to do it and be ABLE to do it while flying and being distracted. TRIM the plane.

- OK, now lets divert to Hamilton (KVGC). COOL – I know that airport and like it. Find it on the map, find landmarks (Lake to the S of our position, city to the N). Estimate a course (use the clear ruler I carry and a VOR rose for angle to transfer). Fly to it…

- Oh, crap. Change in plans. Let’s go to Frankfort Highland instead (6B4). Where is that? Find it (it’s close) and how can we get there? (VOR is located very near). Tune VOR, Track to it. Get very close, and I finally found the airport. Overfly for winds, looks light and variable. OK, lets land here and do a short field (It’s a 2300’ 50’ wide strip). Tune radio to CTAF, and one plane back taxiing runway 31. Crap, I’m planning on using 13. OK, I continue descent and decide to swing around the long way. He did not like that, even though the FAA only has “recommendations” on pattern entry. I changed it up and instead entered on crosswind for 31 after the other guy left. Not a shining moment of airmanship. Set up for pattern altitude, and short field. Lined up on final and wound up high. I knew it, and on final I decided to go around. I thought I had failed. He said no, that go-around is a necessary maneuver and that I would do the shortfield later.

- Climb to 3000. Let’s do slow flight. OK… Hold on, gotta get my **** together. Remember YOU ARE THE PIC and YOU are in control of the PACE OF THE TEST. I just relaxed for about 3 minutes to get myself mentally prepared. Rotated my kneeboard lists to the ACS maneuvers checklist. Read slow flight and did clearing turns, asking him for help looking. Entered slow flight per the checklist. It was a bit bumpy, and it was not by best performance. I did within spec, so we checked that off.

- Let’s do steep turns. OK, one to the left and one to the right? “Your call, you can start either way. Just note the heading so I can evaluate you”. OK. 330 at 3000’. One left (pretty good, within tolerance for sure) one to the right (even better, hit wake).

- On with the foggles. Hold that heading, turn to this heading, climb, descend. Now for the roller coaster ride, unusual attitudes. Had an “about to stall” climb to recover, and a spiraling descent. Passed all that. Foggles off…

- OOPS, engine is on FIRE what do we do? Power back to idle, simulate fuel off, simulate mixture idle cutoff, close vents all while slowing down and pulling full flaps. Descend at top of white arc looking for landing. Convenient large fields and lined up for a good one. Discontinue about 500agl.

- Since we are down here, let’s do turns around a point. Pick something… I pick that silo. Nope, that’s over a populated area (Really? I guess but not much). Flew around a bit and picked an isolated silo with no houses nearby. Noted the two fields that could be used in an emergency. Did my turns, corrected for wind better on the 2nd one and he said good. Then pulled power on me at 700AGL. I realized my main field was a no-go, banked to the left into another field over a large treeline, and started pulling flaps. It would have been do-able. He added power and we climbed out. Good.

- Back to KRME. Tune radio, get on with departure and tell them we are back and inbound for landing. Cleared to land on 15. “Are you headed to the FBO?”. Crap. I meant we are doing touch and goes. Call back and explain “we are requesting touch and go” controller was decent and cleared us for the option.

- Out with the other PTS CHEKLIST for LANDINGS AND TAKEOFFS.

- OK. Now KRME is a HUGE RUNWAY. I mean, B-52 size big. That’s what it was for. This is VERY likely to mess you up. On my first landing there I was setting up for final on what looked like a 1-2 mile final and it was at least 5.

- He tells me to do my short field. Hit the start of the 500’ marker or within 200’. OK… Now this is a straight in too, which is worse. I came in high again. I cut power and couldn’t slip it since I had flaps out already. I really forced it down, came it just about right and then… picked up too much speed and floated it. He said I BARELY passed it and asked why I was coming in so high. I blamed the huge runway, which he did not agree with.

- Short field takeoff please. Nailed that. In the pattern back for a soft field landing.

- Again, messed up with the landing picture due to the sheer size of the thing, but I did an acceptable soft field and held the nose off. Stop.

- Soft field takeoff please. Did that with no issue. At 500’ he pulls power. Nose down, plan for landing back on the runway. Good! You didn’t panic. Power back in. Pattern again…

- Now let’s see a no-flap landing, slip to landing. Come in high. This one to a full stop. See that “little runway” painted inside the big one? Touchdown in that first box. Ugh, even worse. Now I have to land on a “virtual runway”. OK, I try hard to pretend that the asphalt around me does not exist and set up for the little runway with no flaps. 85mph. Control the descent. Slip it to about 100’. Ignore the giant runway. I got down too low too fast, and had to add power. Flew it at about 50’ off the runway for a couple hundred feet and then landed inside the box. It was NOT pretty. But it did meet the spec.

- AFTER LANDING CHECKLIST

- TAXI CHECKLIST

- Taxi back to FBO

- SHUTDOWN CHECKLIST
do the paperwork and I'm a Pilot!
 
thanks for sharing, you had a tougher day than me!!
 
If everyone prepared like you the pass rate on the private checkride would be 100%. Great job man!
 
Great job, pilot! Congrats! I remember reading your previous posts on here and it's good to see you were able to stick through it and get this done. Very cool! ::thumbsup::
 
Congratulations, nice job. Got my ticket in May. Still can't get over the fact that I am a pilot.
 
Nice write up, I was getting stressed just reading it. Sounded way more intense than mine. I assume you meant ELT battery? In the oral portion. Or else I just don't know what a VOR battery is.
 
Thoroughly prepared for a thorough checkride. Well done and well written. Congratulations.
 
Good job, congrats. One thing I'm confused about is your feeling like you made a mistake by turning on course at 1000 feet. Unless the tower told you to fly a certain heading after takeoff, once you're cleared to takeoff, you depart and can depart the traffic pattern once you're at least 300 feet from TPA. No need for tower to "clear you on course" unless they had restricted you to runway heading or some other heading.
 
exncsurfer said:
Nice write up, I was getting stressed just reading it. Sounded way more intense than mine. I assume you meant ELT battery? In the oral portion. Or else I just don't know what a VOR battery is.
Click to expand...

So glad I wasn't THAT guy this time. :)
 
Sorry, yep I meant ELT battery. I proof read this once but I missed that ... Corrected...

As for the on course thing, I had been cleared to take off, fly runway heading. So yeah it was my screw up.

I feel like reading this, that it sounds way worse than it was. He was thourough but very fair. I really liked him and would ride with him again.

I wanted to thank others on here that helped me (you all know who you are). Being well prepared certainly made it easier. Tomorrow I'll add one more section on the debrief, and some general advice I found helpful.

Oh, one other thing I did that was helpful. With a week or so to go, I pulled out the chart with an xc planned on it. Spread it out and asked my non pilot family to ask me questions. Any questions. They asked a lot, and this gave me the chance to really dig into my knowledge and explain stuff to non pilots. It felt a little like the oral. And they asked some questions I had to think about it look up. It was surprisingly helpful.
 
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I got writer's cramp just reading that! haha
Kidding..thanks a ton for the write up. I've been waiting weeks for a weather and work break but mostly for the DPE schedule.
Congrats again and way to prepare.
 
Great write-up Jeff! Thanks for doing this. My checkride w/ this DPE is tentatively scheduled for about a month from now. Now I know what areas to cover!
 
CONGRATULATION!

Thank you so much for the awesome write-up! I was on the edge of my seat reading it and felt like I was doing the check ride myself. I still have butterflies in my stomach :D

My CFI has already endorsed me to do my CR but as I was reading your notes, I realized how FAR away I am from being knowledgeable about everything.It dawned on me that when doing written tests, I know and can pick the correct answer, but if the question is a stand-alone and I have to come up with the answer, I draw blanks. Wow, I need to study a lot more!!!

