In preparation for taking my checkride, I was given a series of tapes called "Checkride Tips From Flying's Eye of the Examiner". One of our columnists on AVweb is this great old guy named Howard Fried. Howard used to be an FAA examiner and administered checkrides, and because of this, had a regular column in FLYING magazine called "Eye of the Examiner". Well, through no fault of his own and some shady shit on the part of the FAA, he lost his Examiner status and thus stopped his column. He has since recorded all the "tips" that he gave in his monthly column on tape and packages them up as "Checkride tips...". Since the company who produces the tape set is one of our sponsors, I was given a free set to use before I take my checkride and then I would write a review of them. So, I was listening to these tapes Tuesday night when I heard something that got me worried.

Howard was recounting a story (which he loves to do and often does...even when you try to stop him...he's like a verbal locomotive, once he gets started on a story, he won't stop until he hits the end of the line) in which one of his checkride applicants was in a hurry to take his checkride but only had 11 hours of solo time. Howard then pointed out that he was a part 61 (relates to Federal Aviation Regulations...don't worry about it) and needed 20 hours solo. I freaked. I only had 10.3 hours myself. I immediately called my instructor and asked him what the deal was. After he told me to call him back in 20 minutes, I ran and checked my copy of the FAR/AIM, even though it was last years. According to Part 61.107 (I think), in order to fulfill the requirements for a checkride, a pilot has to have 10 hours of solo flight. Sigh of relief time...but is it?

Upon reading further, I see that the pilot also has to have 5 of those 10 hours in solo cross-country's. Shit! I've only done one solo cross-country and it only took me 2.9 hours. What am I going to do. As if that wasn't enough, I then read that one of these cross-country flights has to be at least 150 nautical miles total, a full-stop landing has to be made at at least 3 points, and one of the legs of the flight has to be at least 50 nautical miles in lenght. Great! No one ever told me about this. So, after some quick discussion, I planned to meet my instructor at the Boca Raton airport at 9 AM and we'd plan my flight. Things then started looking up.

My instructor uses the same exact flight for each of his student flights. For this flight, it's a trip north about 78 nautical miles to Ft. Pierce airport. After landing there, departure is to the southeast and you head to Pahokee airport on Lake Okachobee. After that, you return to Boca Raton airport having flown almost exactly 150 nm, going a little over. But, my flight had a snag. See, about 3 weeks ago, they moved our plane to another airport, about 13 nm north of Boca. This cut 13 nm out of the total trip time because I would start at Lantana and return to Lantana, not Boca. Shit, what to do. Then it hit me. Since I had to land at at least 3 points and had to fly at least 150 nm, why not do more? So, the flight I planned went from Lantana to Ft. Pierce to Pahokee to Boca and back to Lantana. 155 nm total. Cool, that will get my solo requirement out of the way and all I'll have left is an hour and a half of simulated instrument time and I'll be ready. But, no, things aren't that easy.

I called my instructor yesterday to see when he wanted to go up. We had to do it then or it would be never. That is when he told me about postponing my checkride. Well, at first I was kind of bummed, but then I was relieved. This would give me a whole 7 days to go over the checkride tapes, which I hadn't finished, and I wouldn't feel as rushed. Kewl, I can wait. But, that's not the only problem. Last night around 8:30 I get a call from a co-worker saying that the plane is down for repairs. WTF? I just flew it Wednesday. Well, apparently, the time is up for some routine maintenance, they have to do something to the tail, the starter is spewing oil and a new one is on the way from the manufacturer and there's a burn hole in the cowling. A burn hole? I never noticed this. So, unless they can get everything taken care of by Tuesday at the latest, I'll have to take my checkride in my instructors Cessna 150. I can handle it, it's not that hard, but I'm more used to the Katana. But, I'll just have to take what I can get. I know I'll pass anyway.

Well, that's the story about the checkride. My flight Wednesday went really well and I had fun, but I was one worn out little 'Bear when I got home. Only flew for 3 hours, but it's like sitting in a car for 3 hours only hotter and you can't pull over to go pee. I hadn't meant to use my entire entry talking about flying, but I did so deal with it. The parents are coming down the end of next month and I really want to get my ticket and get some more time in so that I can take my pop up for a flight. He's really looking forward to it. Well, that's it for me for now. I'll try to upate more later on. Till then, take care of yeself.