passed!

[ALSF2]

I awoke at 0430 this morning with oral exam guide questions & answers running through my mind. I think I ended up getting less than 6 hours of sleep, and I was regretting that come 0820 when the oral started. It felt like the DE was hitting everything I was weak on! Oh man I felt tired and dejected throughout almost the entire grilling. I would answer a question and his reply would be "no, I don't think so." Why couldn't he ask me all the stuff I knew really well? Thankfully around 1015 we wrapped it up and he had me file the local training circuit. At this time the adrenaline was kicking in and I wasn't so tired anymore...I made sure to mention "instrument checkride" in the remarks section so the controllers wouldn't mess with me. Turns out there was a lot of traffic consisting of much larger airplanes than the C-172 we putted around in, ATC was kind to me and got me in and out of their airspace asap. Order of business was this:
-Contact ATC on GCO. Took a few tries but got it to work.
-100 feet off -hood down. DE gives vectors then tells me to navigate direct to DCU(vor)
-DE covers the attitude indicator up, says "I figured I would do that to lighten your workload." Pilot does not laugh.
-Arrive at VOR and hold W on 274 execute PLEL entry, do 2 turns and receive clearance for VOR-A. I nailed my times to 1 min inbound.w00t.
-Prior to reaching faf heading inbound DE covers up heading indicator..uh oh..
-Kept the needle centered to airport, circled NW for RB touch and go.
-next up is vectors for ILS 18 R and shortly afterward I had an "excursion" from 3000 to 3200. Uh oh....Turns out this was my only biggie. I thought I was done for. Immediately corrected problem.
-ILS down to DH and execute missed approach, then proceeded direct back to 3A1 for GPS approach.
-Almost messed up here. 3212L cross kazdu at 2700 clear GPS20 aprch. notify inbound kazdu...Ok..read it back fine. Stayed at 3000. about 1.5 nm from FAF I look down at 2700 I had written down and then proceeded to say "oh..." I made it down with about 15 seconds to spare. Almost failed it on that one.
-That approach went fine after that and we went ahead and cancelled....then proceeded to do steep turns, compass turns( nailed!), unusual attitude, constant rate climb, and then DME arc. That was pretty much it! There are more details, but ahh..i'm tired.


Did I mention that it was turbulent? A High press. was sitting right on top of Alabama and we got quite a ride. Maybe that helped me out in the end.
Anyone interested can catch a listen on liveatc archives for KHSV around 1720 you can hear me in 3212L.


I'm glad its over. Feels great! I worked hard for this one! YEAHHHHHHHHH

[Skillet]

Congrats and great job!! The instrument ride is a tough one for sure, sounds like you did alot more than I did on mine. After I passed mine and started the commercial stuff I was like hooooraay no foggles!! Anyway congrats again and fly safe.

Mark