slipstreamsurfr (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
slipstreamsurfr) wrote2006-12-10 03:02 am
slipstreamsurfr) wrote2006-12-10 03:02 am
Entry tags:
A Meeting - Lesson(?) 62
Friday I got some bad news, the Cheetah is in the shop, wonky carb. This is a slight problem for me as I had been scheduled for my checkride on Saturday. No problem, I call the DE and talk with her, come out on and we'll work on the oral.
Saturday finds me waking up and calling for weather/winds one more time on the cross country she has set for me. I put some finishing touches on it, print out my review that I've been working on, and head out at 10:30 to pick up a current A/FD and the new 2007 FAR/AIM.
Books are picked up and I spend a few minutes in the parking lot marking a few things with post-it markers so I can find them easier if I need to. I put the books away in the bag and I'm off on the road to Midway. Driving this time. I grab a bite to eat for lunch and park the car. I pull the notes and pour over them once more while I eat. I'm nervous. It doesn't help that I have always suffered from test anxiety. Several have told me that I'm worried about this more than I should be. But I want to do well. I don't want the DE to be worried about if I'm safe, at least with the book knowledge.
I finish up and head out the rest of the way to JWY and park the car. I'm early, but no matter. I call once more and get the current winds. I want the cross country I've planned be right, times, fuel burn. An adjustment to be made because the winds have switched at altitude. I run the numbers once more and make the adjustments. Still running V speeds in the back of my head I see the DE arrive.
I give her a few minutes to get situated in her office before I head back. I introduce myself, we've met once before when Mischa and I were shooting landings at Midway in the past. We settle in and I pull out the logbook, my student pilot license in the front of it, as well as my drivers license. She logs in to the online system and works through the checkout making sure I've got all the right endorsements, the right experience. She combs through the entries, noticing comments that were made, looks at one round robin I did and asks, is this one a cross country, there are certainly a lot of airports in that flight. No, none of them meet the distance requirement, just a morning of hopping from one to another, working out the entries and exits, finding, trying new and different sizes of runways. She smiles, nods and looks on. She's finished with the logbook and puts away the laptop.
She breaks out her notes, her books, lays out the rules for the oral, if I fail, she'll stop it immediately. Otherwise, don't worry, she takes notes as she talks, as long as the questions keep coming then everything is okay. The questions start and she's good, everything is set up as a situation, questions come and flow, answers are forthcoming. A hesitation here and there on my part, and she tells me to trust my first instinct, it's the right one. Inspections, what I need to fly. A question about the medical, when does it expire, 2 years for me, 3 for most, she asks why? I'm 41 I respond, and she's shocked. Clean living I tell her. She grins.
When my answers to her questions weren't quite what she was looking for, she'd weave back to the question from a bit different angle later on, because while I had a correct answer, it wasn't quite what she was looking for. It was very well done. A bit on weather, including my old nemesis reading the METAR. We moved on to talking about the sectionals, she asked what the date was on mine. Current, and showed her when it expired. She pulled a handful of others from across the US. Pick one and we'll use it. Nice touch, cold on a chart and she runs situational questions, weaving in questions on airspace, procedures, class B, getting into one, what happens if you lose your radio and were cleared through to an airport on the other side, what do you do. Questions that when you answer them, you realize, that you HAVE started to think in the system. More questions on what's required here, there, find an airport that has fuel, where's an unpaved one.
She asks for my copy of the pilot handbook for the Cheetah and flips through it while my chart comes out and we talk about the cross country, she's looking over the leg I've planned. She throws a question here and there, finding out how much I know about my airplane. A V speed here, and she questions my altitude going out. I justify my choice and she asks about the other leg she had asked me to plan, fly back at night, and pick checkpoints that work that way. I point on the chart what I've circled, why I picked this and that, why I am flying back so high at night and how it should work. She nods and asks me to show her how I know our weight and balance is right. I show the chart, line it out, showing both our take-off with full fuel, and what our CG is when we land. Not that the Cheetah has a problem usually, but it seemed a prudent thing to do. She lays out a take off question and wants me to work the problem and give her the distances. She nods at my answers...
A few more questions here and there, cleaning up,catching areas that we missed in our meander through the oral and we are done. A good oral I'm told. Giver her a call when the Cheetah is ready and bring the maintenance logs. She'll want me to show her a few things in them. Rework the first leg of the cross country with the current weather when we fly and we'll hit the easy part of the checkride.
