Checkride Passed!

With my luck, I figured I was going to have the hardest checkride IP and horrible weather. Well, I sort of had half of that. I had know idea who the IP was that was going to check me. I asked around but nobody had flown with him. Also, all the weather forecasts were calling for storm today with the cold front passing through. 

I was supposed to have the brief at 933 but he didn't land from his flight that morning until then so I didn't brief until 1000 or so. The brief is typically considered the hardest part of the check. Well, the IP did a good job of getting all the information out of me. It lasted for quite some time, when normally it lasts about a half hour. My job was to brief the oil system and any thing else he asks me. He found some random one's that I don't think I even thought to look up. For example, what is the civilian equivalent of the oil used on the engine. I knew what the military version was but did not even think to look up the civilian version. Then we talked about the profile we were going to fly. Which we were still going to fly even though it was mostly clear outside the forecasts were still predicting doom and gloom.

Off to the plane we went. He asked me a few questions about the plane, like what things are, what are we supposed to check during preflight, etc. Nothing too difficult at all. Then we got in and left. I have found out that after flying with so many different IP's, the fact that I went to USC bodes well with the IP's because they can talk about college football all day long.  So, we talked about that all the way out to the training area. 

The rest of the flight went pretty well, the weather could have been better but it wasn't horrible. The winds were present but not overwhelming. In fact he gave me top scores for my landings which was unexpected. Basically what they are looking for in this flight is to make sure you are safe to fly solo. I did not do anything overtly dangerous so therefore I was declared safe to solo. Yay. 

So now, bright and early tomorrow morning I get to solo. I feel like this happened fast, but I have flown 13 flights now, not including the 3 where I was in the back seat. I know what I am doing up there so, I guess that is the next step. 

Anyway, the next checkride I have isn't going to be until my Instrument check, but that won't be for quite some time. I got precision aerobatics and formations to look forward too. 

Chris