GaTechKid
Well-Known Member
The checkride started for me at 4:45am as I struggled out of bed. Got the winds aloft and weather for my proposed cross country and then headed over to the airport for the 6:30am departure, slightly late because I had to run to the ATM for the $$. No big deal because my instructor was running about 5 minutes later than I was, but there's a ton of fog this morning and visibility is reported as 1/4 SM. It's severe clear above the fog, however, as I can see the lights from several jets above. The Georgia/Alabama countryside looks pretty sweet from the air in the early morning light with fog hanging around all bodies of water.
When we report in to the local traffic the DE comes on the CTAF to let us know that he's running a few minutes late and to go ahead and use his courtesy car to grab some breakfast. The vehicle is the coolest courtesy car I've ever driven in: a 80's style limousine with a license plate that reads "GRDOLMO"(Gordo being his nickname). The DE also has his own hanger, which can hold 5 airplanes and has space for 6 offices. He owns 2 of them, a Baron and a racing airplane named "The Big Red Racer." He's a former F4 Phantom driver and current FedEx captain.....sweet. Anyway, back to the more boring story of the checkride. After hanging around for an hour or two the checkride begins. As far as the oral section goes it was pretty much all scenarios. What do you do if you are here on the map and you lose comms? What do you do if you lose all electrical power? If it's solid IMC and you lose comms after going missed at this airport what do you do? He was all about real world scenarios that I might face as a professional pilot. There was one portion of the oral where I almost talking myself into busting and that was the scenario of what would I do if faced with lost comms after taking off on the start of my cross country. I stated that I would have squawked 7600 and proceeded to an IAF for the approach back into Walker County because I did not want to fly a 300+ NM cross country in solid IMC with no communications. This caused him to lead me into reciting the lost comm procedures, what ATC would expect me to do, and then what I should really do with lost comms and squawking 7600. Other examiners might have busted me there, he reported. But then he asked me what kind of situation would allow me to break regs (an emergency), what lost communications might be indicative of (impending electrical failure), and what I would do to let ATC know what I intended to do (squawk 7700). He told me that I was the first student to ever come into a checkride and tell him I wouldn't fly the cross country under lost comms, and then he surprised me by saying he would have turned around also and not flown the XC in the real world (minus the 7600 squawk, add the 7700). Dude, talk about snatching "real-world" victory from the jaws of "regulatory" defeat!
A 10 minute break later and we're back in the airplane taxing down to the runway. A quick lesson on what the first two screens of the GPS are asking us followed and then he showed me exactly how he would set up the GPS units prior to blasting off into a 600/2 IMC situation. We took off and intercepted a nearby airway inbound to the Vulcan VOR. I performed two steep turns upon request, even though the new instrument PTS doesn't require them. We then proceeded to the Vulcan VOR to do his own hold north of the navaid. After that was a normal ILS followed by a simulated engine failure on the missed. I got the engine back in order to expedite our journey back for the localizer approach but then as I got established inbound I again lost my engine. No problem holding MDA today since we were well below the single engine service ceiling. After executing his own missed approach procedure I had to demonstrate that I could recover from unusual attitudes. After that, I went partial panel to execute the 15 DME arc off Vulcan for the GPS approach into Jasper. He wanted to see timed turns to get onto the arc and then onto the final approach course. After breaking out at MDA I did a circle to land. Checkride over, thanks for playing, here's your ticket. Sweet...
Oh yeah...then we booked it back home where I had 15 minutes to drive from FTY to Tech for a midterm. I walked into class 5 minutes late and finished 15 minutes later feeling
after the day I had.
When we report in to the local traffic the DE comes on the CTAF to let us know that he's running a few minutes late and to go ahead and use his courtesy car to grab some breakfast. The vehicle is the coolest courtesy car I've ever driven in: a 80's style limousine with a license plate that reads "GRDOLMO"(Gordo being his nickname). The DE also has his own hanger, which can hold 5 airplanes and has space for 6 offices. He owns 2 of them, a Baron and a racing airplane named "The Big Red Racer." He's a former F4 Phantom driver and current FedEx captain.....sweet. Anyway, back to the more boring story of the checkride. After hanging around for an hour or two the checkride begins. As far as the oral section goes it was pretty much all scenarios. What do you do if you are here on the map and you lose comms? What do you do if you lose all electrical power? If it's solid IMC and you lose comms after going missed at this airport what do you do? He was all about real world scenarios that I might face as a professional pilot. There was one portion of the oral where I almost talking myself into busting and that was the scenario of what would I do if faced with lost comms after taking off on the start of my cross country. I stated that I would have squawked 7600 and proceeded to an IAF for the approach back into Walker County because I did not want to fly a 300+ NM cross country in solid IMC with no communications. This caused him to lead me into reciting the lost comm procedures, what ATC would expect me to do, and then what I should really do with lost comms and squawking 7600. Other examiners might have busted me there, he reported. But then he asked me what kind of situation would allow me to break regs (an emergency), what lost communications might be indicative of (impending electrical failure), and what I would do to let ATC know what I intended to do (squawk 7700). He told me that I was the first student to ever come into a checkride and tell him I wouldn't fly the cross country under lost comms, and then he surprised me by saying he would have turned around also and not flown the XC in the real world (minus the 7600 squawk, add the 7700). Dude, talk about snatching "real-world" victory from the jaws of "regulatory" defeat!
A 10 minute break later and we're back in the airplane taxing down to the runway. A quick lesson on what the first two screens of the GPS are asking us followed and then he showed me exactly how he would set up the GPS units prior to blasting off into a 600/2 IMC situation. We took off and intercepted a nearby airway inbound to the Vulcan VOR. I performed two steep turns upon request, even though the new instrument PTS doesn't require them. We then proceeded to the Vulcan VOR to do his own hold north of the navaid. After that was a normal ILS followed by a simulated engine failure on the missed. I got the engine back in order to expedite our journey back for the localizer approach but then as I got established inbound I again lost my engine. No problem holding MDA today since we were well below the single engine service ceiling. After executing his own missed approach procedure I had to demonstrate that I could recover from unusual attitudes. After that, I went partial panel to execute the 15 DME arc off Vulcan for the GPS approach into Jasper. He wanted to see timed turns to get onto the arc and then onto the final approach course. After breaking out at MDA I did a circle to land. Checkride over, thanks for playing, here's your ticket. Sweet...
Oh yeah...then we booked it back home where I had 15 minutes to drive from FTY to Tech for a midterm. I walked into class 5 minutes late and finished 15 minutes later feeling
