Date & Time: Sunday 5th October, 1997, 10:30 CDT
Where: From SPX -> AXH (Houston Southwest)
Time:
0.5 hrs solo SPX->AXH
1.5 hrs checkride in the air, departing out of AXH with at least that much oral, with Maybelle Fletcher
0.5 hrs to get back home (AXH->SPX)
Logbook total: 66.9 hrs, 26.3 hrs solo
Aircraft: Cessna 172, number N1219F

Will it be a white airman's certificate, or a pinkie?
   The saga began the day before, when I called Fletcher Aviation to make sure it was all on. I spoke to Maybelle, who would be the DE for the day.
   Well, guess what? She asked me to go to Houston Southwest - somewhere where I've never been! She had 2 checkrides on Sunday, and she could only do it if we came to a easier location for her. Well, I looked on the terminal chart, and AXH is only about 25 miles away, so I could hardly refuse! After all, I have to be able to go and do this if I'm to become a PP-ASEL... (private pilot, airplane, single-engine land).
   The morning dawned humidly. It had rained the day before, and already moisture was being sucked aloft. The temperature/dewpoint spread matched, so there was poor visibility reported all around. However, by the time I got to the airport and called the flight service station, conditions had improved with good visibility being reported and just scattered clouds. Indeed, as I went to Houston Southwest I could see for miles, and I just picked out landmarks on the short trip (and had the ADF dialled into AXP's NDB transmitter, to be on the safe side). Houston Southwest has an 800 ft. pattern altitude, so that was different. However, it's in a fairly unpopulated area.
   I landed and secured the airplane, and waited for Maybelle to arrive and give me my oral grilling! Duly she arrived, and we went to the pilots lounge (AXP is a great airport with nice chairs, and later I found out, a barbecue trailer turns up, but I only had one lousy buck so I couldn't buy lunch!)
   The questions were pretty much what I expected - density altitude, airspace rules, various other regulations, aerodynamics, spins (we had quite a good talk about spins, since I had done spin training). She looked at how I had done my cross country planning and complemented me on my preparedness! That got things off to a good start. We covered quite a bit of ground in the oral, and there were only one or two things I couldn't give an immediate answer to. I think I surprised her with the weight and balance - with a full fuel load, I could take all the passengers and baggage she supplied the weights of! I only weigh 152lbs, and the passengers she asked me to put on the weight and balance were also fairly small.
   Now to the flying. I preflighted as if it was the first flight of the day, and made sure I said what I was doing and why. It seems that reading 'I learned about flying from that' and selected NTSB reports helped here, because I could come up with a few cases of people who learned the hard way about preflighting. Again, good preparation really helped here.
   Once we were on our way, and onto the 'set radios' stage of the checklist, Maybelle told me 'we aren't using VOR's for the cross country!' I had planned using VORs since there were two right on the route that she had told me to plan (Houston Southwest to Waco). I guess I'd have to do the pilotage thing! Our departure was a short field takeoff, which I actually did well (I used to have terrible trouble making smooth short field takeoffs, but I really concentrated on getting the right attitude and holding the airspeed at 53 until obstacle clearance).
   Of course, plans change. I was going to just dead reckon the first checkpoint, but the usual showers that we get in this area had started, and we had to dodge one. So I followed some major highways out which would keep us more or less on course whilst we dodged the shower. This brought us right close to Sugarland, a controlled field, so I dialled in their frequency and had quite a conversation as we transited their area (they had me reporting about 15 different points it seemed as I traversed their area). Well, at least Maybelle wouldn't need to have me fly into the Class B to prove I could communicate with ATC! The communication all went very smoothly (except I misheard the controller and thought from what he was saying that he was expecting me to land, so I re-iterated that I was just passing through his area, at which point he seemed to get a bit annoyed and said his instruction again very slowly and deliberately! However, I apologised for my mistake and continued on)
