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Author Topic: My IR and PPL checkride  (Read 17322 times)

Offline Greg01

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My IR and PPL checkride
« on: April 01, 2007, 03:02:06 PM »
Took them both yesterday and passed (both).

Take a guess at what day it was...


Greg



Offline Jason

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Re: My IR and PPL checkride
« Reply #1 on: April 01, 2007, 03:25:02 PM »
Congratulations, Greg!  You must feel on top of the world.  Again, congratulations and happy 17th birthday!

You'll have to give us a big write-up when you have time.

Regards,
Jason

Offline Greg01

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Re: My IR and PPL checkride
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2007, 03:29:17 PM »
Thanks Jason. I do, but I'm still in shock!

I sent one to Peter, but I forgot to save one for myself, so maybe he can post it for me!

Thanks,
Greg

Offline dan9125

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Re: My IR and PPL checkride
« Reply #3 on: April 01, 2007, 09:50:59 PM »
Congratulations, Greg....i'm glad my scanner & computer helped capture the moment. Happy birthday as well!

 Dan (kbuf)

Offline KSYR-pjr

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Re: My IR and PPL checkride
« Reply #4 on: April 02, 2007, 11:53:57 AM »
Greg, here is your write-up.  Excellent accomplishment doing both like that, especially at your age!

------------  begin Greg's checkride write-up: 

Here's a quick (but long) writeup.

Friday evening, I flew the airplane from 9G3 to DKK so I wouldn't have to get up at 5AM to get to leave for 9G3 at 6AM and get the airplane to DKK by 7:45AM. My dad picked me up from school at 2PM Friday, drove me to 9G3 and played chase car all the way to DKK (about a 1.5 hour drive). Since I'd get there before him, I did a couple passes (at a legal altitude) over my house. Made one of my best landings that evening (the theoretical perfect landing: you run out of back pressure just as the stall warner chirps and the wheels touch). We then drove home as my father's family was coming over for my birthday (I know, a day early).

Saturday, we were at DKK at 7:30AM. I had the airplane hangared and topped off (didn't take much from the previous flight), but I wanted to get to the airplane and check it out by myself (without the examiner watching). That didn't happen because the airport opens at 8AM, the same time my tests were to start. I thought that airport opened at sunrise.

The examiner arrived at about 8:20AM and we got started with the usual paperwork (copies of photo ID, medical, etc.). Then we went to the conference room to start the other paperwork and the oral. He had requested that I make up a spreadsheet of all of my flights that satisfied the necessary requirements. He asked this because he knew the FAA would scrutinize these checkrides since they happened so close to each other. Occassionally, as he was working through some paperwork, he ask, 'Can you give me the number on your medical?' I'd give it to him and he'd ask, 'Oh, remind me, how long is that good for?' That's what a majority of the PPL oral was like. There was only one 5 minute window when it was a question answer session. The rest was one long conversation with questions intertwined and plenty of stories. His emphasis was on FAR 91.103 and 91.213. He had me read each one and picked my mind, if you will, about 91.213. The examiner was also an A&P.

After a couple more questions, he said that, after reading 91.103, that he was going to hold my cross country planning to that regulation. And I made it through that. He had me plan a cross country from DKK to OSU for the PPL. So he had me interpret my 33 pages of wx from DUAT.com. He wanted me to use the Friday night wx, so i planned for a 0100Z departure (9PM for us in EDT).

After he was satisfied that I could read wx and interpret and assure that the airplane is legal, notams, and everything else that pertained to the flight, and the flight planning, he had me fix the winds and time to my first checkpoint so we could fly to it today. He told me that we would fly to it and if i could get there reasonably close to my ETA, we'd divert. Let's fly! The oral took 3.5 hours approx.

I want to say here that my examiner is a great guy who truly loves to fly. He's a reasonable guy who knows the reality of flying. Meaning, he's not a PTS machine. Don't get me wrong, he will hold you to PTS standards, but if you're 150 feet off altitude in turbulent conditions and fighting to correct, he's not going to bust you.

So I do the preflight and he watched. He occassionally asked a question or two. We climbed in and I got ready with the engine off. I briefed him and he worked me on that. I would explain something and he'd only do it halfway. I actually had to shut the door myself (we were in a Cherokee Warrior) and not because he was faking that he couldn't do it. That door really is a pain sometimes. So, we fired up, ran the engine up and he asked for a short field take-off and I gave him my best. We motored off to our first checkpoint. Twice, he was pointing something out to me during the flight (and it wasn't a distraction, he was honestly pointing something out) and I was looking where he was pointing, then I heard him say, 'traffic.' I swung my head to the front and saw a flock of birds. He was already pulling on the yoke when I got me head to the front. That happened twice, but he was honestly pointing something out to me and we both had our heads out the side window. I've never seen so many birds. So that didn't count against me.

