It's All Over Rover

And there it is, the all important sticker in the logbook. What a journey it has been. In keeping with the trend so far, the day did not go smoothly as planned.

Driving out to the airport first thing, I could see that the weather was packing up and by the time I got there rain was falling steadily. Alistair the examiner was aiming to be there at 8:00, so I arrived at 7:15 to give me time to sort out my paper work and to preflight the aircraft (yes, in the rain).

Pretty much on the dot at 8:00 Alistair turned up, and it was straight into the ground work. This involved interpreting the Met (weather reports and forecasts), followed by various questions on IFR law and other items. The last question was "so are we going?". By this stage the weather was not looking good, with my main concern being that yes we could go, but coming back could be an issue with us then having to divert somewhere. So I elected to delay for half an hour to see how the weather was trending. All good, so we waited. And waited. And waited. Finally we got airborne at 1:00. This caused a problem for Brendan who was meant to do his flight test after me, but because of this delay won't be flight testing for another week.

So on to the flight. And what is the trend? Well that would be for the plan to not go smoothly. So it goes like this. Airborne out of Nelson and straight into cloud and rain. Remember that hood which I've been wearing for all my training? Well today I didn't get to wear it at all as I was in cloud for most of the flight. Once climbing out on track Alistair pulls the power on one engine, as to be expected. Went through my engine out drills ok, then continue. ATC then calls me up to let me know that there is a problem with radar, so I may not be allowed into Wellington airspace. Man oh man, this could be a problem. I then get told to hold at a reporting point for five minutes while they sort the radar problem out. Looking at my chart I find that this particular reporting point is not on my route. I call them up to question this, and they then clear me to hold at a reporting point which is on my route. Radar problem is sorted so recleared to continue.

The rest of the flight went as planned, with an engine failure into Paraparaumu, complete the approach and then back to Nelson. Because of the weather and traffic there were a few changes along the way as ATC kept things going, and I think they were still working around the earlier radar issues. Approaching into Nelson I was in cloud right down to the missed approach point, with Alistair telling me that I had visual at this point. Looking up from the instruments I had to strain a bit to see the runway. Yep, weather was not good. To top it off though my landing was nice and smooth, probably my best in the Seneca so far.

Taxiing to the parking area I had no idea how I had done. I knew that I had not done anything wrong, but to be honest there were parts of the flight which were pretty sloppy, and probably on the edge of the fail limits. Parked the aircraft and then Alistair turns to me and asks "so how do you think you went?". Oh man, what a question. So I told him that I think it went ok, but that I kicked myself a few times as it definitely wasn't my best work. Alistair then says "yeah there are a few things which we'll talk about in the debrief, but you did ok, congratulations you've passed".

I tell you what, up to that point I was feeling pretty neutral about it all. The flight was hard but I did enjoy it, and thought that if I had to do it again then so be it. I didn't really care one way or the other. But when Alistair said that I had passed I then realised that I did care!! I just can not describe how good it felt. Three months of training had led up to that one point...you've passed.

So that's the story. Three months and it's all over. It feels particularly good to have done the flight test on an actual IFR day and to have to deal with the various issues along the way.

And now I head back home next week, and begin what is probably the hardest part...finding a job. But that is a whole new story. I hope you have enjoyed this one.