finally took my PPL checkride

Skalar · August 28th, 2007, 16:47

Hi guys. I dont post much, but I figured this was postworthy.
However, a lot of you guys know me, and many have helped me get to the point where I could call myself ready..

Yeah, I finally took my checkride.

I when I showed up at the FBO, my CFI was behind the fence on the tarmac and with another student. He said "if you would have been here earlier, we could have gone over more procedures". Always helpful, he actually invited me into his house the night before so we could go over some stuff that would be on the oral. Very nice guy. I told him basically this morning I was ill with the tension and anxiety working up to this ride. Unlike him, this is my first checkride -- I don't know what to expect!

He presented his first 2 fingers through the fence and I shook them, and Proceeded to walk into the doors of the flight school.

It turns out that the Examiner is really particular about applicants showing up on time, and in that respect, I wasn't too suprised that I was told to come in at 8:30 .. while he would show up at 9. After half an hour of really anxious waiting, a light gray bearded, moustachioed man walked across the parking lot, putting out his old pipe and twisting his cleverly waxed moustache as he entered the building.

That was the examiner.

He walked up to me and I shook his hand, and we introduced ourselves. We casually talked about how we were that day, where we were in aviation, and he gave me a nice lesson on the Airport. He told me about everything from his hobbies to his previous airline career, while he Retrieved my application from the internet and proceeded to enter his information without much fumbling.

Checking my logbook, turns out my instructor forgot to endorse me when we went over the missed questions after the written. We decided to continue and when my instructor got back on the ground, we would get his signature.

So, then out came the sectional. I've been told by my instructor that he's *VERY BIG* on the sectional chart. I knew all of my airspaces and Restricted areas, even the time zone change which is a very small little dotted line along the coast. I had to momentarily lookup the ceiling of class G airspace when he pulled out a sectional of God knows where in Colorado (since class G only goes up to 2700MSL on the Miami Sectional). I found nearly all of it without a problem.

Then we moved onto visibility requirements, which I answered pretty well, until he asked me the question "what are the visibility requirements for landing at a class C Airport?" Of course I gave him the standard answer of 3 miles and cloud distances.. but he wanted more. I told him that's all I know of, but I could find the answer in the FAR/AIM. he told me to open the exact page number and look up the exact FAR regulation that says you need at least a 1000 foot ceiling. That man has the book memorized.

The rest of the Oral went smoothly.. he said "ok.. one more question and we'll go fly.... how do you get out of a spin?"

I told him. he gets up, and starts beating his head against the wall.. and letting out a groan. my heart sank.... Then he ran out and found my instructor ( who just landed ) and grilled him for about 10 minutes on how important spin recovery is. More along the lines of "He just memorized this, and I can just see that he doesn't know the dynamics of it!" this continued for another 5-10 minutes as he gave the chief pilot a lashing as well. I was asked questions about what a spin was and I explained it was a special case of a stall, and one wing was generating more lift than the other. He told me "Get your instructor's signature, Go preflight, and I'll join you"

So I go out onto the ramp and have my own troubles with the airplane. Seems inside the folder with the key and the logsheet there was a little note from another pilot taped in and read "Plane looks a little low on oil"

Yeah.. a little low.. 3 quarts.

of course there's no oil in my airplane, so I open a few other aircraft and find a quart each from 2 more 172's parked on the tarmac. Mind you that doing this takes a lot longer than the normal preflight, and even after I was completely done, the examiner was still inside... giving .. now.. a group of 7 CFI's the tounge lashing of their lives about the importance of spins and spin recovery.

However he was nice to me, and aplogized that he should have been out there earlier.

so we get into the plane start it up, and taxi out. No real problems there other than a 2500ft ceiling, and I was told to taxi to a runway I've never taken off on and given specific taxi instructions. Of course the taxiway signs were missing and I said 'is this delta? hm' .. examiner told me "YEAH! it says DELTA RIGHT THERE!" (on a sign from another taxiway) .. the he said "yeah and the signs are missing too"

The engine on this particular aircraft is kinda rotten. It'll sputter really bad on a mag runup.. even if you lean the mixture out on taxi. Today was no exception and I had to lean it up and run it to 2100rpm to get smooth operation during the mag check.. normal with this airplane..

