Here we are! Today is the day that I have been waiting, dreading and hoping. The statistics are scary. 60% of people starting a pilot license never get to finish it. Some drop out of interest, other for financial reason but also some because they can’t make it! It is simply too difficult for them. But today is the day where I might put a definitive end to the question: ‘Do I have what it takes to be a pilot?’. As you have guess by now, today is my private pilot checkride.

Starting the day

The instructions from my instructors were pretty scarce! Not much to help feeling at ease in fact: “Just come to the flight school, grab a conference room and get all your stuff on the table.”. Ok. I’m not sure what stuff we are talking about so I asked for clarification and the result was as scarce: “Bring everything you got!”. That might not be a good idea but I understand the intent. I should bring any reference material that I can effectively used during the oral part of the exam.

The previous night, I made a point to not change too much my daily routine but try to squeeze some extra sleep. I have been working the entire week and the tension of the week was starting to get to me. But whatever I did, did not completely work. I guess by fear of not getting up on time, I ended up waking up several time at night.

As I’m driving down to the school, I had a few thought about the day I started to fly. It was about a year ago on the 22nd of June of 2009. At that point I knew I was determined to get the license and that never falter during the entire training. But I was wondering how fast I would be able to go through. The average flight time before a checkride is about 75 hours and I’m at 80. Above average but with circumstances. My true instruction flight time is more in the 60 hours as I did several “tourism” flight and a few gaps on time where I couldn’t fly because I was travelling. The way I see it, the more mistake I do with an instructor on board, the less mistake I would do by myself so more is better in this case! The other sobering number is the passing rate. The last I read it is about 75% passing. 1 person out of 4 is failing the checkride.

As I’m arriving to the school, the tension is going one notch up. Time to get everything out of the car and start to get ready. I’m not sure what to expect. Michael did prepare me but I don’t know how well just yet. That’s where the second guessing starts and I know myself enough that I need to keep that in check. At least I ‘m familiar with the room, I’ve been there before and I’m picking the favorable place for me, start laying my “stuff” on the table. Not sure how many piles I should make, what I should keep in the bags versus what should be laid out on the table. In the end, I had on the table the few documents that I know contains almost all the answers and also some of my flight guides… This means the sectionals, the AF/D, the FAR/AIM and the Pilot Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge and, of course, the must-have PTS as a reference to the checkride.

Mon DPE est connu comme le loup blanc!

We have an expression in France that says ‘Connu comme le loup blanc’. The direct translation is equivalent to ‘known like the white wolf’. We use this expression to mean that something/someone is very well known .

My Designated Pilot Examiner (or D.P.E.) is one of these known like the white wolf. He is known as Charlie. Charlie has been the DPE for the region for many years and most of the pilots in the area have been blessed by Charlie.
One of the interesting thing for me is that I believe in the Wings program. Not as a way to get out of trouble but as a way to not get into them! The Wings program is an FAA initiative. In a way, this is the accident prevention effort from the FAA. Part of the Wings program is to create relevant safety presentations (live or broadcast) for the pilot community. Charlie had done one on Icing that took place at my FBO. I had the chance to get to talk to him and help him with some computer’s issue before and during his presentation.

None less, I would be standing in front of him by myself trying to convince him that I’m worth the time he is spending here and that I have all the knowledge required to be a pilot. When Charlie steps in the room, the serious things are about to start but I don’t feel there are too much tension in the air…

Let the exam begin

From the very moment we started, I could feel that Charlie is a veteran at submitting people to the test. He started by a long speech on his expectation for the test, explaining what he was expecting from me and what he would consider as good or bad. I did share some of my experience from giving job interviews, highlighting the commonality and the benefit expected. It was overall a nice and easy introduction into the real tests. We cleared a few administrative elements and make sure that all information were correct in my application (called the IACRA). Unfortunately, despite having verified the information several time, Charlie found out that my height was not 81”! Second grade mistake: 5’11” is 71”! This triggered about half an hour of disruption trying to get the form reapproved. We ended having to redo the entire application! Instead of trying to recalculate everything or trying to find the proper words to describe, the easiest is to take all the info from your medical certificate. It’s almost all on here as far as your description is concerned.

The checkride is actually composed of two parts:

1. An Oral exam: This is a series of discussions or questions that reviews all aspect of being a pilot. From the basic aerodynamics, to weather to regulations. The duration is expected to be about 3 to 4 hours.
2. A Flight: This is the part where you show your skills! The flight duration varies based on the examiner and probably too many parameters to create a rule but my flight lasted 90 minutes and the instructors told me it was fairly long.

From the very beginning, Charlie put the accent on the fact that he is not looking for a 100% good answer to every single questions but wants to see if the applicant has a good understanding of the different topics. There are some questions that the answer should be right right away but for other ones, using some form of help (aka all the stuff I was suppose to bring…) would be ok as long as it does not turn into an archeological dig, trying to get to the information. I set the bar for myself to get the answer to any question in less than 15 seconds. Since I know my books pretty well, this was fairly easy. Moreover, knowing my limitations, I knew exactly where to get the information I have some weakness with.

We brushed pretty much all the topics that are covered during the knowledge tests. We talked about weather, regulation, flight plan, avionics, regulation, procedures… No subject was left untouched. While this seems overwhelming in fact, Charlie had the experience to make it flows like a conversation. The topic of that conversation would have been renting an airplane, planning and executing a long cross country. I have to admit that while it was an exam, I really appreciated this part of the checkride. I really appreciated the approach that Charlie was using. Approach that can simply summarize by two words: “Safety first!”.

