Day 19 2nd November

Well here it is, test day, and the same as yesterday there is no getting away with it, and to be honest, I don’t really want to, I want this over and done with, I had to phone the examiner in the morning to get a time to meet at Staveton, I called her and she said to meet about 9:45am, she said she may as well give me my route now, she asked me if I had my map to hand which I did, “hmmm she said, let’s go West today, take me to Hay On Wye”, she passed me her weight and baggage weight for the performance calcs as well. I thought it was Christmas, a great start, I’ve been to Hay On Wye twice during my hour building so I know where it is and know what it looks like :D, the diversion now is pretty irrelevant, I’m sure I’ll find it.
I left about 9.20am, arrived just before 10am with the route all planned out, my nerves were pretty much ok at this point, I was more nervous yesterday, but I kept telling myself to just do what I did yesterday and I’ll be fine. I started the performance calcs, did the weight & balance first, all in limits for take off and landing, then did the take off & landing performance graphs, this determined that the field length is not limiting for t/o or landing on all runways at Glouc, the charts are unfactored so I had to factor in the requirements, 1.25 for t/o & 1.43 for landing, TDR was 746mtrs and LDR was 642mtrs.
The examiner then turned up, I was getting nervous now, no problem though, no different to yesterday, I am starting to learn how to control the nerves. She asks for my particulars, log book, licence, F170A, medical etc, she takes the details down, then we go to an office for a chat. She starts off by taking me through the test and what she expects, during which she fires some questions at me, the first question was “if we are departing rwy 09, and the wind is from 050 at 20kts, what is the crosswind componant?” , no problem I thought, I sat there trying to work it out, I couldn’t do it, my brain has frozen on the spot, I start to spurt out drivel (nothing new there 😉 ), er, um, er, um, ah um…… she could see it was nerves, she said ok, runway 09, how many degrees off the nose is it? then it snapped HAHA, ok I thought, I then ran it off as though I knew it all along, 40deg off the runway, that’s 2 thirds the wind speed, so crosswind is 14kts and is in limits as the limit for this aircraft is 17kts, “good” she said, she then starts asking about my family etc, my job and my expectations after test etc, after a 10 minute chat she said “there you go, nice and relaxed now”, so this was good, she had a knack of seeing and dealing with nervous people, she’s probably dealt with it a thousand times.
We continued on through the test and what to expect, she then asked to see my performance sheets, she asked if I had checked for NOTAMS & Royal flights etc to which I hadn’t yet, then she said where is your fuel “Howgozit”? I hadn’t done one, I basically explained to her that although I knew how to do it, I had not been expected to do it through my training, I was then sent to check the NOTAMS etc, and she then had a word with the CFI, I thought “oh dear, I’ve dropped him in the proverbial here”, but having spoke to him after he said it was no problem at all, she wasn’t that bothered but to make sure he incorperates “something” onto the club’s VFR plog so the students can do it.
I checked the NOTAMS & Royal flights, nothing to effect us today, the plane was still in the hangar, so I did the A check in there then dragged her out on my own, man she is heavy, I nearly put my back out in the process.
All the guys in the club were wishing me good luck, and asking how I felt, all I could say was “a little numb” which was true, I felt like I was in tunnel vision, but anyway onwards & upwards.
I climbed in the aircraft, she said to carry on and get it started and she’ll be out in a minute, so I did all teh checks, fired her over and she started nicely, which is good because she can be a fag to start sometimes with the fuel injection system, The examiner jumps in, settles down, I tune and test the Nav radios, set the ident volumes, check the transponder, then I gave her the passenger brief which was ok, and then called for taxi, I had yet another callsign today, now instead of saying 2 on the radio I may end up saying all 3 :D, Exam 52 was ours today.
