Skills Test Pass - Day 16 - Ormond Beach, Florida

Finally the day has come;

I was up at 6am this morning, i had 2 slices of toast for breakfast (1st mistake), i was at the flight school at around 7am. I had arranged to meet the examiner at around 10am. By this time, i was a little hungry, the temperature was creeping upto around 28, so i was sweating like mad.

I was a little knervous.  I met with Paul at around 10am, he gave me a route to plan out - to Haller. He told me i have 45 minutes to go off and plan the route, calculate weight and balance and performance etc.

45 minutes later, he had gone through my logbook, he had found every possible little tiny mistake i had made in my logbook. He went through my FAA Licence, to check if i had the proper licence to fly in the airspace here, and reminded me that we were calculating an Air Transport flight in accordance to JAA European Regs.

After the paper work, i met at the front door with him, i introduced myself and told him where we were going, our flight time and En-Route time. I showed him how to board the aircraft, how to exit in case of an emergency, how to latch and unlatch the door.

The brief was pretty extensive and really covered everything that could possible encounter, he was very detailed on the prep and asked me everything that i would be doing, just so he knows i didnt forget anything, He went on to tell me there will be 3 emergencys, If at any other stage, he says there is an emergency, it is for real, he is not simulating. We went through about touch drills and flight safety items.

So my departure went well, got a radio call into daytona real quick, got clearance to climb, got set up in the cruise, i gave him my 3 things, heading, ETA, and Altitude.

He was happy with the nav, so he gave me a diversion, to a place called Mount Royal, just before reachng mount royal, he put the hood on me. He told me on the brief that when he gives me the hood, its not a 5 minute break time, its a simulation that we have just encountered cloud, he said its not a good idea to stow your kneeboard, put it in the back seats, then while your in the back seat, have a quick drink and get settled.
Afterall, it is suppose to simulate you just entered cloud.

After the hood work, he asked me what does the funny looking instrument do, and he pointed to the Suction Gauge. I said it runs the Vacuum (no, its not an on board hoover), he said, ok youve lost your vacuum pump, simulate your Attitude indicator and directional indicator has failed. He stuck suction cups over the instruments. He asked me to climb, descent etc.

After that, he took control and he put the aircraft out of control, he said he had to dodge a "cloud", in reality, he was simulating the aircraft going out of control and putting it into a dive, i was then expected to recover with my 3 primary instruments, Airspeed, Altitude and Turn and Bank.

We proceeded out to the coast, and completed our general handeling, stalls, steep turns. He told me on the ground, that he wanted me to recognise the stall and tell him that the aircraft is stalling, then he would tell me when to recover. So i spent 2 minutes with the colm all the way back and watching the nose of the arrow go up and down.

We did our emergencys enroute, PFL and engine fire.

Back to the circuit, where another aircraft had just landed at the wrong airport , he was talking to a different control tower, but he just landed at the wrong airport.

We did our 3 approaches, Flapless, normal, and a glide approach, oh we also did a short field landing.

I got back on the ground and he told me inside that i passed!!

I hope everyone enjoyed the blog, and maybe they have learned a few things from it!!

Any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at