Joeboez;-
Congratulations on passing!!! Enjoy your new licence in the CA sunshine
KnobbyGB;-
The point of doing 'ground reference maneuveres', from what I recall at the PPL level is to get one used to making co-ordinated turns, while taking into consideration varying wind conditions. For example, the examiner is looking to see if you can fly a shapely rectangle around a field to replicate a traffic pattern factoring in the wind. The S-Turns around a straight line show that you can relate wind direction to angle-of-bank needed to maintain the same distance from the reference point(road). Anyway, I think that's the basic reasoning for the maneuveres
Safe flying to you both
EiNY