Let's go fly!!!

Woke up at 5:32 A.M.

 

The sun wasn’t even up yet.  Not cool.  Actually, it wasn’t too bad.  As I walked from the hangar to the FBO, I lied to myself and said that it would be nice to wake up this early every morning and enjoy the tranquility.  Even as I said those words, I knew it would never happen...

 

Woke up Van, and we were off to the FSDO (Flight Standards District Office) in Wichita by 6:40 A.M.  Arrived in Wichita at 7:30 A.M.

 

I walked my huge pile of books and airplane over to the office.  We walked in and said we were ready for my checkride.  Well, it turns out that my examiner didn’t even know she had a checkride today.  So after working that out, I went in and registered with Sami, my examiner.  Well, I had forgotten a very important piece of paper, so I had to call back to the airport and have someone go through my room.  Finally got that all taken care of.  Not how you want to start your day at the FAA office!

 

Then we went to a back room, and I knew it was time.  I had been waiting for this day for the past couple of weeks.  I had been studying six, seven, eights hours a day for the next few hours ahead of me...it was go-time.

 

And just like that, we started the beginning of my 3 ½ hour oral exam!!!

 

We started out with the Fundamentals of Instructing...I wasn’t surprised, but at the same time, I really was.  I wasn't surprised because the FOI is how every CFI and MEI test book starts out...but I was surprised because I found it rather silly to study some of those concepts...quite boring and sometimes worthless.  But sure enough, she hit them right from the get go.

 

“What are the levels of learning”?  That was my first question.  I thought to myself, "You have GOT to be kidding me..."  The FOI was comin' full-force.

 

Ha!  But I answered those pretty easily, explaining each one as I went.

 

Then Sami hit the regulations pretty hard.  We talked about endorsements and what a student pilot would have to have before a solo.  Then before a cross-country solo.  Then before a private pilot license.  And of course, in good fashion, she didn’t just ask questions.  She would give me a possible scenario...

 

"Your student just bought a Twin Comanche off of eBay.  And you have signed your student’s logbook to fly a solo flight.  But he wants to fly a solo flight along the same flight path the next day.  Is he able to?"

 

"Do you have to sign his logbook?  Does someone else before he flies?"

 

And I would answer.

 

Then she asked me questions and had me use my logbook to give the examples.

 

And after that...more REGS!  The FAA loooooves their regulations.

 

"What is needed for a high-altitude endorsement...what type of flight training?"

 

And frankly, I hadn't a clue on that one.  So I told her point-blank I had no idea.  To which she responded...

 

"Well, where do you find it?"  And with no help, I had to open up the FAR and search for the answer.  I did find it, but it's rough having to search with her just waiting!!!  More on that later.

 

Then we took a break, and she asked me to teach her all about airspaces after the break.  So for my lesson, I went through airspaces starting with A.  Then B, C, D, E, and G.  And of course, all of the VFR minimums and required equipment needed in each one.  Not too bad there, but she had some tough questions about E and G and the 700 and 1200 feet differences and whatnot.  She showed me a mistake in the FAA manual (that I would have never caught) and confused me with some of her explanations of the 700/1200 altitudes.

 

From there we talked about some systems...mainly the landing gear and fuel system on the Twin Comanche.  I explained those although she didn’t necessarily think my landing gear explanation was good enough.

 

"How do you know it’s down and locked?"

 

"The green light comes on when the gear is down and locked."

 

"But how is this?  Why does it work that way?"

 

"Well, um, the engineers built it that way!  The front one won’t come down without the side two being down first."

 

"Can you draw that for me or show me a schematic?"

 

Ha!  Nope!  But I don't think I said it like that.  But I really didn't have a schematic for her!  And neither did my POH!

 

But so as to not lose this one, I told her everything I knew about the gear (the tube and gear system to extend the nose and sides, the lights, the flashing light below 12" manifold pressure, etc.), and that sufficed.  I even showed her what the POH said (no pictures), so that is all we could work with.

 

And then from there we took another break and then I had to do the Vmc lesson.  And I rocked that out!!!  I walked right through the entire process, drawing pictures and graphs all throughout, and at the end of the oral, she told me it was an excellent lesson!  That probably lasted 30-45 minutes itself!

 

All in all, the oral wasn’t bad.  I didn’t know everything, but I let her know that.  We had some (somewhat) awkward moments of silence when I had to look some things up.

 

“Um, I can’t seem to find it...”  I would sometimes break the silence, but she just sat over there across the table, not seeming to care.  I was looking for a hint, but she wasn’t budging.  I was actually surprised that she offered no help!  But now looking back, of course she wouldn't!  She's the FAA!  ha!  So I dug deeper into the FAR’s, and each time I would finally find it.  Usually after a couple of minutes, but that type of silence is really noticeable!!!  The good part is that the silence makes you want to find the answer a whole lot quicker!

