Your post on busting the PP check ride got me to wondering -- I wonder
how many long time pilots would pass a good DPE's PP checkout?

When one flies the same airplane for years, weight and balance
calculations have a way of not getting done. I haven't slipped an
airplane, except during the flare in landing in a crosswind of course,
in a decade or more, since needing to slip (IMHO) means poor planning
earlier in the approach.

A two and a half hour oral? I don't remember anything that long! What
did you talk about for two and a half hours? Real life flight planning
goes something like this. check a chart. Looks to be a two hour
flight, five hours of fuel on board. Weather -- soft IFR, that's OK,
clear weather an hour west of my destination, so there are solid gold
alternates, choose one. Check the winds -- flying west, stay lower. No
ice, no thunderstorms.

Hmm. That airway looks good. Call in the flight plan.

DPE -- "Busted!"