Such a major stress relief knowing that I have my IFR now. I can literally feel all my muscles relaxing now. All last week, every day, I had flight lessons before work to make sure I was ready for Friday afternoon, and it worked out.
Friday morning, we were having MVFR/IFR conditions both at my base (KRYY) and where the test was going to take place (KRHP,) so I was able to talk to my instructor about going with me so we can at least do the oral. He filed an IFR flight plan up to KRHP. I was going to be the PIC, and he was going to be my copilot. It was so nice to actually get some real IFR flying in, since most of the training was done under my IFR glasses. To get some practice in doing a hold, we did the RNAV 9, with the procedure turn into KRHP.
The exam started at 12:30pm, but we got there at about 11:30PM which gave me 1 extra hour of studying.
The oral portion of the exam took about 2 hours. We covered everything from runway markings, to the cross country flight plan that he wanted me to do, to the weights and balance. We went over a lot of the special emphasis areas (CFIT, LAHSO, wake turbulence, runway incursions, SRM, etc.) We also went over a lot of the items in the ASA Instrument Oral Exam Guide, so if you have been studying that, you should be okay.
When the oral portion of the exam was over, we went to the weather room to see if we could get the practical portion of the checkride done. We could! :-)
I got the plane ready and we headed off to KTYS. From KRHP to KTYS, it became very bumpy. As we were approaching KTYS, I called approach for entry into the airspace, and to let them know what we wanted to do. Well, at that time, a lot of the commercial aircraft were coming in, so it became very fast paced with the big boys in front of me, behind me and to the side of me since both runways were being used. We did the ILS, followed by the VOR full procedure with partial panel, and then headed out to do air-work. After we got out of KTYS's airspace, we did partial panel unusual attitude recovery, and steep turns to the left and to the right; which got my stomach messed up. I thought I was going to lose my cookies with those steep turns. Heading back to KRHP, we did the hold procedure, and then the circle to land.
I honestly didn't think I passed (I don't know why... low self-esteem maybe?), but when I shut everything down in the airplane, he shook my hand and said, “Congratulations!” I was beyond speechless! The practical portion of the exam took 2 hours in the air. We decided to play a trick on my instructor. We when went in, the examiner asked me when I'm free to come back. You could see the color drain from my instructor's face, I then said, “You mean for my commercial rating, right? Because, I'm IFR rated now!”
So, while we finished up the paperwork, my instructor filed for IFR back to KRYY. Like going up there, he was the copilot and I was the PIC.
When we got back, we were able to do a night landing as the sun had already done down. Beautiful evening flight for a wonderful day.
Now, it's time to start my commercial rating, and hopefully find a Safety Pilot who wants to join me in some day cross-countries.