ATC said “Exam 52 taxi to C1 via Hotel, cross runway 36 & 04” that’s good, a nice long taxi to calm the nerves again, we get to the hold and there are no other planes in front of me, so we can do the power checks and get underway, after the power checks I give the departure brief, again this went ok, then called “Exam 52 ready for departure”, “Exam 52 line up & wait runway 09”, then as I was lining up they call “Exam 52 after departure, left turn to the North VFR, cleared takeoff runway 09”. So full power, lots of right rudder, Ts & Ps green, airspeed increasing, 70kts, rotate, insufficient runway, gear up, then set 25″ MAP & 2500 RPM to climb at 87kts.
We’re underway, I feel ok now, all I have to do is concentrate and fly the plane, and keep a good lookout. We pass Newent pretty quickly, I pass our ETA to the examiner for Hay On Wye which is time 07, then pass off Glouc Approach for London Information 124.75, the air is silky smooth at 4,000ft, and visibility is magnificent, almost too good. We pass Hereford, she now gives my diversion point “Take me to Stourport On Severn” she said, my goodness, it’s Christmas again, can you get a bigger town? I thought, we may as well go to Birmingham :D. I work out my track, work out the distance, then Hay On Wye comes into view, I point this out to her, and she asks if we could circle it so she can get a good look as she has only been here once.
We’re now on the diversion leg, heading 057 for 37nm, I pass her the ETA as time 25, then tell London our turning point. It was so smooth up there I was a mere passenger as well, altitude is holding superbly, as was the heading, when we passed abeam Bromyard I made a heading correction to the left by 7 degrees, I could then see Stourport, and we still had about 20nm to run, marvellous.
We approach Stourport, I confirm this to the examiner, she agrees, she then tells me to head south, put the screens up as well. time for the IF work, full panel first, she get’s me to climb, descend, do a 30deg turn, rate one turns etc etc, all goes well, now we have a panel failure, we have lost the DI & AI, she then gives me a heading to fly, so I check the compass, work out the degrees to turn, then turn at rate 1, heading is still out a tad so I correct this again. Next it’s unusual attitude recovery, she starts throwing the plane around trying to disorientate me, and I must admit it worked, I ahd no idea whether we were climbing, turning etc, but I remember what I was taught, she says “recover”, so it’s power – roll – pitch, I check the power, we’re slowing down, so full throttle, I check the wings, we’re rolling left, so I level the wings, then pitch, speed is still decaying, so I nose forward to stop the speed, then nose forward again to stop the altimeter, speed increases to cruise speed so I reset power. That went well, so did the other 2. I now had to do a position fix, I fixed it using HON VOR as just south of Malvern which was correct.
Screens came down now, time for general handing, ok she said, I want you to do a steep turn please, 45deg AOB and maintain altitude & airspeed, now remembering the instructor’s tip yesterday I decided to turn right first, so a good lookout, round we go, I am maintaining, marvellous, she told me to roll out, and she didn’t ask for a left turn 😀 Thanks to my instructor yesterday for that tip.
Next was stalling, she told me to do the first stall on the present heading, so I did all my checks, did 2 90deg clearing turns and then into the stall, this went well, as did the other 2 which were a turn to final stall & a finals stall.
