Check Ride

Well, I’m a pilot. Hooray! I had my check ride on Saturday the 19th and I was successful. There almost two hours of oral exam questions and 1.1 hours of flying. It was pretty windy on Saturday, but I’m going to cover that stuff after the oral. Here is what went down:

I had to plan a flight to Spirit of St. Louis (KSUS) airport. Spirit is on the other side of St. Louis and I think he wanted to see how I would treat the Class Bravo airspace. I of course am fearless and chose to go right through it. Obviously this won me points becuase people shouldn't be afraid of controlled airspace, it is actually safer than uncontrolled airspace. The flight planning portion was fine, he pointed some things out on the sectional chart and asked about them. We talked a little bit about 2 way communications and when I was required to talk to someone and then asked if the plane had a GPS. It didn't, and he was surprised, but kind of pleased at the same time.

From there we covered aviation weather and airspace minimums. I almost did this flawlessly, but overall I did a good job.
After about 2 hours of oral questions we headed out to the plane. From there he asked a few system questions about the gages and the placement of counter weights on the controls surfaces. I knew these becuase Nate has prepared me well. We took off uneventfully, even with a stiff crosswind and headed toward the first check point on my cross country, Boone County Airport. Once I had it insight, he diverted me and we did some air manuvers.

Here is the order of things on the check ride:
Take off
First check point
Clearing turns
Steep turns (we only did 180s)
Turning power on/off stalls
Spin awareness (he set up the plane where we would have entered a spin)
Hood work
- constant airspeed ascents/descents
- turns to heading
- unusual attitudes
- lost procedure (using VORs while under the hood)
Right after I took off the hood, I confirmed where we were and then he pulled the power and opened the door and window
He closed the door a little bit later but left the window open to add some confusion.
We were just south of the Sheridan airport so we landed there by gliding in. I did the soft field landing and take-off, then a short field Take off and headed back to TYQ (Indy Executive).

At TYQ we did two landings, one was short field and one was accuracy.J.C. stressed that when you were in the pattern, you should always be able to land if power is pulled out, so that the pattern legs adjust accordingly when you have a heavy cross wind. And that slips may be necessary. Also, he said when he flys his 172 (which is a 1983) he does no power landings as a norm. So I think I’ll going to start practicing them on my own. A complete no power landing is kind of nuts to me, but I guess it isn't a big deal if I practice them.

Now, with all of that said, here are the things that I think I could have focused on more:
- Gliding (all the way to landing with no power), especially in pattern
- Radio communications – I think I do a good job of it, but I wish I would have had more experience with it. (Specifically controlled airspace)
- Turning stalls – power on/off
- SIGMETs – Tango, Sierra and Zulu (I hadn’t heard of these before, but I made some good guesses about them) A sigmet is a weather advisory for the air, Tango is for turbulence, Sierra is for Icing and Zulu is for Visibility.
Overall, it was a good experience, and I probably would have had a better post if I was able to write this just after the checkride. Oh well, 2 weeks later isn't so bad.

Solo XC - Evansville, IN (KEVV)

I completed my second cross country today.  Well, half of it.  I went to Evansville to visit my grandparents for the evening.  This whole flying thing is really great.  Anyway, There isn't a whole lot to talk about, so I'll do another photo post:

 

Solo Cross Country

I hit a major milestone yesterday.  It was my last milestone before the checkride.  I completed my Long Solo Cross Country fight. 