 

We took a half-hour break for lunch, then headed for the airplane.  I walked her all around and showed her how to do a pre-flight on the Twin Comanche.  Fuel tanks, landing gear, oil check, pitot tube, stall horn, ailerons, stabilator, etc.  Pretty easy.

 

From there we hopped in the airplane, and I was ready to go.  I fired up both engines, explaining how to do it as I went.  I was getting ready to contact Ground Control when she asked if I was ready to go.  It was one of those questions where she was letting me know that, no, in fact, I was not ready to go!  BUT WHY?!  ha...I thought it over a second, then said nope...I need to contact clearance.  So I did that first, then went to ground.  She actually taxied the airplane for me since she was the only one with brakes.  Went through the run-up, then we were off!

 

Normal take-off and climb.  Climbed up to 4500 feet MSL (3200 AGL), and had to stop due to clouds.  For the first maneuver, I did slow flight.  Fuel pumps on, trim the airplane, good to go.  Then we flew a bit further and found some higher clouds, so I went up, then did a steep turn, explaining what to look for, how to correct (shallow the bank, release the back pressure, etc.).  I maintained my altitude pretty well there.

 

From there I did a Vmc demo.  Nothing really hard there.  Went very well.  I was a little over-zealous on my nose-down during the correction, but it wasn’t too bad.  Pitched for blue line.  Easy recovery.

 

From there we flew over another airport and then did a full-shutdown on the left engine.  I feathered the prop, and she had me turn to headings with only one engine.  Nothing difficult.  Then I tried an air re-start, but the engine wasn’t cooperating!  It took a good four or so minutes of coaxing, and after saying this was our last shot before having to land, the left engine starting slowly spinning and then fired back up.  Thanks, girl!

 

From there I did an emergency descent, and I was a bit slow on my airspeed a couple of times and had to correct.  But I did correct.  The trim was way off on that maneuver, and I was slow, so I was trimming the nose down, but that gave me more back-pressure to hold the turn.  It was hard on the hands!  But I was able to manage, and the numbers were fine, but it just wasn't comfortable on me as a pilot!  oops!  Leveled off and then did an S-turn over a road.  Made sure to enter down-wind.

 

Climbed back to altitude and then did a drag demo.  Nothing hard there.  Just several steps in that procedure.  Talked through the procedure the entire time...acting like an instructor.

 

And then we headed back to Wichita.  I was asked to do a short-field landing, and I had my best landing yet.  But I had to get there first!  I had plenty of radio calls to do as I was being vectored behind a couple of jets.  An American MD-80 and a Lear.

 

"88-Yankee, right base for 19R."

 

"88-Yankee, change to right base for 19L."

 

"88-Yankee, change to #2 for 19L."

 

[talk from the MD80]

 

"88-Yankee, #2 behind MD-80 for 19R."

 

"88-Yankee, Lear on 3-mile right base.  #3 behind MD-80 and Lear."

 

Of course, in between all of those calls, I had my read-back, too.  So I was configuring for landing all while being switched back and forth on the landing.  But really, it wasn't that difficult to manage.  I just followed in the two jets.  Pretty fun!

 

Perfect approach, perfect touchdown, right on the money.  The plane literally flew itself down with my trimming.  So nice!  We asked for the option, and we took off right after that (a couple of jets were waiting on us to land).  I had a right turn but stayed in the pattern.

 

On my turn-out from departure, she cut my left engine.  So I flew the pattern on one engine.  This time a normal landing.

 

I was cleared for Runway 19L and the landing was spot-on again.  I had been having troubles landing from the right seat before today (I even flared high this morning on the way over!), but I just focused and concentrated on lining up all throughout my base (I don’t always do that), and I tracked the ILS lighting system down to the runway to help.  I set up the approaches nice, and the landings followed smoothly.  Beautiful.

 

Ok, back to the office!

 

WOO HOO!  I was very confident in my flight, and I knew that I had passed.  She didn’t tell me until about four or five minutes later, but she just reiterated what I knew to be true.  As a pilot, you can always tell whether you've flown good or not.  And you usually know if you've met the standards or not.  So all in all, the flight went great.

 

After all was said and done, I had about 3 ½ hours of oral and 1 ½ hours of flight.

 

Looking back, the day wasn't too bad.  I had treated the test with a great deal of respect, and like I said, I have been studying quite extensively for this test.  It's not that the check-ride was easy...but at the same time, it wasn't as hard as maybe I had in my mind.  I had a spot-on day, and my training and preparation paid off in huge dividends.  I was simply ready for this test!!!

 

And now I am officially a Multi-Engine Instructor!!!  I can teach YOU how to fly a twin-engine airplane!!!

 

So...are you ready to go?!