Checkride
I had my checkride today, finally. My DPE was Mike Shiflett (A real name! In this blog!!), who has a reputation for being very fair, yet thorough.
We started with the ground portion. After checking my log book, he had me walk him through the aircraft/engine/prop logs, and then we moved on to chart questions. He asked a bit about airspaces; I actually missed both airspace questions (class E above 10,000 and class G) but corrected with a slight hint each time. He asked a few questions about restricted areas and MOAs, and I got confused and didn't know. He said we'd come back to it, but we never did. He asked how much useable fuel the Cessna 172N carries, and what kind of electrical system it has. Plus a little about the magneto system. It was all pretty much basic stuff, nothing tricky or too surprising.
Then we started the air session. After preflighting the plane (he let me do this alone), he had me request that we go into the pattern. During taxi, another plane taxied almost into our path, wanting to come the other direction. I could've gotten around him, but I didn't really want to be anywhere near someone else's propeller, so I called up ground and told them I'd go the long way around to the runway. I thought that was a very good call and was glad someone saw me do it.
We started with a short field takeoff, which I executed very nicely. From the downwind, Mike asked for the short approach, and I knew the simulated engine failure was coming. I glided the plane with the power off down onto the runway. The landing was OK but pretty flat. But he said nothing, and I taxied back and we did a soft field takeoff, which I also executed perfectly. This time he asked for a soft field landing. I did it pretty well! So I taxied back and he asked for a normal takeoff, which went fine. On the downwind, he asked for the short field landing. There was a plane making a straight in approach that I couldn't see, so the tower was trying to get me down quickly. The tower first asked me to turn base before I really wanted to. I went ahead and did it, but then he asked me to keep my airspeed up, at which point I told him I'd go around -- the whole point of a short field landing is to come in at minimal airspeed. But unfortunately I didn't really know how to go around from the middle of the base leg, so I just kind of held my altitude and turned to be parallel the runway. The tower was confused by my actions and seemingly didn't know where I was, but they were trying to direct me to be exactly where I was. So in the confusion I forgot to retract the rest of my flaps, and Mike needed to remind me. Strike one.
We went through the pattern once more, and I executed a halfway decent short field landing. I bounced it a little, but recovered OK. We taxied back, and Mike told me to start the cross country. I did not talk to the tower before getting to the hold bar (not the hold short line, just the tee to hold at when taxiing back), and by the time I got there, the frequency was going nuts. There were three inbound aircraft, one of which refused to identify itself, plus a few in the pattern. So eventually I edged in "21J would like a right dumbarton departure this time" and the tower told me "21J approved, we'll get you out soon." Again, good work on my part.
Eventually we took off, and I executed a normal takeoff perfectly, even remembering to mark the time (I still remember it! 12:28!). I flew to my first checkpoint, Sunol Golf Course. On the way there, he had me level off at 2500. He didn't even make me mark my time for Sunol; when I asked he said, "It's going to be within 2-3 minutes of what you had planned; it's good enough." Actually it was going to be _exactly_ what I had planned! We flew out to San Antonio Reservoir, and started doing maneuvers. After clearing turns, we did a steep turn to the right, which was absolutely beautiful. Then we did one to the left, but he only wanted a 180, and naturally I rolled out a little late, but I corrected back the other way quickly and it was apparently fine. After a 180 clearing turn, I brought the plane into slow flight and executed a couple of turns. I performed a power-off stall -- well, almost -- he asked me to recover before the plane was fully stalled. That went fine.
Then instrument flying. I put the hood on, held a heading, executed a couple of turns, did some unusual attitude recovery -- all perfect. So far, so good! Now it was time for the diversion. He told me to take him to Hayward, where I'd never been. I got out my charts, and he said something to the effect of "You don't have to plan it if you don't want to, just take me there." O-kay...not what I was expecting. So I figured out we were 10 miles away, and got the ATIS and tower frequencies. I called in for landing, and they cleared me straight in to runway 28R, and asked me to report 3 miles out.
This is where things went south. I _hate_ trying to estimate distances from the air -- I have *no* idea what 3 miles is! So I spent a bunch of time trying to figure that out. Then Mike pointed at a jet passing (fairly close) overhead and said, "Are we going to hit his wake turbulence?" I was totally confused. I said, "Well...I guess we might." He said, "What are you going to do about it?" Now, with wake turbulence, I've been taught that the only way to avoid it is to be over it. I said, "I could climb..." and he said, "No. You're in Class C now." I still didn't really get what was going on -- that I'd busted Oakland's Class C airspace. He said, "We need to descend to get out of Class C -- expeditiously." Now I got it, and I descended. But obviously way too late. At this point I knew I'd made a big goof. Mike's attitude toward me lost all of its friendliness; I think he was really disappointed as he knew there was no way he could pass me.
So I landed at Hayward; we did a touch and go and he took the controls to take me back to PAO. As we got near PAO he gave the controls back to me, and I executed a good landing. He taxied us back and I tied down.
Basically, I flew a very good checkride until I made a really stupid mistake. I do know what I was thinking (3 miles? What the heck is 3 miles??) but I can't explain why Oakland's Class C never occurred to me. I knew Hayward was under it, I had a chart in front of me. Duh. So tomorrow morning I'll be meeting with Kevin to receive "training on my deficient areas" ("Don't fly into Class C! Or B, for that matter!" Kevin will say. We'll also do some flying around there to help me get better at identifying class boundaries), and tomorrow afternoon I will fly with Mike again and try not to wander into anyone's airspace without a clearance. And probably do a go-around without busting my flap-extended speed.
