Solo checkride practice - experience requirements met
08/03/2007 Filed in: Flying
Friday - 08/03/07
Solo checkride practice today.
I'm gonna head back south again today and find all of the fields to which Mr. DE may divert me. I don't like to be surprised, and I have this horrible recurring dream where he pulls power, I setup for landing in a questionable field, and 500 ft above the ground he points to the grass strip immediately next to us.
Today's mission: find all the marked grass strips and practice some maneuvers and landings back at Smyrna.
I get to the school and check the weather. Hrm, "5SM HZ" ruins my mood immediately. I check my solo restrictions... sure enough "> 6SM visibility". Well if that aint the suck...
I text CFI1 about it and he comes down and asks the chief if he can sign me off for a lower visibility. They confer like opposing lawyers in a deposition and finally decide to let me go. A little magic ink on the logbook and I'm all legal to fly.
It is at this point that I realize how liberating, and potentially dangerous, flying on my own ticket is going to be.
Back to the mission, I note there's a cluster of strips around a glider port to the west of Shelbyville, so I head for those.
I typically will tune in Nashville approach to listen to the real pilots and glean the occasional nugget about some traffic near me. Today I do it and hear approach calling out traffic for some aircraft. I don't think he was talking about me, but it's possible.
Other AC: Negative contact, we're looking. It's pretty hazy out here.
Me (w/o keying): No shit.
I'm betting they woulda gotten a good laugh if I'd had the stones to key that in first. Or perhaps they'd have sent the F16s. Either way, I'm happy to amuse.
Even with GPS and a current sectional it takes me an eternity to find the strips. It would have been an unmitigated disaster if it happened like this on the checkride. That said, the difficulty validates the mission, despite the frustration it caused.
I stare at the area from every angle trying to burn the landscape into my brain. I then do some pretty decent steep turns and head back.
On the way I'm told to report a left base for runway 32. I can't see it yet and tower comes back to beat on me a little.
Tower: 223NH, say present heading.
Me: Uh... 330.
Tower: Make right turn to 040.
Me: Roger that.
A couple of minutes pass and I still can't see the airport.
Tower: 223NH, you should have the runway off to your left now.
I look over and, hey, sure enough, there's a runway. That must be it, full steam ahead!
So I'm setting up for my approach and getting ever nearer to said runway when he returns to thoroughly burst my bubble.
Tower: 223NH, you're landing on runway 1, go around and join left traffic for 32.
Me: Roger, going around, left traffic for 32, sorry about that. This aint my day.
Tower: It's really hazy out there.
Me: Yes, sir.
Ack!!! Now, the haze was bad, but it was not so bad that it prevented me from seeing my heading indicator, fully 18 inches in front of my face. But he was apparently willing to let me off the hook about it, and I wasn't about to change his mind.
At Smyrna, I'm all about some good no-flap landings and piss-poor short fields. *sigh* My lesson with CFI3 on Monday can't come soon enough.
I've scheduled it with the note: "Checkride prep. Prep me good, banana man."
Also of note, as of the end of this flight, I have officially met all the minimum requirements for a license under Part 61. I'm not sure what it says about me that I have an assload of dual instruction and only just finished the solo requirement today, but there it is.
Logged: 1.8
Solo checkride practice today.
I'm gonna head back south again today and find all of the fields to which Mr. DE may divert me. I don't like to be surprised, and I have this horrible recurring dream where he pulls power, I setup for landing in a questionable field, and 500 ft above the ground he points to the grass strip immediately next to us.
Today's mission: find all the marked grass strips and practice some maneuvers and landings back at Smyrna.
I get to the school and check the weather. Hrm, "5SM HZ" ruins my mood immediately. I check my solo restrictions... sure enough "> 6SM visibility". Well if that aint the suck...
I text CFI1 about it and he comes down and asks the chief if he can sign me off for a lower visibility. They confer like opposing lawyers in a deposition and finally decide to let me go. A little magic ink on the logbook and I'm all legal to fly.
It is at this point that I realize how liberating, and potentially dangerous, flying on my own ticket is going to be.
Back to the mission, I note there's a cluster of strips around a glider port to the west of Shelbyville, so I head for those.
I typically will tune in Nashville approach to listen to the real pilots and glean the occasional nugget about some traffic near me. Today I do it and hear approach calling out traffic for some aircraft. I don't think he was talking about me, but it's possible.
Other AC: Negative contact, we're looking. It's pretty hazy out here.
Me (w/o keying): No shit.
I'm betting they woulda gotten a good laugh if I'd had the stones to key that in first. Or perhaps they'd have sent the F16s. Either way, I'm happy to amuse.
Even with GPS and a current sectional it takes me an eternity to find the strips. It would have been an unmitigated disaster if it happened like this on the checkride. That said, the difficulty validates the mission, despite the frustration it caused.
I stare at the area from every angle trying to burn the landscape into my brain. I then do some pretty decent steep turns and head back.
On the way I'm told to report a left base for runway 32. I can't see it yet and tower comes back to beat on me a little.
Tower: 223NH, say present heading.
Me: Uh... 330.
Tower: Make right turn to 040.
Me: Roger that.
A couple of minutes pass and I still can't see the airport.
Tower: 223NH, you should have the runway off to your left now.
I look over and, hey, sure enough, there's a runway. That must be it, full steam ahead!
So I'm setting up for my approach and getting ever nearer to said runway when he returns to thoroughly burst my bubble.
Tower: 223NH, you're landing on runway 1, go around and join left traffic for 32.
Me: Roger, going around, left traffic for 32, sorry about that. This aint my day.
Tower: It's really hazy out there.
Me: Yes, sir.
Ack!!! Now, the haze was bad, but it was not so bad that it prevented me from seeing my heading indicator, fully 18 inches in front of my face. But he was apparently willing to let me off the hook about it, and I wasn't about to change his mind.
At Smyrna, I'm all about some good no-flap landings and piss-poor short fields. *sigh* My lesson with CFI3 on Monday can't come soon enough.
I've scheduled it with the note: "Checkride prep. Prep me good, banana man."
Also of note, as of the end of this flight, I have officially met all the minimum requirements for a license under Part 61. I'm not sure what it says about me that I have an assload of dual instruction and only just finished the solo requirement today, but there it is.
Logged: 1.8