January 20, 2011: Approximately 3 years and 55 days since I took my introductory flight I became a fully certified private pilot for airplane single engine land (ASEL). It has been a tough and long road. The second portion of my exam was all kind of a blur, kind of like when you get married. You remember that you did it, but you can’t remember the specifics as well because you are pretty nervous. This is my best recollection of everything that happened during my exam.
On January 20th the weather finally worked out where I could fly at 9AM. I showed up at the airport and the winds were nearly calm. Most clouds were in the 3,000 – 4,500 foot range. Snow was predicted for later that day. After finishing my flight plan (calculating winds for my pretend cross country flight, and things like that) I visited my FAA Designated Examiner (DE) in his office. He asked me some questions about the flight we were about to embark on, then told me to go call my flight plan in. He would meet me down at the plane for the preflight process.
I called the flight plan into the Flight Service Station (FSS) and told them it was for my FAA checkride. The briefer on the other end of the phone was really encouraging to me and wishing me good luck. He helped me out with any bit of information he could give me for my exam. When you have to file and receive a standard weather briefing for your checkride, it is kind of a weird process. You’re pretending you’re going to a place over 50nm away, but you know you aren’t actually going there. You are going to divert at some point and finish up the rest of the exam at a different airport, but you don’t really know exactly where that may be. It is up to the DE’s discretion. I gave the briefer as much information as I could guess that my DE would do, and he gave me the current conditions where I suspected we would divert – Frederick Airport (KFDK). That covered me in any situation, I figured. During the briefing I learned that the VOR for Dulles (AML) would be out for where I was going to be flying around. “Great”, I thought. I had that as a backup on my flight plan. I asked the DE if he wanted me to re-plan it with another VOR but he said we would be using Pilotage and Dead Reckoning during that portion of our flight and to not worry about it. I was very clear that I liked to have backups and I think that scored a couple of points with him.
We went down to the plane (N739BA) for the preflight. It was icy around the plane so we noted that once we had the plane moving we would keep going to dry pavement before stopping to check the brakes. There were planes parked relatively close on either side of my plane (which was parked in a corner). I also wanted to make sure I didn’t slip and fall on the clear black ice when I was preflighting. I didn’t want that as part of my glorious story. Lol. As I preflighted the DE kept an eye on me and would ask me random questions. Things like “How may total counterweights are there on the control surfaces?” and “What’s that antenna for?” I didn’t have perfect answers for all his questions, but when I didn’t he would explain the full answer to me so I was sure to understand it. After about 20 or so minutes I was done inspecting the plane. It was warm enough I didn’t have to pre-heat the plane and the other student that used the plane topped it off for me that morning so I did not have to worry about filling it. That was so nice of her!
We climbed into the plane and I started going through the checklist. The DE showed me some tricks such as putting your headset around your leg to warm the ear portions while you’re busy with the checklist and the plane is off. I gave him my standard passenger briefing, pretending he wasn’t already a pilot and knew the drill many times over. I also looked and him and gave him two pieces of important information: 1) I talk a lot out loud. If that bugged him, he could tell me to shut up. Under most circumstances I will say out loud what I’m doing in the plane so people know what to expect, especially when I fly with my instructor. 2) I was nervous. I just said “I’m gonna put that out there for you… I’m nervous”. He smiled and said not to worry about it, that he already knew I would be. He basically made me feel like I could try to relax a little and have fun flying the plane like any other flight I would go on any other day. We started the engine and called for our clearance from Potomac because we were flying in our SFRA (Special Flight Rules Area) because of the security zone around Washington, D.C. As we taxied out of the parking spot, the ice was not a factor. I checked my brakes and then asked him to check his. Check. I dodged little snow piles as we taxied to the runway because that would be devastating on the propeller. With the wind that day we would be using runway 32 at KGAI. I performed my run up and finished the checklists. I took the runway and departed to the North West towards our fake destination of W35.
My first checkpoint was supposed to be a spot on I-270, but the DE decided that it would be a different point. So I followed his instructions and flew to what he wanted. He then started throwing questions and giving me commands at amazing speeds. “Watch your heading”, “Watch your altitude”, “There’s our first checkpoint, what’s our second checkpoint?”, “What time did we fly over our first checkpoint?”, “Do you have your E6B?”, “What’s your ground speed?”, “Watch your heading”, “Watch your altitude”… I think he was testing how many things he could throw on me at once. I wasn’t shy a few times in telling him I would get to the next question as soon as I had the plane re-stabilized because the mild turbulence was bouncing us off of our course and altitude a little bit. He chastised me a little for not having my chart out sooner. I guess I was comfortable enough with my immediate surroundings and had my first few checkpoints memorized so deeply I just didn’t think to look at the chart. My second checkpoint was Sugar Loaf Mountain, but he told me it would be the fish hatchery just on the other side of it instead. I marked the time and calculated the ground speed as requested. It was a little slower than I expected due to the current winds, but it was what it was. We were level at about 2,500 feet at this point.
