I'm now officially a Private Pilot

[MT930]

Nice Work, It's a real accomplishment lots of work.

Have fun, use your checklists, keep the greasy side down.

[dmcummins]

Originally Posted by gshase

Good job. Tell us about the check ride. And as a CFII I can give you a High Performance Sign off. Enclose a check for $50, a picture of yourself in a H.P. aircraft, and a 1 paragraph explanation about your flying skills.

Thanks, but since the insurance company is requiring 30 total hours of dual to carry passengers, I think that I'll get the sign off in there somewhere.

The ride was pretty much as I expected. Started off with a short field take off and started on my cross country. Flew around 20 miles and located some landmarks and did some calculations with the whiz wheel and we diverted. Did some hood time, tracking a VOR and making some turns, climbs, ect. Also did some unusual attitudes under the hood. Did a simulated emergency landing and then some turns around a point. Then back up for some stalls, and slow flight. Then back to the airport for soft field landing and takeoff. Also did a spot landing and crosswind. Then while in the pattern he pulled the power and I did a slipping, power off and no flap landing.

I think I did well on most of the tasks, the examiner said I should keep the ball centered on the full power banking stalls and I looked a little distracted on the engine out slipping, no flap landing. On the landing I don't think I was distracted, its just I never did a slipping no flap landing before. I actually thought the landings were all pretty good. They were all better than average for me.

The oral and ride took about 3 1/2 hours. I didn't have much problem with the oral part, I had to look up a couple of things, but I got a 95% on the written and my CFI went over some of the stuff again that he knew the examiner would probably ask. One question I should have known was a easy one. I couldn't remember the never exceed speed for the 172. I knew it was the red line on the airspeed indicator, but not that it was 158. I could have told him the never exceed speed in my Debonair, 225.

On a sad note the examiner said a good friend's son was just killed in a plane crash. Kid was 23, said drinking was involved.

[304065]

Originally Posted by Dantilla

....And after about 30 seconds, you'll think "Enough of this" and you'll push the throttle back in where it belongs!

Max fuel economy speed is agonizingly slow- Closer to stalling speed than normal cruise.
The only time I fly that slowly is when I'm getting ready to land.

Well of course we would. I knew a guy who flew a 172 with two throttle settings, firewall and idle, and the airplane put up with it.

But of course you know the reason I say this. . . and it's not for saving gas. It's because learning to think 100 miles ahead of the airplane doesn't happen overnight. The obligation is to think about (as Bill Kershner put it) "what kind of gyrations the airplane is going through," particularly when developing an instrument scan. So while your eyes are fluttering around the six-pack, bouncing from AI to VSI and back and then over to the fuel gauge that's strapped to your left wrist and then into the glove box to check to see if the sandwiches are still there (another Kershnerism ) at least the world isn't going by so fast, so there's plenty of time to take this all in without the obligation of contemplating the next radial, intersection or weather system.