That makes me remember my exam....
....
I had choosen a female examiner, since I had thought it would have been easier to stay "relaxed" during the flight than a male. what I ignored and nobody told me, was that she is one of the most demanding examiner.
and she doesn't say a world out of the "what must be said". In the middle of the exam, during our first debriefing, I had to convince her that buying her a coffee and a croissant, since she had no money on her and I was going to offer her, was not bribery.
two days before it I should have had a precheck with the chief instructor. As soon as I was doing the outside check, I saw that something rang a bell but I was unable to understand what it was, and luckily it was still a precheck. the aircraft had a different sitting....Well, the front wheel had gone flat completely and the plane was just sitting on his nose.
the ride was cancelled, but in order to make me do the exam without moving it of a week, the gear was oil refilled in order to stay in place, so that I could go for the check, just before the 100 hrs maintenance.
Well, the day of the exam arrives. I start the briefing, the first part of the exam, with a meteo/nav debriefing, plus a lot of questions about flight an aircraft, technical questions aboout the engine and other things about W&B and so on. After everything I take off. It does not make 30 seconds I'm airborne, that she cuts the engine for me to recover (that in lugano means go for the lake in front of you, even if it means a swim), nav flt, and a precautionary landing (just the pattern til almost the ground and then recovery), slow flight and IFR condition in it too. She makes me change the flight I've prepared, since "well, it's annoying...don't you think? everytime I have to check a student from your school I've to make the goddamn same route. please... planify something else. won't you?". then we head for the airport of Locarno, and perform a T/G, a G/A , a grass landing and and an engine off landing. I realize my first big mistake when she asks me before the first approach preparation which is my politics wth fuel, since I've not touched anything yet, and steer with a lame....I'm changing it before we land and use the second selector on the way back (stupid me stupid me stupid me
it's miles away clear that I have forgotten it and did not worry to change it every 30 minutes as I had at first said I would have done). the notepad she has in front of her starts being written.
I head to the tarmac, dismount and - surprise! - the nose gear is almost flat again. At that point I believe the exam is failed, the examiner will surely have something to say about it, but she adds: "no worries, I was told about it, and tomorrow the plane enters into the 100 Hrs maintenance. it was clear it would not have "endured" the flight, but we will finish before it goes completely flat". On my head I start chanting victory, since I believe I will not have any flap 0 landing with the aircraft going flat, since I hate zero flap landings. I actually pray for the coffee, we have one, we debrief and have the briefing of the second part of the flight, with the airwork: stall recovery, spirales, 30/45/60 bank. Finally we head to the airport. I just have to land and it will be over. In my head I can see that it must have gone well, apart from minor things and an exercise I had not done before in life, otherwise said spin recovery, that she tought useful I should know "even if it's an exam, you can learn something, right? so, I do it once, we do once together, and then you do it...". Once I contact Lugano, I already feel relaxed. everything will go smoothly. But I feel freezing when she says "well, we still have flap zero landing to do, right? what about now?". In my head all my hopes go flat. how can I perform a zero flap landing? if I touch bad the front gear will go flat, I will touch the propeller and destroy the engine...I pray God as I never did before. Perform the approach, enter downwind, go for the base and final. the mantra in my head, among the check is an "our father...". I land. I imagine the front starting scratching the rwy, the aircraft steering on the left and going out, finishing the exam in the lamest way
with the application of the sentence I had added in the before flight briefing, not knowing if it was the case then "in case of a real emergency, your control...". On the contrary, the aicraft stays on the center of the RWY without problems and I go for the parking. She looks at me and says: "well, you should always land without flaps. it was the best landing you did". I head for the parking, switch everything off and dismount. She says "I will not let you wait to go to the school for the debriefing. just say, now, that it's was perfect. my congrats.".
Understandable then why, as soon as I received my temporary license, I was at home opening one bottle after the other of champagne, drinking by myself too!!!
