New Commercial Pilot

Well, I finally made it. The airplane, weather, DE schedule, and my skills finally all came together and resulted in the statement that I have been found to be properly qualified and is hereby authorized to exercise the privileges of Commercial Pilot.

Thanks goodness that is over! I originally had hoped to be finished back in April or May before it got really hot, but between weather, schedules, and broken airplanes (mainly starter problems) it took a little longer.

The checkride didn't take very long at all. It was just barely over an hour. We had a little problem getting our information into the FAA web site so we got started about an hour late and my DE had another appointment after our ride. Before we went out we wrote down what we were going to do and in what order. We got the airplane lined up on the runway and started with a short-field takeoff. We then came around in the pattern and departed downwind on our simulated cross-country to Kerville, TX (KERV). I hit the first checkpoint within a minute of ETA which was perfectly fine considering the varying speeds from climbing. I hit the next checkpoint about 1 minute late which after a small calculation showed us to be 5 knots slower than anticipated. That was fine since I could adjust my other leg times and show that we still had enough fuel. Now my DE said, "I'm not feeling well, take me somewhere closer." Well, since I had to show how to use the navigation equipment in the airplane, I simply dialed Navasota (60R) into the GNS430 and headed for it. He said, "ok, I'm feeling better. Put your stuff away and let's do some maneuvers."

Hopefully I'll get the sequence correct, but we did a steep turn in both directions, stabilized and went right into a chandalle. Since the chandalle slowed us down a bunch we got stabilized again, dropped the gear and flaps and went into slow flight. After a shallow turn in each direction we pointed the nose down just a little to simulate an approach on short final, pulled the power and performed a power-off stall. I recovered from that and cleaned up the airplane to climb back up to our starting altitude. After getting back up to about 2000 feet he said, "Ok, give me 20 degrees of bank either direction, your choice, give me a power-on departure stall." I met the PTS requirements for that and then he said to give him the airplane so he could show me something. After I had been real careful, trying to pass the ride, he smartly yanked the airplane over into a bank and briskly pulled us into a stall again saying, "You recovered fine per the book, but keep in mind what you're really doing here. You just departed the airport, got about 300 feet above the ground, and then stalled the airplane. You are fighting for your life to avoid hitting the ground. You don't have time to drop the nose and establish Vy. You'll be cutting the grass before you ever get there. This airplane wants to fly and you've seen how it will mush along in slow flight with a lot of power and maintain altitude. Even though you're up here at 2000 feet for practice, act like you're fighting for every inch."

I liked the demonstration and promised to go back out and practice it some more later. All we had left was the eights-on-pylons so we found a couple of crossroads and did that and then headed back to the airport. Back at Hooks I did a soft field landing, soft field takeoff, and a simulated engine out, 180 degree power-off approach to a short field landing. Talk about combining stuff to accomplish all the goals!

All in all I had fun and learned some things in the process. Every time I fly with somebody new I get to learn new tips and tricks that they've come up with. It was hard work bumping around at low altitude in the noon time Texas heat, but that piece of paper was worth it! Now I hope my new permanent certificate comes in the mail before I leave for Oshkosh! I can hardly wait!