My Private Check Ride in a Schweizer 300C
 

All in all, I really have to say that my knowledge exam interview was probably more of a concern than my checkride was.  However, I was very lucky that I had been prepped by Josh Thompson, probably one of the best CFIIs and ground teachers I’ve met.

My FAA examiner was Jerry Marshall, who I had met once before which helped to alleviate some of the anxiety of the whole situation – and he really seemed to be a very experienced pilot and a good guy.  Right from the start he did everything he could to put my nerves at ease by letting me know what we were going to do, and that he’d be asking me questions beyond the interview and during flight, and not to read into his reaction.

After going thru all of the routine paperwork… the 8710, the fee, the written test score sheet, 3rd class medical, etc… he got right down to business of interviewing me.  I was told by my CFI to “only answer the question”, and not offer any more.  This was probably the best advice that I received.  Being that I had spent untold hours & days preparing and studying I felt like I really knew it – but my CFI quickly demonstrated how someone can back you into a corner in a hurry.  The game is kinda similar to how little kids keep asking “Why?”  The examiner can (and did) take your answer and ask you to explain more (for example… VFR minimums – seems easy, yes?).  If you start trying to recite all of the minimums for every airspace, altitude, etc… the examiner will see which one your weak on, and ask you more questions on that and quickly back you into a corner – and trust me it just gets worse from there in a hurry.  Instead the advice I received was to ask, “What do you want to know about VFR minimums – can you be more specific?”  Make the examiner fish it out of you.  …in other words, make the examiner do most of the talking.  Answer ONLY what is asked for, and nothing more.

Overall I felt that the interview went really well, and he only caught me on a few little things – like mixing up the symptoms of hypoxia and carbon monoxide poisoning.  The definition of Pressure altitude was another we got jumbled up on – but it was more of a semantics issue of describing how pressure altitude affected flight versus what the true definition of it really was.  I had a correct answer, but it wasn’t the answer for the question Jerry was asking – again, answer only what they ask!!

Throughout the test if there was something that I didn’t know, (also per the advice of my CFI), I told him – I don’t know, but offered my best guess of what the answer was.  This was an excellent thing to do, since I was asked questions that odds are I wouldn’t of known, but Jerry was looking to see what my “judgment skills” were like.

After the interview was complete we proceeded to the checkride phase of the test.  I had previously run weight and balance calculations, weather stuff (www.duats.com does the job nicely), and plotted the “course” on my map (made sure to have an up-to-date version), and allowed him to review them, along with answering his question of “was I supplying an airworthy helicopter?”.  The answer being: “Yes”… (I was getting good at his game by then!)  ...he then quizzed me what makes a helicopter airworthy?  Answer: “A.R.O.W., and and all A.D.s have been met.”  That’s all it took to satisfy his question!  (AROW: Airworthiness Certificate, Registration, Pilot Operating Handbook, Weight & Balance info)

We started by doing a complete pre-flight inspection of the helicopter.  I decided to take the approach of saying aloud every item that I was checking, the reason for checking it, and common problems to look for while checking.  I tried to be as thorough as I could, and along the way Jerry asked questions about parts of the helicopter to see what my response was – ie: “Boy they sure used a lot of washers to on that tail rotor to make the nut work on that bolt!”  I explained that they were actually very thin weights used to balance the tail rotor system. …stuff like that.

While getting in and belted up, I offered a preflight briefing (how to use the seat belts, no smoking, first aid kit location, etc…), and he responded “consider me briefed!”.  It was nice not having to do that, but its an excellent thing to get practiced because once you begin taking passengers, your not only required to brief them, but if you’ve got a polished routine down, you appear and feel much more professional.

