Checkride

Last night, the FAA examiner called me and asked me to plan a flight to Nogales, AZ (right on the US-Mexico border). He and I were to meet at the FBO at 07:00 to begin the examination. I slept fairly well - my head was filled with thoughts of adiabatic lapse rate, density altitude, LAHSO, pilotage, mountain obscuration, gyroscopic procession, emergency procedures... No sheep...

Today in about 4 hours, I'm either going to get in my car as a Private Pilot (Airplane Single Engine Land) or I was going to get in my car really pissed off as a Student Pilot about to enter retirement... I had worked very hard to get to this point - managing a career and a family of 5. Financially and from a time perspective, I was running out of ways to continue the process. At 6:30, I was at the FBO getting the weather so that I could finish my flight plan. I ran into one of the instructors and he said that there was a temporary flight restriction (TFR) down by Nogales - probably wouldn't affect my flight but the examiner might be impressed if I made mention of it... Thanks!

The examiner showed up right at 07:00. The first thing we did was go over my log book. He was checking for all of the appropriate entries, making sure I had logged all of the required flight time, and that I had all of the appropriate endorsements. It all looked good.

Next we logged into IACRA. This is a pretty cool system developed by the FAA to eliminate the paper 8710 forms. I had filled out all of the information on the electronic form and signed it electronically. My instructor had also signed the form electronically. It automagically checks my written test score to see that I passed and it even validates my medical certificate. It is actually very cool!

After the paperwork was out of the way, we spent 5 minutes talking about why I wanted to be a pilot and we exchanged information about each other. He is a retired FBI agent. Outstanding. He disclosed that he likes to do these things "by the book." Speaking of books, he had a 3 inch binder with the test standards plus oral exam questions. My palms were a little sweaty at this point.

Thus began the oral portion of the exam. Talked about the airplane (Piper Archer) and it's systems and instruments. This probably consumed 45 minutes. Then we were on to density altitude and weight and balance. 15 minutes. Flashcards on airport markings and signage. 10 minutes. Brief discussion of physiological aspects of flying such as, hypoxia, hyperventilation, carbon monoxide, spatial disorientation, night vision, etc... 20 minutes. Terminal area chart and sectional chart review including identification and definition of different airspace classes. 20 minutes. Review of my flight plan and a quick pit-stop and then we were off to the plane. It's 09:00.

While I did the pre-flight, he was watching planes takeoff and land. Didn't ask me what I was doing or any questions about my pre-flight. When I was finished, he said, "Why don't you clean the bugs off of the windscreen?" Bugs on the windscreen? Hey, it’s a rental! I ran into the FBO and bought a can of window cleaner and spit-shined the windscreen...

Once on board, we admired the clear view that we had through the windscreen, I performed the engine start checklist and we were about underway. I asked him if he would like a passenger briefing and he said that he didn't need one. I also proclaimed that I was the (Student) Pilot In Command and asked if he would like to check his brakes. He said that he didn't need to check the brakes. We talked about sterile cockpit and that unless he was instructing me to perform a maneuver, I shouldn't expect to hear much from him. Fine by me. Furthermore, unless I had a question about a maneuver or something on the checkride, I should limit my conversation to the tower. Alrighty then.

Taxied to the run-up area and performed a run-up. Everything looked good. Performed my takeoff briefing and requested takeoff clearance from the tower. Basically the checkride is half over and I know I’m capable of flying the plane and performing the maneuvers. What was I forgetting? Flaps 10, landing light on… Archer 4 1 8 2 Lima, Falcon Tower. Cleared for takeoff on runway 4 right. Right turn approved. This is it!

Once airborne, I was turning crosswind to begin my flight plan and there was a huge structure fire in my planned route. There were tons of black smoke billowing up in my route of flight. I mentioned that I needed to divert a little to avoid flying into the smoke. This would probably add a couple of seconds to the time en rout to the first checkpoint. He simply nodded his head.

My first checkpoint was Williams Gateway airport (IWA). I obtained permission to transition their class delta airspace and overflew the airport. Next checkpoint was the north edge of the town of Coolidge (we were flying southbound). At Coolidge, I was told to divert to Phoenix Regional Airport (A39). I started my turn, set the timer, got out the chart and estimated the distance, estimated a heading, and calculated the time en route. Hit it right on the money. He asked me to perform a slip to a landing and do a touch and go.

Back in the air, he told me to fly out over the test tracks and when I was ready perform a steep turn to the left. I said that I would do a clearing turn and he simply told me that the area was clear and to perform the maneuver. When I was about ready to roll out of the steep turn, he said that I was clear on the right and roll right into that steep turn. Now on this one, I picked up about 20kts of extra airspeed and lost about 150 feet during my turn. I don't think he looked at the instruments once during this turn. Either he sensed that I immediately corrected during the turn by reducing power and adding back pressure or he was oblivious. I’m guessing the prior.