“couldn’t slip it since I had flaps out already”

I would like to add something: for some reason my CFI and I always did slips with flaps out. Are you guys telling me that slips with flaps is a no-no? Even when I was flying with another CFI (who was checking me out before my solo endorsement) I would slip the plane on final to get down to land and I had the flaps out and this other CFI said nothing. Can someone shine a light here?
 
Hippike said:
I would like to add something: for some reason my CFI and I always did slips with flaps out. Are you guys telling me that slips with flaps is a no-no? Even when I was flying with another CFI (who was checking me out before my solo endorsement) I would slip the plane on final to get down to land and I had the flaps out and this other CFI said nothing. Can someone shine a light here?
Click to expand...
Some 172s can exhibit an oscillation when slipped with full flaps. The POH will say something like "slips with flaps are not recommended". As long as the POH doesn't say slips with flaps prohibited then you are good to go.

I think there are some rumors of an uncommanded pitch-down when slipped with flaps. One poster on this board thinks there is a problem but no one here has duplicated the problem he reported.
 
Great write-up. I'm going to use it as an additional check list for my preparation.
 
A very good write up, better to be a little over prepared than under.
Congratulations on joining the exclusive group.
 
Hippike said:
CONGRATULATION!

Thank you so much for the awesome write-up! I was on the edge of my seat reading it and felt like I was doing the check ride myself. I still have butterflies in my stomach :D

My CFI has already endorsed me to do my CR but as I was reading your notes, I realized how FAR away I am from being knowledgeable about everything.It dawned on me that when doing written tests, I know and can pick the correct answer, but if the question is a stand-alone and I have to come up with the answer, I draw blanks. Wow, I need to study a lot more!!!

“couldn’t slip it since I had flaps out already”

I would like to add something: for some reason my CFI and I always did slips with flaps out. Are you guys telling me that slips with flaps is a no-no? Even when I was flying with another CFI (who was checking me out before my solo endorsement) I would slip the plane on final to get down to land and I had the flaps out and this other CFI said nothing. Can someone shine a light here?
Click to expand...
Don't over-stress about knowing everything, they shouldn't expect you to know everything, just most things and where to look for the things you don't know.
 
Clark1961 said:
Some 172s can exhibit an oscillation when slipped with full flaps. The POH will say something like "slips with flaps are not recommended". As long as the POH doesn't say slips with flaps prohibited then you are good to go.

I think there are some rumors of an uncommanded pitch-down when slipped with flaps. One poster on this board thinks there is a problem but no one here has duplicated the problem he reported.
Click to expand...

I know the POH for our plane (C172 M, 1972) slips with flaps are explicitly prohibited.
 
How long were you in the air for your check ride?
 
This is a great write-up. You should submit it to one of the aviation magazines.
 
jbrinker said:
Sorry, yep I meant ELT battery. I proof read this once but I missed that ... Corrected...

As for the on course thing, I had been cleared to take off, fly runway heading. So yeah it was my screw up.

I feel like reading this, that it sounds way worse than it was. He was thourough but very fair. I really liked him and would ride with him again.

I wanted to thank others on here that helped me (you all know who you are). Being well prepared certainly made it easier. Tomorrow I'll add one more section on the debrief, and some general advice I found helpful.

Oh, one other thing I did that was helpful. With a week or so to go, I pulled out the chart with an xc planned on it. Spread it out and asked my non pilot family to ask me questions. Any questions. They asked a lot, and this gave me the chance to really dig into my knowledge and explain stuff to non pilots. It felt a little like the oral. And they asked some questions I had to think about it look up. It was surprisingly helpful.
Click to expand...
That's a helluva an idea about having non pilots ask you questions. I always give passengers a Sectional to follow along with when flying and often get asked "what's this mean?" I'm pretty good with charts but have been 'stumped' more than once
 
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