I started going thru the startup checklist in much the same manner as I did during the pre-flight inspection – talking thru it.  I also made it clear that I was using the check list as a “check-list”, not a “do list”.  I wanted to make sure he realized I knew how to startup the helicopter without the aid of that list, but to purely use it as a verification that I haven’t missed something.  After getting the helicopter up and running & hovering, I performed a final check of everything… using another system that I was taught…  HEFR-T:  Hatches, harnesses, homework.  Engine T&Ps in the green, no warnings / cautions, and plenty of fuel.  Frictions are off, everything feels normal.  Radio’s set to the right frequency, radio call is….., and my Transponder is on ALT (since I’m under Mode-C in Denver, CO)  …upon receiving clearance to depart from Jeffco tower we took off into the wind and departed for the course that was planned.

At this point I’ll have to thank all of the truly excellent CFIs that I flew with.  Most of my time was spent with Jack Ferguson, a CFI who learned down in Australia and really did a great job of not only teaching me to fly, but preparing me for everything that can happen.  I was lucky enough to fly with 6 different instructors, including Mike Fyola, the owner of the school, Rotors of the Rockies, in Broomfield, Colorado.  Even though the school tried to make sure everyone was teaching in a similar manner, each instructor did things in a slightly different way.  This was good, because each CFI’s difference gave me a more reinforced feel for what I was doing, along with each person offering something the others may not of.  Example: When I first started, I was lousy at landing from a hover.  It always ended up being a really jumbly feeling, and certainly never smooth.  One of the guys I flew with only once, taught me that the front left skid is usually the first to touch the ground.  As soon as it touches, push the cyclic towards that direction, and use the collective to gently rock the helicopter down the rest of the way.  Beautiful!  It worked perfect, my landing miseries were solved, and my landings were becoming smoother than my CFIs!

…okay back to the checkride… I’ll have to say that it was really quite un-eventful.  Shortly after getting approval to change frequency from tower, I verbally went thru the motions of opening my flight plan (switching to the FSS freq., “Denver Radio, helicopter 103CP Northeast of Jeffco, request to open flight plan”…etc…).  Pointed out methods that I could use to determine & monitor wind direction.  Pointed out check points along the way, and calculated my true airspeed and ETA for arrival at our “destination”.

About a 1/3rd of the way to our supposed destination, Jerry said, ooh, look at that cloud bank, we can’t go in there! (Imaginary cloud bank of course)  We need to divert to Erie – what’s our new heading going to be?  So I eyeballed what it should be off the map, verified it visually as being correct, announced my course, cleared the turn (verbally saying this too), and made my turn to the new heading.  Jerry then proceeded to have me go here, and there, and turn and turn and turn in effort to try and get me lost.  Fortunately there are two very large antennas north east of Jeffco airport that makes it virtually impossible to get lost!  It was during this time that he had me demonstrate a “vortex ring state / settling with power” and recovery there from, and also quizzed me on recovery from retreating blade stall and low “G” problems and recovery.  It was while letting him know exactly where we were on the map, and changing course back to our “new diverted destination” that Jerry used a distraction tactic and did a throttle chop.

AUTO!  Pushed down the collective.  BIG MISTAKE I MADE!  For who knows what reason I didn’t push the collective all the way down!!  …and a split second after realizing my mistake, Jerry beat me to pushing it the rest of the way down.  At this point I figured I was cooked, but tried to make the best of the situation.  Since my rotor head speed had eroded a bit, I pulled some rear cyclic to get my rotor head back up to top speed, then started a gentle turn to line up for a suitable place to autorotate to.  At about 200’ AGL Jerry advised me to resume flight and head back into Jeffco.  The next 2 minutes seemed like hours of complete silence with me figuring I blew my checkride.  We didn’t say anything because we both knew my mistake.  Then he suddenly did another throttle chop whereas I promptly entered an auto getting that collective all the way to the floor.  Jerry advised me that I did that one properly, and I replied that I realized my mistake on my first auto as fast as it hit, but offered that I did use the rear cyclic to recover the rotor rpm from the situation -- which seemed to please him a bit.