Upon takeoff it was pretty uneventful. I kept it within 50ft of altitude pretty good and the ball centered until we reached the practice area.... and then we commenced steep turns..and power on stalls.. which I passed without a fuss.

Then it was the power off stall. The first one I didn't like and I recovered before the stall... just wasn't quite ready. Then he told me to do it again. I guess one of my main problems with a power off stall was a secondary stall. So, I ended up pulling out of the maneuver @100kts.. and with that he said "what's your Vy/Vx speeds?" I told him and he asked me why they're nowhere near 100kts. He then grabbed the controls of the aircraft briskly and proceeded to show me a power off stall.

in which he did perfectly of course. I got worried as he used the controls again to do a 60+ degree turn. I heard from others "if he touches the controls, you dont pass" however I've been told he does have to tell me if I failed.. in which he didn't.

He then reduced power to idle.. and said "now your engine is out" I went through the whole best glide speed/landing field/ magneto check/mock mayday call ,etc I spotted a runway to my right that was perfect for landing.

It said "PRIVATE" but it was a runway, and this is an emergency and I was going to land on it. he agreed. ..but the airplane didn't

He didn't like the sputtering the engine was doing during the idle. Actually, he added power back and leaned the mix and the engine really hesitated and didn't want to run... he said "lets go back to the airport.. I dont like the sound of this engine".. so basically we skipped ground reference and everything else..

flying back he said "oh, by the way, my house is 2 down from the end over there, near the runway." Turns out he lives in a fly-in community and that was his runway.

I flew due west, then I programmed the airport into the GPS, and tuned into its VOR frequency and headed back west where I made a very nice touchdown despite ATC changing runways on me as I entered the pattern.

I like to voice out my procedures.. and upon nosewheel touchdown and aerodynamic braking, the nose came to rest and I said "can't hold off the nosewheel anymore".. he said "oh yes you can" he added in power and we basically 'wheelied' the aircraft to parking. Heh.. you learn something new everyday!

I parked the aircraft and he got out.. and said "meet me inside after you cleanup" I cleaned up and shut the doors and windows and while walking back inside I could see him on the otherside of the fence.. there he was, smoking his pipe and staring off into the distance. I wondered how well I did or did I screw it up or perhaps I shouldn't even mention it. I decided not to ask.

After he was done smoking, he logged into IACRA and printed out my Temporary.. He said with a big smile "I dont know what scared the hell out of me the most.. Your Stalls or the Aircraft!" then he shook my hand..

"Congradulations!" he said

0.8 PIC

cmsuav8r · August 28th, 2007, 17:44

Congrats! You earned it! Its just one of those milestones, like your first solo, that you won't forget.

Crockrocket94 · August 28th, 2007, 23:52

.8 Dayum.

And lucky you got out of the ground ref and short and soft fields!

Congrats though!

amorris311 · August 29th, 2007, 00:04

dude you got out of a lot! congratulations!!!!!

PeanuckleCRJ · August 29th, 2007, 00:42

Congrats!!

N826AW · August 29th, 2007, 01:15

Awesome! Passing a checkride is an incredible feeling!

Has your instructor put you into a spin so you could experience what it is like and how to get out of one? It is not required as part of PPL training but I cannot recommend it enough.

Murdoughnut · August 29th, 2007, 10:24

Congrats - checkout the Meetup section - some of us are planning to get together in Clearwater the weekend after Labor day if you're interested.

dc3flyer · August 29th, 2007, 12:19

Congrads!!!!!!!!!!!

TFaudree_ERAU · August 29th, 2007, 14:18

Good job dude. Now you know what it'll be like for the other umpteen dozen checkrides you'll take for the rest of your life.

Skalar · August 30th, 2007, 00:06

As far as spins.. no, I haven't done them. I want to do them.. but I'm 205 while my instructor is 250.. and he only wants to do them in a 152... hopefully in a week or two we can do that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Murdoughnut

Congrats - checkout the Meetup section - some of us are planning to get together in Clearwater the weekend after Labor day if you're interested.

Sounds good to me! I'll check it out...

