Checkride Part 1

March 12, 2011

Today was the long awaited checkride. I met Bob, the FAA examiner at 1:00pm. We spent 30-45 minutes going over paperwork, then began the oral exam. He asked me about airspace, weather, regulations, and plenty of other things. The exam took a little over an hour. The good news is that I passed!

Afterward, we dialed in to get the weather report. It was a bit breezy, so Bob left it up to me if I wanted to fly or not. I told him that I felt comfortable going up. The preflight preparation went well. The plane was low on oil, so I had a line service man fill it up. Other than that, we were set. The first takeoff was just a normal takeoff. We spiraled above the airport before heading north towards my first checkpoint. This part of the checkride was to make sure I was capable of flying cross country. Once we reached the checkpoint, he asked me to calculate the groundspeed. Once I answered correctly, he told me to make a diversion to an alternate airport. I turned the plane in the general direction, then told him how many miles it would take to get there. He was happy with my answer, so he asked me to go ahead and head north again and climb to 4000ft so we could do the high altitude maneuvers.

As we were climbing, I did my instrument scan and noticed something wrong. The oil temperature was way too high and the oil pressure was low. Bob hadn't noticed it yet, so I pointed it out to him. I then decreased the power and lowed the nose of the plane to help relieve the stress on the engine. We watched the gages for a couple minutes, and it barely got better. I told him that I didn't think it was safe to fly and I'd prefer if we went back to the airport and call it quits for the day. He agreed.

After making it back safely, he issued me a Letter of Discontinuance. This just states that I did not fail the checkride, it is merely a letter stating that a portion of the test could not be completed due to an issue. Bob and I have rescheduled the exam, and will finish it soon. I will not have to repeat any of the things that I have already passed.

Although I'm bummed that I didn't get my certificate today, I completely stand by my decision to have discontinued the flight. I suppose you could say that I had my first minor emergency today. It was a lesson that I will probably never forget. Nonetheless, I am excited to continue.

Flight Log to Date
Hours flown: 36.0