Skills test report
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Skills test report
After passing the last three written exams on Monday (nav, flight planning and aircraft technical), and getting the last hour of flying revision done, I was told I was ready for the skills test. This was booked for the next day (Tuesday), first thing.
After a pretty restless night's sleep, I was up early checking the MET. It didn't look ideal, with scattered showers and patches of poor vis, but this was set to improve so off we went to the airfield.
I've never really felt real nerves before a flight before, but not surprisingly, I did before this one. After a coffee and chat with my instructor, I spoke to the club's owner and examiner, Mark, about the test. We both agreed the vis wasn't ideal, but I thought it was ok to go - and this we did as I was told the go / no-go decision was on my shoulders, as in the past people have failed and then blamed it on the weather, saying they'd not thought it good enough to try for the test in the first place. The grounds for my decision was that the vis was set to improve, so if we did the nav test first, it should have improved to give a decent horizon for the general handling.
The route I was given was: Manston - Spilsted Farm (1nm NE of Battle) - Damyns Hall, and I was pleased to find the 214 was showing "CALM" for all the winds below 10000 feet in the south east - this made planning easy, but I figured it would probably make the nav trickier, as there un-doubtably WOULD be wind once off the ground.
I pre-flighted the aeroplane (G-BTAL, the same machine I soloed in...) with Mark watching and questioning, and off we set.
The further south we got the more the vis improved, and by Ashford we could happily make out the power stations at Dungeness, which made me relax a bit about finding Spilsted Farm. As it happened I spotted it when we were nearly overhead. For those that don't know it, it's quite distinctive (as I now know!) as it has a definite "kink" in the strip.
Heading north to Damyns Hall it became clear the vis was better to the south was we were heading up into some hazy areas again. At Gravesend I was asked to divert to Southend, and heading along the Thames it was pretty grotty in places, but then the haze cleared in literally a minute or two - quite freaky!
At Southend we headed back towards east Kent for the general handling part of the test, which started with a 180 turn on instruments. Then stalls, both clean and in the approach configuration. My first approach stall was a bit ropey, and I asked to do it again and this time I felt much happier.
The steep turns were tricky, as the horizon wasn't that distinct, but I felt they went okay, and Mark said they were fine.
Running through my head what we still had to do I realised it was PFLs and then into the circuit, and just at that minute, surprise surprise the engine "failed" - the PFL was one the best I've done IMHO :-)
My join back into the circuit wasn't great. From our position I was pretty sure we'd be joining right base RW10, but due to another aircraft in the circuit it was a downwind join. I flew a bit close to the downwind in the wrong direction (not ON the downwind, but fairly near) but I realised this straight away, turned further south, and was told it was OK, as I'd realised early.
The first landing wasn't great so I asked to do another normal touch and go, which was much better, and after a couple more varied circuits I was told to call downwind to land. The final landing was flapless, and was ok, and the looooooong taxy (Manston's runway is 2500m+ long and there was other circuit traffic, so we had to vacate early which prevented a fast taxy) back seemed to take forever. I think I was going extra slowly as one of Mark's pet-hate's is apparently overspeed taxying, and I didn't want to screw things up at the last minute :-)
Arriving back I was told I'd passed, and after a de-brief we started the mammoth task of filling in the paperwork, which seemed to take more time than the actual test had!
To cap it all, I've just spoken to the CAA, who've said due to "special circumstances" they'd rush through the issue of the license itself, and that I can pick it up anytime after midday on Sunday (my 17th birthday).
If all goes to plan, it should make a great end to a super week :-)
Thanks to everyone for the the congratulations messages. I know it sounds clichéd but without the help and advice of flying friends over the web, I think my PPL would have been a lot more challenging - thanks everyone.
Now to start re-paying those who've taken me flying over the years.....:-))
tKF
After a pretty restless night's sleep, I was up early checking the MET. It didn't look ideal, with scattered showers and patches of poor vis, but this was set to improve so off we went to the airfield.
