Check-ride prep

Rob and I flew for about an hour and a half today in preparation for my upcoming check-ride. Slow flight, stalls, ground reference maneuvers, performance take-off and landings, power-off and emergency landings, we covered it all. While in slow flight, I turned the plane into the wind and the Garmin 430 GPS unit indicated that our ground speed was only 20 knots. We were practically hovering over St. Petersburg. Rob thought that was fun, but I was fighting the plane in the gusts and did not enjoy it as much. The only part I felt uncomfortable with was the stalls. Of course, that's never been my strong suit.

We had some excitement as I was practicing a short field landing. The wind was running 14 knots gusting to 20. Now, you pilots know that can be interesting in a Cessna, especially when low and slow as in a short field landing. We caught a gust or some wind shear that rolled the plane about 30 degrees to the right just as I was crossing the runway threshold. I landed fine, after almost wetting my pants. Honestly, if we had not been practicing short field technique, I would have landed with 20 degrees of flaps and at about 70-75 knots under the wind conditions.

Rob told me to set up my check-ride appointment with the examiner. I'll call him tomorrow and I'm gonna practice a bit more on Thursday morning, after which, Rob will endorse my log book to take the practical test. I picked up a guide for the oral exam and am reading that and my manual for the 172P. If all goes well, I'll be a pilot next week.

lesson 30

You'll need google earth to view the lesson 30 file.

Statistics (a bit more detailed this time):

Total Time: 44.7 Hours

Flight Training: 25.7 Hours

Simulated Instrument: 3.0 Hours

Solo/PIC: 18.4 Hours

Cross Country: 12.0 Hours

Night: 3.1 Hours

Landings: 132