Profile of a Private Pilot

Check Ride

with Pete Foreman

Part Four

By Bruce Decker

Hood Work

Pete may ask you to descend and hold altitude and specified heading and will then ask you to ascend to specified altitude and turn to specified heading.

Emergency Procedure

• Make sure that you speak the procedure aloud.
• Trim to 65kts quickly while looking for an emergency landing field. Verbalize your rationale for field choice (e.g., clear of trees, fences, and buildings; into the wind; flat or uphill; surface hardness, etc.).
• He may declare that your engine is gone.

• Immediately squawk 7700 and radio tower. He makes a point that if you have communication with the tower it makes no sense to switch from the frequency to 121.5 or other. He also believes that a pilot in an emergency situation should only call mayday, tail number, engine out, and location, and should then resume flying and preparing for landing. He is not a proponent of digging out the emergency checklist unless you have plenty of time. He would rather see you focus on site selection, glide control and cabin preparation than communication and checklists.

• He does not like you to overfly or fly near ranch houses or livestock because this disturbs the ranchers.

Pattern Work

• Make sure you focus outside the cabin for most of your pattern work (Pete is real big on see-and-avoid).

Soft Field Landing

• There was no 50’ obstacle assumed.
• Pete wants to see a stable descent rate and airspeed control.
• He allows you to land anywhere on the runway surface, but wants you to try for the center.
• Roll for 200-300 feet, then adjust flaps to 10 degrees for soft field takeoff.

Soft Field Takeoff

• Make sure flaps are at 10 degrees.
• Know your climb out airspeed.

Short Field Landing

• Pete was not real picky about the 50’ obstacle on landing.
• He wants you to land right on the 1000’ markers. He would rather have you come in short and have to add power to make the 1000’ markers than to overshoot on glide. Dragging it in is OK.
• He wants to see a quick stop.
• Make sure that you go to 0 degrees of flaps immediately on touchdown, wheel to chest and brakes firm.

Conclusion

Pete's major likes are:

• Demonstration of calmness in the cockpit.
• Demonstration that you can think for yourself and have not simply memorized procedures and regulations.
• Demonstration of see-and-avoid throughout the check ride.
• Verbalization of thought processes

Pete's major dislikes are:

• Arrogance in the cockpit.
• Unwillingness to accept criticism.
• Machismo.
• Abrupt altitude/attitude changes.

You have just read the final installment of this article. Our thanks go out to member Bruce Decker for this informative contribution.