Day 19: The Checkride

     Today was the day I had been waiting on for several years. Today was the day of my private pilot checkride. This checkride was the final exam of flight school. I met with the examiner, Todd, and we did all the necessary paperwork. He then informed me that there would be three possible outcomes from the exam today - either I walk away with a pilot certificate, get a paper that says what I need to work on before trying again, or get a paper that says only part of the checkride was completed.

     After that we began the oral portion of the exam. It was almost identical to the stage check I had on Saturday. That and the paperwork took just under two hours, and immediately following was the flight portion. This too was very much like the stage check.

     We made a short field takeoff in N53417 and flew to Lunken airport, where he had me do a normal landing. After departing Lunken with a soft field takeoff, I set a course for Charleston, West Virginia. Just as on Saturday, a few checkpoints into the flight he diverted me to Snyder airport in Falmouth, Kentucky. This was actually much easier than the stage check because Todd said I was welcome to use the GPS at any time. Rather than fumbling with a map and a ruler, I simply dialed in K62, the Snyder airport, and the GPS gave me the distance and time enroute. From that information, it was simple arithmetic to compute how much fuel it would take to get there.

     As soon as I verified we had enough fuel, Todd was satisfied, and he had me determine my position using a VOR. That was a piece of cake, so we moved on to maneuvers. Slow flight was first on the list, followed by a power off stall, a power on stall, and two steep turns. These all went well except for one steep turn when I lost sight of the landmark where I was supposed to level the wings which caused me to overshoot the turn.

     The next few minutes were flown with the foggles. He told me to descend, then had me do a 180 degree turn while maintaining altitude, and finally we did one recovery from an unusual attitude.

     All that went well, so he pulled the throttle out to simulate an engine failure. I picked out a field to land in, and ended up a little high, but it was good enough for the examiner. We stayed low after that and did a turn around a point. I picked out a random barn and began to fly a circle around it, but I only made it through half the circle before he told me to head back to Clermont County airport.

     He had me do a soft field landing, which did not actually turn out very soft, but he gave me a tip on how to do it better next time. We then made a short field landing and taxied back to parking. After I shut the engine down, Todd congratulated me and shook my hand.

     We headed inside where Matt was waiting for us. He also shook my hand and congratulated me, and the three of us went to the examiner's office for debriefing. Todd told me a few of the things I could have done better, then had me sign my temporary private pilot certificate. I did so, and gave him his money, shook his hand again, and walked away as a new private pilot.

     As we walked out of the examiner's office, Matt asked, "So where are you going from here? Instrument rating?"

     "Probably," I replied. "Or maybe get my complex sign-off first."

     There really are many paths I could follow from here. I do not know exactly what lies ahead, but one thing I am sure of is that God is the One who brought me here, and I trust Him to lead me the rest of the way.

     22 days, 45.8 flight hours, and 134 landings are in the logbook, and today I have achieved my dream of becoming a pilot.

Austin Miller earned his Private pilot certificate on September 5, 2016. To obtain his Private certificate, Austin passed an oral and a flight exam with a Federal Aviation Administration designated flight examiner. Austin, a resident of Michigan, completed his flight training with Sporty's Academy, located at the Clermont County Airport in Batavia, Ohio. Austin is pictured with his instructor, Matt Safriet. #Congratulations #PrivatePilot

A photo posted by Sporty's Academy (@sportysacademy) on Sep 7, 2016 at 1:50pm PDT

