The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
The Good: The oral exam was smoother than I could have possibly imagined. Everything came to me. Nothing stumped me. It was awesome. The DPE told my instructor, "It was excellent. He really knows his $hit." Thanks for the crude vote of confidence. I'll take it anyway it comes.
Also, the brain trust at school decided to put my plane in maintenance early for the 100 hour inspection. Apparently, nobody was aware that I had a check ride scheduled today. The maintenance guys are great. They went the extra mile to get it done before the flight. I can't say enough great things about them. They're like a group of McGuyvers the way they keep such crappy planes on line. Kudos. Unfortunately...
The Bad: The METAR at flight time: 100@18G28. That's a direct crosswind exceeding maximum component for the Arrow, forget about the gusts. Winds aloft were worse, plus an airmet for turbulence. Who wants to do a steep spiral from 7,500' with crazy winds and turbulence? How about soft field landing with maximum crosswind component? In a pinch, maybe. Being held to PTS, no way. I called the flight and asked for a letter of discontinuance. Mr. DPE had no problem with that.
The Ugly: The weather for tomorrow and Saturday looks bad. The next possible time to reschedule is Monday morning at 10 a.m. That's a long way away and to ensure completion, I'm going to have to do a review flight on Sunday. With just 20 hours in the aircraft, I fear that I might lose the PTS edge. So Sunday morning at 8 a.m., my instructor and I will go up one last time to brush up on ground reference, performance and emergency maneuvers.
Did I mention that I was disappointed? CRAP. I really wanted that rating today.
5 comments:
Good judgement, I think. You want the weather odds stacked in your favor for a check ride.
Hang in there. You'll git 'er done!
A year or two ago I was at the airport, an oral exam had just finished and the DPE came out while the guy pre-flighted. I forget the winds but they were gnarly, no way I would have flown but the student wanted to go. The DPE said he would respect the decision but hoped he would come to his senses.
The student comes back in smiling, everything is a go, goes into the bathroom. Someone who had been listening to us follows him in and in some friendly chat mentions he had just landed and it scared the crap out of him, even with 500 hrs.
Student comes out, tells the DPE he is ready, DPE shrugs and off they go. The other guy says, well I tried, did as much as I could without advising him.
I left, no way I was flying that day. Later I asked around and the student failed, could not hold altitudes to the PTS. And I would expect he got zinged for poor judgement too.
Anyway, this is all to say you made the right decision and now you can enjoy a few days of waiting; you seemed disappointed before that you had no time to fret :)
I know it was the right decision and that yesterday I was complaining about the short notice. However, today I was pshyched up for it and ready.
Besides, I always like to have something to complain about ;)
I want it now. NOW NOW NOW!
My flying partner had to scrub his multi ride Thursday, too. 364 flying days...minus only the day you really want to fly. Good luck on Monday with the practical! How'd the interview with Eagle go?
Teller
Hey Teller,
I hope you're moving right along.
Thanks for the good luck wishes. I'm sure it will be just fine. If I can pass instrument, I'm sure that commercial is within reach. Especially since the oral is over.
I didn't interview with Eagle. They did conduct on-site interviews, but I'm not ready for that yet. I'm going to go through FOS and take a jet transition course before I interview with them. I think I'll probably be ready by April or May.
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