cheers guys. Its a good feeling to have it done, altho its gonna be ages till I can fly. damn the CAA!!
Right well heres the write up that I promised mazzy.
Test came as abit of a surprise actaully. I decided on wednesday that I was ready to do my retest, I had flown 3 times since my first test 2 months ago, 2 in the past 2 days and my PFLs were all good, as were efatos etc. So my CFI tried to call up the examiner that evening. He was out tho and so he just left a message. One problem was that the a/c that I've been flying was due its 50hr check. It only had 1.5hrs left on it so it had to be flown over to prestwick to get it done. Since the examiner had been out the CFI said that unfrotualy it will have to go over tomorrow and get its check, tho it should be back after the week and I can do my test then. So I kind of relaxed abit knowing that I had abit more time to mentally prepare mself. The next day (thursday) I was just relaxing, I went into town in the morning to get a few odd jobs done, when at around midday I got a call from my CFI, 'right, the a/c is still going to prestiwck, but the examiner is going to be there in the evening so get over here quick'
Right so I leg it back to my flat and grab my gear and head over the the airport. Get there around 2pm and sit down with CFI to make sure that we've got all the right paperwork. We leave EDI at around 3.30pm, and one thing that I realise is that I've not done any navigation for 2 months and so am pretty rusty, luckily thats not being tested! Altho I soon get back into the stride of things and we make steady progress, threading down south inbetween the edinburgh and glasgow zones. The weathers not too bad, altho was very hazy over edinburgh, but as we got over to the west coast it cleared nicely. One thing what was playing silly buggers was the wind. EDI had a 090, PIK had a 270 and in the middle it was a 130 lol. So I made a mental note to double check the wind in my test before I do my PFL as that could catch me out.
Arrive at PIK no problem, gorgeous greaser of a landing too, which always helps the confidence. taxied up to the flight centre and shut down. Its around 4.15pm and the examiner said that hes not gonna be arriving till 5.30 so I should have a chance to have a breather. So I sit down and try to relax (totaly fail of course since I get really nervous) then bang on 4.30 (15mins after arriving) the examiner walks in, so much for my hour break!
We quickly go thorugh all the paperwork, since it had all been checked before it was no more then a quick glance. Then me and the examiner went into one of the briefing rooms for a quick chat. He basically stated that obviously most of the test was already done and all I had to do was a departure, a PFL with either failure or fire, a efato and another minor emergency. He said its fine to not do the W&B since we were obviously fine. He also said that because I wasn't at my home field he'd help me out with the navigation, which took quite a load off my mind since I wasn't 100% about the E/E lanes for prestwick. Off to the plane!
A quick walk around, check the oil and fuel and in we jump. Start up no problem and taxi to the active. Power checks all done and I get immediate clearance and departure, look up to the checl finals and see a 747 on final
he was quite far out so I just expedited t/o and we were away. At 300ft the examiner called ATC for a fanstop and so this gave me a cpl of seconds before he pulled the plug on me. Prestwick runway is 3km long and as such there was ample space left below, so I put the nose down, 75kts, full flaps, quick shutdown checks and a mayday and bobs your mothers brother. Carried on climbing up into the E/E lane, the examiner then got clearance to remain in the zone and got it, he then told me to head 180 and head for a nice big space of fields, was just about to turn onto the heading when ATC told me about another a/c arriving in the same lane as me and so I decided to stay in the lane until he passed me (i had him visual) I think this prob got me a cpl of brownie points too. We got over to the fields and climbed up to 3000ft, and then he pulls the plug. trim to 75knots, check the wind, since we are pretty much on the coast it is still 270 at about 7-8 knots so that was ok. pick a field and go into the pattern. do my restart checks and mayday, then committed. am abit to high for my chosen field so I go futher to another, then decided I was too high for this and choose a third. The 3rd really wasn't a good choice, I mean it was ok, we'd have survived but it wouldn't have been nice. So we go-around. examiner says yea thats ok, we'd have survived but lets have another go. So we go up to 2500ft and do it again. This time I chose a nice area of fields with lots of choices. Again miss my first choice but easily make my second, which is fine and we go around. He then says congrats I've passed, but he'd like to show me how he'd do it. He then peforms the best PFL that I've ever seen int a field. Thats what comes with expereince! We then head back to the airport. On the way back he asks me what I'd do if I smelled fumes entering the cockpit, which obviously you close the heater and defroster and open all the vents. We then head back and land.
Rest of was just paperwork. It was a gorgeous evening for it, it really cleared up and it was such a good feeling to finally get it done. I've now got to work out what I'm going to do for my commercial trainning!