Day 18: Stage Check

     I took the final stage check yesterday, which is the last lesson before the test. I met up with Sophie, the instructor who was conducting the stage check. We began with the oral portion, which consisted of a bunch of questions on anything from procedures to aeromedical factors and just about everything in between. This lasted about an hour and a half, and after completing it, Sophie sent me out to preflight the plane.
     Sporty's is usually pretty busy on Saturdays because they grill free hotdogs on the ramp. As I was walking around the aircraft, I heard a kid say, "But I don't want to."
     Another voice which must have been his mother replied, "Oh for crying out loud, just ask him!"
     I continued the walk-around, and soon these two approached the wing I was examining. I walked over toward them, and the mother said, "He wants to know if you're going to take off. We've been watching the planes land for a while, but he wants to see one take off."
     "Yup," I replied. "I'll be taking off in about ten minutes."
     "Thank you! We'll sit over here and watch."
     It reminded me of of my younger self, when I had a lot of questions about airplanes but was too shy to ask a pilot. I would have loved to tell him to hop in the back seat and ride along, but I do not have the certification to do that yet. I am really looking forward to the time when I will be able to take passengers.
     After starting up, we were taxiing to the runway when an airship made a low pass over the runway. It was really big and slow, and it was cool to see one up close like that.
     We made a short field takeoff and flew over to Lunken, where we made a soft field touch-and-go. Following that, we proceeded on the planned flight to Charleston, West Virginia. After passing several waypoints, Sophie said, "Ok the weather all of a sudden turned really bad. We've got weather ahead of us, weather over there, and weather behind us. We have to divert to Georgetown."
     I marked our location on the map and began plotting a course to Brown County airport in Georgetown. It was only 7 nautical miles away, and I was not even finished by the time I saw the field ahead. I asked if I needed to continue calculating the course if I already had the field in sight, and she said it was not necessary. I entered the traffic pattern and set up for a short field landing. As I got close to the runway, I realized I was too high to touch down in the touchdown zone, so I initiated a go-around. After a lap around the pattern, I managed to set it down in the touchdown zone. "Setting it down" might not be the best choice of words. I guess it was more like "slamming it down," but apparently it was good enough to pass. As Chuck Yeager put it, "If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing."
     We departed Brown County and did some slow flight, stalls, instrument flying, and steep turns in the practice area. As we completed the last maneuver, Sophie pulled the throttle to idle and told me we just lost the engine. I did just as I had practiced and set up for a landing in a nearby field. It was a hard decision to choose the field, because I could see Clermont County airport in the distance, and I might have been able to glide over there, but if I did not make it, there were many houses around the airport. I decided it would be better to make a safe landing in the field than to risk crashing into a house, if it was a real engine failure.
     Upon seeing we would be able to safely make the field, Sophie told me to climb back up to pattern altitude and land at Clermont County. It was still very busy, and I had to deviate from the pattern twice to avoid other traffic. We followed CAP3024, a Civil Air Patrol flight, and made a no-flap landing. After tying down the aircraft, we went inside for debriefing.
     Sophie thought I did very well, and I got a good score. I had to chuckle inside when she said I did well with using checklists, like I had been flying for the airlines. I blame that on Flight Simulator.
     Today's flying added 1.7 hours and 4 landings to the logbook, which brings the totals to 44.3 hours and 132 landings.

Day 17: Dear Old 417

     It was windy again today. The winds were out of the northeast at 9 knots gusting to 16 knots. I got to Sporty's Cafe and said hello to another student who had just gotten back from a flight.
     "It's bumpy up there!" he said with a southern drawl. "I was doing this number the whole time," he said as he grasped imaginary controls and jerked them back and forth like he was fighting turbulence. We talked about the wind and the resulting rough landings for a little bit, then he had to go downstairs to take his written exam. I wished him good luck and sat down at a table to wait for Matt.
     "What do you want to do today?" he asked when he walked over.
     "I think I'd like to practice some landings in this wind," I replied.
     "Sounds good. Go ahead and start the preflight, and I'll meet you out there."
     I headed out to the flight line and got N53417 ready for the flight. 417 is what we call her for short, and she's been around for quite a while. Matt said she was already being used back when he was doing his primary training. 417 is a good-looking aircraft, with wheel pants that give her a streamlined look and a white, green, and gold paint scheme. None of the other Cessna 172s at Sporty's have either of those features, and she looks quite glamorous sitting on the flight line. She is equipped with a Garmin GNS430 GPS as well, so she would be my favorite plane out of the fleet if it was not for one tiny little problem. It is a very small problem when you first hear of it, but it gets really annoying really fast. There is always a hissing sound in the pilot's headset. It sounds like the crackling, hissing sound that an old vinyl record makes during the silence between songs. When it first started making the irritating noise, I just shrugged it off. But after a two hour flight, I was millimeters away from going insane. Dear old 417, if it weren't for such a small flaw, she could be my favorite.

