Stage 3 Flight Check and FAA Private Pilot Written

After a very short night sleep since we lost power for the last 2 days with the ice storm that came through 2 nights ago, I managed to have a very successful day! Today I went out to Horizon Aviation in Norwood as usual, except today I went in for 8AM as I was up for my Stage 3 Flight Check with Paul Jacob, the Check Flight Instructor. I had previously planned out a mock cross-country flight down to Hyannis with all the necessary calculations for headings, fuel consumption, timed check points, and the weight and balance as usual. I had about 1/2 hour to 3/4 of an hour of oral quizzing on different information that I need to know about. No real hangups there. But, he did manage to throw a few trick questions at me! It was some really interesting stuff though to learn about. Haha. Went out to the plane and pre-flighted it as usual, it was exceptionally cold though! Thank god for gloves and winter hats! It should be interesting to see how I bare it in a couple months in the dead of winter in New England!

We simulated calling up ground and asking for VFR flight following and simulated calling up Boston Approach and opening my flight plan through the Flight Service Station. I flew to my first checkpoint and a little beyond it toward my second checkpoint as scheduled when he pulled the power back slighty to simulate an engine problem and had me divert on my own to the closest airport. I chose Mansfield since it was slightly closer than turning around and heading back to Norwood. This time, the diversion went really well - I took my time, talked out all my steps, made a quick best guess heading and added for variation, and confirmed my best guess by double checking with the GPS. We made it to about 5 miles away from the airport when he said that was good enough, I had maintained great situational awareness and was able to divert myself without a problem. We then went into my maneuvers including turns around a point, steep turns, stalls, slow flight, instrument flight, emergency landing procedures, unusual attitudes, and flew back into Norwood to complete my short-field and soft-field take offs and landings. That was it! All of which took me just under an hour and a half. No major problems, so it was safe to say I passed. Then I was out the door driving down to Providence to take my FAA Private Pilot Written Exam - I passed it with a 93! I needed a minimum of a 70 to pass. No problems there either.

The only hiccup is that I am still 2 hours shy of solo flight time that I need to make up before I can go up for my end of course check with the Chief Flight Instructor. And since he is not up in Norwood on Friday, that seems like it is only going to leave Saturday, which would mean that I will have to bump back my FAA Check Ride until after the holiday.....since I've made it this far this quickly, I guess I can wait another week. We'll see, things might work out differently, but I am definitely finishing up soon!

Back to work tomorrow.....ugh!