It was a very different experience than I expected. She made it really comfortable, and the way she worked in the questions, she knows if you know what you are talking about. I liked the way things went, and while it was stressful for me, I left with a feeling that I do actually know this stuff.
If you are in need of a good DE, I've got the person you need to call.
--1 oral completed
--waiting on an airplane
Saturday finds me waking up and calling for weather/winds one more time on the cross country she has set for me. I put some finishing touches on it, print out my review that I've been working on, and head out at 10:30 to pick up a current A/FD and the new 2007 FAR/AIM.
Books are picked up and I spend a few minutes in the parking lot marking a few things with post-it markers so I can find them easier if I need to. I put the books away in the bag and I'm off on the road to Midway. Driving this time. I grab a bite to eat for lunch and park the car. I pull the notes and pour over them once more while I eat. I'm nervous. It doesn't help that I have always suffered from test anxiety. Several have told me that I'm worried about this more than I should be. But I want to do well. I don't want the DE to be worried about if I'm safe, at least with the book knowledge.
I finish up and head out the rest of the way to JWY and park the car. I'm early, but no matter. I call once more and get the current winds. I want the cross country I've planned be right, times, fuel burn. An adjustment to be made because the winds have switched at altitude. I run the numbers once more and make the adjustments. Still running V speeds in the back of my head I see the DE arrive.
I give her a few minutes to get situated in her office before I head back. I introduce myself, we've met once before when Mischa and I were shooting landings at Midway in the past. We settle in and I pull out the logbook, my student pilot license in the front of it, as well as my drivers license. She logs in to the online system and works through the checkout making sure I've got all the right endorsements, the right experience. She combs through the entries, noticing comments that were made, looks at one round robin I did and asks, is this one a cross country, there are certainly a lot of airports in that flight. No, none of them meet the distance requirement, just a morning of hopping from one to another, working out the entries and exits, finding, trying new and different sizes of runways. She smiles, nods and looks on. She's finished with the logbook and puts away the laptop.
She breaks out her notes, her books, lays out the rules for the oral, if I fail, she'll stop it immediately. Otherwise, don't worry, she takes notes as she talks, as long as the questions keep coming then everything is okay. The questions start and she's good, everything is set up as a situation, questions come and flow, answers are forthcoming. A hesitation here and there on my part, and she tells me to trust my first instinct, it's the right one. Inspections, what I need to fly. A question about the medical, when does it expire, 2 years for me, 3 for most, she asks why? I'm 41 I respond, and she's shocked. Clean living I tell her. She grins.
When my answers to her questions weren't quite what she was looking for, she'd weave back to the question from a bit different angle later on, because while I had a correct answer, it wasn't quite what she was looking for. It was very well done. A bit on weather, including my old nemesis reading the METAR. We moved on to talking about the sectionals, she asked what the date was on mine. Current, and showed her when it expired. She pulled a handful of others from across the US. Pick one and we'll use it. Nice touch, cold on a chart and she runs situational questions, weaving in questions on airspace, procedures, class B, getting into one, what happens if you lose your radio and were cleared through to an airport on the other side, what do you do. Questions that when you answer them, you realize, that you HAVE started to think in the system. More questions on what's required here, there, find an airport that has fuel, where's an unpaved one.
She asks for my copy of the pilot handbook for the Cheetah and flips through it while my chart comes out and we talk about the cross country, she's looking over the leg I've planned. She throws a question here and there, finding out how much I know about my airplane. A V speed here, and she questions my altitude going out. I justify my choice and she asks about the other leg she had asked me to plan, fly back at night, and pick checkpoints that work that way. I point on the chart what I've circled, why I picked this and that, why I am flying back so high at night and how it should work. She nods and asks me to show her how I know our weight and balance is right. I show the chart, line it out, showing both our take-off with full fuel, and what our CG is when we land. Not that the Cheetah has a problem usually, but it seemed a prudent thing to do. She lays out a take off question and wants me to work the problem and give her the distances. She nods at my answers...
A few more questions here and there, cleaning up,catching areas that we missed in our meander through the oral and we are done. A good oral I'm told. Giver her a call when the Cheetah is ready and bring the maintenance logs. She'll want me to show her a few things in them. Rework the first leg of the cross country with the current weather when we fly and we'll hit the easy part of the checkride.
It was a very different experience than I expected. She made it really comfortable, and the way she worked in the questions, she knows if you know what you are talking about. I liked the way things went, and while it was stressful for me, I left with a feeling that I do actually know this stuff.
If you are in need of a good DE, I've got the person you need to call.
--1 oral completed
--waiting on an airplane