The instrument panel of N53417

     We practiced landings and takeoffs in the slight crosswind. Well, it was a crosswind most of the time. The direction of the wind kept shifting, sometimes very rapidly. Once I was lined up with the runway, maybe half a mile from the threshold when the wind direction changed very abruptly, causing the plane to roll to the right. I immediately jerked the yoke to the left to counteract the force, but the wind held us in a right bank, and I could not roll the wings back to level for a second or two. When the wind stabilized and I was able to level the wings, we were above the glideslope and off to the right of the centerline.
     "I'm just going to go around," I said.
     I applied full throttle, retracted a notch of flaps, and started climbing. After I made the radio call, Matt said, "I'll never argue with the decision to go around."
     We made a total of eight landings, then tied down dear old 417 in her parking spot, ending what is most likely the last flight with Matt.
     Later in the day, we called off the next flight, choosing instead to review ground knowledge. Matt asked me all kinds of questions the examiner might ask, and I either gave an answer, or he explained the correct answer if I was unsure. There is so much information to take in that many days after completing a flight or ground lesson, I return to the hotel where I sit down and stare at nothing for a while, giving my brain time to process all the information it has taken in.
     It definitely has been seventeen days of drinking from a fire hose. Matt said I finished training faster than any of his previous students, except for the guy from Wisconsin who just came down to finish up night and solo flying.
     Matt is confident that I will pass both the stage check and the exam, and I am pretty confident of it as well. I know I will not be able to answer all the questions perfectly, but I believe I will be able to pass the exam.
     Today's flying added 1.5 hours and 8 landings to the logbook, which brings the totals to 42.6 hours and 128 landings.

Day 16: The End is Nigh

     It was a beautiful day that greeted my eyes when I opened the curtains morning. A few puffs of cloud material were floating high in the sky, and a cool breeze was a welcome change from the heat and humidity of the past few days.
     Once airborne on a solo flight, I began to like the breeze a little less as it kicked my aircraft around. At pattern altitude, which is a thousand feet above the ground, the wind was blowing at least 25 knots by my rough calculations. It made the flight quite bumpy, but it did make the takeoffs and landings much shorter. All the takeoffs and landings, except one, used less than half of the available runway. For the two hour block, all I did was practice takeoffs and landings. By the end of the flight, I had all the solo time I needed before taking the test.
     The next block was dual time with Matt. We practiced basic instrument flying while wearing the foggles, which included recovery from unusual attitudes. I wrote some about unusual attitudes in an earlier post, but simply put, I close my eyes, and Matt does some maneuvers to disorient me and puts the plane at an angle that would be dangerous if left there too long. Then I open my eyes and recover from the situation using only the instruments. Today I do not know what maneuvers Matt did, but with my eyes closed, it felt like we had to be upside down at one point. I know we were not, because that aircraft is not capable of inverted flight, but my senses were telling me different.
     After we got the 0.3 hours of instrument time I needed, we practiced a few stalls and steep turns, as well as a simulated engine failure. Matt was satisfied with how well I did, and so was I, so we returned to the airport. After debriefing, Matt signed my logbook for the instruction he gave, then turned to the back pages of the logbook. As I watched, he signed the part that gives me permission to take the practical test, which means that by his judgment, I have all the training I need. So tomorrow or Saturday, I will fly with Tim, a Master Instructor, for a stage check. If I pass his examination, then Monday or Tuesday I will take the practical and oral exams with an FAA Examiner. Upon passing that, Lord willing I will drive home as a newly certified private pilot.
     Today's flying added 3.2 hours and 13 landings to the logbook, which brings the totals to 41.1 hours and 120 landings - enough to take the exam.

Day 15: Another Cross-Country

     Lately I have not been learning anything new, but I have been practicing what I already know, and chipping away at the hours I need. If the weather cooperates, I should have all the required hours completed tomorrow. After that I will have to pass a stage check with another instructor and a checkride with an FAA examiner, and if I pass both of those, I will be a private pilot.
     This morning I flew around the practice area for a little over an hour to get some more solo time. The sky was clear, and the air was smooth, which made it quite an enjoyable flight. A low fog was hanging over the Ohio River below, and it would have made a beautiful picture in the sunrise.
     In the afternoon I flew down to Morehead-Rowan County airport in Morehead, Kentucky to get the last solo cross-country hours I needed. Some growing cumulus clouds kept me below my planned altitude for the first 15 minutes, then I flew out from under them to a mostly clear sky. There were some thunderstorms beginning to build in the vicinity, so there was moderate turbulence most of the way down and back.
     The aircraft I flew was equipped with a Garmin GNS430 GPS. I have always been fascinated with the 430, so I really enjoyed getting to use it and explore all its functions. For such a small unit, it can do a lot of things. Not only is it used for navigation, but it also contains the aircraft's primary radio.

