Tune Up

I caught up with MikeB for some flying time in order to tune up for tomorrows flight with my new and hopefully last instructor. I have an evaluation flight scheduled for 4:30 with my new CFII Tom in hopes of meeting the IR Criteria for at least 3 hours in preparation for, and within 60 days of the practical test. After that the sign off and schedule the elusive check ride.

Mike and I met at 6:30 and talked about some things that an evaluation flight would cover. I should mention that Mike is well on his way to completing the CFII course. We fly really well together and I always like to tap his experience to help my flying. I did let him know he could use me for the test student (aka guinea pig) when he wants to practice. The plan for tonight was to do some confidence building with the basics. Heading heading heading and scan scan scan was my mantra for the flight. I don't verbalize my actions as well as I should but my regular flying with my Bride does not warrant this. Mary is not into knowing everything I am doing she just wants me to get it done and be safe. Tonight I was going to talk my way through the flight, accomplish my tasks and keep it business like.

It was good to role play ATC/Pilot comms and pick up my clearance and fly it. Once underway and intercepting the V166 course we diverted which was good practice having to fly the plane, pull plates and work the (role play) comms. I was well within PTS standards for the flight and just got slightly behind the plane on my first approach a bit high on my GPS 35 into Summit, KEVY. I went missed and climbed out to a safe practice area to do a few maneuvers, I was having fun. It was time to head back to ILG so I contacted Philly approach, for real this time, and requested the ILS 1 approach advising I had current wx. After radar contact I followed the vectors they gave me and eventually was handed off to the Wilmington Tower. I flew a perfect ILS, needles crossed, on glide and my checklists flowed very well. The tower asked how this would terminate and I said full stop, we can circle to land one nine. They acknowledged circle to land to the east advise one mile final on approach. At one mile I called, circled to the east and focused on keeping it tight to the runway. I was looking good, base to file in one continuous circle with a smooth landing.

I'm ready for my eval flight! 1.4 in the book tonight, one hour simulated and the confidence level way up there. Mission accomplished!