Saturday, February 16, 2008

The Big Day, Part 2

The details of the maneuvers clearly aren't all that interesting. If you know the practical test standards, you already know what to expect and if you know that I passed (I did), then you know what I had to do. The sequence went something like this:

Climb on course on the first leg of our fictional cross-country
Look for landmarks and compare them with the chart
Navigate based on the VOR and based on GPS
Level off at desired altitude
Oops, you flew into a cloud. Put on the hood and get us out of here.
Pretend to call the tower and follow their directions to get us back to the field
You are in an unusual attitude, get us out
Okay, hood off, get us to the practice area for slow flight
"I want that stall horn screaming nice and loud."
Some slow turns, then a power-on stall, a power-off stall, a turning stall, and then another turning stall
Show me some steep turns (Yay!)
Oops, your engine failed, get us down
Okay, your engine's back; stay low and do a turn around a point
"What do these buttons do?" (While I'm focused on the turn in a 20-knot wind)
Let's head back in for some touch-and-go's
Show me a normal landing, followed by a soft-field takeoff
Show me a soft-field landing with a slip
Do short-field landing, with a stop on the runway, followed by a short-field takeoff
Land on that spot right there
No, that other spot....
Okay, let's go in. Good job.

That may seem like a short list, and it felt like it was only as long as you probably took to read it. When it was all done, there were a few tips that he had (not surprising for a 50-hour student), but nothing that was a deal-killer. So, I'm now qualified to lead others into the great beyond...no, wait, that's not what I meant. I mean I'm now certified to demonstrate hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. Yeah, that's more like it.

See you up there.

3 comments:

Matt said...

Congrats on passing your checkride!

Welcome to the license to learn club ;-)

- Matt

Anonymous said...

Big congratz to ya! Let me know if you ever come down to BMI.

Stimey said...

Congratulations, friend! I'm going to demand a flight sometime now!