     When I completed the round trip, I still had some time to burn, so I practiced a few landings at Clermont County before parking the plane. The lineman directed me to an open parking spot, and as soon as the propeller was stopped, he pushed the aircraft back into the spot before I even had a chance to get out. 
     Today's flying added 3.4 hours and 6 landings to the logbook, which brings the totals to 37.9 hours and 107 landings.

Day 14: Cross-Country Solo

     I was only scheduled for one four-hour block today, and none of that was instruction time. I spent the morning finishing up the flight plan for a flight to Fleming-Mason to Huntington, West Virginia and back to Clermont. At 2 pm, I was at the airport. Matt double-checked the fuel and oil, then sent me off. Unfortunately, I could not get the engine to start, so Matt hopped in and somehow got it running.
     The flight to Fleming-Mason is only about half an hour, and after landing, I taxied back around to take off again, admiring an old F-4 on the ramp as I passed. Huntington was farther away, and once in level flight, I began setting up the radios with their ATC frequencies.
     About 20 nm out, I contacted Huntington Approach control and requested permission to land. The controller gave me a transponder code so he could see me on his screen, then handed me off to the tower controller. Huntington is apparently not very busy, because he cleared me to land when I was still 13 miles away in the opposite direction of landing. After landing, I requested two more full stop landings and then a departure back to Clermont. He cleared me for two more landings, and on one landing, I had to wait to land so a small airliner could depart. The final landing at Huntington marked my 100th landing.
     When I was ready to leave the area, the controller gave me another squawk code for the transponder, and cleared me for takeoff. It was the longest leg of the trip back to Clermont, and Huntington Departure control gave me flight following, as well as Indianapolis Center and Cincinnati Approach. Flight following is when ATC stays in contact with you and tells you when other traffic is close by. I flew northwest alongside the Buckeye Military Operations Area back to Clermont, where I landed and parked the plane after nearly three hours of flight time.
     Today's flying added 2.9 hours and 5 landings to the logbook, which brings the totals to 34.5 hours and 101 landings.

First Solo Video

Day 13: First Solo

 

     I woke up this morning to a text message from Matt asking if I had my student pilot certificate. I said yes, and he told me not to wear my best shirt today. I put on my dear old blue shirt that has been with me through thick and thin over the past few years and drove to the airport.

     We boarded N9545F and took off. We made two landings and after the second one Matt told me to park on the ramp. I shut down the engine, and Matt mounted a camera in the cockpit. 

     When he finished, he said, "Give me three takeoffs and three landings," and began walking away.

     "Roger that!" I replied, and hopped in.

     "If you need anything, I'll be inside on the handheld radio."

     I started up and taxiied to runway 4. After completing the run-up, I took off, flew a circle around the traffic pattern, and landed. After taxiing back to the runway, I did another 2 takeoffs and landings, then parked the plane. Matt and a lineman were waiting on the ramp, and they pushed me back into the parking spot while I took off the seatbelt and put away my headset.

     I hopped out, and Matt said, "Congrats, man!"

     "Thanks!" I replied.

     The lineman took a picture of us in front of the plane, then we walked inside the terminal. As I stepped through the automatic door, I was greeted by a round of applause from a crowd of people from Sporty's. One by one they all shook my hand and congratulated me. Then Matt; Paul Jurgens, Vice President of Sporty's Academy and Chief Instructor; Charlie Masters, Flight School Manager; and I went into the Eastern Cincinnati Aviation office where Matt cut off my shirt tail and presented me with a solo certificate. Paul Jurgens gave me a challenge coin and explained the story behind the traditional cutting of the shirt tail.

     Years ago, before the days of headsets and cockpit intercoms, many pilots learned to fly in tandem cockpit airplanes, with the instructor sitting behind the student. The instructor would have to yell to communicate with his student, and to get his attention, the instructor would yank on the student's shirt tail. Upon completion of the student's first solo, the instructor would cut off the student's shirt tail as a symbol showing that he no longer needed to be pulling on it. Even though we now wear headsets and can hear each other in the cockpit, the tradition is still practiced to this day.

