Sorry for the delay. I don't get on the computer much on weekends. Friday afternoon and evening was Cigars and Woodford Reserve. First to answer a couple of questions. My first passenger was my wife Saturday morning. flew over the house and about 25 miles out in the country. Greased the landing for her. What I am flying? I bought a 1984R Skylane 182 back in October. Love it.
OK the report. My first check ride got cancelled two weeks ago and then I went to Cozumel on vacation for a week. Thought Tequila might erase everything. rescheduled for Friday at 9am. I was up at 5am studying. He started with all my paper work, log book, credentials etc. Then to the plane and all inspections. ARROW and AVIATES. My CFI told me since I own my on plane he would grill me on everything about it. I read my POH over and over learned how a constant speed propeller operates etc. I was disappointed that he didn't ask me much about the plane. He chewed on me a little bit that the last AD list in my package was from 2012. The mechanic had noted in each annual. "all AD's checked and performed". He said mechanics think this is good enough. But it is up to me to make sure a complete list is made and included each annual. He said I could end the exam here if I wanted to! (talked to my mechanic later. He said Bull****, I signed of on it and it's legal.)
We then started the oral. All the typical stuff. ATOMATOFLAMES, FLAPES, PAVE, IMSAFE, Ask me what operates off the Pitot static system. What works off Vacum. What works off electric. Will the plane fly if I loose electric. What would I do if I have an engine fire, and electrical fire. Effects of carbon mono poisoning. effects of Hypoxia. What to do in either case. etc. etc.
Then we went over my Xcountry, WB, and performance. Had me show him how I came up with each calculation. Had to show him with my Gleim computer. Had to go into the POH and show him how I calculated take off distance, landing distance, Cruise performance. This was more in depth than I had anticipated. But I was OK with it.
Then he opened the chart. Started pointing at airspaces. What airspace is this? What is the cloud clearance? What is required to enter? What is the ceiling? etc. He was really into airspace and cloud clearance. I had to know all of them. Then. How tall is this tower? Why is that tower shown larger than this tower? MOA's, TFR's, NOTAMS, Where can you find out if a MOA is active? He didn't miss much on the chart. I thought he would never stop finding stuff to ask me about the chart!
Then weather. Had to read Metars, Tafs, What are they? What area do they cover? How often are the changed, etc. Had to read several different charts on Aviation weather. Clouds, wind shear, micro bursts, fronts, etc. etc. Following other aircraft? (turbulence).
Then he started asking my about different scenarios. You and your buddy fly down to the casino in Miss. You get ready to fly back and you realize you buddy is drunk as hell. Can you put him in the seat, buckle him up and head home? I said yes. He said hell no! Made me find it in the FAR and read where a pilot cannot fly if someone is drunk out of control. My first second mini azz chewing. He went over a few more. My wifes family member has passed, she is extremely upset. weather is right at VFR minimums etc. would I fly her home?
The oral lasted a little over 2hrs. At the end he said. How do you think you did? I said if it where a scoreable test I would guess 85 to 90.
He said, sounds like a passing grade to me. Check the weather and see if we can fly?
The flight. Plane inspection, passenger brief, start up. All he ever said was good job. Started rolling and brake check. Started rolling again, he said my controls. And he did a brake check and said your controls. I tend to taxi a little aggressive. He told me twice to slow down. After run up he said I would like for you to tell me what you will do if you have engine failure on take off? Failure on take off with wheels down, pull power and roll out. failure after liftoff with runway ahead, pull power and land on runway. After take off, no runway ahead land straight ahead. After take off and 1000" turn back for airport. He said good job. Lets do a soft field take off. We flew to my first checkpoint. He said good job take me to the closest airport. I checked the chart. Got the ATIS and CTAF and scrolled them in. I entered the pattern on a 45 making calls on CTAF. He said, give me a short field landing. I turned base, turned final, and I had over shot the approach and was to high. He said looks like that is going to be a crappy short field landing. GO AROUND! Now I am nervous. I have screwed up the first maneuver. He said shake it off give yourself more room on the base this time and give me a short field landing to a complete stop. I nailed it! After stopping he said short field take off from here. I nailed it as well!
Here is where things started moving really fast and caught me off guard. Practicing maneuvers, either by myself or with my CFI is usually fairly slow in set up and taking time for the next one. The next 30 minutes or so was like machine gun fire. There was no time to relax or set up. He was say maneuver compete, stall now, recover, maneuver complete steep turns etc..
I was at about 1000' after my short field take off. He said my controls, put on your foggles. Your controls climb to 3000' this heading. Turn to heading ---, turn to heading---, my controls take your foggles off. Your controls clearing turns complete slow flight. Maneuver complete, power off stall, recover. High speed stall, recover, steep turns. etc.etc.
Looking back it was probably a good thing I didn't have time to think. It was 82 degrees and I was soaking wet.
He then said lets see if you can operate that GPS and get us back to Birmingham. Flew back and did a no flap landing. Just after we touched down he grabbed the yoke and said I think we can make H4 and started braking. H4 is closed! I grabbed his forearm and said H4 is closed we have to exit right on Alfa. He said wow I almost screwed up there. I am sure it was a test to see if I had listened to the NOTAM about H4.
He told me to slow down taxiing back!. He got out said good job Pilot!
Happy Dance!:yes: