Finally the day has come.
I was up at 6 am this morning. I had two slices of toast for breakfast (1st mistake). I was at the flight school at around 7 am. I had arranged to meet the examiner at around 10 am. By this time, I was a little hungry, the temperature was creeping up to around 28, so I was sweating like mad.
I was a little nervous. I met with Paul at around 10 am. He gave me a route to plan out to Haller. He told me I have 45 minutes to go off and plan the route, calculate weight and balance and performance etc.
45 minutes later, he had gone through my logbook, he had found every possible little tiny mistake I had made in my logbook. He went through my FAA Licence, to check if I had the proper licence to fly in the airspace here, and reminded me that we were calculating an Air Transport flight in accordance with JAA European Regulations.
After the paper work, I met at the front door with him. I introduced myself and told him where we were going, our flight time and en-route time. I showed him how to board the aircraft, how to exit in case of an emergency, how to latch and unlatch the door.
The brief was pretty extensive and really covered everything that could possible encounter. He was very detailed on the preparation and asked me everything that I would be doing, just so he knows I didn’t forget anything. He went on to tell me there will be three emergencies. If at any other stage, he says there is an emergency, it is for real, he is not simulating. We went through about touch drills and flight safety items.
So my departure went well. Got a radio call into Daytona real quick, got clearance to climb, got set up in the cruise. I gave him my three things: heading, ETA, and altitude.
He was happy with the navigation, so he gave me a diversion, to a place called Mount Royal. Just before reaching Mount Royal, he put the hood on me. He told me on the brief that when he gives me the hood, it’s not a 5 minute break time, it’s a simulation that we have just encountered cloud. He said it’s not a good idea to stow your kneeboard, put it in the back seats, then while you’re in the back seat, have a quick drink and get settled. Afterall, it is suppose to simulate you just entered cloud.
After the hood work, he asked me what does the funny looking instrument do and he pointed to the suction gauge. I said it runs the vacuum (no, its not an on board hoover). He said, okay you’ve lost your vacuum pump, simulate your attitude indicator and directional indicator has failed. He stuck suction cups over the instruments. He asked me to climb, descent etc.
After that, he took control and he put the aircraft out of control, he said he had to dodge a “cloud.” In reality, he was simulating the aircraft going out of control and putting it into a dive. I was then expected to recover with my three primary instruments: airspeed, altitude and turn and bank.
We proceeded out to the coast, and completed our general handling, stalls, steep turns. He told me on the ground, that he wanted me to recognise the stall and tell him that the aircraft is stalling, then he would tell me when to recover. So I spent two minutes with the column all the way back and watching the nose of the Arrow go up and down.
We did our emergencies en-route – PFL and engine fire.
Back to the circuit, where another aircraft had just landed at the wrong airport. He was talking to a different control tower, but he just landed at the wrong airport. We did our three approaches, flapless, normal, and a glide approach. Oh and we also did a short field landing.
I got back on the ground and he told me inside that I passed!
I hope everyone enjoyed the blog, and maybe they have learned a few things from it!
Any questions, please feel free to e-mail me!