I Passed My IFR Exam!

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.

Final Night Flight – 2/2/2012

Well, after some delays due to weather, I got my final 8 landings completed and finished my required 3-hours of night flight. Pretty uneventful. 707PD and 653KB were both unavailable, so I used the 1980 172 Cessna N53361. I hadn't flown her before, so it was a new experience in a way. I really love the Garmin GPS in her. I really wish it was that GPS in PD & KB, but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Originally was schedule to do my night flight yesterday (2/1/2012,) but it got canned due to weather. We had a system move through the area, and the rain was pretty much gone by 6PM (our planned take off time) but conditions went to IFR and even LIFR passed it, so we just moved it to today.

The first landing of the night was kind of rough, flared to high. We just took it that it had been awhile since I flew at night which is the reason for the high flare. We did one landing with no taxi or landing lights (per approval with KRYY Tower.) Actually landed perfectly on the center line. That was really interesting trying to judge it based off instruments, and the surrounding lights. By the 7^th landing, all was well. The issue became that we still had 40 minutes that I needed to get logged for night flight. So we decided to head over to Cartersville, GA Airport. At first we were debating Cartersville or Paulding, but Cartersville was more favorable due to winds. While flying over there, we noticed that I-75North was completely in gridlock. No cars moving. Apparently there was a nasty accident. We could see the cop cars, but not actually what happened. We got to Cartersville, and entered the pattern. Another company aircraft was there: N966SA, he was doing night procedures also. Landing in Cartersville wasn't too bad, only that the pilot for SA had turned on the landing lights too high which gave us a horrible glare, but we landed safely. While taxing off the runway, we did turn down the runway lights down a notch.

While taking off from Cartersville, at around 1,000 MSL I noticed we started to have a problem with the aircraft. I was loosing airspeed (at one time I was around 60knots,) and the altimeter had stopped moving... it wasn't falling nor was it rising. The control of the aircraft seemed fine, I didn't feel any signs of a stall coming and there was no sound from the Stall Indicator. I just leveled off the aircraft and the airspeed caught up. Not really sure if it was a system issue or a high attitude issue. I wasn't at a nose-high attitude based off instruments, so I'm going with a system issue. Probably a bug or something got into the system. We took off from runway 19 at Cartersville, so it was all dark (trees) in the area, so it was kind of hard getting a visual at how high we were. We returned to KRYY for a safe landing, and completed the required flight hours and night landings per the FAA.

So, what's next? On Saturday, I need to report in for a 2.5 hour ground lesson (will probably be much shorter) but have to plan out my first solo cross-country. My instructor and I will go over density altitude (a refresher) and look over where I'm going for my cross-country. I have decided to go back to Chattanooga. After Saturday's lesson, I have a solo flight planned for Sunday afternoon. Right now that is up in the air... why? Well, guess... of course, the weather. We will see what happens. Early next week, I'm suppose to meet up with Hutch and go over more cross-country planning procedures (it's a stage check.) And hopefully next Wednesday or Thursday I might be able to do my first solo cross-country trip. If not this coming week, it will be more than likely be the following week. I've already started planning out my 150-nm/3 airport landing solo cross-country. I'm thinking about KRYY-KCHA-KRHP-KJZP-KRYY (Cobb, Chattanooga, Western Carolina Regional, Pickens Co, Cobb.) We will see about that as we get closer.

As for the written test, it's going well. I sent my issues with math to a good buddy of mine (John) to see if he can help explain it to me a bit more. He's a good teacher. Otherwise, studying the book, taking practice test. Planning on taking the written at the end of this month. Had a dream the other night, that I failed my FAA Check-ride... what a nightmare! Hopefully that's all it was, a nightmare!