passed Commercial checkride yesterday!

Only flew for 1.9 (eventful) hours. After we landed, the examiner said
"Well, the problem with this airplane is that you can't do a landing gear
failure. In most planes, you can disable the landing gear and make the pilot
manage that extra stress and workload while setting up to land."

So I showed him the little tab to pull the circuit breaker on the landing
gear and he just looked at me. "Guess I need to get to know the airplanes
better."
Now I suppose everybody he tests in the future has a reason to hate me, but
I told him that it didn't matter, because the FBO owner doesn't let anybody
fly the airplane until he's pulled the circuit on them and the first time he
did it to me, I thought it was a genuine failure. In fact, every instructor
I'd ever been with up in the Arrow did it, so any of the applicants there
will have gone through that whole drill.

I spent WAY too much time memorizing chapter and verse of Part 135, 121,
etc. He said he doesn't dwell on that stuff because if you go to work for
a Part 135 operator, it's all in their own manual and you have to learn it
then anyway. Meanwhile, my brain broke on the most basic stuff, like
needing Mode C over the top of Charlie airspace up to 10,000 ft.

He apologized for not knowing about the landing gear circuit breaker tab,
but I don't feel short changed; his oral exam was more like a discussion,
and the checkride was more like a lesson such that by the end of it I was
able to demonstrate that I could do everything he asked.

By the time we got back, I knew I was a much better pilot for the
experience. I definately felt like I put way too much stress and paranoia
into preparation for the exam which translated into "checkride-itis." Way,
way easier than the Instrument checkride.

Woohoo! On Monday I start working on CFI.

-c
CP-ASEL-IA