August 28th, 2007, 16:47	#1
Skalar Newbie Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Bradenton, FL Posts: 5	finally took my PPL checkride Hi guys. I dont post much, but I figured this was postworthy. However, a lot of you guys know me, and many have helped me get to the point where I could call myself ready.. Yeah, I finally took my checkride. I when I showed up at the FBO, my CFI was behind the fence on the tarmac and with another student. He said "if you would have been here earlier, we could have gone over more procedures". Always helpful, he actually invited me into his house the night before so we could go over some stuff that would be on the oral. Very nice guy. I told him basically this morning I was ill with the tension and anxiety working up to this ride. Unlike him, this is my first checkride -- I don't know what to expect! He presented his first 2 fingers through the fence and I shook them, and Proceeded to walk into the doors of the flight school. It turns out that the Examiner is really particular about applicants showing up on time, and in that respect, I wasn't too suprised that I was told to come in at 8:30 .. while he would show up at 9. After half an hour of really anxious waiting, a light gray bearded, moustachioed man walked across the parking lot, putting out his old pipe and twisting his cleverly waxed moustache as he entered the building. That was the examiner. He walked up to me and I shook his hand, and we introduced ourselves. We casually talked about how we were that day, where we were in aviation, and he gave me a nice lesson on the Airport. He told me about everything from his hobbies to his previous airline career, while he Retrieved my application from the internet and proceeded to enter his information without much fumbling. Checking my logbook, turns out my instructor forgot to endorse me when we went over the missed questions after the written. We decided to continue and when my instructor got back on the ground, we would get his signature. So, then out came the sectional. I've been told by my instructor that he's VERY BIG on the sectional chart. I knew all of my airspaces and Restricted areas, even the time zone change which is a very small little dotted line along the coast. I had to momentarily lookup the ceiling of class G airspace when he pulled out a sectional of God knows where in Colorado (since class G only goes up to 2700MSL on the Miami Sectional). I found nearly all of it without a problem. Then we moved onto visibility requirements, which I answered pretty well, until he asked me the question "what are the visibility requirements for landing at a class C Airport?" Of course I gave him the standard answer of 3 miles and cloud distances.. but he wanted more. I told him that's all I know of, but I could find the answer in the FAR/AIM. he told me to open the exact page number and look up the exact FAR regulation that says you need at least a 1000 foot ceiling. That man has the book memorized. The rest of the Oral went smoothly.. he said "ok.. one more question and we'll go fly.... how do you get out of a spin?" I told him. he gets up, and starts beating his head against the wall.. and letting out a groan. my heart sank.... Then he ran out and found my instructor ( who just landed ) and grilled him for about 10 minutes on how important spin recovery is. More along the lines of "He just memorized this, and I can just see that he doesn't know the dynamics of it!" this continued for another 5-10 minutes as he gave the chief pilot a lashing as well. I was asked questions about what a spin was and I explained it was a special case of a stall, and one wing was generating more lift than the other. He told me "Get your instructor's signature, Go preflight, and I'll join you" So I go out onto the ramp and have my own troubles with the airplane. Seems inside the folder with the key and the logsheet there was a little note from another pilot taped in and read "Plane looks a little low on oil" Yeah.. a little low.. 3 quarts. of course there's no oil in my airplane, so I open a few other aircraft and find a quart each from 2 more 172's parked on the tarmac. Mind you that doing this takes a lot longer than the normal preflight, and even after I was completely done, the examiner was still inside... giving .. now.. a group of 7 CFI's the tounge lashing of their lives about the importance of spins and spin recovery. However he was nice to me, and aplogized that he should have been out there earlier. so we get into the plane start it up, and taxi out. No real problems there other than a 2500ft ceiling, and I was told to taxi to a runway I've never taken off on and given specific taxi instructions. Of course the taxiway signs were missing and I said 'is this delta? hm' .. examiner told me "YEAH! it says DELTA RIGHT THERE!" (on a sign from another taxiway) .. the he said "yeah and the signs are missing too" The engine on this particular aircraft is kinda rotten. It'll sputter really bad on a mag runup.. even if you lean the mixture out on taxi. Today was no exception and I had to lean it up and run it to 2100rpm to get smooth operation during the mag check.. normal with this airplane.. Upon takeoff it was pretty uneventful. I kept it within 50ft of altitude pretty good and the ball centered until we reached the practice area.... and then we commenced steep turns..and power on stalls.. which I passed without a fuss. Then it was the power off stall. The first one I didn't like and I recovered before the stall... just wasn't quite ready. Then he told me to do it again. I guess one of my main problems with a power off stall was a secondary stall. So, I ended up pulling out of the maneuver @100kts.. and with that he said "what's your Vy/Vx speeds?" I told him and he asked me why they're nowhere near 100kts. He then grabbed the controls of the aircraft briskly and proceeded to show me a power off stall. in which he did perfectly of course. I got worried as he used the controls again to do a 60+ degree turn. I heard from others "if he touches the controls, you dont pass" however I've been told he does have to tell me if I failed.. in which he didn't. He then reduced power to idle.. and said "now your engine is out" I went through the whole best glide speed/landing field/ magneto check/mock mayday call ,etc I spotted a runway to my right that was perfect for landing. It said "PRIVATE" but it was a runway, and this is an emergency and I was going to land on it. he agreed. ..but the airplane didn't He didn't like the sputtering the engine was doing during the idle. Actually, he added power back and leaned the mix and the engine really hesitated and didn't want to run... he said "lets go back to the airport.. I dont like the sound of this engine".. so basically we skipped ground reference and everything else.. flying back he said "oh, by the way, my house is 2 down from the end over there, near the runway." Turns out he lives in a fly-in community and that was his runway. I flew due west, then I programmed the airport into the GPS, and tuned into its VOR frequency and headed back west where I made a very nice touchdown despite ATC changing runways on me as I entered the pattern. I like to voice out my procedures.. and upon nosewheel touchdown and aerodynamic braking, the nose came to rest and I said "can't hold off the nosewheel anymore".. he said "oh yes you can" he added in power and we basically 'wheelied' the aircraft to parking. Heh.. you learn something new everyday! I parked the aircraft and he got out.. and said "meet me inside after you cleanup" I cleaned up and shut the doors and windows and while walking back inside I could see him on the otherside of the fence.. there he was, smoking his pipe and staring off into the distance. I wondered how well I did or did I screw it up or perhaps I shouldn't even mention it. I decided not to ask. After he was done smoking, he logged into IACRA and printed out my Temporary.. He said with a big smile "I dont know what scared the hell out of me the most.. Your Stalls or the Aircraft!" then he shook my hand.. "Congradulations!" he said 0.8 PIC