Next came the part that alot of people partial their test on, the emergency procedures, she tells me we have a simulated engine fire, so I close the throttle, mixture to I.C.O, fuel off, mags off, fuel pump off, I ask her if the fire is out and she said no, so I went into a Vne dive, she told me to level out, I asked if the fire was out and she said yes, but rather than attempt a forced landing she said to reset cruise power, then she asked me what else would I have done in that situ, so I told her I would maintain 80kts in the glide, select a field for landing, call ATC with a Mayday call, ( I ran through the whole call ), then the shutdown checks, and the passenger brief, off we go abck up to 3,000ft, she now said we had an engine failure, and she closed the throttle, so I maintained 80kts in the glide, selected a field, I told her which one, I then did the “why” checks, warmed the engine, she said the engine had not restarted, so I did the Mayday call, warmed the engine, and then did the shutdown checks, and warmed the engine, we turned base leg for the field, I gave her the pax brief again, then she told me to go around when I turned final, I thought this was a bit early but never mind, then when we got to about 1800ft she gave me an EFATO, (engine failure after take off), I thought we were a tad high for that but no complains, higher the better ;), I selcted a field which I thought was good, did the relevant checks, she then said ” well I would have gone in that field (pointing to another) but never mind, go around please”. She then asked me to climb to the altitude that I was to transit to Glouc at, I selected 1500ft, she said to take us back when ready, I have idented the ADF & DME after the IF work so I don’t have to do it here, but I did a FREDA check, and then contacted Glouc for a direct rejoin for circuits, they replied with “Exam 52 join right base for runway 09, the QFE is xxxx, report 5 miles”, I requested the QNH because we need to make a QNH arrival, ATC passed it on as 1036, so I set this on both altimeters, ATC then told me to contact tower 122.90 before I reached 5nm, no worries, a job I didn’t have to remember to do, tower told me to report left base 09 I am number 4 in traffic, and then told me to take up a right hand orbit, wow this is the first time ever I have had to orbit at Glouc, it must be busy, and typical just because I am on test. I then report orbit complete and they tell me to continue in, I am number 2, I have number 1 in sight, I do my pre landing checks, report base leg and they tell me I am becoming no.1, this approach is a normal approach, but as I turn final I overshoot, the wind is quite strong up here but ATC report wind calm on the ground, damn it I thought, never mind, I corrected it, we touched down well, and off we go again, it’s really busy again in the circuit, I call downwind, this is to be a flapless, so I drop the gear, continue downwind, I am number 2 and to report final, the examiner then tells me they have slotted in another plane before us, but ATC still says we’re number 2, I ask for a position on no.3 because the final approach path is glared out by the sun making it difficult to spot the traffic, I spot No 1 on short final, we’re on base leg now, and AGAIN I overshoot the final approach, by more this time, for goodness sake, I corrected it, then on final ATC said to continue approach, there’s 1 departing ahead of us, which I thought quite bizarre because I only had 1nm to run at most, I saw the a/c line up and away it goes, I was ready to go around but no need, it lifted off and ATC cleared our touch & go.
Away we go again, the plane just departed is climbing out straight ahead so is not affecting us, but another has just turned downwind and another is overhead which then proceeds to slot in between us and the one downwind, the examiner is saying, “I’d slow down now and think about an orbit”, I told her I was doing it, we’re alot faster than the traffic ahead which was a problem, I call downwind and request a glide approach, then tel ATC that I want to orbit due to separation as the glide is conducted at about a half mile final, so we orbit again then roll out on base leg, during the orbit a helicopter flies underneath us and is heading for 09, great, I keep him in sight, then tell ATC I am commencing glide and I report heli in sight, I could see the examiner is a little concerned, I didn’t care now though because I thought I had already partialled the test on the circuits, I’ll just do my best from here on in, we start the glide, I thought we were a little high, so I drop the gear and drop all the flap down, we’re stil high so I sideslip, we’re coming down quickly, I could see she was not impressed with this, we get near the threshold and she tells me to get off the rudder now, but we were still too high but I did as she said, we landed very well, exited the runway and she taxied in whilst I did my after landing checks, we parked up and went in, she asked if I wanted a cuppa to which I agreed.
Everyone was asking how I got on, I was sure I had partialled on the circuits, typical, why was it busy now? on test of all days? oh well, it’s done now, I can’t change anything, the guys were telling me to wait and see, it may be ok, but I was sure she’d say I’d stuffed them up. The CFI walked passed and was smiling a tad, I wonder if he knows, anyway she called me into the office, and waited for the CFI to turn up for the debrief, he came in and she shook my hand and said “congratulations, you have passed, well done”, I could not believe it, absolutely fantastic, she then gave the debrief, she had a few minor points to say but they were only her quirks, fantastic, we debrifed for 20 minutes, I shook her hand as she left and thanked her for the test, took my cup to the kitchen then couldn’t stop smiling, but I had to wipe off the grin before I walked out the kitchen but I couldn’t, stuff it I thought, I have just passed my CPL skill test, I deserve to smile. I walked out and everyone was congratulating me, my CFI was overjoyed and said “told ya you’d do it first time”, and yes, he was right, fanbloodytastic.

