flying: checkride!

Hey, my pilot's license arrived in the mail!

I neglected to tell you, LJ, about my checkride and all that. Right after I got back to Louisiana from Christmas in Southern California I started the final push. I mentioned something to my Ricky, my instructor, about going away to a conference in Mexico in the second week of January. "Want to finish up before then?," he asked, with a slightly mischievous smirk. The process of earning a pilot certificate culminates in the much anticipated ritual of the practical test, commonly known as the checkride, during which you must demonstrate all of the required aeronautical skills within the prescribed Practical Test Standards (here in pdf). We called up the FAA Designated Pilot Examiner and made an appointment for the end of the week. Leading up to the check ride, we did two long mock-checkride flights, methodically going over each and every maneuver to the FAA specifications.

The checkride itself was nothing like I expected. Instead of a calm, smooth, systematic check of all the required skills, it was a wild ride with a cantankerous examiner who unleashed an unyielding stream of directions and invective condescensions! ("Turn the AIRPLANE towards the AIRPORT, SON! Do it NOW!") We did the soft- and short-field takeoffs and landings in quick succession, and after that we were doing three or four maneuvers at all times. There was no isolated "turns around a point" and "s-turns" and "simulated emergency" or "lost procedures". There was, "Your engine has just failed and I want you to circle that point and then go into a power-off stall at XXXX feet." Our return approach to the airport was a similarly unconventional power-off straight-in three-mile final under simulated instrument conditions.

The saving grace is that, per FAA regulations, the examiner must tell you when you have failed the exam. If he hasn't told you that you have failed, then you have not failed yet, so despite the crazy ride I taxied the plane back to the hangar wondering What Just Happened. I parked the airplane and the examiner climbed out and walked into the building without a word while I remained outside to secure the airplane. When I finished and met him inside, I found him printing out my Temporary Airman's Certificate and offering a congratulatory handshake...

By the numbers:

It took me almost exactly one year (first lesson on Jan 10, 2010 to checkride on Jan 7, 2011) at an average rate of slightly less than one lesson per week (a total of 42 flights) at Fly By Knight in Hammond, LA. I had 56.9 hours at the time of my checkride and had completed 164 takeoffs and landings, all in Cessna 152 N5107B except for one flight in a Piper PA-28. The total cost was $8,536.21, which includes $7301.94 for airplane rental ($85/hr+tax) and instruction ($30/hr) and $1234.27 for exam fees ($600), airplane rental insurance ($319), books, charts, and other stuff.

A couple weeks later, I took my housemate Greg up on a sightseeing trip. You can check out his photos on flickr; one of my favorites is the one at the top of this entry, from the vantage of the camera being held outside of the open window. (-: