SKILL TEST PART 2
After saying that I would not like to land he said to me:
“I am pleased to tell you that you have passed your navigation”.
Major relief at this point – I was chuffed as it had been so successful. I must admit, he did show me a different technique when looking out for aircraft in the climb. In the past, I have just lowered the nose, whereas he prefers to gently turn to the right whilst in the climb (to the right because this is the direction both aircraft turn in the event of a head on collision path) take a good look, then as you are turning back, look to your left. After the overhead at Blackpool, we headed a few miles out to sea to do our upper air work. The first thing was the stall, where he wanted to see me do my HASELL checks (height, airframe, security, engine, location, lookout) and for the LIFE of me I could not remember the last L – such an important one to miss! He duly prompted me, and from hen on I did not miss it out. It’s weird because I KNOW this, yet I seemed to miss it out so easy! The first stall I executed went well, however I didn’t apply enough back pressure and we lost about 50 feet – he was adamant that we were to not lose any height – so I done another one. Then, I did not enter the climb quick enough, so I had to do another one. The last one was perfect, and just to prove it, he made me do another, all with complete HASELL checks, which was fine.
Then it was onto stalls in the turn and on final approach, these all went fine and at one point I thought we were going to be in a spin – the attitude he made me recover from was mad! A couple of spiral dives later we headed back over land. I knew what was coming next. The PFL. He was very keen on me talking about what I was doing and what things I should be doing etc, especially in the PFL. I told him that the first thing I would do is put the carb heat on – lets just say we had a friendly debate! I kept missing things out, only little things, and every time he corrected me, I just kept thinking that I was failing or losing points etc. Anyway, started the PFL and was happy with the approach so far. He asked me:
“Where is your 1000 foot marker”?
“THERE”
“Where is there”?
“The small farm, 45 degrees out from the end of my field, which is THERE” pointing franticly!
I made an approach which would have meant we would have made the field. After I applied power, he cut it again! I shoved the nose down and muttered “nose down, 30 degrees either side, commit to land”. That’s what he wants to see.
We climbed, and once we were back up to 2000 feet, he covered up the view with his chart and I had to do 2 - 180 degree, 15 degree bank turns, left and right. I lost the bank angle a bit, and he made me do it again. It was at this point that he pulled one of the fuses again, which meant all my electrical dials went dead. I wasn’t letting him get away with it this time though, and quickly told him! It was time for some positioning using the VOR’s. He asked me to tune into the POL VOR – 112.1 and track to it and then away from it, then also the Wallasey VOR 114.1. After that, it was onto some ADF tracking, and I was happy with the way all this went – I was just wondering whether he was happy with all this! It was at this point, he asked me to take us home and I was starting to worry, wondering whether I had done enough or not. I found Kirkby and performed a standard rejoin to the circuit. He told me I had to do a flapless OR a glide approach, to which I chose flapless. After we settled on final, I was finding it difficult keeping the correct speed and attitude, but eventually it did settle. I landed, having reduced the power a little early, to which he promptly told me about after we took off again! This was to be the final circuit to land, and it would mean the end of my test. Now I remember on the first circuit at the start of the test, he pulled the fuse on me and had to remind me to use the carb heat – STUPID mistake, one which I have never done before, and will never do again, yet when you are under pressure on a test, the simplest of things become the most difficult. I landed successfully, not the best landing of my life, but certainly not the worst, with no bounce or float. I started to turn off the runway a little too fast, which he was quickly to remind me of. The very last thing I do is to not slow down enough.
I wasn’t drunk on Saturday night……….