Well, today was supposed to be the day for the whole thing, but it didn’t turn out that way.

I got to the airport about an hour early to make sure everything was in order. Mark Boss – the designated examiner – told me to plan a cross country from Van Nuys to Las Vegas, and to compute a weight and balance for the both of us. I had everything ready and popped into his office (it’s right on the field) right on time.

The first thing we did was go through my paperwork and logbook to be sure everything was in order. I was careful to get this all right, because I’d been told that DE’s HATE to deal with paperwork problems. Then the oral began. We started with questions on certification, regulations, varying passengers for hire, etc. Then we went through the aircraft logbooks. I got a good tip from a friend to put post-its in the logbooks at each spot where there was a current inspection (annual, 100 hour, etc.) to speed things up. Mark was impressed. He asked how often an ELT needed to be inspected, and I said every 24 months. Wrong. I did it myself during the annual, so I should have known that. No problem.

Next was my cross country planning. He went over my plan, asked some questions, probed a bit, and then had me put the plan away. He then gave me some figures to calculate takeoff performance and density altitude, and left the room. My trusty electronic E6B made quick work of it. He came back in and said “OK – what’s the pressure altitude you came up with?” I didn’t know. I didn’t think it mattered. Only it did – you need to use pressure altitude to calculate performance numbers – not field elevation. I admitted I messed up the performance numbers (although the density altitude was still correct), and explained why. He seemed satisfied with that, and we moved on.

Next was airspace. Lots of it. He asked about just about every symbol you might find on a sectional. I knew most of it, and those I didn’t were easy to find. Then he pointed at Baker airport and said “What kind of airspace is this?” I blanked. Something inside me wanted to say Class E – so I said it. He said no. I said Class G. He asked to what altitude. I blanked again. I told him I could look it up in the FAR’s. He said go ahead. I couldn’t find it. He said we’d come back to that.

We went to a few other items – weather, airport operations, runway markings, and then came to airworthiness. He asked what items were required for VFR flight. I told him. He asked if a stall warning horn is required. Still thinking about VFR flight, I said no. In fact it IS required. At that point he had me pull out my sectional again. He asked about Baker airport, and what the airspace was. I started sweating. He said he was leaving for 5 minutes, and to try and find the answer. I looked, and couldn’t come up with it. He came back in, and asked if I knew. I said no, and he said this was something that I needed to know.

He went on to explain that the FAA has two major problems, especially in LA – people busting airspace and people flying unairworthy planes. I missed key questions on both of those. He had no choice but to fail me. I was devastated. I left feeling incredibly stupid. Both of the things I blew it on were in the manuals he was ALLOWING me to use! I rescheduled for the following week, and went home to study.

To give myself that extra little boost of confidence, I scheduled a simulated checkride (commonly known as a Phase Check) with a different CFI – Gene Hudson. I ended up with mixed feelings – more on that in a moment.

I met Gene at his office at 9:00am, and after some small talk we got right into the oral. We spent a whopping 3 hours going over everything I might be asked. Loads of airspace and weather questions. I found I had problems explaining seemingly simple things like P-Factor, turbulence and temperature inversions. Other than that, I think I did respectably well, considering the real oral will probably only be half that long. When we finished, I felt very confident.

Then we went flying.

Everything started fine. Headed off on a cross country. Found first checkpoint. Estimated time. No problem. Broke it off and did an emergency procedure. Overshot the field a bit, but fine other than that. Hood work was fine. Stalls were fine. Turns around a point were bad. Steep turns were bad. Forgot clearing turns all day. Back to the airport for landings – very discouraged at this point. First landing – bounced. Second landing – bounced. He asked for a short field landing – bounced. No flap landing – came in too high – had to go around. Soft field takeoff – fair at best. Soft field landing – fair at best.

Overall I was NOT happy with my performance, but it was a GREAT experience. He gave me some great tips (he is an EXCELLENT instructor), I learned a lot, and know what to expect and how intense to be the day of my checkride. Like I mentioned at the beginning of this report, I’m not sure if I’m more confident or less confident, but one thing is for sure – I’m better prepared than I was. I’ll spend Monday and/or Tuesday practicing, and then give it my best. I know I’m a safe pilot – I just hope he agrees.

Just time now to finish up everything that needs polishing before the checkride.

Took the written exam at AV8 – a local FBO at Van Nuys. It’s all done by computer, you can go back through all your answers, mark answers to flag them for review, etc. Pretty slick. You get 2.5 hours for the test. I was done with my first “pass” in about 20 minutes, and then reviewed for another 20. Passing is 70 – I got a 95. Very happy with that, even though the questions I missed (or at least the ones I THINK I missed – you can’t tell exactly which ones you missed, but after reviewing the prep materials I’m pretty sure I know which ones) were pretty easy ones. One on turbulence, one on certification (relating to the certification of aircraft classes) and one on taxiing with a quartering headwind (I thought it was tailwind – very different). I said going in I’d be happy with anything over 90, very happy with 95 or better – so there you go.

After telling Kent I had passed the written, I asked how far in advance I should think about scheduling my checkride. He said it shouldn’t be a problem, since I can fly midweek – so just go ahead and schedule it for the END OF THIS WEEK! After asking if he was SURE I was ready, he said “Oh yeah – you’re done. Stick a fork in you – you’re done.” So schedule I did. Wanting a BIT more time, a scheduled it for the following Wednesday – June 23, 1999. A day that had BETTER live in infamy!

