Exactly twenty days after starting and twenty flight hours (15 dual, 5 solo) I'll take my checkride. The checkride is an oral and practical exam by a very senior FAA-designated Pilot Examiner. Mine is a retired Eastern Airlines captain with more time flying than I've been alive.
After the oral quiz, we review the cross-country flight and navigation plan I'll have and then we'll go to the aircraft. I will brief him as any passenger and work out the weight and balance of the aircraft using his real-world weight. Then I'll get him in the already preflighted seat and complete the plan. We'll discuss emergencies . I'll show him how to use the harness, headset, door handle and how to eject the door for water landings.
Then we'll talk about the exact method by which I will give him the flight controls to fly the aircraft.
Then, we'll go on the planned cross-country trip to Sebring, home of the famous race track. For a while. Then we'll cancel that plan and he'll have me do other maneuvers like stalls, steep turns, ground reference maneuvers and landing all the while distracting me in various ways, if I allow it.
Immediately after the flight I'll know pass or fail. Fail rates a do-over later on the things failed. A large portion of student fail the first checkride. The examiner has the power and knowledge to fail anyone. I just hope we get along!
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