Next, he said “Divert and take me here” as he pointed to a private airstrip just South of Frederick, MD named “Burhand Meml”. I took us in that general direction, calculated our approximate distance and time. Then he asked me to spot the airstrip. I saw it when I first turned, but then I lost it. Then I saw what looked to be a runway, but it wasn’t clear or had any runway markings on it. I said “Is that it? It looks like a runway, and it’s a private airstrip, so maybe that could be it?” He asked me to look at he chart closely and I realized there were 2 private airstrips less than a mile apart. I found the one slightly north. After looking a little I found the correct one, which did have the runway markings on it. We then circled it and turned West.
My DE then took the plane from me and asked me to put on my view limiting device so that I could only see the instruments and not outside the airplane. I did. Then he gave the control of the airplane back to me. He first gave me a few headings and asked me to turn to them as I kept the same altitude. I did that without any problems. Then he said “Find where we are on the chart, and you’re allowed to use your radio navigational aids now”. I dialed in the FDK and MRB VORs and began figuring out what radials we were on. This is where I ran into a problem… I couldn’t remember how to pull the ident on the NAV 1 radio because it’s tied into the Garmin GPS. I did know how to do it on NAV 2, which was one of the older more traditional radios. So I dialed up the VORs on NAV 2, listened for the identifying Morse Code, and calculated the radials. He reminded me that some time had passed while I was doing this and we’re moving. I said I know. And I also realized that my VOR radials nearly met up parallel to each other because I was in the middle of them, so I picked the wrong VORs to pinpoint my exact position. He asked me to use Dulles instead, and I said “Dulles is out for this area, as my standard briefing told me”. He asked me to try it anyway, and I did, and it was out. Then we used HGR’s VOR and I found that we were currently flying over Burkittsville, MD. Apparently I did well enough to pass because he said “That’s good, you are correct, take your goggles off now”.
We then flew out to a clear area and he said “Put the plane into slow flight”. I asked if he would like clearing turns first. He said he would like them, and I was to put the plane into slow flight while I’m doing the clearing turns. I said “You’re asking me to do something I’ve never done before, and I’m not sure I’m comfortable doing that”. He said to just slow down and try it. So I did, sort of. I slowed down, but I made sure I was not close to stalling speed as I was banking for the clearing turns. I then had the plane in slow flight. He then asked me to explain a power off stall to him. I did, and then he asked me to perform one. I did it without a problem and gave him a nice big stall break too. He then asked me to slow the plane down to 60 kts and perform a power on stall. I did that one with a nice big stall break as well. He said “Good, see that road down there? Take me down there and do some S-turns.” We were at approximately 3,500ft and I needed to be at 1,500ft to do the turns. I started descending and he said “Do it faster for me, slip all the way down to that altitude”. I pulled the power and performed a slip from 3,500ft to 1,500ft. 2,000ft of slipping was a lot of fun. My son would have loved that. I re-stabilized the plane at 1,500 ft. I noted that the road goes curvy to my left and asked him if he would like me to reposition the plane so I could make my first turn to the left, which is usually the traditional way of doing it. He said I could turn to the right first because it didn’t matter – I would be turning both ways eventually during the S-turn. I asked him if he would like clearing turns and he said not to worry about it, the S-turns are a self clearing maneuver. I flew an S pattern over the road, even while imagining a straight road (it curved a lot) and he said “That’s good… take me to Frederick Airport now”.
I dialed in the FDK VOR and flew up over a mountain to the airport. When I got closer I heard 4 or 5 airplanes in the pattern. I thought “Great, early on a Thursday morning there HAD to be all these people out practicing!” As I got to pattern altitude and on the 45 degree entry to downwind for runway 30, we spotted traffic on an extended downwind into the same runway. I chose to make a right 360 degree turn to separate myself from the close traffic. I re-entered the pattern and my DE asked me to make a short field landing with the constraints that I must be 100 ft over the ground at the threshold of the runway and land within three centerline stripes. I am so so so happy I practiced this exact maneuver with Rich on the same exact runway a few days ago. I was 100 ft about the ground at the threshold, cut the power, kept the plane at 60 kts, and landed as he requested. This was the single thing I was worried the most about for the exam, and it was over successfully. Once clear of the runway he asked for a short field takeoff. I did it, but as I turned to crosswind he put the plane back straight and told me not until we were at 1,300 feet, per the noise abatement instructions for the airport. I felt a little sheepish about not knowing the noise procedures, but it wasn’t the worst mistake I could make. Once around the pattern he asked me to perform a soft field landing. I did it, and although it wasn’t the smoothest of touchdowns he was happy with it. He then asked for a soft field takeoff. I let him know I knew the theory of the takeoff by going through the steps verbally with him, but I said the plane we were in picks up speed and lift very quickly and it’ll happen so fast it will feel a lot like a normal short field takeoff. I performed the takeoff calling off the steps of being in ground effect and climbing at Vx and he was happy with my performance. He asked me to depart to the West. I did.