During the course of the exam, many questions were asked. Some of these questions could be answered with a very simple explanation. I do have a tendency to want to explain more than it is usually required. This is a bad trait that I’m fighting everyday but I knew that in this particular case, this could lead me into bad water so I consciously made an effort to not volunteer any response unless asked for and to let Charlie talked as much as possible. Some basic cultural background shows that “Westerners” tends to perceive silence as a “bad” thing or something missing and the consequences is that we tend to try to fill silence with words. As such, not volunteering info creates more silence that I would expect be filled by Charlie. To some extent it worked but it could have been perceived also as ignorance so it is important to be mindful of the subtleties of the conversation and try to read the non verbal element of the communication to gauge when silence will get you out of trouble or bring you down even more!

But one aspect that Charlie was not going to let me go away with is the failed questions of the knowledge test. I’m not exactly proud of the result of my test. Scoring only a 83 out of 100 is not what I would call a good score. I did too many mistakes purely based on linguistics and one because I pushed the wrong button! But they were a few that I simply did not know the answer. As part of the checkride, it is the role of the DPE to actually review the results of the tests and make sure that the failed questions are covered again. So extra emphasis were placed on some of the weather aspects (probably my weakest point) and the other missed topics. It was the only time that I felt we were in an exam situation.

Going to Texarkana

When I scheduled the checkride, I was asked to plan a flight to Texarkana. This was going indirectly the main topic of a long part of the conversation(hum … sorry: exam!). The flight from Bentonville (KVBT) to Texarkana (KTXK) is an interesting one because it is including several features:

1. A class C airspace,
2. A TRSA airspace,
3. A class E airspace,
4. 2 MOA (Military Zone),
5. Rapidly Rising Terrain,
6. 3 VORs that are conveniently placed,
7. 1 NDB

This makes potentially for a lot of topic to discuss but the most important part is to plan the flight. As you can imagine, there are many options and I have considered them but at the end of the day, it boils down to two options: Using the Direct route or trying to avoid the Military Zone. Michael is a strong proponent of the going direct when doing VFR flight. IFR (or instrument) are a little different…

Using the Direct route…

A direct route will provide excellent visual ground reference by almost flying along the highway down to the half point: Forth Smith. But it will stir you direct into the Military Area (MOA) and a quickly raising terrain. On the other hand, there are several airports along the way so they are easily recognizable from the air and can serve as nice milestone. Arriving to Fort Smith, we will be edging the TRSA and with spare altitude, we will encroach only on the outer ring of if we fly below 7,000ft. We can decide to fly but we would have to be at 8,500ft to be in accordance with the recommended altitude for VFR and heading. 8,500ft is feasible with the Cessna 172 but it takes forever to get there! So on paper, the TRSA is easy to deal with.

The second part of the trip past Fort Smith down to Texarkana involves crossing two MOA. While this is not necessarily something difficult, it is requiring more planning and checks on the day of the flight and provide some level of danger. It is imperative to be under flight following from the air traffic control to make sure that the MOA is not hot at the time you are flying into it… Personally, I like to stay away from them until I can get increase my flying skills. The terrain after Forth Smith has less features but should have enough to be able to be spotted from the plane. Preparing a flight plan should not be too difficult.

Avoiding the MOAs…

The other option is to try to avoid the MOAs just so there is no ambiguity and risk of having a hot zone on the day of the flight. The option is to find a path that skirts the MOA but does not extend our en route time too much. Looking at the shape of the MOA, there is a natural tip that is formed when looking at the path between Bentonville and Texarkana south of Fort Smith. Looking more carefully at the map around that point, you can see that there is also another MOA on the west side of the path. Since we have avoided one, it’s not to get into another one! And also very conveniently, you can spot that mid point between the two tips is a VOR named Rich Mountain (PGO). We can definitely use this radio navigation point to avoid both MOA and get our route.

Using the POH information on the performance of the plane, I can now compare the two routes and see what is the cost of avoiding these MOAs.

13 minutes to reduce the workload. I don’t know about you but that detour is worth the time! Moreover, having the assistance of the VOR for navigation seems a good point.

Charlie and I dwelled on the different topics and challenges that were presented on the flight. We talked about the different airspace and their requirement, the different quadrant crossed and a few other questions related to the interpretation of the sectional and the use of the A/FD.

Conclusion of the oral part

The discussion came to an end as nicely as it has started! As we were talking about the different element, Charlie announced me that he was pleased with my overall knowledge and that we can move to the second part of the exam: the flight!

But that will have to wait after lunch because it is now noon and we decide to meet in 45 minutes. Overall, I have to admit that Charlie was an excellent examiner for the oral part and made it stress free. It was a pleasure to listen to him and to try to gain his approval.

Now I’m hoping that the second part of the checkride will go as smoothly and somehow, I ‘m not as confident. I have seen in the past many example where I was able, on exam day, to perfectly screw up maneuvers that I had mastered before. The most notorious was when I was trying to get my (french) boat license! But it is now time to relax and to prepare for the flight!

Reference

• Wings Program: http://www.faasafety.gov/default.aspx
• IACRA: https://iacra.faa.gov/iacra/
• Silence in Western culture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silence
• Sectional review and flight planning: http://www.skyvector.com