kjohnson's Private Pilot Checkride

[kjohnson]

I passed my private pilot checkride (ASEL) yesterday. I wasn't going to do a write-up, as I find all the checkride accounts to be pretty tedious, but maybe someone else will find this helpful.

I'd been studying pretty intensely over the past week, and finally got around to planning my cross-country flight the night before the checkride. This took longer than I expected, preventing me from doing some of the other last-minute studying I wanted to do. In hindsight, I should have done as much planning as possible earlier in the week, so that I would have only had to figure out wind-related stuff the night before.

I didn't sleep well that night. I went to bed at a reasonable time, but tossed and turned and got maybe three good hours of sleep.

I made it to the airport (PDK) about an hour early, so I got an updated weather briefing and reviewed the airplane's maintenance logs. I made sure to get statuses of MOAs and MTRs along the route, as well as every other thing I could get from a briefer. I'd reviewed the maintenance logs a couple of weeks earlier as part of my final stage check, so I was already familiar with the contents, but wanted to verify nothing had changed.

After getting all the paperwork out of the way, the examiner gave me a little briefing about how the checkride would go. The briefing was pretty long and detailed, and he said the reason for that was to lull the candidate into a relaxed state. He said he expected me to make a few mistakes along the way, so I shouldn't worry about anything while the test was in progress. As long as he didn't tell me I'd failed, I'd still be in the game.

The oral exam went well. There were no trick questions. I didn't have to refer to my FAR/AIM at any point. My only brain lockup occurred when he showed me a symbol from a surface analysis chart and asked me what all the markings meant. I had no idea. Some study of page 5-5 of the Aviation Weather Services book would have helped.

But that wasn't enough to fail the oral, so we took a lunch break and then went out to fly.

I almost blew the flight portion before even leaving the ground. ATC told me to position and hold on runway 2L, but I heard and read-back 2R. As I started crossing 2L, heading for 2R, the examiner asked if I was sure about the runway. I immediately called tower, asking "please verify runway 2R", and was told "Runway 2L". So I hit the brakes and turned back toward the centerline of 2L. I was expecting to hear that I'd failed, but the examiner didn't say anything. (During the debrief, the examiner said that since I hadn't actually gone onto the wrong runway, he decided to let it pass. I'm grateful that he spoke up.)

My soft-field takeoff was a little shaky, but OK. I got on course for the planned cross-country route to Asheville, and simulated calling FSS to open the flight plan and simulated calling Atlanta Approach to get flight following.

As we approached the Gainesville airport, the examiner asked me to do a VOR cross-check. After that, he diverted me to Covington. I turned to the approximate heading, then started doing all the plotting and calculating. I was following a diversion checklist. The examiner asked "Have you performed all the steps on your checklist?" I checked again, and sure enough, I had skipped the "Change altitude if necessary" step. I'd been flying northwest at 5,500, but hadn't changed altitude when changing to a westerly heading. I started descending to a legal cruising altitude, again expecting to hear that I'd failed, but again, no unkind words from the examiner.

After that, we did the various stalls, steep turns, simulated instrument conditions, and ground reference maneuvers. I rolled out late on my right steep turn, and lost some altitude during S-turns over a road, but on the whole everything went fine. I was surprised at how relaxed I was, and how easily the plane did what I wanted it to do. It always seems that I'm a better pilot when my instructor is not in the plane.

We did a simulated engine-out. Procedurally I did everything well, but my choice of landing field was not so great. I was still pretty high and fast on the final approach when the examiner told me to go around. I admitted that I wasn't sure I would have made that landing, and expected to hear that I'd failed, but the examiner just told me to climb to 3,500 feet and head back to PDK for some landings.

I was really dreading the landings. I was confident about every other aspect of preparing for the checkride, but my landings have been getting pretty "firm" over the past few weeks. I spent a couple of sessions with my instructor practicing landings, but I wasn't getting better and I expected to screw them up on the checkride. So I was delighted when I made the softest, smoothest soft-field landing I'd ever made, followed by the softest, smoothest short-field landing I'd ever made.

After a short-field takeoff, the examiner told me there would be one more landing, and he wanted me to use a slip on approach and land without flaps. I did the slip, but on short final I saw that I was still too high and too fast, so I gave it full throttle and said I was going around. The examiner said "No, go ahead and land" and cut the throttle. So I made a very long landing, braking just in time to turn off on the last taxiway before the end of the runway.

We taxied back to the ramp and I shut the engine down. The examiner told me I was a pilot and congratulated me. My instructor happened to be out on the ramp with another student, so he ran over and shook my hand. I parked and tied down the plane while the examiner went back inside to start the paperwork.

During the debriefing, the examiner noted dumb things I'd done, but said he could tell that I was a safe pilot, and he wouldn't lose any sleep at night knowing I was in the air. He also said that the mistakes people make on their checkrides are mistakes they will never make again.

So, my advice to other pilots approaching their checkrides is to relax. The examiner wants you to pass, and as long as you don't do anything scary, it should go fine.

[Corsair Ace]

Congratulations! Knew you could do it! Now, maybe you'll have time to join us on Friday evening. First beer's on me when/if you do! Enjoy your new privledge! Again, Congratulations!

[johnpeace]

He also said that the mistakes people make on their checkrides are mistakes they will never make again.

That's great!

Congratulations! Sounds like you've done a great job at training and are ready to really start learning how to fly now.

[Timbo70]

Thanks for taking the time to write up your post checkride.

Believe me, the more G2 the rest of us student pilot's (sorry you're not one of us ) can get the better.

Congrats Private Pilot!

[Galea]

Congrats. Some parts seemed like really close calls! (Like when you thought runway 2R instead of 2L.

[jhappel]

A big CONGRATULATIONS on your achievement! ! !

[eyeflyer]

Congratulations!!!!!

[TonyG]

Congrats! Thanks for the great write-up. Lots of helpful info to help out us lowly students. You never know what little tid bit of info will help someone. Mistakes that you made, and others read about will probably not be made by the reader either.