I'm a Commercial Pilot Now

Let's celebrate! As of Friday, May 25, 2007, I'm a commercial pilot (single engine land). (And yes, I know I'm behind in blogging; it's been a busy couple of weeks at work with the end of the fiscal year). I'm finally starting to catch up to Milen in terms of certificates. :-) Although, I still have a long, long way to go.

The commercial checkride itself was quite uneventful, and much, much easier than I had anticipated. I guess that my CFI was right after all: I was for sure ready to be a commercial pilot. Here's what the examiner had me do:

• Of course, the oral exam. I'm happy to say that I only missed one question on the oral; that had to do with light gun signals from the air traffic control tower. So far - great!
• Normal takeoff from the airport -- to get established on course for my pre-planned cross country. That went quite well, but then again, there was not much to mess up.
• Diversion to another airport -- basically get on course to the airport, verify that you are established on course, determine how long the plane is going to take to get there.
• Maneuvers: my DPE picked steep turns and chandelles. Nice! I just nailed these!
• Stall series - both power on and power off, with and without banks, in clean and dirty configurations.
• Emergency approach and landing. This dreaded maneuver went just fine -- to my great surprise. It sure propped up my confidence for the performance landings, which were about to follow.
• Performance landings. I messed up on the short field. I was told to land right on the numbers, which were right at the edge of the runway... I slammed into the numbers, and I'm happy that Mr. William T. Piper engineered a strong landing gear for the PA28 aircraft series. On the other hand, I excelled at the power-off 180. I landed right in the middle of the 1,000 foot markers on the runway!
• Eights on pylons. Surprisingly, I nailed these as well. Even with some wind. :-)

And that was it! Wow! So much easier than I had ever anticipated.

We headed back to the home airport, and I was a commercial pilot. At the end, I was surprised that the DPE had a portable printer with him. He ended up printing my temporary commercial certificate -- so now I carry an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper in my logbook until my permanent certificate arrives.