Ppl Asel!

[vheissu]

Well, yesterday was the big day, and things went pretty well! I got the oral out of the way the day before, and that made it easier already have met the examiner. It was fairly windy, seems like it always is where I train in Palm Springs. We started off by following my first heading to my first checkpoint of our cross country, then he asked to divert to another airport, and asked about what heading we would fly to get there, and about how far away was from us. Then we did some unusual attitude recoverys under the hood, and he had me track a few radials to the PSP VOR. After that we climbed and started our manuevers. Started with steep turns, first one didnt go so well and he said he wanted to see better, so we did another and that went fine. Then he wanted to see a power on stall, I thought I wasn't coordinated enough on the rudders, but he didn't say anything and asked to see a power off, and that went better.

That was followed by some very short slow flight, and a 90 degree turn in slow flight. After that he decided to do an emergency engine failure, and I have to admit it was pretty nervewracking locating a proper place to land, and really sticking with it. I established glide speed, picked my field, and went over the checklist. At about 600AGL he said ok lets go around, I was assuming we were just going to level off and start a slow climb so i applied cruise power at first, and he questioned me by asking "Is that how we go around, with half power??" I quickly corrected, and let him know I misunderstood him. That was followed by some quick turns around a point, then back to Palm Springs Intl. for our landings and takeoffs.

This is where I made my biggest mistake. Our first landing he just wanted a normal landing and take off. My approach was a little slow, and it wasnt stable. It should have been a go around but I guess my mind just wasn't in the right place (I seem to get really nervous while being evaluated). The landing wasnt bad, but he definetly commented and said that was not good, and that he won't hold that one against me, but he want's to see how I NORMALLY land, haha. The next landing was fine, despite being a little high on approach, which I fixed with a slip. The soft-field landing and takeoff also were unenventful.

My DE was really a cool guy, he brought his ipod along, and in the pattern he was listening to it and rocking out a little bit, haha. We then had our short field takeoff, which went well, and he called for our next landing to be a short field, to a full stop. I felt very good about that one, touched down right on the numbers, and stopped in it seemed like 75 feet.

I was pretty nervous considering my mistake on the approach, and I was questioning my whole performance in general. He said he would meet me inside to finish the paperwork. He was on his computer and I couldnt tell what he was doing and he hadn't said anything about me passing, or failing. He asked me to confirm my birthdate, and that's when I looked on his screen and saw the Temporary Airman Certificate template he was working on He had me sign, and said I did good, and that he would see me around the school and see me again for my Instrument Checkride. Best feeling in the world.

A couple hours later I took my mom and stepdad for a nice flight to Borrego Springs, and they loved it. It feels like this all happened so fast, I started just one month ago! My Total Time before my checkride was 50.1 hours. Thanks to everyone on this forum. Between reading this forum, and studentpilot.com , I learned so much.

[meyers9163]

Congradulations on this! I am about a month or less away from this point too and get nervous thinking about it. Anyways enjoy your new liscnese and best of luck in whatever you decided to do with it.