August 28th, 2007, 17:44	#2
cmsuav8r Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Warrensburg, MO/ KC, MO Posts: 590	Re: finally took my PPL checkride Congrats! You earned it! Its just one of those milestones, like your first solo, that you won't forget. __________________ "Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you may miss it."

August 28th, 2007, 23:52	#3
Crockrocket94 Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: In a place warmer than State College.. for now. Posts: 896	Re: finally took my PPL checkride .8 Dayum. And lucky you got out of the ground ref and short and soft fields! Congrats though! __________________ Craig CFI-CFII-MEI www.logshare.com/log.jsp?email=craigcrocker1@yahoo.com

August 29th, 2007, 00:04	#4
amorris311 Old Skool Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Los Angeles soon to be phx Posts: 2,563	Re: finally took my PPL checkride dude you got out of a lot! congratulations!!!!!

August 29th, 2007, 00:42	#5
PeanuckleCRJ Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Where everybody's somebody Posts: 609	Re: finally took my PPL checkride Congrats!! __________________ TROGDOR THE BURNINATOR

August 29th, 2007, 01:15	#6
N826AW Old Skool Join Date: May 2007 Location: Mesa Oeste Posts: 1,713	Re: finally took my PPL checkride Awesome! Passing a checkride is an incredible feeling! Has your instructor put you into a spin so you could experience what it is like and how to get out of one? It is not required as part of PPL training but I cannot recommend it enough. __________________

August 29th, 2007, 10:24	#7
Murdoughnut Old Skool Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: St. Petersburg, FL Posts: 2,737	Re: finally took my PPL checkride Congrats - checkout the Meetup section - some of us are planning to get together in Clearwater the weekend after Labor day if you're interested.

August 29th, 2007, 12:19	#8
dc3flyer Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Everywhere Posts: 1,172	Re: finally took my PPL checkride Congrads!!!!!!!!!!! __________________ Paid to wait.... Fly for fun!

August 29th, 2007, 14:18	#9
TFaudree_ERAU Old Skool Join Date: May 2006 Location: Virginia is for Lovers, yacht chasing on the weekends Posts: 1,844	Re: finally took my PPL checkride Good job dude. Now you know what it'll be like for the other umpteen dozen checkrides you'll take for the rest of your life.

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