Lesson 38: Stage three check ride!

Today, I became a licensed sport pilot! It has been the most difficult six months! I sat down on Thursday, August 2nd for my stage three check. We sat down at a desk and I got out my flight plan and planner and was ready to talk about my preparations for the practical exam. He then asked me content knowledge covering all 17 chapters of the Rod Machado Pilot Handbook. It was rough and mentally exhausting. I only got hung up on ATC light gun signals. I lifted up my sectional and flight plan from my knee board to take a peak and he urged me to dig deep in my memory to pull the information. I countered with a safe and responsible pilot should know everything but if one forgets something, the safe and responsible pilot will know exactly where to find the information. He countered with, dig deeper, I'm sure you can recall the information. After four hours sitting across the desk from the FAA examiner, the weather had changed for the worse and I asked to postpone the practical portion of the exam. Mike was proud of me for making a good decision and not rushing into the practical flight test in excitement, but to be a safe and responsible pilot and make safe and good decisions. We rescheduled for early this morning.

This morning was the earliest I had ever been at the airport. Being a teacher, I always flew in the afternoon. The airport operations office was closed, CSP was closed, though a flight instructor was planning to meet me, my wife, and Mike at the office to let us in, and my aircraft was covered, no drenched in dew. I was nervous, as I thought I would be, but these few things seemed to throw me off a bit. I panicked and grabbed a towel and started wiping down the entire plane. I new I was overthinking and I certainly wanted to wipe down the cockpit, but the entire plane, I was off. I asked Mike and my wife to stand off to the side while I did my pre-flight and then informed my wife we would be leaving. Mike and I jumped in and my check ride began!

I taxied down to the engine run up for runway 11 and I noticed that there were hundreds of geese on the center line in the middle of the runway. I called on the unicom and asked for anyone at the airport operations office to drive a golf cart down the taxiway to spook the birds. I called a few times but remembered that the office was closed when I arrived and possibly, no one was in this early on a Saturday. I was panicking but finally made a decision, I told Mike I was going to abort the take-off and taxi back to the tarmac and hope that the birds would scare and fly off along the way. Mike said he was about a minute away from failing me because I needed to make a decision. He was happy I did, gave me the benefit of the doubt, and suggested that I advise the CTAF that I would taxi down the runway to clear the geese and to make the advisement a few times very clearly. I thanked him profusely and made the call. I taxied down the runway until the geese were airborne. We exited the runway and began the engine run up procedures again.

We were airborne on our way to SBY for the cross country. As with my stage two check, we deviated to RJD and practiced maneuvers and emergency procedures along the way. after a quick touch and go at RJD I demonstrated an emergency landing, emergency descent and as we entered the traffic pattern, an engine out procedure to runway 11 from the downwind to base turn and it was successful. Major forward and side slips to make it work and a lot of right rudder but I did it. Though things went well during the exam, Mike was very calm and quiet in the back with minimal conversation and showed no emotion over the two hour flight. This worried me and I was sure as I taxied up to refuel the plane, he would deliver the bad news that I needed to work on something and we would have to look at our calendars to reschedule my check ride. After checking the ELT, I shut off the master switch and avionics switch and took off my headset. I was hot, exhausted, and still nervous. I opened the canopy to let in some fresh air and Mike spoke to me. He asked, "so are you going to take your wife up today?". I finally was relieved for the first time in six months to have achieved my goal of becoming a pilot! Mike told me I was a great pilot, a safe pilot and a confident guy to work with. As I packed up the plane I couldn't stop smiling. I wanted to tell everyone I walked past! Mike printed out my temporary certificate and wished me the best of luck!

My wife came over and took a few pictures and got in the plane and flew up north along the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay and flew towards Chestertown. We then flew west below the restricted airspace of Martin State and Aberdeen Proving Grounds in the hopes of seeing an A-10 on final approach. With no jets in sight, we headed back for W29 and had a bit of a round landing. Maybe I was feeling too confident and I had to remind myself on that very first licensed flight, that I am always a student of the sport, I will always stay current, I will always follow the ADMP to ensure my safety, my passengers safety, and the safety of everyone flying around me.

This certainly was a life changing opportunity that I set out on back in December 2011 and I am so proud of everything that I have learned. I look forward to all the experiences I will get to share with my students in the ground school course at SRHS in the hopes of instilling the lessons I learned and encouraging them to take up the same opportunity I was given months ago, to become an aviator!