I've never really felt real nerves before a flight before, but not surprisingly, I did before this one. After a coffee and chat with my instructor, I spoke to the club's owner and examiner, Mark, about the test. We both agreed the vis wasn't ideal, but I thought it was ok to go - and this we did as I was told the go / no-go decision was on my shoulders, as in the past people have failed and then blamed it on the weather, saying they'd not thought it good enough to try for the test in the first place. The grounds for my decision was that the vis was set to improve, so if we did the nav test first, it should have improved to give a decent horizon for the general handling.
The route I was given was: Manston - Spilsted Farm (1nm NE of Battle) - Damyns Hall, and I was pleased to find the 214 was showing "CALM" for all the winds below 10000 feet in the south east - this made planning easy, but I figured it would probably make the nav trickier, as there un-doubtably WOULD be wind once off the ground.
I pre-flighted the aeroplane (G-BTAL, the same machine I soloed in...) with Mark watching and questioning, and off we set.
The further south we got the more the vis improved, and by Ashford we could happily make out the power stations at Dungeness, which made me relax a bit about finding Spilsted Farm. As it happened I spotted it when we were nearly overhead. For those that don't know it, it's quite distinctive (as I now know!) as it has a definite "kink" in the strip.
Heading north to Damyns Hall it became clear the vis was better to the south was we were heading up into some hazy areas again. At Gravesend I was asked to divert to Southend, and heading along the Thames it was pretty grotty in places, but then the haze cleared in literally a minute or two - quite freaky!
At Southend we headed back towards east Kent for the general handling part of the test, which started with a 180 turn on instruments. Then stalls, both clean and in the approach configuration. My first approach stall was a bit ropey, and I asked to do it again and this time I felt much happier.
The steep turns were tricky, as the horizon wasn't that distinct, but I felt they went okay, and Mark said they were fine.
Running through my head what we still had to do I realised it was PFLs and then into the circuit, and just at that minute, surprise surprise the engine "failed" - the PFL was one the best I've done IMHO :-)
My join back into the circuit wasn't great. From our position I was pretty sure we'd be joining right base RW10, but due to another aircraft in the circuit it was a downwind join. I flew a bit close to the downwind in the wrong direction (not ON the downwind, but fairly near) but I realised this straight away, turned further south, and was told it was OK, as I'd realised early.
The first landing wasn't great so I asked to do another normal touch and go, which was much better, and after a couple more varied circuits I was told to call downwind to land. The final landing was flapless, and was ok, and the looooooong taxy (Manston's runway is 2500m+ long and there was other circuit traffic, so we had to vacate early which prevented a fast taxy) back seemed to take forever. I think I was going extra slowly as one of Mark's pet-hate's is apparently overspeed taxying, and I didn't want to screw things up at the last minute :-)
Arriving back I was told I'd passed, and after a de-brief we started the mammoth task of filling in the paperwork, which seemed to take more time than the actual test had!
To cap it all, I've just spoken to the CAA, who've said due to "special circumstances" they'd rush through the issue of the license itself, and that I can pick it up anytime after midday on Sunday (my 17th birthday).
If all goes to plan, it should make a great end to a super week :-)
Thanks to everyone for the the congratulations messages. I know it sounds clichéd but without the help and advice of flying friends over the web, I think my PPL would have been a lot more challenging - thanks everyone.
Now to start re-paying those who've taken me flying over the years.....:-))
tKF
The Original Whirly
Join Date: Feb 1999
Location: Belper, Derbyshire, UK
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TKF,
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
I've watched your progress over the years, and I'm delighted you've finally got your licence...to learn.
Hmmm...I think you'll have to change you're name; you're not a fledgling any more; you're all growed up.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
I've watched your progress over the years, and I'm delighted you've finally got your licence...to learn.
Hmmm...I think you'll have to change you're name; you're not a fledgling any more; you're all growed up.