We made it to our first checkpoint within 30 seconds or something like that. Then we diverted to a grass strip right on the edge of Chautauqua Lake because of 'weather.' While we made our way there, he had me do some slow flight, power off stall, and steep turns. I remembered the clearing turns. As we rolled out of the steep turns over Dart field (the airport by the Lake), he shouted 'FIRE.' I misinterpreted what he said and thought he said engine failure. So I started slowing. Then he shouted, 'Ahhhh, my a$$, it's burning...ahhh....my a$$!!!!' I got the picture. The nose went down and I spiralled down to the field while following the procedures. Once I finally got it right (didn't take too long) he said, 'Ahhh, that feels better!' Then he brough in the smoke which I took care of. I was way high on the downwind to the field, but i started slipping and he said, 'Good work.' Once we were 100 feet above the ground and the field was assured we climbed out. He took the airplane, gave me the hood and told me to take him back to DKK and tell him when we pass over the field (no GPS). The VOR is on the field, so that was easy enough. On the way, we did the unusual attitudes (easy) and discussed the inner ear. The VOR flag flipped and i called over the field and he told me to take off the hood. He then told me to line up for runway 6 and give him a short field landing, the obstacle is at 720 MSL (50 foot Obstacle) and to simulate the heavy braking). He started yapping about something, but I wasn't listening. He asked me if I heard any of that and I quickly said, 'no' and he laughed saying I was too polite and that I was supposed to tell him to shut up. I gave him a decent short field landing and we taxiied to runway 15 for a soft field takeoff. Did a nice one and turned crosswind for a soft field landing when he saw a fire and asked if he could have the plane. He flew us over to the fire and we checked it out. He lined me up for the 45 degree entry for runway 15 and he said, 'Do this landing for me and then we'll go sign your new certificate.'

We took a break for lunch (he runs the school/airport at DKK and he had a couple of customers when we got back). I reviewed everything for the IR test.

We reconvened at 2PM (got back at 12:50PM from the PPL). The IR oral was very short. He said I showed him that i knew the regulations. We reviewed the IR cross country from DKK to ROA. He had me read an approach plate at ROA and discuss what was going on. He asked a few things about the enroute charts (MEA, MOCA, and especially the OROCA with the GPS we have). He asked if we had enough fuel to make it to ROA, then fly as necessary. This flight was also planned for a 9PM EDT departure Friday night and no alternate was necessary and we had over an hour of fuel left.

He asked me to file a local flight (depart DKK, V265 JHW, back to DKK at 4000) and to figure out a way to get the clearance on the ground because I want you to depart like it's IMC. I ran up the engine, got the clearance and a void time and reviewed the departure procedure from DKK. This was the first time I was ever cleared to a fix other than my destination. The clearance was: 060 is cleared to the DKK VOR, EFC with Buffalo, maintain 4000, Buffalo's 126.5, squawk 5051, you're void at 1940, time now 1919. Read back the clearance and readied for departure. He had told me everything we were going to do for that flight before we got into the airplane, so I was ready. Unfortunately, I had a blond moment and for some reason stopped programming my nav radios and never set them up (i had the freqs in and ready go but forgot to twist the OBS) and i realized it on the climb out while trying to call Buffalo. I did manage to get everything in with minimal problems. He said, 'Good job' as i wasn't far from where i was supposed to be. I was a little flustered, but i screwed up and I got over it and moved on.

We followed V265 (I think that's the right number) to JHW VOR and shot the ILS 25 into JHW. The examiner changed the missed approach. He wanted me to, on the miss, join the 266 radial outbound from JHW and get set up for the VOR/DME 7 (with a DME arc). Both approaches were pretty good. I forgot to turn on the lights on the ILS, but remembered them for the VOR/DME. The thing is, at 9G3, the lights are on a sensor so that you can't activate them during the day, even in IMC. I didn't see anything on the ILS, but he allowed me to look up on the VOR/DME and then he took the airplane. He wanted to give me a break and he flew us over his house and showed me the strip he's putting in there and the new hangar. We did that for a little bit and he told me to call Approach on the missed (he told me not to call them yet as they couldn't see us on radar and because he wanted to show me his house). I put the hood back on and he told me to go direct LANGS for the GPS 24 into DKK. Then he starts ripping a piece of paper that he put infront of my attitude indicator and DG. This was to be my partial panel. The only time he took the GPS away was when I forgot to program the radios to get on the airway and when I did the course reversal on the ILS, he wanted to see if I could fly a back course without the GPS (I'll post the approaches at the end). Other than that, I had the GPS the whole time. Then he told me to go direct TRUNT instead. I was programming it my way when he said, 'do it this way' and did it a way I didn't like...and for a reason. The GPS still thought we were going direct LANGS and therefore, the holding pattern wasn't an option. Once established inbound, the picture on the GNS340 showed me on course, but the needle was fully deflected and my fingers were flying on the GPS. He told me to hit the 'direct to' button and the needle centered. I started a descent and he asked, 'Were we cleared for the approach?' My heart stopped, but i remembered we were and I read it back. This was also our circling approach. He tried to distract me with a story, but i said, 'I'd love to hear the story, but I'd love to hear it more on the ground, with all due respect.' He laughed again and said that I was too polite! Made it down, circled for 6 and once lined up on final, he said, 'Okay, you did great, you mind if i land?' I readily gave him the airplane and he made an okay landing and we joked about it the whole way in. He taxiied it in and I 'cleaned' up the airplane taxiing on the runway. Then he said, 'You know that new PPL certificate I just gave you? Well, I need it back!'

