Passion for Learning

Aircraft: C172
Registration: C-GBRI
Dual Time: 0.0 Total: 49.7
Solo Time: 1.7 Total: 15.5

Mark the calendar!  It happened today.  I got my first real “PIC” flight with my first official passenger!  All I can say is wooo hoooooo!   

The weather was calm,  light winds, sky clear.  I had taken the entire week off as the wedding is coming up on Saturday.  I was in the middle of moving drinks to the caterer and setting up to have the tent arrive on site but all of this would have to wait for me to pass my test.  I drove to the airport knowing that this would be the make or break.  I wasn’t overly confident but Simon did make me feel good during our last flight and therefore what did I have to lose?  

Yesterday I was just here at the club, doing the ground portion of the flight test.  Since the weather was not conducive to flight I was glad we made the booking for today to finish this thing.  It has dragged on long enough!   The ground portion went excellent.  The only real ”failure” I made was not noticing that Oshawa airport is a “PPR” type airport which means you must call for permission before arriving.  I could see it had an “R” on the map but didn’t find out why immediately in the CFS and required a bit of help.  That hurt me in points slightly.  I also did not know the time required to notify Transport Canada when you change title of an aircraft.  (Hardly a safety issue!!)  

So with the oral finished we would use some of the flight plan to perform the flight test.  My plan had us heading for Arnprior airport and so I obtained a WX briefing for a local flight in that area.   I asked Simon if it would matter what order we did the maneuvers in?  I would prefer to do the steep turn at the end if possible.  He didn’t seem to mind this request.  I departed the airfield and made my radio calls for terminal and practice areas.  I did not open my flight plan…..  (arrgh!)   

We flew along, found my landmarks and showed that I’m a pretty okay navigator, we could then put the maps away for now.  We flew over to the Quyon area and began the upper air work.  Slow flight was an ace, power off stall was clean.  For the power on stall simon requested 20 degrees flaps and 1900 RPM.  I couldn’t get the nose high enough to cleanly stall.  It was a musher.  He said try 1600 and same same.  This time as the left wing began to drop off I went for the rudder but he only saw my hand move the yoke.  (That garnered me a 2 for this maneuver).  He then asked me to return to cruise and setup for a steep turn.  I wanted to go left and he complied.  As I was pulling thru the turn I was impressed by the accuracy of bank angle and speed.  So impressed in fact that I completely forgot where I was to roll out!  arrgh, as I was realizing this, I felt the bump of my own wake and immediately leveled the wings.  (Maybe he wouldn’t’ notice??, he did)  lucky for me it was so close to actual heading required it had to be a pass.  

At this point Simon called for “my airplane” and began to put us into a spiral dive.  I have never EVER been in a spiral so deep.  The aircraft was almost upside down and falling fast when I heard “your airplane”.  All I could do is upright that sucker, which I did with swift aileron inputs, I then reached for the throttle and pulled, then pushed, then pulled then push then realized that OUT was OFF.  PULL.  I must have looked a little frazzled but pulled out of it successfully.  I was soo good at this maneuver during training I never practiced it.  My performance on the test got me a 2.  (Incorrect recovery sequence).  

So much for all this work, it was time for battle.  Simon pulled the throttle almost at the same time as I selected a gorgeous long field to my right.  I used the standard approach and used a bit of S turning to get down.  When Simon called “ok go around” I was the happiest boy in the land!  

On to the diversion, it was pretty easy and I managed to remember to reset the DG this time.  We were not long into it when Simon asked me to don the goggles.  I aced all the instrument tests.  My unusual attitude was a nose high speed falling fast.   Simon had me then break off and head back towards Rockliffe.  I didn’t realize it but this was another failure as I never contacted ATC to inform them of my flight plan change (which I never opened in the first place!) that made my diversion worthy of a 2!   During the flight back he asked me to show hi ma forward slip, I let the nose down too low but otherwise managed this.  

As we approached rockliffe Simon set me up for a precautionary and I managed the procedure.  Only thing he caught me on was counting over the runway.  (you don’t need to count as it’s clear how long it is).   As I came around on downwind he asked me for a Soft Field landing.  I pulled the power on downwind and didn’t turn in quick enough costing me points in “the circuit” (descended on downwind).   The landing was well honestly it was terrible.  I only got 30 degrees of flap out and was on the fast side.  I put it on center line and kept the weight off but it could have been slower and better.   

So we taxied up to the pumps (I went uber slow) and I shut down following the checklist like a madman.  Simon was noble and didn’t make me wait.  ”You passed Michael, now get this plane tied down and we will go and debrief inside”.  OH MY GOD!!  I PASSED!!??!!!  

I wont go over the entire debrief (as I covered most of it inline here) but it did go well.  We now have but three obstacles preventing a signature and my shiny new license.  

1:  I need my solo X/C Kingston completed
2:  I need 1.5  hours IFR to meet the requirement
3:  I need to pass an English Proficiency test?!!  

I asked Simon if I could do #3 immediately and he said sure.  So Brenda and I went ahead and did that test next which I passed 100%  (I sure hope so!)  

One down, Two to go. 

Tags: Flight Test, Pass, Solo

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 11:23 am and is filed under Flight Training PPL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.