He then took the plane from me and called into the SFRA for our clearance back to our airport. When he did this, I thought I may have failed somewhere. I was thinking “Is he doing this but not telling me I failed so I wouldn’t freak out until we get back?” My mind was racing. We were suddenly heading home and he wasn’t saying anything. Along the way he gave the plane back to me and said “Do you always fly with your hand on the throttle?” If you read my last blog post you will note that this is what my instructor said to me just before he simulated an engine out less than a week ago. I told the DE “Yes, it’s my habit to do that… but now I know what’s coming next”. He said “Do you? How about this. Let’s say while your hand is on the throttle the whole linkage fell out of the dashboard. You can no longer change your engine’s RPM. What are you going to do now?” I realized he just gave me a simulated emergency that was not in the books and you wouldn’t have prepared for. You can’t panic in a situation like this. You have to think back to all the basics you learned about flying and airplanes. I said “Well, first, I have a running engine so I can go where I want.” He said “Yes, so I’m telling you we are going to our home airport, so that part is now figured out for you, but you could have chosen a place with longer runways and more emergency equipment during a real emergency”. I agreed. Then I said “I would call in the emergency on the radio, but I am not going to do that now because this is just an exercise”. He said “That’s correct, just declare the emergency to me”, and I did. He asked me how I was going to land “this thing” while it was stuck at 2,300 rpm. I said “Well, first, I have to get to pattern altitude”. We were currently at 2,500 feet with 2,300 RPMs on the engine. I could not touch the RPMs, or the throttle at all. I didn’t even know what to do with my right hand. For the first time ever, I put both hands on the yoke. I descended, and as I did I picked up a lot of speed. I was in the yellow (caution) arc for the airspeed when I hit 1,500 feet. I was also close to the airport so I called in our landing to traffic in the area. We were moving really fast, coming into the airport pretty hot. He asked me how I would slow down. I said we could do the opposite move to slow the plane down to drop our flaps. He asked me to do it. I pulled the nose up aggressively to loose enough airspeed to be below 110kts, the speed at which you can drop the first setting of flaps. I dropped the flaps quickly as I was pitched up, and then I pitched the plane back down and we were now flying 110kts instead of 30-40kts faster at about 1,700 feet. This was much more doable now. Once I was abeam the numbers downwind to runway 32 at our airport, I pulled the throttle to simulate that I just pulled the mixture to lean in order to make the engine quit. I was now flying without (pretend) power. I turned toward the runway and we announced we were performing a simulated engine out landing. I was really high over the runway. I dropped all of my flaps and it still looked like I was going to land long. I pulled the nose up slightly to shave off 5 more knots of airspeed, knowing that would steepen my descent like in a short field landing. I landed about half way down the 4,000 ft runway and turned off the last taxiway on the end.
The cockpit was silent and we taxied back to the parking spot after finishing all the checklists. He said “How do you think you did today?” I said that although I didn’t fly everything perfectly, I don’t feel like I did anything bad either. Then I said “How do YOU think I did today?” He said not to worry about that. Lol. He said “If you can get the plane from here to its parking spot without any major problems, I think you’ll be just fine”. I taxied to our spot and we pushed the plane back to put her to bed. He walked over to me and said “I don’t see any reason not to go in and type up your paperwork. Congratulations. Take your time securing the plane. I’ll be in my office.” and he shook my hand. I stood there in disbelief. Over three years. Three years of hard work and frustration just came to fruition in one second. That very second. I shot around a bunch of txts to my wife and friends telling them that I had passed. I finished securing the plane and joined my DE in his office. He handed me my temporary pilot certificate and explained how my permanent one would be sent to me in the mail. He then said “Last pass or fail question, and you only have 15 seconds to answer it… where do you sign this thing?” I already knew the answer and pointed to the vertical signature bar on the left hand side within about 0.9 seconds of him asking me. He said “Congratulations”.
I realized he hadn’t even used the “Oops, I dropped my pencil” trick on me to distract me even though I brought 4 extra pencils for it, or messed with my foot pedals when I was flying. I think I lucked out! I had heard that he used both of those tricks to those he examined in the past.
I logged 1.8 hours of pilot in command (PIC) time with 3 landings. 24 hours later, I’m still in shock and awe that this happened. I cannot wait to take my kids flying soon!
PS – you may have noticed I changed the tag line of my blog from “student pilot” to “private pilot”. Yay!
