Hello again folkes, sorry for not posting more often but things have progressed rather slowly this past week, between thanksgiving and a shortage of check pilots it took me a week, spread over 3 days just to get my mock checkride done! Hopefully the actual one can be done soon and all in one day.
Day 55 - Monday, November 24th
Well still no checkride today, but I keep on studying, finally get word that I have an apointment tommarow but it's only the oral segment because this check pilot has a cold and can't fly, oh well better than nothing I spose.
Day 56 - Tuesday, November 25th
More studying in the morning and then I have the oral section of the checkride at 3pm for about 3hrs. It went ok excipt I didn't know as much about weather charts as I thought, mainly because we rarely use them for weather breifing, just the text format, I also got the MEL (minimum equipment list) the wrong way around. Name suguests the minimum equipment you need to be airworthy but it's actually the other way around, a list of things that are allowed to be inop. Also my minimum equipment list for VFR/IFR wasn't too flash either but I passed it none the less. I'll do some more study on that topic before the real one. Also since there wasn't any flying today I didn't do the winds for the flight planning so that will have to be done tommorow.
Day 57 - Wednesday, November 26th
Got up at 4:30am so I could be down at the flightline at 5:30am for a 6:30am start, still didn't get it all done in time, and on top of that this check pilot wasn't expecting to do anything more than the flight part of the checkride so after doing to oral we ended up running out of time and had to postpone to that afternoon, later in the day I was informed it was going to be pushed forward till Friday. Which was kinda annoying because I wanted to get it out of the way before the weekend so I wouldn't stress, oh well. Went out to bomadere's tonight, not a bad crowd but I hear it's only like this on Wednesdays, the happening crowd kinda circulates. Also got to talk to some flight attendents and a pilot from a NorthWest connection airline, no idea what they were doing in Vero! Least he informed me there should be more hiring going on in about 2 yrs from now, about the time I'll be having enough hours.
Day 58 - Thursday, November 27th
Well I spent thanksgiving by the pool, spose it's not somthing people in most of the country can do! Other than a big breakfast not much exciting in the food department going on. Watched the footy and relaxed as much as possible with the checkride looming over my head.
Day 59 - Friday, November 28th
Well this time the checkride wasn't until 10am so I was able to get there 1.5hrs early and make sure all my winds aloft and such were right for my cross-country planning. We went over a bit of what was expected and what we were going to do. As the winds were going to pick up as the day went on I oped to do the take-offs and landings first. Things went ok although there seemed to be a difference in what was expected of me by the check pilot and what my instructor has been teaching me. Also did the first few bits of a x-c with a deversion and using the E6-B to calculate ground speed, ETAs and fuel burn as we go etc. Also did stalls, emergency landing, turns about a point and steep turns. I was still a little unsure how I went but the check pilot said I did fine and was within the pts the whole time, although having the check pilot do a bit of talking on the radio for me had me a bit worried as if I was mucking up somewhere, she later informed me they only do that when they have already seen the radio skills of the aplicant are ok. I feel having the mock checkride was a good idea because now I know what to expect and was given tips on how to improve, so I'll go into the actual checkride much more confident than I would have otherwise.
Day 60 - Saturday, November 29th
Did a little reading on weather reports, somthing I was a little unsure of on the mock checkride. That evening went to the 'Outback Steakhouse' with some mates. I'm certian I was the only REAL Aussie in there hehe, and I had my driver's licence and university jumper to prove it. Great food though! (ok so when do I get paid for this promo)
Much tom foolery was had this evening but I won't get into that here!
Day 61 - Sunday, November 30th
Another lazy Sunday, seems like there's nothing but jets using the airport today, I've seen 6 take off in the past hour! Since the offices were closed Friday I have to wait until tommarow to sign up for my actual checkride and also get permission from the cheif pilot to start comerical without having my private yet. Since my instructor is away and won't return until Wednesday, my check pilot said she would help me out with the process. So I could have my private licence as soon as Tuesday, sooner the better because I want to be able to focus on comerical ground school, which I think will be 6hrs a day instead of the normal 4, so I won't have a lot of time for anything else, but is good because I'll get it done in 8days rather than 12. Actually after getting my private I wouldn't be suprised if I don't have any more lessons until next year because after ground school I'm jetting off for the holidays until the weekend after new year's, although maybe I'll go up on a Saturday, I am kinda looking forward to flying into a class C airport with my instructor.
This up coming week should busier and I'll keep you all posted as best I can, oh and another question do you guys think I should start a new section for the next step of training (time building) or keep going on in this forum?
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New post for next step of training?
<input type="radio" name="option" value="1" />Yes, start a new post
<input type="radio" name="option" value="2" />No, keep going in this post
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Cheers!