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Kevin Kubiak · Guest

After about 1.5 months of weather delay and having to
redo a couple of missed maneuvers for my private checkride
I can finally sign my name PP-ASEL.

I want to thank all of you out there for the countless times your insights have
helped me solve a problem I was having. I hope to contribute to this group
as time goes on as well.

Kevin Kubiak - PP-ASEL

Here are the details:

After several weather delays and switching examiners (my instructor had a major
disagreement with the first examiner). My private checkride was going to
finally happen.

The oral went pretty much as expected. I think I over studied for it to be
honest. The examiner could not find any flaw in the oral. He commented that it
was a very strong oral. Total time about 1.5 hrs.

Then came the flight portion of the test. The weather was changing, front just
passed, winds picked up a bit and boy was I mentally tired. Anyway, started
flying to my first checkpoint. The plane I was flying had GPS, but I did not
plan to use, and NAV radios. The flight plan was to use VORs and pilotage all
the way to the final destination. The DE took away the Nav radios and the GPS
and said get there by pilotage. About halfway to my first checkpoint, the DE
told me, the fuel gauges were reading near zero, and my com radios did not work.
I decided to divert to closeby non towered airport. So I modified, course to
the airport. I had the airport in sight when a had a simulated loss of engine
RPMS (suspected carb ice) pulled carb heat, but DE said, it didn't work and my
engine just quit. Then I executed a forced landing in a field, broke off of
course. Ok enough emergencies, so on to the maneuvers. First turns
around a point, these were ok. Then short field landing at a very narrow
airport. Flew over the airport. Front came through with a strong 90 degree
gusting cross wind. Set up and on final I decided to go around, the wind was
making this very difficult. DE said to never mind and turn to such a such
heading. Now for hood work. We were low about 1000 feat AGL. Then another
emergency. Trapped in IFR. What to do. Decided to climb to 2000 as I was low,
call up 121.5 and declare emergency. Pretended to call 121.5 and pretended to
squawk 7700. Then center responded and told me to fly to such an such VOR and
2500 ft. OK. Enough of that. Then on to slow flight and stalls. I screwed up
stalls (never practiced either stalls in a slight turn with instructor), so what
came up departure stalls with a turn and then arrival stalls simulation turn to
final. These I messed up big time. Slow flight was next, not my best either.
Then back to home base for some landings. Executed soft field with a little
float, It was getting very windy. The DE told me to go back to the club.

Examiner told me I failed the exam. Stalls needed work, slow fight was a little
sloppy and he did not like that I decided to go around on the short field.
Also he decided not to finish up the exam because I need to be retested on
stalls anyway and it ws getting windy.

So retest would be short field, soft field, no-flap, and slips to land, stalls
and slow flight. Some of the stuff we never tried, because of the higher winds.

I learned a lot from the experience however. I was so mentally tired, that it
affected my flying ability. If I ever find myself in that situation ever. I
would decide not to go flying.

About 4 weeks later (due to my instructor and myself being off a week), I retook
the missed parts of the checkride. This time all was well and worked out as
planned.

So it took a while, I learned a lot, but now I am a private pilot.

Ben Hallert · Guest

Congratulations! Strange that you'd get rapped on the knuckles for
choosing to go-around, but I bet he only mentioned it because he
thought you were on a good approach and wouldn't have actually held it
against you if that was the only thing. I've been reading a lot since
I got my PP-ASEL, and one concept I like is that a go around isn't a
failure, it's a risk management decision, and that it's preferable to
do that in a non-emergency then it is to 'force the plane down' and
possibly end up with excessive float (bad on short field) or worse.

Congrats!

Ben Hallert
PP-ASEL

Kevin Kubiak · Guest

Ben Hallert wrote:

Mark Hansen · Guest

On 6/28/2005 08:59, Ben Hallert wrote:

grubertm · Guest

<< Executed soft field with a little float, It was getting very windy.
The DE told me to go back to the club. Examiner told me I failed the
exam. Stalls needed work, slow fight was a little sloppy and he did
not like that I decided to go around on the short field. Also he
decided not to finish up the exam because I need to be retested on
stalls anyway and it ws getting windy. >>

Don't the PTS require the Examiner to tell you immediately when you
have failed ? I don't see how floating on soft field would be a reason
for failure !?

- Marco

tony roberts · Guest

Hi PP-ASEL

Go celebrate - you earned it!

Congratulations

Tony
--
[email]Indiacharlieecho (AT) hotmail (DOT) com[/email]
Tony Roberts
PP-ASEL
VFR OTT
Night
Cessna 172H C-GICE

Kevin Kubiak · Guest

grubertm wrote:

Robert A. Barker · Guest

"Kevin Kubiak" <kjkubiak (AT) Lucent (DOT) com> wrote

Yossarian · Guest

I have a major disagreement with that examiner myself based on what you
wrote. He needs to follow the PTS and not make up his own testing
procedures. If you fail a maneuver, you are supposed to be told
IMMEDIATELY. Then it is up to you whether you want to continue the
test. Plus, I don't see how he can have a problem with your go-around
decision. Go-arounds are part of the PTS and you as PIC are the one
who has to decide for yourself whether the conditions are good enough
for landing.

Anyway, congratulations on earning your ticket!

Kevin Kubiak wrote:

Jack Allison · Guest

Congratulations Kevin! Way to stick with it despite an unfavorable
first checkride. Nice to add PP-ASEL to the sig. line!

--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL-IA Student
Arrow N2104T

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)

Lynne · Guest

This is the problem I have with students these days, and is precisely
the reason why I decided to forfit my DE status. People here are
complaining that the PTS says you're supposed to tell the applicant as
soon as he's failed, granted. However, through the many practical tests
I've given, there have probably been a hundred instances where the
maneuver was slightly out of tolerance, but I decided that if the rest
of the ride went OK I'd let it slide. So rather than busting the
applicant right then and there, if they did well the rest of it, I'd
still grant the certificate. Your method requires a lot more retests...
I SUPPOSE if you want DE's to become sticklers, they can be. Your
choice.

So in this case, clearly the DE was trying to give their applicant a
break, and you're squawking about it...

Lynne