So what's more fun than doing one check-ride in a day?  Buckin' up and goin' for two!

So began my Saturday.

Flew up to Topeka to take my Certified Flight Instructor-Airplane and Certified Flight Instructor-Instrument...IN THE SAME DAY!!!

And let me tell you, one check-ride is plenty to prepare for.  But two?  Well, let's just say I was called foolish by at least one person.  haha.

So I landed at Topeka just before 9:00 A.M.  Had an interesting flight on the way in.  I was mirroring a Cessna the entire time...and we had no visual of each other.  He was below me, I was obviously above him, and our wings blocked our view.  12 mile call at the same time.  9 miles out.  Entering downwind at the same time.  And Tower just kept us coming in...without a visual on us.  My landing light was on, but he didn't have us in sight.  I was a bit concerned, so I finally by-passed Tower on the frequency and asked the other pilot to give his altitude immediately.  1900 feet.  I was descending from Forbes Airspace and happily stayed above him at 2200 feet.  No thanks to the Tower.

I was the one that had been cleared to enter left downwind, cleared to land, etc. the ENTIRE time.  But he was still just letting the other guy follow the same path.  After all was said and done, I look out my right window to finally see him right beside me at less than 1/4 mile.  C'mon.

Well, I meet my Examiner, and we hop right into the oral.  The oral itself lasted about 45-50 minutes, and we mainly talked about what a student pilot needs in terms of endorsements (I had those nailed down from my MEI check-ride), and we spent a great deal of time on stall-spin awareness.  I was asked to explain what a stall is, what a spin is, and make it simple for a student to understand.  Of course, I started drawin' pictures!  The oral went pretty well.  It helps having the same Examiner, as he knows what questions I have already answered in previous check-rides.

From there, we went out to fly the airplane.  He had me do a soft-field take-off into a soft-field landing.  We requested the option, and then I did a short-field take-off into a short-field landing.  Of course, with a 1966 Piper Cherokee, the pilot is the only one with toe brakes, so I coordinated his feet with my landings!

Then we went out to the Practice Area to do some maneuvers.  He had me demonstrate a stall at 1500 RPM's.  I took it all the way to the stall, and he about had a fit!  He said correct at the FIRST SIGN of a stall (meaning the buffet).  AGGHH!!!  I was told to take it all the way to a true stall in my training!  Well, we did a series of several stalls and corrections.  1500 RPM's.  Stall, correct, another stall, correct, another stall, correct.  Then 2000 RPM's.  Same thing.  Then full power.  Same thing.  After I figured out what he wanted, it wasn't hard (it's REALLY easy to correct at the buffet stage!), but I could tell he was frustrated with me for taking it all the way into the stall.  Not good!

We did Chandelles, and those were decent.  I used my ailerons and rudder to turn into the turn at first, and I guess you are only supposed to bank at first, so that didn't go over so well.  And let me tell you, he was on me like stink on a hog about the rudder.  I would use rudder...but it wouldn't be enough.  Ever it seems!  I was watchin' that ball throughout the check-ride, but I think he never took his eyes off of it!  At one point he asked me if I knew how to do the maneuver.  That's a low blow!  So I explained every minute detail of it...what the aircraft is supposed to do and at what points.  Not a good start, though...this wasn't how I wanted to start.

RUDDER, RUDDER, RUDDER!!!  More!  "Are you going to use your rudder?"  "Wouldn't you think a commercial pilot would use his rudder?"  "Turns are better with rudder input."  I was gettin' hammered.  NOT good.

We did unusual attitudes, but those weren't too bad.  I was able to correct them easy enough.  But he did ask me an interesting question about my correction.  He asked me when we were straight and level.  Umm...I just used the reference to the attitude indicator, to outside, to the VSI, and altimeter.  Nope!  aye aye aye.  So he took the airplane and used it as a teaching opportunity for me.  He told me to watch the gauges as he over-corrected.  Of course, I was watching the instruents, and he was blowin' right by them...500 feet descent.  500 feet climb.  Back and forth.  Could never nail it.

He told me to watch for the moment where the trend stops.  In other words, once that needle stops going up on the VSI (or down)...the same thing with the airspeed indicator.  Once the needle starts to reverse course, then we have our point where we want to be essentially.  We are no longer climbing or descending...unless we correct in the opposite direction.  Interesting, for sure.

We did a steep spiral, and this was my weakness in my Commercial check-ride.  Well, it turns out I was better...but not by much, I guess.  I was doing an OK job of staying over my point, but I was starting to get a bit nervous!  He asked me at what altitude we were to stop the maneuver, and I had absolutely NO idea.  Not a clue.  He told me 1500 AGL (though we later checked the PTS, and there was no mention of this on that maneuver, so I was a bit off the hook).  But this check-ride was NOT going well!

Once close to the ground, we did Eights on Pylons.  Now Van had told me to really nail these.  And I knew how to do them.  So I entered downwind and went right at it.  And he was having a fit again.  NOW WHAT?!  I was losing my confidence rather quickly.  "How do you enter this maneuver"?  "Downwind, which I DID!"  What was he lookin' for?  So I chose my two points and did them.  I increased my altitude when the point got behind me and descended when it was goin' ahead of me.  Per the handbook, I thought I did rather fine with it.

But something was not right.  "YOU DO NOT use power in this maneuver."  You have got to be kidding me!!!  I had trained with power and back pressure if I needed to climb.  Could anything else go wrong?  I mean, seriously.  So I set the power and took my hand off the throttle so as to appease him.  I just focused on keeping my reference point lined up with the object.  wow.

Well, it turned out that I also entered the maneuver incorrectly.  I entered downwind, but I chose two points parallel with downwind rather than perpendicular.  Did I ever mention that this checkride was NOT going well?

Well, we finished that up, then headed back for the airport.  He had me cross over Runway 17, then turn onto left downwind.  So as to do a Power-Off 180 Approach, I had to cut my engine once abeam of my touchdown point.  I landed that no problem.

I seriously had possibly the worst check-ride of my life there.  It's not that I was way off in terms of performance.  It's just that it wasn't up to CFI Quality standards (what I was going for), but I was more confused than anything because of how I learned the maneuvers.  Not a good place to be.  I can handle the airplane, I know that.  But I was just not doing what he wanted me to do in terms of maneuvers, and it kept on adding up.

We landed, and I really didn't know what to think.  I hadn't really busted anything in terms of altitudes or performance...but it was NOT a good check-ride.  And I think he knew that I was wondering, so he let me know that I had passed.  Wow.  What a relief.  He has NEVER told me before...he could probably sense my eagerness/anxiety to find out!  haha...

This is one check-ride that I would sure like to put behind me.  Not fun at all!

But as the guys at the airport say..."You have your certificate, and that's all that matters at the end of the day."  I guess that's true...I can now teach people how to fly single-engine airplanes!

And to be honest, I really didn't care about the rest of the day!  I mean, of course I did...but THIS was the rating that I needed to apply for jobs.  This was the one that I would be using the most in the next several months.  This was the one that I needed.  This was the one that really counted.  I HAD TO PASS!!!  Well, I did, and it feels more than great...

I just hope I can muster some confidence for that next check-ride in 30 minutes!!!