I made all the usual calls going back into Class D airspace, and requested use of one of the unused taxiways for “pattern work”.  It’s a great place to practice in since you have a pattern all to yourself (inside of a pattern for the runway), and don’t have to contend with any other traffic.  We performed the usual laundry list of stuff, normal approaches, steeps, run on landings, run on takeoffs, max performance, and slope landings.  Then while doing a very slow hover taxi (again advice from my CFIs – keep all hover ops SLOW and LOW), Jerry did a throttle chop for a hover auto.  It was an “okay”, but not great auto.  We tried a couple of more with Jerry’s only comment of not liking the amount of sideward movement I was allowing.  So Jerry had me chop one on him to demonstrate – and his were about the same as mine so the hover autos seemed to be settled at that point. (although I should mention that he said he hadn’t done one in years, and I had only practiced them a week earlier! …so I’ll have to give him some credit! …mine needed to be better! LOL).  Next up: regular autos.

From a checkride of another student that Jerry did a few weeks earlier, his comment to my CFI was that he wanted to see the flares of the autos at a lower altitude.  So Jack Ferguson (my primary CFI) worked me on flaring closer to the ground.  So for Jerry I did just that, which kinda freaked him out and made him grab the cyclic and balloon my flare on my first auto.  I told him the situation I just mentioned above, and he asked me to try one again, flaring closer to 35-45 feet instead of 25-30.  This auto went real smoothly and he seemed satisfied and said we could go back in.  So I requested reposition from tower, landed on the school ramp area and began shut down – again doing it in the same manner as startup.  Jerry informed me that he would meet me in the hangar.  So I finished the shutdown, and went into the hangar.  At this point I really had no clue as to if I had passed or failed my checkride especially with my bunged up autos grating at my nerves.

Jerry had quizzed my CFI on the height of flares for the autos, and after he verified that I did indeed do what I was taught he commenced to go through with me everything that I made mistakes on from my knowledge test thru my ride.  Luckily I knew everything that I done & answered incorrectly, and he didn’t point out anything additional.  It’s always bad when you make a mistake and not realize it!  So after all of that, I still didn’t know if I had passed or not.  I was beginning to prepare myself for having to do a retest, knowing the severity of screwing up autos on your checkride.  Then to a indescribable relief, he gets out his printer and says, “okay, I want you to check your info over so your certificate is correct.”  I just about fell over!

I was so exhilarated that I could now take friends and family up, but after all of that, the last thing I wanted to do was fly!  …but I was soo grateful that I had passed, and did feel good about my ability with regards to how little that I actually did mess up on. (anyone who says they did a perfect checkride is a liar! LOL)  I guess after talking a little more that the mistakes I made on my autos were fairly common for people getting their “private certificate” and were within the standards for being safe …with the exception of not getting the collective all the way down on my first throttle chop, but by knowing how to recover from it, seemed to satisfy Jerry along with another successful throttle chop later.  The FAA examiners really have to make a judgment call based upon whether they feel this person is a safe pilot – so I guess its not 100% based one’s knowledge, but pilot judgment and how well one controls the helicopter determines whether they’ll pass or fail a student.  (you’ll really need to talk to a FAA Examiner directly to verify this one for sure – this was just my gut feel from the situation, and I’m sure there’s probably much much more they’re grading you on!).

The unfortunate reality is that for flying, one has to keep on top of their game and not make mistakes, because especially with helicopters, it only takes one mistake to really screw things up!  …you don’t get a second chance.

…but since my checkride I made it a point to get everything that I had ANY degree of concern on polished (both my autos and knowledge stuff) to the point of being 100% confident in, and continue to keep practicing and reviewing just to make sure I’m staying fresh and on top of it all.

I currently try to get up once a week, and every month do a session of autos (and anything else I feel I need to polish on) with a CFI, along with working towards getting my commercial certificate.

Hope this helps someone!  I’ve had nothing but a blast getting to where I’m at now, and looking forward to many more hours of helo flying in the future!

Ryan Shacklett