Welcome to part two of my award winning series, PPL Flight Test. On today’s episode, I fly my flight test! The weather was awesome and this was confirmed by the smallest METAR and TAF I’ve seen in a long long time. One-liners are always nice to see. This winter weather might finally be coming to an end.
I was understandably very nervous, but since I already completed the ground portion of my flight test, I was a little more calm than I’d otherwise be. We started with the walk-around and I was asked three questions when I was done: what did the shimmy dampener on the nose wheel do, what would happen if there was a dent in the prop, and what are we looking for when we inspect the main air intake. No problem answering any of these and we head back inside to grab the docs and keys.
Ground operations went fine and I performed a normal takeoff with a right turnout to St. Thomas. This was my set heading point, and from there we turned SW to follow the lakeshore to my first checkpoint which was a tiny place called Wallacetown. So far, so good. I was using the GPS to get to St. Thomas, but apparently this didn’t demonstrate my nav skills so the examiner decided it would turn itself off and cease to operate for the duration of the flight. Damn. I specifically chose this aircraft because it was the only one with a GPS. This decision would come back to haunt me.
So we got to Wallacetown and I performed a groundspeed check. We had a groundspeed of 100kts when it should have been a bit higher. I explained this was due to the fact that I had decreased the power setting due to a rough running engine and a high EGT (exhaust gas temperature). I tried leaning the mixture, varying the power setting, and applying carb heat, but the engine continued to vibrate in a weird fashion. It wasn’t so much the sound of the engine, but rather the feel. Something wasn’t right and we both noticed it.
Next I was put under the hood and told to fly straight and level for two minutes, then we executed a right turn 180º and flew for two more minutes – all standard flight test items. Next came the unusual attitude where I had to look at my feet and the examiner put the airplane into a nose up attitude with some left bank. He told me to recover and I looked up, noticed the attitude, applied full power and pushed the nose back down and leveled the wings. Done with the hood.
The engine was still running rough… uh oh. The examiner told me that in his experience, it was better to go home than risk it. We still had to do a forced approach and he was scared that during our forced approach, the engine might decide to quit on the overshoot, so we diverted home. I descended to 2000′ and orbited a small town SW of London called Fingal. My diversion took us on a 020º heading at 100 kts with an ETE of 12 mins. I was pretty busy with getting the ATIS, navigating back to the airport, and getting clearance to enter the control zone, so I don’t actually know how close I was to my ETE. I think it was pretty close though.
I touched down on the big 1000′ markers like I had planned and we taxied back to parking. The examiner made it very clear that this was not a failure of any kind and that I had executed all of the exercises just fine. It was simply a matter of some problem with the cylinders that we’ll have to get looked at by maintenance.
So after all of this waiting, I finally get into the air and I still don’t have a private license. It fits perfectly with the pattern of events leading up to the today. Had to switch flight schools. Had to learn a new airplane. And finally have to take 3 weeks to complete a simple flight test. The epitome of one of my favourite aviation expressions: hurry up and wait!
So a week from now I’m scheduled to finish my flight test and hopefully the airplane won’t be stupid. I just have to complete the airwork items and specialty takeoffs/landings that remain on the list of things to do. Steeps turns, 2 stalls, a spiral dive recovery and a forced approach. Maybe after all that, I’ll be licensed? Who knows to be honest.
Oh, and that decision to choose the airplane with the GPS? Horrible decision. I couldn’t even use the GPS and the airplane turned out to be broken. At least we didn’t have an engine failure or anything past a rough running engine. I have to stay optimistic or I’ll get too frustrated.
Stay tuned for the last part in my PPL Flight Test trilogy.
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