Solo Flying to Prepare For The Checkride
I did some solo flying today. I logged 1.1 more hours. Now I have 39.5 hours. Technically speaking, I need just a half hour more to meet all the minimum requirements.
As far as the recommendation for the checkride is concerned, I basically have it. My CFI told me to go ahead and schedule a checkride at Classic Aviation at Addison Airport. That's where my Designated Examiner has his office and accepts appointments. Unfortunately, the soonest I could schedule an appointment was Saturday, May 24. I say unfortunately because I was hoping to get this done next week, but at least the extra time will allow me to continue to sharpen my skills a little more.
As for today's flight, I worked on some landings (short field, soft field, slips to a landing), then took the plane out east of the airport and did forced landings (cut the engine's power to idle to simulate an engine failure, and glided down to a couple of hundred feet above ground in a place to touch down), did some steep turns, then did some turns about a point and some s-turns... I finished off with a power on stall and a power off stall, then headed back to the airport and ended up landing behind a Hawker (raytheon) jet.
My plan is to do some additional solo flying next week, then Wednesday and Thursday before my checkride, work some more with my instructor on the oral portion of the checkride as well as some additional airwork. Then Saturday morning, I'll fly the plane down to Addison and do my checkride. And with luck, I'll be a private pilot a couple of hours later.