We started with the ground portion. After checking my log book, he had me walk him through the aircraft/engine/prop logs, and then we moved on to chart questions. He asked a bit about airspaces; I actually missed both airspace questions (class E above 10,000 and class G) but corrected with a slight hint each time. He asked a few questions about restricted areas and MOAs, and I got confused and didn't know. He said we'd come back to it, but we never did. He asked how much useable fuel the Cessna 172N carries, and what kind of electrical system it has. Plus a little about the magneto system. It was all pretty much basic stuff, nothing tricky or too surprising.
Then we started the air session. After preflighting the plane (he let me do this alone), he had me request that we go into the pattern. During taxi, another plane taxied almost into our path, wanting to come the other direction. I could've gotten around him, but I didn't really want to be anywhere near someone else's propeller, so I called up ground and told them I'd go the long way around to the runway. I thought that was a very good call and was glad someone saw me do it.
We started with a short field takeoff, which I executed very nicely. From the downwind, Mike asked for the short approach, and I knew the simulated engine failure was coming. I glided the plane with the power off down onto the runway. The landing was OK but pretty flat. But he said nothing, and I taxied back and we did a soft field takeoff, which I also executed perfectly. This time he asked for a soft field landing. I did it pretty well! So I taxied back and he asked for a normal takeoff, which went fine. On the downwind, he asked for the short field landing. There was a plane making a straight in approach that I couldn't see, so the tower was trying to get me down quickly. The tower first asked me to turn base before I really wanted to. I went ahead and did it, but then he asked me to keep my airspeed up, at which point I told him I'd go around -- the whole point of a short field landing is to come in at minimal airspeed. But unfortunately I didn't really know how to go around from the middle of the base leg, so I just kind of held my altitude and turned to be parallel the runway. The tower was confused by my actions and seemingly didn't know where I was, but they were trying to direct me to be exactly where I was. So in the confusion I forgot to retract the rest of my flaps, and Mike needed to remind me. Strike one.
We went through the pattern once more, and I executed a halfway decent short field landing. I bounced it a little, but recovered OK. We taxied back, and Mike told me to start the cross country. I did not talk to the tower before getting to the hold bar (not the hold short line, just the tee to hold at when taxiing back), and by the time I got there, the frequency was going nuts. There were three inbound aircraft, one of which refused to identify itself, plus a few in the pattern. So eventually I edged in "21J would like a right dumbarton departure this time" and the tower told me "21J approved, we'll get you out soon." Again, good work on my part.
Eventually we took off, and I executed a normal takeoff perfectly, even remembering to mark the time (I still remember it! 12:28!). I flew to my first checkpoint, Sunol Golf Course. On the way there, he had me level off at 2500. He didn't even make me mark my time for Sunol; when I asked he said, "It's going to be within 2-3 minutes of what you had planned; it's good enough." Actually it was going to be _exactly_ what I had planned! We flew out to San Antonio Reservoir, and started doing maneuvers. After clearing turns, we did a steep turn to the right, which was absolutely beautiful. Then we did one to the left, but he only wanted a 180, and naturally I rolled out a little late, but I corrected back the other way quickly and it was apparently fine. After a 180 clearing turn, I brought the plane into slow flight and executed a couple of turns. I performed a power-off stall -- well, almost -- he asked me to recover before the plane was fully stalled. That went fine.
Then instrument flying. I put the hood on, held a heading, executed a couple of turns, did some unusual attitude recovery -- all perfect. So far, so good! Now it was time for the diversion. He told me to take him to Hayward, where I'd never been. I got out my charts, and he said something to the effect of "You don't have to plan it if you don't want to, just take me there." O-kay...not what I was expecting. So I figured out we were 10 miles away, and got the ATIS and tower frequencies. I called in for landing, and they cleared me straight in to runway 28R, and asked me to report 3 miles out.
This is where things went south. I _hate_ trying to estimate distances from the air -- I have *no* idea what 3 miles is! So I spent a bunch of time trying to figure that out. Then Mike pointed at a jet passing (fairly close) overhead and said, "Are we going to hit his wake turbulence?" I was totally confused. I said, "Well...I guess we might." He said, "What are you going to do about it?" Now, with wake turbulence, I've been taught that the only way to avoid it is to be over it. I said, "I could climb..." and he said, "No. You're in Class C now." I still didn't really get what was going on -- that I'd busted Oakland's Class C airspace. He said, "We need to descend to get out of Class C -- expeditiously." Now I got it, and I descended. But obviously way too late. At this point I knew I'd made a big goof. Mike's attitude toward me lost all of its friendliness; I think he was really disappointed as he knew there was no way he could pass me.
So I landed at Hayward; we did a touch and go and he took the controls to take me back to PAO. As we got near PAO he gave the controls back to me, and I executed a good landing. He taxied us back and I tied down.
Basically, I flew a very good checkride until I made a really stupid mistake. I do know what I was thinking (3 miles? What the heck is 3 miles??) but I can't explain why Oakland's Class C never occurred to me. I knew Hayward was under it, I had a chart in front of me. Duh. So tomorrow morning I'll be meeting with Kevin to receive "training on my deficient areas" ("Don't fly into Class C! Or B, for that matter!" Kevin will say. We'll also do some flying around there to help me get better at identifying class boundaries), and tomorrow afternoon I will fly with Mike again and try not to wander into anyone's airspace without a clearance. And probably do a go-around without busting my flap-extended speed.
posted by MKT at 5:13 PM
1 Comments:
Sorry to hear the checkride did not go as planned. But, I am sure this will go down as a great learning experience and you won't have airspae violation problems going forward.
Good luck on your next attempt!
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