My scud running check-ride.

KSPG 121853Z 28006KT 10SM OVC011 22/19 A3015 RMK AO2

Yep, that's as good as the weather got for my check-ride. Honestly, overcast at 1100 feet was optimistic. When I took off, I was in the clouds at 900 feet and had to drop down out of them, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning, or earlier. Yesterday would be good.

I mentioned in my last post that a fraternity brother was flying in. We had lunch at the Columbia restaurant on the pier in St. Petersburg. Good spanish food, if you're ever in Tampa/St. Pete, and only a few blocks from Albert Whitted. After lunch, I got to fly his Piper Lance out over the beach for a bit. Nice plane, the Lance/Saratoga. Plenty of room after you've been in a 172. This one had an new interior and a very much updated panel, so it was nice on the eyes and body to fly. My buddy is instrument rated and I was impressed by how methodical he was when it came to flying and using the checklist. That's my good flying story, now for the check-ride.

So, I head across the airport to the club/FBO to pull the maintenance records for N54666 and pick up a new sectional. Every so often, I get a bit OC about something, and it went into high gear at that point. I bookmarked all the pages in the airframe/engine log that the DPE might want to see and put the log away for safe keeping. I had a brand new sectional chart in my hand and headed home to plot my cross-country, which I had already done on the old sectional. This is where I got a little whacky. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening working out the navigation log, filling in the flight plan info, checking and double checking my required materials for the check-ride. My flight bag was packed and unpacked about four times, just to make sure I had everything.

Morning rolls around and I'm up early to get some work done before I head to the airport. Of course, the weather must be checked and while not too bad, its not all good either. A weak cold front is supposed to push through the area later in the day, but it should be OK for most of the morning. An hour at work and I'm driving across the Skyway to St. Pete. It's dark and I can't see everything, but no fog. I can see Tampa across the bay, so the visibility is good. Upon arrival at the airport, I get my material organized and pull up the latest winds aloft info to finish my flight plan. I'm working on fuel consumption when one of the FBO guys walks in and says: "Man, that's some nasty weather outside." It's light out by now, so I walk to the window and can barely see my truck in the parking lot. Crap.

Well, at least I can get the oral portion of the test out of the way today. Just about the time I finish the math for my navigation log, the examiner shows up. Very nice gentleman. We pretty much just had a conversation about flying. I did screw up by forgetting how often the ELT had to be inspected, but no big deal. Considering the state of mind I was in by this time, I think I did great. Dave, the examiner, looked over my chart and flight plan, which I had spent hours on, for about 2 minutes. I guess I had spent way too much time on it. The oral must have lasted about an hour, but it seemed like 15 minutes. We walked outside to take a look at the weather and it was still bad. We check the TAF (Terminal Aerodrome Forecast for you landlubbers) and it was calling for clearing within the hour. Well, we'll just hang out at the airport for a bit and see if we can get the check-ride accomplished. Dave looked into filing IFR and flying some place where the weather was better for the check-ride, but all of west central Florida was fogged in. We waited.

After an hour or so, Dave tells me that he would really like to get the check-ride completed today because his schedule gets goofy after today. He's headed to Alaska for his airline gig this weekend, and if we don't get the flight in today, it might be a few days before we can get together again. He lives a few blocks from Peter O. Knight airport, and the plan is if the weather clears, I'm to fly the Peter O. Knight, pick him up and fly the check-ride. Good thing Rob and I went to Peter O. Knight on Tuesday.

Dave headed back to Tampa, while I found something to eat and waited. And waited. And waited. The FBO has a contract with the Florida Wildlife Commission to fly wildlife biologists around the Tampa Bay area conducting manatee surveys. They were attempting to conduct some sort of intensive survey yesterday, and at about 1:00 they got special VFR clearance and took off. Within 2 minutes they were on the radio requesting landing clearance. They got back to the FBO and called it a day, but by 1:30 the ceiling had risen to 1100 feet and Whitted had gone VFR. I called Dave, who said he had blue sky at Peter O. Knight, and if I thought I could make it, come over and pick him up. I was on my way.


The check-ride was sort of mundane compared to the flights to and from Peter O. Knight. The ceiling was 1100 feet, maybe, and I was flying between cloud layers much of the way. Finding the airport was no problem, thank you Mr. Garmin, and as Dave had said the sky was blue at Peter O. Knight. It was the only blue sky I saw. I landed and taxied to the FBO. Dave jumped into the plane and started to put on his seat belt. Wait, I'm supposed to tell you how to do that, OK you have. Now you're supposed to wear it during take-, Yea OK lets get moving. I'm taxiing to runway 17 and have to cross 21 on the way, so I'm stopping at the hold short line and about ready to make a radio call when: There's nobody flying, lets go. This is not the check-ride I had expected or prepared for. It was the Reader's Digest condensed version.


I made a soft field take off and put on the foggles about the time I took out the flaps. Really, I didn't need them. It was IFR all the way from Whitted. A few minutes of simulated IFR with one unusual attitude recovery and it was time for maneuvers. The things I had spent hours practicing took about 5 minutes. Slow flight, one straight power-off stall and one turning power-on stall with a simulated emergency landing and a turn around a barn thrown in for fun. Back to Peter O. Knight for a short field and a soft field landing. Dave said I had obviously made a normal takeoff and landing since I got to Peter O. Knight in the first place. We might have spent 30 minutes in the air.


Inside the FBO at Knight, Dave critiqued a few things. He thought I landed too much on the nose wheel. As whacky as I was yesterday, I was glad just to have landed, but I will make the stall horn squeel before I land next time. He also talked about another technique for setting up the emergency landing. Sounded good, so I'll look into that. Then he presented my temporary certificate. Man, I'm glad to have that thing. I didn't hang around long because with it getting later in the afternoon, I knew the fog would be coming back to Whitted. The flight back was much the same as the flight over. The 10 mile visibility in the METAR is an outright lie. I couldn't see downtown St. Pete until I was within about 5 miles. However, I could see a massive fog bank rolling across St. Petersburg toward the airport. The tower had me circle off the end of 25 while he got IFR clearance for one of our CFIs who was departing with a charter for Key West. I landed and within 5 minutes the beacon was on and Whitted was IFR. In hindsight, I guess Dave wanted me to get back to Whitted early just for such reason. Returning to the club/FBO was very anti-climatic. The crowd that was there in the morning for the manatee survey was gone. All the CFIs were gone. Just the girl behind the counter. That was OK, I was a pilot.

About the title of this post: Scud Running - This occurs when a pilot tries to maintain visual contact with the ground while instrument conditions exits. From the FAA handbook. I won't be doing it again.