Blue Side Up

So it’s all finally over. I know I mentioned in my last post that my test would be Friday (yesterday) but apparently it was moved so I would have a day to refresh myself in the airplane. All we had to do today was to cover the airwork items: steep turns, slow flight, two stalls, spiral dive recovery, precautionary landing, forced approach, and one specialty takeoff and landing. After all that, I passed!

So my takeoff was a soft-field takeoff, which required 10º of flap, full back pressure on the yoke and a nice smooth takeoff into ground effect. We departed SW to just outside the city and set up to do some airwork. Rolling out of the steep turn, I hit my wake, which is a good sign because you know you’re at the exact same altitude you were when you rolled into the turn. I gained a few knots in the turn but nothing big.

Next came slow flight. I slowed the airplane down to 50 knots and full flap (40º) which creates some huge drag. I was using about 90% of my available power just trying to get the thing to stay in the air. We executed a few rate one turns and then I recovered. Easy as pie.

After that we did the two stalls. The first was a power-off stall, no flap, power-off recovery. I hadn’t practiced these in a while but luckily they aren’t too hard. The second stall was a power-on stall, 20º of flap, power-on recovery. I got a nice little wing drop but corrected with rudder and everything went smoothly.

Next we did the spiral dive recovery. I was a little hesitant to pull some hard G’s with the examiner on board, so I was perhaps a little to smooth pulling the aircraft out of its dive. We got up to about 145kts, which was a little bit fast, but still within limits.

The forced approach went very smoothly. Ran through all my procedures, engines warms, and passenger briefings, and made my field before I was told to overshoot. The worst was over! He gave me a low oil pressure scenario and tried to hint that he wanted me to do a precautionary landing, but I just told him that if the situation were real, I would just head back to London. He then told me that oil was spurting from the cowling and now what would I do. Apparently I’m slow and told him that I would divert to St. Thomas, which was a closer airport. He then just blatantly told me he’d like me to do a precautionary landing. Point taken. It went just fine.

After that, we headed back to London to do a soft-field landing. I approached at 60kts, 30º of flap and left a little power on to make it nice and smooth. I must say, it was one of my softest landings ever. We taxied back to the parking spot and I shut the aircraft down. He told me congratulations and my childhood dream was finally realized. If I get hit by a truck tomorrow, I’ll at least be able to say I was a pilot for one day.

When all was said and done, I scored a 108 on the flight test, with all 3′s and 4′s. I described earlier how the system works, but its a 4-point scale with 4 being “perfect” and 3 being “pretty good”. He told me that 108 was one of the highest marks he’s ever given out, so I was pretty happy needless to say.

For now I get to bask in the glory of being the newest private pilot in Canada. Next week, I start my night rating. The fun continues…

Update:
Here are some numbers that I’ve totaled for the duration of my Private License:

15,098: $ spent on plane rental, instructor, books, fees
545: days from my first flight to my flight test
77.2: hours total (including flight test)
70: flights (including both portions of my flight test)
1: engine failure (experienced in the flare while landing)
0: regrets!

I realize some of these numbers are high, but that’s what happens when you’re a full time student, working two jobs and only flying on weekends. The cost was so high because I had to learn a whole new airplane before my flight test, which took me 10 flights to get test-ready in the C172. About $4,000 can be attributed to switching schools and airplanes.