Here are the requirements:

- Total distance of greater than 150nm

- One leg with distance of greather than 50nm

- 3 stops at airports other than my home airport

 

Other things I added in there:

- 2 stops at tower controlled fields (3 solo stops required)

 

Here are the details of my trip:

I took off from Eagle Creek at about 1640 local time.  My first check point was the Brickyard VOR.  It is a navigational beacon about 3 nm west of Eagle Creek.  I flew over that and then fixed myself on the 244 degree radial.  This lined me with Terre Haute International (Hulman Field).  This field is tower controlled and I had to put in a specific transponder code (0311 was the code I was assigned) because unlike other controlled fields in class D airspace, HUF had radar service.  I made a landing on runway 32 and pulled off on to the taxiway.  I contacted ground control (towered airports have different people who control the planes on the field and the planes in the air) and asked to taxi back to the beginning on runway 32 for departure to the west.  I was given clearance and I taxied around.  I contacted tower and was cleared to take-off.  I'm not sure that the nice people in Terre Haute were really enamored with me, but whatever, it was my first solo stop at a tower controlled field.  I headed due west from Terre Haute to land at Coles County Airport (MTO).  I'd been here once before last November, and this landing was MUCH better. haha.  I exited the runway and taxied around for departure to Decatur.

 

Here is where it got interesting for me.  The Decatur VOR, which I was planning on using for naviation to the field, was inoperative.  I did not know this was the case before I was due to depart, but I found out when I left MTO.  Luckily I was able to use the MTO VOR and some old fashioned pilotage to find my way.  The only thing I was worried about was that the visibility was about 9 miles, and I am supposed to contact the Decatur Tower when I am 10 miles out.  Anyway, I made my best guestimate and I landed without issue on runway 36 right below the control tower.  I felt some pressure when I was landing because I know that controller was bored and was watching me come in and probably judging me quite a bit.  I taxied off and parked right below the control tower next to The Decatur FBO.

I met with Lenny for dinner at a Chinese Buffet and it was GLORIOUS!  At about 2030 local time, 2130 at home, i departed for Eagle Creek.  I flew almost due east and when I was south of Champaign, I requested flight following.  I've talked about flight following before, but basically I get a transponder code and I am tracked on radar.  I will get information about other traffic in the area and convective weather alerts (at times).  In general, it gives me something to listen to while I am flying.  You can see my route home here on the right because when you get flight following, it shows up on FlightAware.com.  Cool Right?

 

I made it back at about 8:30 and it was just getting dark.  Technically, I didn't fly at night, but it was close.

Total Time: 3.0 hours

Total Distance: 248 nm

Longest Leg: 115 nm

Landings: 4

 

Here is what I have left to complete before I can get my license:

2.0 hours of solo cross country

1 landing at a tower controlled airport

Practical Test

 

The first two things I'll get knocked out when I fly to Evansville tonight and return tomorrow

Getting Prepared

I flew again yesterday. It was mostly review for the checkride, which was awesome. I have to prepare a flight plan for the check ride. I don’t actually know where I have to plan it to, but the flight examiner will tell me in advance and then I’ll plan it and bring it with me. This plan will then be utilized for the beginning of the checkride. We’ll fly to my first point, then do some maneuvers. These will include stalls, steep turns and ground reference (probably turns around a point). After that I will do some flying under the hood and then after doing that for a while, I will take the hood off and have to determine where I am and then fly back to the home airport. At the airport we’ll do some performance take-offs and landings and then it will basically be over. He may actually pull the power out while in the pattern and make sure that I make it to the runway. That can be challenging if you don’t act immediately. But the 172 has a 9:1 glide ratio, so I can glide 9 feet forward for every 1 foot I drop, which means if I am 1000 ft above the ground (pattern altitude), I can glide for 9000 feet. This about 1.75 miles, so I don’t have a lot of room to work with. Of course, when you turn you lose more altitude, so I’ll have to make an immediate turn for the field and hope that the wind doesn’t pick up. Crazy right?

So, yesterday I did the following:
Flew from Eagle Creek to Metro to pick up Nate
Took off from Metro north
Stalls – power on and off
Steep Turns (they are looking better!)
Performance TOLs. I think I have these pretty much down now.
Ground Reference Manuevers – S-turns and turns around a point. These are difficult because you have to change the angle of bank on the wings in order to keep a constant distance from a point.
Normal Landing at UMP
Fly back to Eagle Creek

It was good. Another day or so of this and I’ll be ready.
Totals:
Solo 0.9
Training 1.4
Landings 7