ctab5060X
Well-Known Member
First off, let me start by saying that this checkride would not have been possible if the company I work for had not graciously allowed me take the airplane an hour from my outstation to take the checkride. Thanks.
Took my checkride just out from Nashville on Sunday. Got up there Saturday night, stayed at a hotel not to far from the airport. I elected to do this because I really didn't want to get up early Sunday, fly from Memphis to Nashville, then take the checkride. Ended up being a great decision because the weather Sunday morning was below minimums at the airport we flew out of.
Got to the airport about 10 am (supposed to meet the DPE at 10:30) to find the examiner waiting for me. I have used this examiner for all of my checkrides, so I was somewhat familiar with how he conducts his oral portion, although it had been almost 4 years since my last checkride with him. Sat down and went through all the mundane paperwork stuff, started on the oral portion. Covered items right out of the ATP PTS, and he seemed to really concentrate on the airplane and its systems. Thankfully, the airplane I was using (Aero Commander 500B) is really straight forward and doesn't have a lot of additional systems to explain (i.e. no separate emergency gear extension procedure, no crossfeed, that kind of stuff). Oral portion only lasted about 30-45 minutes, then we started getting ready to go fly. Checked the surrounding weather, all IFR. The examiner really didn't want to deal with flying the checkride in actual (although we would have if needed), and the forecast was for rapidly improving conditions, we decided to go ahead and grab some lunch and beat the Sunday lunch crowd.
Got back to the airport a couple of hours later, rechecked the weather (much improved) decided we could fly and could get on top of the broken layer to do the airwork. Preflighted per the checklist, started up and got going. Departed, engine failure after takeoff, brought it back around. We then left the area, climbed through a huge hole in the clouds (nice flying a light airplane for a change), and did steep turns, slow flight, and stalls. Recovered and cleaned the airplane up, tuned in the Shelbyville VOR, tracked inbound to hold (asked type entry, when to report entering). Flew the VOR approach into Shelbyville (VOR on field with no published FAF). Had an issue with the #2 receiver, so we landed and did a VOR check before departing to the Smyrna airport for a single engine ILS 32 went missed, vectored back to the LOC 32. Went missed from the LOC approach, climbed to 2500, pulled the foggles and headed back to Gallatin.
Overall, it was not a bad checkride...although it was a little bumpy below 2000, so the single engine ILS was a workout. It really helped not only knowing all IFR procedures, but knowing the airplane inside and out and being able to describe the systems in extreme detail. I had a great time, in fact, I was going to also going to get my single ATP, but the only airplane available was an A36 Bonanza that was a little out of my price range. Might now be able to get a friends Arrow and go back here in a couple of weeks, just need to get past my wedding first
!
Took my checkride just out from Nashville on Sunday. Got up there Saturday night, stayed at a hotel not to far from the airport. I elected to do this because I really didn't want to get up early Sunday, fly from Memphis to Nashville, then take the checkride. Ended up being a great decision because the weather Sunday morning was below minimums at the airport we flew out of.
Got to the airport about 10 am (supposed to meet the DPE at 10:30) to find the examiner waiting for me. I have used this examiner for all of my checkrides, so I was somewhat familiar with how he conducts his oral portion, although it had been almost 4 years since my last checkride with him. Sat down and went through all the mundane paperwork stuff, started on the oral portion. Covered items right out of the ATP PTS, and he seemed to really concentrate on the airplane and its systems. Thankfully, the airplane I was using (Aero Commander 500B) is really straight forward and doesn't have a lot of additional systems to explain (i.e. no separate emergency gear extension procedure, no crossfeed, that kind of stuff). Oral portion only lasted about 30-45 minutes, then we started getting ready to go fly. Checked the surrounding weather, all IFR. The examiner really didn't want to deal with flying the checkride in actual (although we would have if needed), and the forecast was for rapidly improving conditions, we decided to go ahead and grab some lunch and beat the Sunday lunch crowd.
Got back to the airport a couple of hours later, rechecked the weather (much improved) decided we could fly and could get on top of the broken layer to do the airwork. Preflighted per the checklist, started up and got going. Departed, engine failure after takeoff, brought it back around. We then left the area, climbed through a huge hole in the clouds (nice flying a light airplane for a change), and did steep turns, slow flight, and stalls. Recovered and cleaned the airplane up, tuned in the Shelbyville VOR, tracked inbound to hold (asked type entry, when to report entering). Flew the VOR approach into Shelbyville (VOR on field with no published FAF). Had an issue with the #2 receiver, so we landed and did a VOR check before departing to the Smyrna airport for a single engine ILS 32 went missed, vectored back to the LOC 32. Went missed from the LOC approach, climbed to 2500, pulled the foggles and headed back to Gallatin.
Overall, it was not a bad checkride...although it was a little bumpy below 2000, so the single engine ILS was a workout. It really helped not only knowing all IFR procedures, but knowing the airplane inside and out and being able to describe the systems in extreme detail. I had a great time, in fact, I was going to also going to get my single ATP, but the only airplane available was an A36 Bonanza that was a little out of my price range. Might now be able to get a friends Arrow and go back here in a couple of weeks, just need to get past my wedding first
!