So, that is the end of my journey through the CPL course, I really hope you have enjoyed reading it and that it has given a good insight in what to expect, I have enjoyed typing it, now I have time to reflect on what is next, the Multi Engine rating followed by the Instrument Rating, unfortunately I am not sure I will be able to do an IR diary, it is such a vast course, and I have a feeling my night times are going to be taken up studying for it, but if not, they will be taken up studying for my English A Level that I took on in August and haven’t touched yet 😮

Dean

Thanks alot EGNM, I think I may need all the luck I can get.

Day 18 Wed 1st Oct

Well today is F170A day, and looking out the window there is NO getting away with it today, I have been running through the whole flight in my head over and over again making sure all my intricate mistakes are erradicated mentally so hopefully when I get in the aircraft I will replicate.
The nerves are getting to me now, I spend a portion of the morning on the loo (sorry too much info there 😉 ) , and I don’t want any breakfast but I know it’s best that I eat something, I force down 2 slices of toast, head up for a shower and then look at my flight planning, I have to be there at 12:30pm, so I will leave at 11:30am which gives me an extra half hr to do any last minute checking like NOTAMS etc.
Driving up the motorway I put my music on as loud as I can tolerate, this takes my mind off the job in hand, but inbetween every song I get that horrible stomach churning feeling, never mind, try and relax, it’ll be fine.
I walk in and my instructor is about ready, he asks me if everything is ok, I replied yes but the aircraft is still in the hangar with a plane in front of it and the hangar doors shut (they’re big doors too), so he will have to give me 15 minutes to get the plane out. I refuelled her on our last flight so she should be ready to rock and roll, I get her out and start the walkround and A checks, the instructor does not want to observe me doing this.
He books out with ATC, and joins me in the aircraft, I am feeling a tad nervous but not as bad as I thought, I was more conscious that I’d forget something more so than nervous. Anyway I get her started, I settle down by setting all the radios, and making sure the volumes are correct, I call for taxi, and away we go, I’m still feeling in a bit of a trance, I am running through the departure in my head a thousand times per second, we get to the hold for runway 04 and there are 4 aircraft in front of us, this is ok, it may help to settle things down a tad, all the power checks complete, vital actions checked, and the departure brief given which went well, all’s well and good so far.
Our route was to Craven Arms, which is about 8 miles NW of Ludlow, it was on a track of 324deg, so departing I kept telling myself, “commercial departure, turn left to track 294 until the airport is 30deg off the tail then turn onto our heading of 334deg” (drift allowance).
Air Traffic clear our departure, must be vigilant, the circuit is very busy, so full power, and wow she needs alot of rudder to counteract that 200bhp engine, no surprises here though, Ts & Ps in the green, airspeed increasing, 70kts, rotate, airbourne, insufficient runway ahead, positive rate, gear up, now trim for 87kts in the climb, passing 600ft I turn to heading 294deg, then the field is 30 off the tail and I turn to heading 334, all going well so far, 1000ft passes, landing light off, fuel pump off, Ts Ps in the green, QNH set on Cotswold, then it was a case of “oh balls” I forgot to set MAP & RPM to 25″ & 2500 for the climb, but that’s ok, max continuous thrust has a limit of 6 minutes, we’re in this limit, so back they come.