     Then Mr. Jurgens gave me a Sporty's Academy T-shirt to wear instead of the one that was cut and welcomed me to the Pilot in Command club.

     At 4 pm, Matt had the plane scheduled again, and he said I could go by myself and knock out some solo hours. I asked if I was supposed to practice any maneuvers, and he replied, "You can do whatever you want! You can go out to the practice area, you can stay in the pattern, you can fly down to Fleming-Mason. Or you can just fly around. Whatever you want to do."

     That was cool to hear! I decided to fly down to Morehead, Kentucky again, but some thunderstorms popped up on the route at the last minute, so I just flew around the practice area for a little over an hour. Then I came back to the airport and made a several landings before parking again.

     The third and final flight of the day was with Matt again. We got all but 0.3 hours of the required simulated instrument time done and also finished all the night hours.

     Today's flying added 4.2 hours and 13 landings to the logbook, which brings the totals to 31.6 hours and 96 landings.

Austin Miller soloed in a single-engine aircraft on August 29, 2016. This was Austin's first flight as a student pilot without his instructor in the aircraft. Austin, a resident of Michigan, is studying to obtain his Private pilot certificate with Sporty's Academy at the Clermont County Airport in Batavia, Ohio. A video of his flight is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgjRQ1tPYYA. Austin is pictured with his instructor, Matt Safriet. #Congratulations #FirstSolo

A photo posted by Sporty's Academy (@sportysacademy) on Aug 30, 2016 at 7:17am PDT

Day 12: Stage Check

     As I was getting ready to leave the hotel for the first block today, I suddenly remembered I had forgotten to check the weather. I no longer had time to do a complete and thorough self-briefing, so I just listened to the airport weather broadcast to see what the current conditions were. They looked just good enough to go out to the practice area.
     I met up with Matt in Sporty's Cafe as usual, and we watched a nice looking TBM depart before deciding what to do.
     "What do you think about the weather?" Matt asked.
     "I forgot to check the weather, so I just listened to the AWOS. The clouds are scattered at 4,000, so we could go out to the practice area."
     "What else?"
     "Well, the air appears to be unstable," I said, noting the towering cumulus clouds.
     "I agree with that statement. What else can you tell me?"
     "That means we could expect some thunderstorms later on."
     "I agree with that statement. Anything else?"
     "Ummm..."
     Matt grinned. "You're not catching on to my hints, are you?
     I shook my head. He pulled out his iPhone and showed me the weather radar. There was a decently large thunderstorm system headed our way, and not very far out.
     "Oh! I see," I said.
     "So, we can either stay in the pattern and practice landings or we can go out to the practice area and do a few maneuvers and hightail it back here before it rains."
     "Yeah, let's do that."
     We took off and practiced some stalls and slow flight in the practice area. Soon we could see an area of rainfall in the distance, slowly creeping toward the airport.
     "Let's head to the airport, and maybe we'll have time for one more stall on the way back," Matt said.
     I nodded and keyed the radio, "Clermont practice area, one uniform charlie is over East Fork Lake at three thousand feet, northbound back to india six niner."
     It quickly became obvious that we did not have enough time for another stall, so we headed straight for the airport at 135 mph. We landed and just as we were parking it began to rain. We tied down the aircraft and went inside to wait it out. It continued to rain for several hours, right up to the time of my stage check.
     A stage check is when a different instructor goes up with you and instead of teaching, grades you on how well you learned the maneuvers and how safe you are. Since there was still rain in the area, Tim, the other instructor, said to skip the maneuvers and just do three landings.
     "I'm not looking at how smoothly you land or how your traffic pattern looks, I'm just looking to see if you're safe enough to send out on a solo," he said. "You just fly the plane and pretend I'm not here, because that's how it will be when you're flying solo."
     I did just that, and made two of the smoothest landings I have ever done. On the third time around, we were up in the pattern, and he pulled the throttle out to simulate an engine failure. I got the plane set up for the best glide distance and asked if he wanted me to go through the engine restart procedure. He declined, so I glided to another relatively smooth landing. Tim was impressed, and I got a good score on the stage check. With that passed, now I just need to get my student pilot certificate in my hands, and I can knock out the 10 hours of solo flight I need.
     Today's flying added 1.4 hours and 4 greased landings to the logbook, which brings the totals to 27.4 hours and 83 landings.