Me with a $6,268.13 piece of paperThe deed is done! After a few weeks of great weather, clouds and the wind came in. A perfect day for a check-ride...
I met up with the FAA Designated Examiner at the airport 8 this morning. I spent a few minutes finalizing my flight plan with current weather information, and then we began the oral portion of the test. The questions ranged from aerodynamics (Is a plane faster or slower with aft CG?) to weather (Is wind shear more of a factor in a little Cessna 150 or a Gulfstream V?) to airspace rules (Can you fly over class C airspace without an encoding transponder?). He then asked to see my flight plan and questions covered flight planning, navigation and more airspace. After he felt that was up to snuff, he said it was time to fly. I have to admit I was pretty nervous. Seven months of work came down to this. I did the pre-flight, and we headed out. Normally, when you do a check ride, you go to at least the first checkpoint on your flight plan, but the weather North was looking bad, so we did a deviation pretty quick and turned South. We were able to find a couple holes in the clouds where we could gain enough altitude to do maneuvers. It was time for the view-limiting devices (a.k.a.
Foggles) and to do a couple turns and maintain altitude. Then they came off and I did a power-on and power-off stalls. All of that went pretty well. Next up was the simulated engine failure. This was a bit of a challenge with clouds around. I chose an airport that was very close, but had to dodge some clouds, so switched to a field straight ahead. He deemed I could make the landing, so it was on to reference maneuvers. This was tough. He had me do a turn around a point. I have to say this was tough. The wind was up to 15 knots or so, so keeping a constant distance from the tree. It was the worse reference maneuver I ever did, but I guess it cut the mustard. Landings were next. First was a short field landing. That one went great. Next was a soft-field landing. In the pattern, a call was made that there were "hundreds of geese" on the approach, so I spent a lot of time looking for them. By the time I turned to final, I was very high. I dumped in full flaps, but that wasn't enough, so I had to do a go-around. Full power and bring the flaps up slow. Back in the pattern, and this time the birds stayed on the ground. I had a little extra float in the landing, but it wasn't bad. Once back on the ground, it was a little paper work and I was officially a pilot.
After leaving the airport (and having my heart rate return to normal) I went home and Meg and I went out to lunch. Little did I know that she had been planning a little
surprise party for a couple weeks with a group of friends. Very cool! It was great to have her support, and the support of my whole family, the entire time.
So, that's it. Seven months and $6,268.13 later (not including transportation costs to and from the airport) it's done. Now it's time to take Meg up, and come the good weather season, hopefully trips around to see family and friends in more far off places.
Last thing: What's with the title of this post? That's the remark the examiner put in my log book. ASEL stands for Airplane Single Engine Land, so don't ask me to fly an old
Pan-Am Clipper.