Then it was just training with Kent, soloing to perfect the maneuvers and studying (with and without Kent) for the oral. A phase check with another CFI on Saturday to make sure I haven’t missed anything, and last minute touch up on Monday or Tuesday and I’m done. Wow. Such a long, difficult, expensive, exciting, rewarding, challenging, interesting journey to this point. Even before taking my checkride, I would suggest it for anyone.

Today was my long solo cross country. The requirement is a solo flight of at least 150 nautical miles with landings at 3 airports and one leg of greater than 50nm. I exceeded that by plenty. The first leg (to Porterville) was over 100nm, and the whole trip was 290nm.

The day started out looking just barely workable, with haze all around the Van Nuys area, forecast to clear by about 11:00am. Everything else along the route was great. I got to the airport early – like an hour too early – so I figured I’d go get our just-repaired transponder from the avionics shop on the field. By the time I taxied all the way to the end of the field where the shop was (the opposite end from where the planes are tied down) it looked like it was clearing. Figured I could get a weather briefing on the cell phone while I waited. Problem was I couldn’t find the phone – and I really wanted to have it with me. So – after they put our transponder back in, I had to taxi ALL the way back to the tie downs (I left it on the footlocker) and ALL the way back to take off.

My first leg was to Porterville (PTV) and it went absolutely perfect. Got the flight plan opened, saw every checkpoint, and hit the time within 1 minute. The air was perfectly smooth the whole way. I imagined the whole trip being that way. Yeah – right. Had a quick lunch at Airport Annie’s at PTV while I got a new briefing to my next stop – New Cuyama (L88).

As soon as I got airborne at PTV, I knew this was going to be a tad different. Getting bumped around quite a bit until I got up to 7500’, but it smoothed out for a while after that. Until – that is – I got to the mountains between me and New Cuyama. The plane was all over the place. I couldn’t get the FSS on radio to open my flight plan, so I just kept my fingers crossed that nothing would go wrong. Nothing did, of course, and after a go around (the wind was just crazy) at L88, I was on the ground again. Met 4 kids near the field that had all kinds of questions (can that plane do loops?) and walked with me to the finest restaurant in town – Burger Barn. I got another weather briefing for my flight home, filed a flight plan and headed back up.

This was some of the most intense turbulence yet. I decided to circle L88 a few times to get some altitude, but it didn’t help much. Got the FSS on radio to open my plan, but they just plain didn’t have it. Had to give it to them over the radio. Got experience I guess, but a hassle considering the conditions. Once I got over the mountains to Santa Barbara, everything smoothed right out, and the ride back home via Simi Valley was great. Even managed to get flight following on the way. Van Nuys was a ZOO that time of day (right around 5:00pm) and the entry into the pattern was confusing as hell. I was flying a right base leg for 16 right, when the controller told me to immediately turn downwind. I tried to ask for clarification, but the radio was just jammed with traffic. I finally made a sharp left to switch to downwind, just as the controller asked “57 Echo, are you on the base leg already?” – to which I replied “I was – but I’m back on downwind now”. She was really swamped. We got it all figured out, just in time for me to blow the landing and have to go around. Great. Got it down after that, and headed home.

A great experience over all, with so many different situations to handle in one day. Nothing seems difficult anymore. All that’s left is 1.5 hours of hood time, 6 night landings, the written exam, and the checkride prep. The first three will be done by next week sometime. The last part will take as long as I need to be sure I’ll pass the checkride.

After a week of really lousy weather (lousy here is clouds and light rain), I got a GREAT day for another cross country – this one to Tehachapi (TSP), almost directly north of Van Nuys. Feeling very confident and having everything planned, I figured this would be a very routine flight. As with most things in aviation, it wasn’t nearly routine.

After preflight and quick top off on the gas, I headed out and departed. Just as I was turning crosswind, the tower asked me to check that my transponder was on. It was, and with the right code, but no light (indicating it was being interrogated by radar) was flashing. I recycled the transponder, and set it back to altitude squawk. Downwind abeam the tower they again reported no transponder, and it was still dark. Checked the circuit breakers – all fine. The tower told me to remain clear of the Burbank Class C airspace until I had it resolved. I decided to head back and check it out. I landed and taxied back home, called Kent and told him the situation. He suggested I take it to an avionics shop on the field to have it checked out. Able Avionics was open, and was more than happy to help. They determined that the transponder was indeed bad, and they gave me a loaner.

All ready to go again, I taxied to the run-up area and did my thing. I then requested clearance, and was told to “Stand by – we have an emergency on the field.” Turns out that a plane had it’s gear collapse on landing, effectively shutting down the longer runway. No problem – the small one is plenty long for me. Turns out there was about a 10 minute wait before I finally got airborne.

After that I was just a bit disorganized. I flew too far east after the top of my climb, and ended up a bit off course. Corrected quickly, and made it to Tehachapi about 1 minute late. Just like Palm Springs, there were hundreds of windmills just south of the airport – and where there are windmills, there is WIND. 280@12 reported at the field for runway 29, so not too bad. Tied it down and walked into town for a bite to eat.

Got a new weather briefing and headed back to the airport. The wind was gusting now – up to 22 knots when I looked at the weather equipment inside the airport office. Just get it up, and no problem. Everything went fine, and the ride back was MOSTLY uneventful. I say mostly because I flew the wrong initial heading coming HOME too! I reversed the headings on my flight log, but read the FIRST one on the list instead of the last one for my trip home. I realized the mistake as soon as I saw how far west I was of my first checkpoint, corrected and came home no problem.

One more cross country and some maneuver practice, and I’m ready to go. I’ll take the written this week, and have Kent prep me for the oral. PP-ASEL – here I come!