One Check Ride Down!!!

I wanted to wait for this next post until I finally finished my check ride...which was today. It was originally supposed to be last week, but I had a couple not-so-good flights that set me back a few days. It seems that I was able to find a new way to hook (fail) rides each time. I've decided that it's ok to fail as long as I don't do it for the same reason more than once...unfortunately there are several ways to fail a flight ;) It never feels good to fail, of course, but it was a good reality check for me and helped me to refocus.

So...as I said, the check was today. The whole thing started off with a bit of a surprise when I was switched to fly with a Lt Col (#2 man in the squadron) instead of the regular check pilot I was scheduled with. This made me a little nervous. Turns out the switch worked to my benefit...he was awesome. The check ride consisted of a flight, general knowledge (like a verbal quiz), and a tabletop emergency procedure. During the flight I messed a few things up, but had an overall good flight. My weakest point were my patterns to land...not the actual landings, just the setup for the landings. I have a tendency to do well on the hard stuff and mess up the easy stuff...go figure. The general knowledge portion went really well...better than I expected actually. The final portion was the emergency procedure. It was a little rough around the edges, but a he felt I knew my stuff well enough to let me pass. Up to this point I still hadn't been told whether or not I passed...so I was really nervous. It had been about an hour since I finished my flight and I knew I had messed some things up so I was convinced I had failed. As we came to the end of the brief he told me the news...I passed!!! It certainly wasn't pretty, but I'll take it.

There are only 5 total check rides in T-37s and this is considered by many to be the toughest. I can't tell you how relieved I am to have it over with. Now my focus switches to instrument flying. We've gone through all the academics for instrument flying and now I have to convert that to actual application. I'm excited to move on though...

I won't post again until next Friday...hopefully nothing too exciting happens the rest of this week...I just couldn't handle it ;)