Today, I became a pilot...

I officially became a pilot today...

My first post to these newsgroups was last November, after my introductory
flight. Today, I took my private pilot flight test, and passed (with
"flying" colours... I might add).

Bit of a hitch at the start. Did my W&B, with some difficulty. I'm 200 lbs
and the examiner is 210. That doesn't leave a whole lot of room for fuel in
a 152. I managed to get us in the envelope for T.O. by putting our 10 lbs.
baggage way back, but we fell out of CG tolerances for landing. Oh yeah...
only room for 10 ga. of go juice before grossing out was a concern as well.
I managed to find another 152 with an additional 20 lbs. of room, swapped
with the guy who had it booked, and everything was OK.

The oral portion went well and I managed to ace it. It's obvious to me now,
but there isn't time to ask every possible question, and he managed to ask
questions that I knew the answers to (though I was pretty prepared for
anything).

We set out on our simulated x-country. I strategically picked a set heading
point that was on a rail line that ran to our destination, so navigation was
not difficult. Found the first checkpoint, calc'd GS and ETA, and he called
it off and we moved to diversions. About 3/4 of the way through the
diversion, he said it was obvious I would reach destination, so he had me
put on the hood and we did the time and maneuvers required. Once I could
see again, he pulled the power for a forced landing. Someone was smiling on
me today, because there was a perfect spot just out the left side window.
All I had to do was the appropriate cockpit management, lose some altitude,
and line it up. I was worried about the forced landing, but it turned out
to be one of the easiest parts of the test.

Next, we went on to upper air work. We were at about 1500 ft and he said,
"OK, let's do a steep turn." I furrowed my brow thinking, 'But aren't we
supposed to be at a higher altitude for these maneuvers?' and then
remembered I was PIC and this was a test, so I said, "I'm going to climb to
4000 first." Phew... would'a been a big booboo to miss that one.

Steep turn (not my best), power off stall, power on stall (both OK). He put
us into a spiral dive and I corrected. Everything was just like I'd
practiced with my CFI (in retrospect, my CFI prepared me very well... I
think his standards were higher than the examiner).

Head back to the airport now, and I had to explain the procedure for a
precautionary landing while we were enroute. We didn't actually simulate
one (which surprised me), but I was ready in any case. Prepped for a soft
field landing when we arrived, which was my only big "miss." It was a very
nice day (in Montreal). Little to no wind when we took off and severe clear
with 20-30 mi. vis. The active runway was 07, but upon landing there was a
slight tailwind (airport switched to 25 shortly after my flight) and with a
little power the little 152 was eating up asphalt while I was still 10 - 20
feet up. We floated a ways down the runway, and hesitant to add a touch
more power as we finally lost lift... well... let's just say "soft" is
relative :-) Backtracked to do a soft field takeoff (no probs) and one more
circuit for a normal landing, and we headed back to park the plane.

He asked, "So how do you think it went?" I thought I'd done well (other
than the soft field landing), but hesitated to say so as he was pretty quiet
the whole flight and I didn't get a read off him for how he thought it went.
He said it was really well done, shook my hand, and congratulated me.
YES!!! I actually savored spending a little more time with the plane,
packing up my stuff, before heading back to the office to join him.

I got all the paper work in order with my CFI (who also congratulated me),
and everything should go through the proper channels in the coming week. I
booked a flight next weekend, and I intend to take my wife up and treat her
to a tour of the sights for putting up with this 9 month odyssey that has
been my flight training.

I will remember the parting words of the examiner. He said, "Best of luck,
and really hope you use this to go places." He highly recommended a trip to
Newfoundland (long trip, but he assures me it's worth it). Hmmm... I think
I'll look into a GPS unit to ease the navigation. I've always been a sucker
for gadgets.