PPL skills test PPL
02 Jun 2006Here we are then 9 days before my 17th birthday, and the last thing I have to do to get my PPL just a 2hour flight covering everything I’ve ever done in my entire flying life and no room for errors, so no pressure then.
I just managed to squeeze this one in at the end of the day which was very very lucky as the forecast couldn’t have been more perfect CAVOK and only light winds the only problem was that the flying slot I had the plane for was 5PM to 8PM which meant that when we would be coming back, the sun would be right in my face but never mind, we took off climbed to 3000ft and flew down to Ivybridge no probs at all arrived about a min early (which was fine) then we headed to Crediton which took ages as we only had a ground speed of 75kts, ah well plenty of time for freda checks and getting ready for calling up Exeter, which we were told to as we got to Ashburton.
I called them up no probs at all and then we arrived at the midpoint 30seconds early, this meant (of course) that we would be a minute early when we got there and I adjusted the ETA accordingly, but even with that we were still a minute early (still well within acceptable range). We then headed to a little town called wiviliscombe its about 20 miles NNE of Exeter, we arrived about 1 min and 30secs early there after another revised ETA and lots of freda checks. The wind was clearly a little different than forecast today!
Once we got there I flew over it and then turned right and came back around to be overhead it and facing the right direction for the next leg which was down to Roadford lake, after flying for about 16miles down the track I had to find my position by estimating the distance flown after flying for a certain amount of time I think it was flying at a ground speed 100 Kts for 10 mins, I found that my position was approx just south of a small town, and there it was out the right hand window.
I was told then to divert to Bovey Tracy, it was approximately south of where we were so I turned onto HDG 180 and then calculated how long it would take to get there and the actual hdg taking into account the wind which was about 170 and about 10 mins. We were about a minute early at Bovey Tracy but again, that was ok.
Next up was some general handling, the examiner took over the RT and we did 3 stalls, one clean from 70kts, one in the approach config (i.e. 20degrees of flap and turning base leg) and then another in the final approach config (i.e. full flap and descending slowly) all of these went quite well apart from the fact that I forgot the HASELL check to start, and then the HELL check before the last stall, this was just about acceptable because I only had to have one prompt from the examiner for each.
Then he took control and put the a/c into a spiral dive (how nice) then gave me back control, I recovered from that, we then climbed back to 3500ft and I had to put the a/c into the glide config and then demonstrate a 30’ 40’ & 50’ gliding turn, all of which were fine.
I was then simulated being put into cloud and I was told to put the a/c into straight and level flight on instruments only, and then turn through 180 degrees to get us out of cloud which all went fine. Then I had to fix my position using the Berry Head VOR which again was no problem either (I like RNAV its so accurate) then I had to track a radial to the VOR which I did with no issue at all.
Next up was my least favorite bit the PFL (practiced forced landing), it didn’t turn out too badly in the end, we were a bit too high for the field I picked so I decided to go for the next one which was equally as good. Surprise surprise, seconds after going around from that - simulated engine failure after takeoff, lucky for me there was yet another nice field straight ahead and I remembered all the checks, we then climbed away and headed back to Plymouth.
We were told to join right base for rwy 31, which was slightly odd as we were south of Plymouth by that point, anyway, as we were positioning for a right base I spotted an aircraft dead ahead before the examiner, which must have been good because I got a “oooh yes well spotted” I think it was a microlight as Plymouth didn’t seem to know anything about it.
We came back into the circuit and the first (normal) landing was good enough, perhaps let the nose down a little too quick after the wheels touched but it was ok.
Went round again for a flapless approach & when we were downwind, another a/c was cleared to backtrack rwy 31 and we were to expect an orbit at the end of downwind, the examiner called up the tower and explained that we were on a skills test and we only had 1 more circuit to do (circuits are not allowed after 8 o’clock and it was getting on for nearly 5 to) the tower asked the other a/c to 180 backtrack even though he was already halfway down the runway! We were then allowed to continue, the approach worked perfectly (all those flight sim hours paying off there) nice landing much better before, then went around yet again for a glide approach to land.
This one too worked out ok, I started very high so I had to sideslip a little, this put us back in the right place and I held off the landing until the wheels touched Very smoothly which must have been a good thing! I asked to taxi back in via B as this allowed me to park the a/c with the nose wheel straight, ready for tie down. I shut down the engine and then the examiner said…
“well, well done that was a pass, you’re now a pilot!”
YES!! Now I’m just waiting for all the paperwork to be processed and my licence to arrive in the post.
It ended up taking nearly 3 weeks to arrive, but when it did, it was back dated to my birthday, so technically I had a pilots licence, from the day I turned 17 - many months before I even took my driving test!