   It wasn't long until I had a diversion - Westheimer to be precise. I saw a nice easy way out - there's a VOR on the other side of Westheimer, so I started to dial it in. So Maybelle told me we weren't using that VOR either! OK, look for good cues on the chart - there's a railroad track that leads right to it. I found the tracks, and then I was asked to estimate the time. The sectional is extremely busy down by Houston, so it was very difficult to find some of the landmarks on the chart. However, we were soon there. I thought I had been heading at the wrong place, because I just saw a strip of water. But that was a water runway (not charted!) The real runway ran paralell to it so I had found it after all!
   Then it was time to do the hoodwork. This is the only time I got to do radio navigation - intercepting radials, tracking them etc. Then came the unusual attitudes, and I did fine with those (the trick is not to do anything rash - just look at the instruments and interpret them before doing anything). I had to be really careful under the hood - I nearly busted the altitude, but managed to quickly check it and get us back on the assigned altitude before that happened.
   Then onto stalls. I was very careful to announce my clearing turns and everything I was doing. On the power on, I got into a slightly unusual attitude when the stall broke, but recovered very quickly, so that turned out to be OK (the stall broke, and a wing dropped fairly sharply, but a quick response on the rudder had the aircraft righed in no time at all).
   The rest of the manoevers were uneventful, and I was glad I had put in the time practising holding altitude (particularly things like slow flight). We actually did a rectangular course (Lee was saying a lot of the time the examiner will just see how you cope with the pattern, and asses you on that). Finding a good field to use was quite tricky because none of them seemed to be rectangular! I also needed to find a place that was far away from an isolated rain shower that had broken out (since visibility was very good, it wasn't too hard to spot the occasional shower that had started - that's life in this part of Texas when it gets humid).
   After all the airwork was done, it was time to return to the airport. Of course, I now had to find it. There was a good giveaway - a big lake, and I could see if I went to the north part of the lake, then turned due East, I would go straight back to AXP. Sure enough, the airport appeared in the expected location. A railroad junction and some tracks leading towards AXP made good pilotage landmarks to follow to get back to the airport.
   It was now time for the dreaded short field landing, which I did well! I got the approach well stabilized (although I needed to correct for a few gusts, and there was a bit of a crosswind - AXP's runways are 09/27, and the prevailing wind is out of the south!). The soft field takeoff and landing went well too (just remember to keep the nosewheel off - a touch of power should do it). Now it was time to taxi in...complete the checklists (a hot topic on checkrides). Once we were secured with control locks in, Maybelle got out to do the paperwork. As I unbuckled, I wondered what color the ticket would be. Would it be a white temporary airman's certificate (temporary, because it is replaced by the real certificate which comes in the mail some time later), or would it be the pink disapproval?

Conclusion.
   The ticket was white!

What was learned.
   Of course, examiners don't teach on checkrides - they just are there to evaluate you. However, I learned a lot about checkrides. One - be prepared. If you are well prepared and give a good impression and have the knowledge in the oral, it really helps with your confidence when you get out there and fly. It also makes the examiner feel happy that you are going to be safe (which is the aim of the checkride). Maybelle was telling me about the surprising number of student pilots who turn up for checkrides in a poor state of preparation! (anything from turning up without the hood to not having heard of the PTS!) Also, once it's all over with, the examiner is likely to give you a few tips which are good to bear in mind.

   I returned home, and Lee was waiting for me (no doubt waiting to hear me on the CTAF frequency as I announced my arrival). The trip home was interesting, with a few small isolated showers to avoid on the way, but visibilty was still greater than 10 miles so it was very easy to see where they were. Actually, when you are on the ground and under the showers, you just don't realise how isolated they are. The couple I saw on the way home were probably less than a mile wide. He was pleased to see that I had passed my checkride, and was now a Private Pilot!
   I guess it's time to start planning some trips. I'm going out of town for 2 weeks, so it's going to have to be when I get back. Hopefully I can take my first passenger this week though!