The first milestone that students pilot will reach is the solo. The solo is the first opportunity the student has to fly the airplane by him or herself. However, no flight school will let a student take a plane up without a check ride. A check ride is simply the equivalent of the road test for an automobile driver. That’s what I did today. It involves 2 test and a flight with a check airman who judges the student on their ability to perform maneuvers, complete safe landings as well as establish communications with the tower and ground control.
The test has 3 parts. The first part is the written test. The written test gives 50 fill in questions. The questions are related to general aviation, FAA regulations and about the specific airport I’ll do my solo at, which in this case is my base airport of Republic. It took me about an hour and I did well, a 95%. The second part is the oral. During this part, the check airman, Bob in this case, asks me questions face to face in order to see how well I know what I’m doing without being able to look it up. Again this is about the airport, general aviation questions as well as specific questions about the plane I train in. This test was harder than the written, but again I passed. Lastly came the practical, the flight portion of the test.
It didn’t go well
First I filled out the pre-flight sheet and checked the airplane. Once that was done I told the check airman, the plane was ready. We walked across the ramp together and got in the plane. From that point on I blew it. It’s embarrassing to admit, but I suddenly forgot what to do. I looked down, got my checklist out and started going through the items. From when I started the plane and got to the end of the ramp where I was to call ground control, everything was normal. Then I called ground and fumbled the entire call. Later Bob would tell me he didn’t judge me too poorly for this, but it messed me up for the rest of what I had to do. Once ground told me I was clear to taxi, I started to roll and Bob pressed the brakes with his feet. I was about to cut off a plane which was to my right and waiting to taxi. I forgot to look right. The plane to the other’s right always has the right of way and I would have broken that rule if Bob didn’t stop me. After I finally got onto the taxi ways I thought I was going to be fine. I was wrong. Bob asked me when I was going to put the wind correction in with the ailerons, and why I was riding the brake pedals with my feet.
Once I made it to the run-up area, I started going through my checklist again. Once I felt I had sufficiently got the plane ready for takeoff, I taxied to the runway. Upon reaching the active runway, I called tower and asked for permission to takeoff, they granted and I rolled onto the runway. I guess I wasn’t rolling fast enough for Bob and he told me to hurry up.
I finally took off.
I was finally in the air, and was feeling good. I had messed up a few ground operations, but my flying had been good in the previous lessons with my instructor. The first thing I did wrong was I forgot the climb checklist. It’s supposed to be done at 1000 feet AGL, but I didn’t do it until about 3000 feet AGL. Bob commented on this while I was flying but it wasn’t anything major, so I headed towards the practice grounds.
My maneuvers were well below average. During slow flight I forgot to put flaps in until I almost stalled the plane, and I forced the pane into secondary stall while I was attempted to recover from the power off stall. My recovery from the power on stall was the only satisfactory maneuver I did the whole day. Perhaps the worst part of the flight was when I busted class C airspace. MacArthur Airport is a class C airport close to Republic, and its’ airspace go up to the edge of the training grounds. As I finished the engine failure procedure (which didn’t go well because I was attempting to simulate a landing on the beach and not a parking lot), I increased full power to go around and recover. However, I forgot about the Charlie airspace and flew right into it. The check airman grabbed the controls and flew away from the area. While he still had the controls, he asked why so much air was coming into the cockpit. I looked up and realized I never latched the door shut while back in the run-up area. It was closed and locked but not latched. This allowed excess air to enter the cabin.
At this point I knew I was going to have to retake the check ride. He told me, in a horribly grump voice, to take him back to the airport. I called the tower control and asked to land. I don’t know why, but I forgot to go through the pre-landing checklist. As I landed, he took controls away from me and taxied to the ramp where our airplanes are kept.
I knew it went really bad. When we got inside, after tying up the airplane, we went through what I did wrong. I don’t remember all of what he said because I was so mad at myself for messing up that horribly. However, I didn’t learn a lot from the flight. Make sure to always go through the checklists carefully, keep situational awareness and be confident.
The test has 3 parts. The first part is the written test. The written test gives 50 fill in questions. The questions are related to general aviation, FAA regulations and about the specific airport I’ll do my solo at, which in this case is my base airport of Republic. It took me about an hour and I did well, a 95%. The second part is the oral. During this part, the check airman, Bob in this case, asks me questions face to face in order to see how well I know what I’m doing without being able to look it up. Again this is about the airport, general aviation questions as well as specific questions about the plane I train in. This test was harder than the written, but again I passed. Lastly came the practical, the flight portion of the test.
It didn’t go well
First I filled out the pre-flight sheet and checked the airplane. Once that was done I told the check airman, the plane was ready. We walked across the ramp together and got in the plane. From that point on I blew it. It’s embarrassing to admit, but I suddenly forgot what to do. I looked down, got my checklist out and started going through the items. From when I started the plane and got to the end of the ramp where I was to call ground control, everything was normal. Then I called ground and fumbled the entire call. Later Bob would tell me he didn’t judge me too poorly for this, but it messed me up for the rest of what I had to do. Once ground told me I was clear to taxi, I started to roll and Bob pressed the brakes with his feet. I was about to cut off a plane which was to my right and waiting to taxi. I forgot to look right. The plane to the other’s right always has the right of way and I would have broken that rule if Bob didn’t stop me. After I finally got onto the taxi ways I thought I was going to be fine. I was wrong. Bob asked me when I was going to put the wind correction in with the ailerons, and why I was riding the brake pedals with my feet.
Once I made it to the run-up area, I started going through my checklist again. Once I felt I had sufficiently got the plane ready for takeoff, I taxied to the runway. Upon reaching the active runway, I called tower and asked for permission to takeoff, they granted and I rolled onto the runway. I guess I wasn’t rolling fast enough for Bob and he told me to hurry up.
I finally took off.
I was finally in the air, and was feeling good. I had messed up a few ground operations, but my flying had been good in the previous lessons with my instructor. The first thing I did wrong was I forgot the climb checklist. It’s supposed to be done at 1000 feet AGL, but I didn’t do it until about 3000 feet AGL. Bob commented on this while I was flying but it wasn’t anything major, so I headed towards the practice grounds.
My maneuvers were well below average. During slow flight I forgot to put flaps in until I almost stalled the plane, and I forced the pane into secondary stall while I was attempted to recover from the power off stall. My recovery from the power on stall was the only satisfactory maneuver I did the whole day. Perhaps the worst part of the flight was when I busted class C airspace. MacArthur Airport is a class C airport close to Republic, and its’ airspace go up to the edge of the training grounds. As I finished the engine failure procedure (which didn’t go well because I was attempting to simulate a landing on the beach and not a parking lot), I increased full power to go around and recover. However, I forgot about the Charlie airspace and flew right into it. The check airman grabbed the controls and flew away from the area. While he still had the controls, he asked why so much air was coming into the cockpit. I looked up and realized I never latched the door shut while back in the run-up area. It was closed and locked but not latched. This allowed excess air to enter the cabin.
At this point I knew I was going to have to retake the check ride. He told me, in a horribly grump voice, to take him back to the airport. I called the tower control and asked to land. I don’t know why, but I forgot to go through the pre-landing checklist. As I landed, he took controls away from me and taxied to the ramp where our airplanes are kept.
I knew it went really bad. When we got inside, after tying up the airplane, we went through what I did wrong. I don’t remember all of what he said because I was so mad at myself for messing up that horribly. However, I didn’t learn a lot from the flight. Make sure to always go through the checklists carefully, keep situational awareness and be confident.