I know that I exceeded the tolerances on that turn but I think he is supposed to stop the flight if I am not going to pass. Or is he? Anyhow he then pointed to a clump of trees and asked me to do turns around a point. This is a relatively easy maneuver - even when it is a little bumpy. At one point he simply said, "Please center the ball." I had become a little uncoordinated in all of the turbulence.

"Climb to 4,500 and configure the plane for slow flight." So I configured for slow flight at 4,500 feet and was cruising along at 60kts when he said that he wanted me to give him 50kts and not lose any altitude. 50kts? We always practice slow flight between 55 & 60 kts. I wonder if he knows what he’s doing? 50kts. OK. With all of the data I have crammed into my head right now, I’m frantically trying to remember Vso (stall speed in a landing configuration) for this plane. We’re still airborne. At least I have that going for me. To add to the chaos that has erupted between my ears, the stall warning horn is screaming and we were getting kicked around pretty good.

Next he asked for a power-off stall. I lost about 150 feet and he told me to clean it up for a power-on stall. Done. Then he handed me the hood. Once we were situated, he told me to look straight down while he took the controls. He did a series of climbs, banks, turns, descents and told me to take the controls and fly straight and level. Done. Then we did a couple of climbs, descents, and turns. Slow flight and recovery.

"Now, locate the Stanfield VOR and fly me there." Tuned the frequency to the Stanfield VOR, centered the needle and began to fly. He asked me if I was sure that I was tracking the Stanfield VOR. I checked the chart and compared it to the frequency on the NAV radio and concluded that I was sure this was the Stanfield VOR. He asked, "How can you be totally certain?" "I could listen to the Morse code identifier." "OK let's do that." So we listened and heard dashes and dots – honestly I don’t really know if they matched the dots and dashes for the identifier for the Stanfield VOR. It was a WAG. "OK you can take off the hood."

I had just pulled the hood off of my head and simultaneously he pulled the power out of my engine and said, “Your engine just quit.” Great. Establish best glide, locate a suitable landing point, and attempt engine restart – switch fuel tanks, fuel pump on, cycle the magnetos, attempt restart. “Restart successful! Full power.” No dice. Apparently, no sense of humor either. OK, finish the checklist. Mayday, mayday, mayday… Now we are in the middle of the desert and I found a nice deserted, straight, and flat gravel road with no electrical lines for the landing point. We are descending to the point that I can identify various bugs on the ground (no, they’re not on the windscreen) and I’m starting to get a little nervous. When we practice this maneuver, we never went down this low. I would say we were about 100 feet AGL when he said, “OK, full power.” At least we didn’t actually cross the line between simulated and actual emergency…

“Let's head back to Falcon Field.” We were flying back and he said that he wanted me to do a short field landing, a soft field landing, a power off 180 to a landing, and a normal landing. At Falcon Field, there were 4 or 5 other planes in the pattern so the tower was busy (There are 2 parallel runways at Falcon Field and they use the longer and wider one, 4R/22L, for full stops and the shorter and narrower 4L/22R for practice and helicopter traffic. The controllers at Falcon are some of the best! There is a lot of training activity at the airport and they do a great job keeping everything running smooth. Kudos to Falcon Tower.). So my first short field landing was a little on the firm side but passable - I stopped before the first exit within a couple hundred feet of my touchdown point. Next we went back up for a soft field landing. This was the worst one that I ever performed - I think I may have even landed with the nose wheel first! When we were airborne, he had me request a short approach. That request was turned down because there were multiple aircraft in the pattern. He said OK lets see another soft field landing. This one was perfect. Though he kept saying, “Keep the nose wheel up!” I was a little irritated. I finally blurted out that it was up and it had not touched the ground. I’m not too sure where that outburst came from – it was probably not appropriate considering what I had riding on this flight. I’ll blame it on global warming – it certainly wasn’t stress related… He said, "Fine, tell the tower that we want to terminate."

I taxied back and parked. He simply said, "You tie it down and I'll get started on the paperwork." About 10 minutes later, after having successfully removed my foot from my mouth, I walked into the FBO and he handed me a piece of paper and said that I needed to sign it. The top of the paper read "Temporary Airman Certificate!"

I was probably more relieved than excited. 4 months, countless hours of reading, listening, flying, and round trip travel to and from the airport, which is a 50 mile round trip commute for me, finally paid off.

Paid my $400.00 and said thank you. Did I mention that I am a PILOT?!

Flight time: 1.8
Total time: 75.9 Hours

Flights: 57
Dual Received: 56.5 Hours
Solo: 19.2 Hours
Pilot In Command: 21.0 Hours
Cross Country: 16.3 Hours
Simulated Instrument: 3.1 Hours
Takeoff & Landings (day): 270
Takeoff & Landings (night): 11
Flown 5 different planes and 3 different types of aircraft.