Post-checkride flights

It's been about two weeks since I passed my checkride. Been up a few times since. Passenger number 1 was my girlfriend. After all the time she has had to spend listening to me yack about flying, it would have been a bad move to go up with anyone else. :) This was the first time she has been up in a small airplane, so she ended up getting a little queasy. Wasn't a big deal, but she clearly doesn't get as excited about all this as I do! It was just a short trip over to Fayette County (I23) and back.

Trip number 2 was a journey over to Madison County (UYF) to pick up my dad. Flew over, picked him up, and came back. Of course, my mom had to make the drive since there are only two seats. :) It was really hot/humid/hazy/bumpy that day. That took some of the fun out of it, but was still a good time. My mom doesn't really enjoy flying (commercially or otherwise), so she definitely wouldn't have liked being up that day.

Went up for the third time, by myself, this morning. It's a beautiful, cool, calm day. That made for some excellent flying. Just went up to sight see for a while. No particular destination. Earlier this week I bought a new handheld gps to use in the 152. Really wanted to see how well it worked. The Garmin 96c is a great little gizmo. For the price it's an excellent value. Made up a couple waypoints to fly just to see how easy it is to fly with the smaller screen. Can't wait to use it on a real trip. Very simple to use.

One of the coolest things about GPS is that you can download your trip path and import the data into google earth. Check out these pics from my flight this morning. (this is Dayton Wright Brothers MGY)

Be sure to click for a larger view:

checkride PASSED!

It's official. The government says I can fly. :) I took my checkride yesterday and completed without any problems. Actually I did the oral earlier in the week on Monday. The winds really picked up in the afternoon so we rescheduled the flight for Friday. Friday ended up being a beautiful day so I'm very glad we waited.

I have to say, the entire checkride process was much more tame than I anticipated. After many hours of studying and practice I believe I had a solid grasp on everything. Let me say this before I continue... designated examiners are people like the rest of us. They have their own views, opinions, life experiences, and such. All this stuff adds up to how they will test you and decide if you are competent. Yes, they have rules by which they are to "grade" you and check your skills, but like most things in life there are lots of gray areas and interpretation. I expected much more of a "test" type experience... Q: what is this? Q: what is that? Fly this maneuver. Check. Fly that maneuver. Check. Do a landing. Check. ... you get the point. What I got was much more of an informal type of observation and information gathering exercise.

The oral was close to what I expected. We went over my flight plan (MGY to AFJ); he gave tips on how many checkpoints I should really have; how he estimates fuel; some airspace stuff; a few technical questions about the fuel and electrical systems in my 152; motion sickness, hypoxia, etc... But overall it seems less indepth than I thought it would go.

At this point I was getting a feel for the DE. He's an older gentleman that's been flying a long time. He is very opinionated, opposes some of the things the books are teaching these days, and thinks gauges in the plane are the devil's work... at least for VFR flight. Ok, I'm exaggerating on the last part a little, but I'll explain in a minute. :)

After the oral I kinda knew what to expect on the checkride. He seemed to be the kind of person that would want to focus on my competence, common sense, and ability not to kill my passengers. That's exactly what the flight was like. Yes, we did most of the normal PTS stuff, but it was more like me trying things, him giving me advice, and telling me how he does things. Also, he's definitely a stick and rudder guy. Now, I don't have a problem of keep my eyes in the cockpit too much. I'm very good at keeping an eye outside. But, wow, he was all about looking outside and not watching the gauges. This was during steep turns and stalls and such. Even glancing at the guages seemed to be a bit much for him. He even held my sectional over the panel during times.

This was an interesting experience to say the least. He rattled my nerves quite a bit up there, but we made it through! I'm sure part of it is if you can fly under that kind of pressure, you'll be able to fly anywhere. Total time on the hobbs, "1.6".

I originally planned to write up exactly how the ride went, which maneuvers we did, etc. But in hindsight, I don't think any two examiners give a checkride the same way. Or maybe my DE was just on the outside of the bell curve. In any case, the best advice I can give to future checkriders is this: Ask around at the airport to see what other people's rides were like with the guy you are scheduled with. Even if you get flustered or rattled on the ride, don't sweat it too much. I think the DE expects it to a point and will adapt to the situation. Nod and agree with 'back in my day' stories and advice. If it seems contrary to what you were taught, just agree and get through the ride... then follow up with your flight instructor later.

Well, now that that's over, I'm really looking forward to a few things.
-Taking my first passenger up. (I was spent after the checkride! No rides that day!)
-Getting that little piece of plastic in the mail so I can show it off.
-Getting checked out in a 172.

It's been a long year, but all the time and money has paid off!

checkride getting closer...

I've been kind of lazy about posting... but I have been flying! I'm so very close to the finish line. The way things look, I may be taking my check ride in the next few weeks. Since my last post and my x-country, we tied up a few loose ends. Little bit of instrument time and a few missing night landings. We've also been doing test prep; unusual attitudes, stalls, etc... I've also been spending a lot of time reading and hittin the books.

I'm actually not that nervous about the checkride. (famous last words) I feel I have a good grasp on everything. Or, at least I will by the time we finish all the test prep. Hopefully it goes well. I like to read the forum and blog posts from other people's checkrides. If you have one or have read a good one, leave me the link in a comment. I'd like to check it out. Once I take mine eventually, I'll try to write it up well enough to help those that follow. :)

long x-country

Did my long solo cross country today. With that I've pretty much got everything but hood time off the to-do list. Todays trip tops 50 hours for me. I'm getting very close!

The round robin journey today was actually very fun. I planned out a trip from Dayton Wright Brothers (MGY) to Muncie (MIE) to Sheridan (5I4) and back. I based these legs to correspond with certain VORs (Muncie and Richmond). I know, I know,... pilotage and dead reckoning are what matter for the checkride. I still planned out my cross country and used my checkpoints and everything. The VORs are just my safety net. The technology is there and it's stupid not to use it.

I did two landings at Muncie. That clears up the landings at a towered airport requirement. By the way... once you get used to it, talking to towers really isn't that scary. LOL. From there it was over to Sheridan. I actually stopped and visited the FBO (and the restroom) there. If any of you have ever been here, you'll know what I'm saying, but this place is in the middle of nowhere. It's a small, privately owned, but public use airport. We're talking a 3760x50 runway, so on a day with a decent cross-wind, you need to make sure you don't drift off center and hit a cow or something! But the locals were very friendly so it was worth the stop.


I'm very pleased with the way things have went since starting with my second instructor. I've learned more since beginning with him then I did the entire stretch from last summer I think. Now it's time to start cleaning up the scraps of the remaining requirements and get ready for the dreaded checkride! :)

what's been happening lately...

Winter is starting to fade away and the rainy spring weather is moving in. Although it has been very rainy off and on, I've been able to schedule flights on a regular basis. Things are going very good with my new instructor. He's a very nice guy with lots of experience... and conveys that experience very clearly. Lots of things are really starting to click for me now. I believe that's a combination of the hours I'm racking up, along with the teaching ability of my CFI.

We've been trying to knock out the hood time requirements, working on ground ref maneuvers, cross wind landings, and even went up to Dayton International (KDAY). DAY is the local class charlie airspace for Dayton, OH. I've flown commercially in and out of Dayton many times, but this was the first time I was the one doing the flying! That lesson was a blast. Plus I'm doing very well on the cross wind landings. The first time you see a plane being blown around on final, you think there is no way you could ever fly that. But it's all starting to come together now and it's actually fun. :)

The winter was rough, not being able to fly much and all, but it's great to get back in the saddle. Can't wait to take my checkride and be able to share this with friends and family.

Finally

I finally got back up in the air Friday evening. Was really missing it and was really glad to finally hit the airport again. Did a little hood time, slow flight, night landings.

There's been one big change. I have a new flight instructor. Wasn't anything wrong between my first instructor and I, he just "moved on" apparently. I don't know all the details on what the problem with him and the flight school was... but oh well.

This could all work out for the better though. My new instructor is on the ball. He really knows his stuff and is introducing things in a whole new level of detail. I'm very excited to get back into things.

still here....

still here...

Haven't been up in the air since Dec 1st. Trying to make the best of the winter weather by reading and watching some of the King School videos. By the way, www.avnac.com is a great place to check out these course videos without dropping 50 bucks a pop on them.

I'm at the point in my flying now that I really want to hit a stretch of good weather and go at it hard. I hate getting one good day every week in a half. If I had my license and just wanted to joy ride when the weather breaks, that would be cool. But, as a student, I think it wouldn't be the best investment of my money to space out flights so much. Would rather wait till the weather breaks just a bit.