We level off at 3,500ft, I do a FREDA check, Vis is good, it’s a bit choppy today as there is an inversion layer which we’re in, we’ll keep it here for now. First waypoint passes, we’re a tad right of track, so I make a heading correction of 6deg left, I bug the heading and tell the instructor, I am settling down nicely now, then we near Bromyard, time to set the Barnsley QNH on both altimeters, and call London Information on 124.75, they’re a tad busy, they say I am number 3 and they’ll call me back. We now pass abeam Tenbury Wells, I make a further heading correction of 6deg left, so we’re now heading 322deg, I can see Ludlow & Craven Arms, London Info calls me, I “pass my msg” to them, all’s well now, Instructor then says “take me to Alcester” which is East of Worcester, ooo goody I have been there before so I know what it looks like, I draw a handsfree line on the map, then get out my ruler to make it straight, then use my square protractor to get the track of 110deg, the wind is from 010 so this gives me max crosswind, I work out my max drift to be 9deg so I need to be into wind by this amount, my heading for Alcester is 101deg, and standby for an ETA, we have 38nm to run, I work this out to be about 19 minutes, so I give the ETA as 01 (which is 01 past the hr), I am now making sure we stay on track, we touch the south of Stratford so we are slightly left of track, I make a 7deg heading change to the right, I now pass off London Info and call Birmingham Radar as we are passing under their zone and request a Flight Information Service, they pass the Birmingham QNH which I set on Altimeter 1, I leave Altimeter 2 set on Barnsley.
Alcester comes into view quite quickly, we are early in relation to our ETA, we must have had a slight tailwind, maybe I should have revised the ETA, I will make sure I do this tomorrow. I point out Alcester, he was saying “is it?” “is it?” I identify it by 3 land features, he gives the thumbs up, he ten says “I have control, can you put up the screens please”, so now for the IF work, I am at ease now, it’s just like a lesson, just don’t balls anything up I kept telling myself, we did a couple of turns, then some climbs & descents, then he failed the AI & DI, time for partial panel work, descend to 3,000ft at 500fpm please, the key here is small movements, so I set a little less power, lower the nose to maintain the speed, then set the rate of descent, this goes well. Time for some Unusual Attitude recovery, down we go into a dive and a steep turn to the left, he calls “recover”, so I remember the “power – roll – pitch” command, power to idle, roll the wings level, stop the airspeed, then stop the altimeter, perfect (ish). We now do one climbing and turning, this works well as well. A position fix prevails, this goes well, we are where I said we were, always a relief LOL
Ok screens away, in your own time do a steep turn at 45deg angle of bank, either left or right first, I do another FREDA check to settle me down, I change tanks again and note the time, then I do the left first knowing I have issues with this direction, I always seem to lose 100ft, anyway a good lookout, and round we go, and as sure as eggs is eggs, I lose the 100ft, never mind, to the right now, this one goes real well.
Time for stalls now, clean stall, goes well, base turn stall, goes well, final approach stall, goes well, wow this is going ok.
Time for an engine fire, ooo goody, my favourite :D, so, remember the checks, throttle closed, mixture lean, 80kts and maintain in the glide, props full fine, fuel off, mags off, fuel pump off, heater off, is the fire out? I ask, no he said, time for a Vne dive, so good lookout, down we go, Vne approaching, is the fire out? yes it is he says, time for a forced landing now, so back to 80kts and maintain in the glide, I do a Mayday Call, pick a field, do the shutdown checks, then ask him to unlatch the door, push his seat fully back, retighten his harness and BRACE, I then change my mind about that field, there are telephone lines in it, I go for the one next to it full of sheep, this’ll give them a fright (not really, we won’t get down that low), so, base leg, gear down, we will make the field so flaps 10, we’re definately in so flaps 25, then flaps 40, we are a tad high so time to sideslip, go around he calls, so away we go, then he gives us an EFATO, time to pick a field again, I did, go around was the call again, away we go.
Ok, take me back for circuits please, so I level at 1500ft, call Glouc for circuits, without boring you to tears even more these go extremely well, we taxi back in, shut down and go for the debrief.
He said, well done, that was a very high standard of flying, only some minor points to bring up, first off, when you turn for your diversion, pass the place & ETA to London Info, next, in the steep turns, if she asks on test to turn either way, choose your best way first, i.e. to the right, if this is perfect the left turn won’t look as bad, good point I thought there, next, in the approach configuration stall, don’t lower the nose too much, and finally the PFL was a tad high, just be careful of getting high when there is not alot of wind.
He signs my form, I am ready for test, YEEEHAA, he said my flying was of a good standard, now all I have to do is convince the CAA examiner tomorrow, fingers crossed 😉

Hiya Darren

Thanks alot, PM answered 😉