http://www.purpleboard.net/forums/showpost.php?p=697599&postcount=1
DanG http://www.purpleboard.net/forums/member.php?u=3046
2011-03-11 18:25

I promised last week to write up my checkride, so here it is, although it did
not turn out anything like I expected. A little background is in order: I am a
right-arm, below the elbow amputee, so I have been training as a student pilot
under a restricted student medical. In order to get a real medical, I need to
do a Medical Flight Test with an FAA examiner. This test can't be conducted by
a DPE. In order to save time and money, I scheduled by Medical Flight Test and
PPL Checkride to be done simultaneously with the Richmond FSDO. The test was
scheduled for last Friday.

Thursday night I did four flight plans, complete with wind drift angles, fuel
estimates, etc. for my flight to and from Richmond International (RIC) where
the examiner was located, and also from RIC to Farmville (FVX) where the
examiner had indicated we would fly the checkride. As I expect is normal, I
didn't get great sleep Thursday night, but I got to my local airport on time to
meet my instructor at 7am. My instructor had put the plane in the maintenance
hanger the night before so it would be nice and warm. He'd also been hounding
the mechanic/owner for about two weeks to fix any and all squawks, no matter
how minor, because the plane would be inspected at the FSDO before the FAA
examiner would be allowed to board. The mechanic/owner assured him the plane
was up to snuff.

I took off and had a great flight to RIC. The weather couldn't have been more
perfect for a checkride, with light, steady wind, and great visibility. I
parked at the FSDO, checked the fuel levels, and met the examiner. He sounded
and acted like a laid back country guy, and was very friendly both in person
and in previous phone calls. I was feeling pretty confident and prepared.
However, when he told me he had never done a private checkride before, and that
all the previous checkrides he had done were CFI or commercial, I started to
get a litttle worried. When it took him an entire hour to go through my logbook
and endorsements to verify that everything was in order, I really started to
get concerned.

The safety inspector did, indeed, find a whole laundry list of things wrong
with the plane, a 172M. Some of them were paperwork, like no 337 for the Rosen
sun visors, and the AD Compliance List was not up-to-date. Others were very
minor. He flagged the electrical tape used to keep the co-pilot PTT wires out
of the way because, "electrical tape has no place on an airplane." Other issues
were more significant, like the wrong seat stops being installed, and a crack
in the body near the lower pilot door hinge. The safety inspector declared that
not only could I not use the airplace for the checkride, but it was grounded
until he appoved a ferry permit.

So, I now knew that I wouldn't be getting a PPL today, and I'm pretty bummed,
but I figure I can at least knock out the oral. The examiner, in the course of
reviewing my paperwork, noted that my endorsements were not perfect. My
instructor had failed to put the correct subparagraph number on the endorsement
regarding my pre-solo training. It didn't seem like this would be a big deal,
but the examiner kept mentioning it. He did finally accept my paperwork, and
about an hour and a half after I got there, the oral test started. This was at
10am. I was expecting to spend about and hour to an hour and a half doing the
oral exam, and then I'd worry about finding a way home. Well, noon rolls around
and we haven't even covered half of the material. I feel like I'm doing well,
but some of the questions seem pretty hard. I'm very well prepared, but digging
deep for a lot of the answers. The examiner suggests a lunch break, so we go
have lunch together, and get back to the office around 12:45am.

After lunch, the oral test continues. We start with reading the sectional and
airspace, and I'm pretty much nailing everything. Then we move onto flight
planning. I let him know that I have a flight planned from RIC to FVX, and his
response is, "Everyone tries that, I'm not letting you get away with that." He
wants me to plan a flight to a different airport, starting from scratch, right
there in front of him. I know this is contrary to the PTS, but I also know that
this guy can fail me for no reason. I'm not about to give him an excuse, so I
plow ahead. I spend the next hour planning the flight, to include recalculating
weight and balance, take-off and landing distances, reviewing the weather,
picking checkpoints, calculating wind corrections, and estimating fuel use.

We are still not done. He starts asking questions about flight characteristics
and forces of flight. Not a problem. One line of questioning stands out, and
I'll relate it here to give you an idea of the level of knowledge he is
expecting. He asks what direction the lift vector is pointed from the
horizontal stabilizer. I answer correctly, explaining that it points downward
to balance the moments in the pitch axis, since the cg is forward of the center
of lift of the wing. Then he asks how a canard would be different. I respond
that the lift vector from a canard points upward, and results in a lower
required wing loading on the main wing, and greater lift efficiency. Then he
asks why all planes don't have canards. I should note that I have a degree in
aerospace engineering, so I know this, but I'm thinking that there is no way
99% of private pilot applicants would or should know about pitch stability in
canard style airplane. I answer correctly, and he responds that only 8% of his
CFI applicants get that one right. I should have offered to draw him a free
body diagram for extra credit.

The oral test is finally over at abut 3:45pm. Including breaks for lunch and to
deal with the aircraft issues, the oral has taken about 4 1/2 hours. I passed.

In the meantime, my instructor, the aircraft owner/mechanic, and another
mechanic from the shop have flown down to deal with the airplane. When they
arrive, the examiner who has been grilling me takes my instructor into the back
room, and the safety guy starts working on the owner. I won't go into details,
but my instructor is threatened with losing his ticket for, "falsifying
endorsements," because the pre-solo endorsement is written wrong, and for
letting me flying in an unairworthy plane. I don't blame him for either. The
owner/mechanic is an IA and repeatedly assured my instructor that the plane was
good to go. The endorsement thing was BS, too, as any reasonable person would
see. The examiner, and his boss, tell my instructor that he is free to ferry
the airplane back for maintenance, but that doing so wouldn't look good for
him. Afraid for his career, my instructor tells the owner that he can't fly for
him anymore (essentially quitting his job in front of the FAA guy) and not only
won't ferry the plane for him, won't ride in his other plane since he does the
maintenance on both. I know that I still need to deal with these people to get
my medical, so I also decline to fly back with the owner as well. My wife ended
up driving over an hour to pick us up after she got off work.

So, here I am, no PPL and no plane to use for the test. I know that if I showed
up with the same plane, the safety guy would find something else wrong just on
principle. I need to find another rental of the same type, and more
importantly, from an owner that will risk getting his plane grounded by an
overzealous inspector.

There were points during the day that I almost just threw in the towel. I felt
like I didn't want to be involved in aviation if this was what it was like. I'm
glad I didn't, but I'm not looking forward to going back to finish my test. If
anyone else reading this is considering using a FSDO for a checkride, please
consider carefully. From other comments made during the day, I learned that
very few planes that they inspect are approved.

I take responsibility for not ensuring that the plane was perfect, and have
definitely learned a lot about maintenance and maintenance record keeping from
this experience. I don't blame anyone for this mess but myself. If anyone has
any advice about how to proceed, I'd love to hear it. Thanks for reading this,
I know it is very long.