Gerald Sylvester
December 18th 03, 04:54 AM
I realized about 5 weeks ago my checkride was coming up and what better
day to earn my wings than the day Wilbur and Orville earned theirs.
I passed and obviously quite happy. :)
The weather the Bay Area the past few weeks has been rather crummy.
Luckily I was able to get all my required time, solo XC, 2 phasechecks
and practice in. Since you have to schedule the checkride weeks in
advance I wish I had another couple of weeks but when it comes
down to it, I think I am as ready as I'll be within the next couple
dozen hours.
The Details:
The DE was quite relaxed which helped out since I was quite nervous
beforehand. The oral part was not bad at all. Basically he went
through his checklist to see how well I knew a bunch of points. A
couple of spots I had to think but no tricks or unusual questions.
Went pretty easily. Took about an hour and 15 minutes or so.
I heard doing well on the written helps make the oral part easier.
The flying part was not bad either. We took off out of PAO on 31,
hit a few relatively close-by
checkpoints, he put the hood on me, I flew some headings, turns
and a descent, no problem. He put it in a nose slightly high, banked
right attitude and I got out of it with no problem. Quite easy so
far and within 20 minutes had been through a handful of the maneuvers.
Then we flew to the southeast corner above Livermove (LVK)to do
maneuvers. Did a clearing turn aand then a steep turn to the left,
hitting my own wake turbulence put a smile on my face. Then
a dirty stall (might have lost too much altitutde but maybe by 10 feet).
Then a 20 degree turn to the right departure stall, no problem, level
wings, verify full power, drop nose to Vy attitude. then we said
'lets go to Tracy." I picked out the vector there, got the info on the
airport (weather, CTAF, runway info, TPA, etc.) and 8 minutes later
the airport came insight right over my nose. It certainly helped with
holding altitude and direction that the
visibility was excellent today and practically no turbulence. We
did a power off landing but a Cessna was on the runway so I set up
for it but set up intentionally to the right planning on going around.
I landed long but he was ok with it since the Cessna confused
the situation. Taxi'd back and then did a soft field t/o and a soft
field landing. I was a little high again and touchdown was not so
soft. I was a bit afraid. I think he wavered but said, 'yea that was
good enough.' Then a short field t/o and landing. My t/o's were right
on. This landing was quite a bit better. Then he said "good job.
fly us home." Got flight following on the way back making sure to stay
away from the restricted area west of TCY. Near Coyote Hills he
said half-jokingly, "make a normal landing and don't screw up since
you're did well." My landing was the worst all day but was in control.
Overall, a lot of maneuvers in 1.7 hours but with the light winds and
great visibility it made the day quite easy. I wish my landings were
better but I go the the white slip so no complaints.
Now I can start learning.
Now I can start studying for my IFR.
And for historical purposes, I wore my Pearl Izumi bike socks (Wright
brothers were bike makers) and brought along a CD from my favorite
musician (Steve Morse) who owns a C182, C310, an acrobatic plane, a
Czech (?) made jet and a powered sailplane. Pretty cool that I got
my wings on the same day as the Wrights.
Well back to the books for the IFR. In the mean time I have plan
a trip down to San Diego over New Years. My first real trip.
Thanks everyone for all the info I've learned from everyone in
rec.aviation.* from learning about shock-cooling the engine to
random stuff like ETOPS (Extended Twin Engine Operations).
Gerald Sylvester
PPL-ASEL 12/17/03
day to earn my wings than the day Wilbur and Orville earned theirs.
I passed and obviously quite happy. :)
The weather the Bay Area the past few weeks has been rather crummy.
Luckily I was able to get all my required time, solo XC, 2 phasechecks
and practice in. Since you have to schedule the checkride weeks in
advance I wish I had another couple of weeks but when it comes
down to it, I think I am as ready as I'll be within the next couple
dozen hours.
The Details:
The DE was quite relaxed which helped out since I was quite nervous
beforehand. The oral part was not bad at all. Basically he went
through his checklist to see how well I knew a bunch of points. A
couple of spots I had to think but no tricks or unusual questions.
Went pretty easily. Took about an hour and 15 minutes or so.
I heard doing well on the written helps make the oral part easier.
The flying part was not bad either. We took off out of PAO on 31,
hit a few relatively close-by
checkpoints, he put the hood on me, I flew some headings, turns
and a descent, no problem. He put it in a nose slightly high, banked
right attitude and I got out of it with no problem. Quite easy so
far and within 20 minutes had been through a handful of the maneuvers.
Then we flew to the southeast corner above Livermove (LVK)to do
maneuvers. Did a clearing turn aand then a steep turn to the left,
hitting my own wake turbulence put a smile on my face. Then
a dirty stall (might have lost too much altitutde but maybe by 10 feet).
Then a 20 degree turn to the right departure stall, no problem, level
wings, verify full power, drop nose to Vy attitude. then we said
'lets go to Tracy." I picked out the vector there, got the info on the
airport (weather, CTAF, runway info, TPA, etc.) and 8 minutes later
the airport came insight right over my nose. It certainly helped with
holding altitude and direction that the
visibility was excellent today and practically no turbulence. We
did a power off landing but a Cessna was on the runway so I set up
for it but set up intentionally to the right planning on going around.
I landed long but he was ok with it since the Cessna confused
the situation. Taxi'd back and then did a soft field t/o and a soft
field landing. I was a little high again and touchdown was not so
soft. I was a bit afraid. I think he wavered but said, 'yea that was
good enough.' Then a short field t/o and landing. My t/o's were right
on. This landing was quite a bit better. Then he said "good job.
fly us home." Got flight following on the way back making sure to stay
away from the restricted area west of TCY. Near Coyote Hills he
said half-jokingly, "make a normal landing and don't screw up since
you're did well." My landing was the worst all day but was in control.
Overall, a lot of maneuvers in 1.7 hours but with the light winds and
great visibility it made the day quite easy. I wish my landings were
better but I go the the white slip so no complaints.
Now I can start learning.
Now I can start studying for my IFR.
And for historical purposes, I wore my Pearl Izumi bike socks (Wright
brothers were bike makers) and brought along a CD from my favorite
musician (Steve Morse) who owns a C182, C310, an acrobatic plane, a
Czech (?) made jet and a powered sailplane. Pretty cool that I got
my wings on the same day as the Wrights.
Well back to the books for the IFR. In the mean time I have plan
a trip down to San Diego over New Years. My first real trip.
Thanks everyone for all the info I've learned from everyone in
rec.aviation.* from learning about shock-cooling the engine to
random stuff like ETOPS (Extended Twin Engine Operations).
Gerald Sylvester
PPL-ASEL 12/17/03