It was awesome, lineboys were coming up to me and saying, 'are you the one who's taking two checkrides? Lou was talking about you!' Everybody in the office shook my hand and congratulated me. I was exhausted and was in dire need of deodorant. Wink

I launched out of DKK as a PPL with instrument privileges a little after 5PM. I had made the obligatory phone calls to my parents and flight instructors before I left. My dad was waiting for me at 9G3 and my mom was at home. I heard her call out when i told her I passed them both, 'He passed everyone!' I guess my mom's side of the family came over a little earlier than i thought! I told them to keep a watch out as I would fly over the house on my way back. As I circled over my house for about 5 minutes (again at a legal altitude) I saw everyone of my family members outside waving. That was an awesome feeling.

I got back into Akron at 6PM after a long day and was ready to go home. My family was waiting for me when I got home! The end of a great day (which included ice cream cake). Even the Buffalo controller I was talking to (I work with him a lot at the Buffalo ATCT) wished me a happy birthday and a congratulations!

I was so tired when I got home, I left all of my stuff in my dad's car.

So here I am today...still in shock!

Offline Northern_Git

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Re: My IR and PPL checkride
« Reply #5 on: April 03, 2007, 06:49:25 PM »
Well Done!!

...and most of all, enjoy it!

Offline Greg01

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Re: My IR and PPL checkride
« Reply #6 on: April 03, 2007, 07:03:48 PM »
Thanks NG. Wilco.

Greg

Offline mhawke

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Re: My IR and PPL checkride
« Reply #7 on: April 04, 2007, 08:42:57 PM »
Congrats  :-D


Offline Greg01

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Re: My IR and PPL checkride
« Reply #8 on: April 04, 2007, 08:56:05 PM »
Thanks.

Greg

Offline EivlEvo

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Re: My IR and PPL checkride
« Reply #9 on: April 05, 2007, 11:45:57 PM »
Greg... ur awesome. Im gonna look u up to fly with when I get home. If I have any time at all to fly this summer.

How many hours TT did you have when you got signed off as PP and IR?

~DAVE

PS - Did they put a GPS in 060?

Offline Greg01

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Re: My IR and PPL checkride
« Reply #10 on: April 06, 2007, 10:04:56 AM »
Thanks Dave,

I had just about 154 hours when my CFII put his John Hancock on the 8710.

At the end of Sept. 2006, a Garmin GNS430 (with terrain) was installed in 060...boy does it feel like cheating! ;)

Take care,
Greg

Offline EivlEvo

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Re: My IR and PPL checkride
« Reply #11 on: April 06, 2007, 10:18:25 AM »
LOL Of course they would do it right AFTER I went back to school. Oh well... I can use my Lowrance as a backup now!

~DAVE

Offline Greg01

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Re: My IR and PPL checkride
« Reply #12 on: April 06, 2007, 10:19:43 AM »
They must not like you   :)

Take care,
Greg

Offline dave

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Re: My IR and PPL checkride
« Reply #13 on: April 08, 2007, 12:49:41 PM »
Nice work, Greg!  Welcome to the club. 

Above all, fly safely.

Dave

Offline Greg01

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Re: My IR and PPL checkride
« Reply #14 on: April 08, 2007, 06:06:38 PM »
Will do, Dave.

Thanks,
Greg

Offline keith

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Re: My IR and PPL checkride
« Reply #15 on: April 10, 2007, 12:49:45 PM »
PPL and IR on the same day....you've got stones of steel!! Congratulations!

Offline Greg01

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Re: My IR and PPL checkride
« Reply #16 on: April 10, 2007, 04:19:09 PM »
I'd say they were rather like rubber at the end of the day!

Thanks,
Greg