All right! I passed my flight test, so I will get my new license after doing a bit of paperwork :) Here are the details.
So on October 21, I went for a flight test with an big-wig examiner from the club, but it wasn’t a terrific flight, and I failed two items. In perspective, a large number of students fail parts of the test, but I’m disappointed because these were not hard to get right. After a bit of intro describing how the flight test works, I will list which ones they were.
There are 30 items that mark the student’s knowledge on the ground and their performance in the air. Each item is marked out of 4, and anything given a 2/4 or higher is considered a pass of that item. To pass the test, there must be no failed items. In the case that one or two items were failed, the student must do another flight test, called a “partial” flight test this time, so they can demonstrate that they have corrected the mistakes. The partial only covers the parts of the flight test that the student failed the first time around, so if they failed one item, they do not have to demonstrate anything but that one item on the partial test. If the student is very unlucky and fails three or more items, then the entire flight test must be redone without omitting anything.
The ground portion of the test is about 45 minutes and the flight takes about two hours.
While doing slow flight, I gained a couple hundred feet of altitude, and noticed but didn’t recover for a couple reasons. Well, the limit is 100 feet outside the target, so I got marked 1/4 which is a fail.
After getting back to the airport, my examiner asked me to do simulate landing on a soft field. I passed that, but then had to take off again, this time demonstrating a takeoff from a short field. While I was waiting my turn to take off behind three other planes, I leaned the engine mixture to prevent fouling the spark plugs. Unfortunately, I forgot to make the mixture rich again before I took off, and got another failed item. The reason a lean mixture on takeoff is dangerous is because the engine might not get all the fuel it needs and there is a good chance the engine will stop. Obviously a dead engine just after takeoff is a bad situation to be in. :)
I booked another flight test with a different examiner for November 11, and showed that examiner that I could take off safely and also maintain a given altitude while in slow flight. By the way, the examiner happened to be an air traffic controller as well, so he really good. The flight went well, and I now have finished my Private Pilot License!
After submitting my paperwork to Transport Canada, I will get a stamp on my Student Pilot Permit so I can fly before my official license gets to me in the mail.