Now a Commercial Pilot!

17th February 2014, alarm goes off at 05:00. This is one of the few days where my eyes opened as if I'd only closed them a few seconds beforehand. My mind is already pretty much switched on, it's like I'm on autopilot mode. Today was the big day, everything that I had done in Arizona will lead to what would happen in a couple of hours. I knew it was important, but at that moment, I was as calm as I would have been for a normal flight. Thankfully, I managed to get a solid 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep in before my sleep cycle alarm gracefully awoke me from my slumber.

I drove in with a classmate who had his CPL after me with the same examiner. The weather, unsurprisingly was clear as it could be in Phoenix, the air crisp like it usually is at that time in the morning, however it was forecast to rise from 9 degrees to 27 degrees Celsius in the afternoon, therefore I opted not to wear a jacket (not that I had my warm Oxford jacket in Arizona anyway). After receiving my aircraft assignment from dispatch, Seneca N91KT is what would potentially be the last aircraft I would step foot in at Falcon Field. My briefing was at 08:00, however I was yet to receive my navigation route. I saw my examiner at the stroke of the hour. After he examined my sectional chart for a good 30 seconds, he said firmly that I was to plan a direct leg from Chandler Airport to Gila Bend Airport. From that moment, I had 45 minutes to plan everything; charts, navlog and flight plan. I had already done the weather, and since it was only one leg, there wasn't too much to do.

Once ready, I was back into the office with the examiner to begin my ground brief. First was an inspection of my chart, which he accepted. He then asked me what documents are needed on-board the aircraft for it to be airworthy. Then came the time for me to give my weather brief, which is never usually an issue in Phoenix since it is SKC VFR 99% of the time. However I always call up the briefer before a progress test, this was no different. I made sure that no AIRMETS, TFRs or any adverse conditions that I may have missed when I initially got my brief. After was the Weight and Balance where he quizzed me on various things like the maximum weights, how CG affects stability and what the multiplying factors for the TODR and LDR meant. I was also asked to name pretty much all of the V speeds for the Seneca, which wasn't at all a problem seeing as they should probably be the first thing to be memorised, even before your first flight. 

So after breaking a few drops of sweat, I went out to pre-flight the aircraft. I'd flown this particular aircraft a few times before, so I was rather familiar with it. One of the biggest problems with flying the Senecas here at OAA, is that the instrument layout varies from aircraft to aircraft. It's not a catastrophic problem, but can be frustrating at times since you have to slightly alter your scan. This particular aircraft was not equipped with an ADF or DME. The aircraft was also fitted with a DGI instead of a HSI. This makes life slightly more challenging, particularly for my navigation and diversion. The HSI has the luxury of being slaved to this electrically enhanced compass which is situated away from all the ferrous materials, whereas the DGI is not. This means that every 15 minutes, the DGI has to be manually aligned to the standby compass in order to correct for earth rate and transport wonder (all of which is explain in great detail during the instruments lessons in ground school). 

Seneca II Radio/Nav equipment. Not all the same.

The flight began rather smoothly; the start, run-up, taxi, take off and departure were all pretty faultless. The navigation went rather smoothly, I was on top of my gross error checks, cruise checks and gave regular position reports. When I got to my halfway point, it was clear that I had drifted slightly left of track, and I referenced an airfield and an interstate to prove it. I then used the driftlines to work out that I was approximately 8 degrees off, so I corrected 16 degrees back to the right to get me directly to my destination at my planned ETA. As soon as I had my destination in sight, I was diverted to a private airfield called Mauldin, which was North West of my turning point. Again, the diversion went rather smoothly, slightly off again on my halfway point, so I used a small 2 degree correction to get back on track. 

After the navigation, my examiner vectored me southbound where he gave me an engine fire (not literally), so I followed through with the drill, and as briefed, I fully shut the engine down, in this case the left engine. After fully shutting down and securing the engine, the examiner said that the engine was no longer on fire, however did ask me what I would do right now if this were to actually happen. I said that since the aircraft was stable and no longer on fire, I would take the aircraft to Goodyear since there are facilities to get the engine repaired, to which he nodded, and I assumed that he was happy with the answer. 

The next significant part of the test came the circuits, which were done at Buckeye Municipal Airport. The first landing was a flapless, followed by an engine failure after take off, which subsequently led to an asymmetric go-around, asymmetric landing, and then a departure back south. I felt the circuits went okay; the winds were rather strong, particularly during downwind where I had to use a rather large drift angle to keep it straight, and so my approaches landings weren't as good as they had been previously. 

Nevertheless, very soon after departing it was time to put on the hood for some instrument time. What this part involved was the standard SPIRIT checks, followed by VOR identifying and tracking, position fixing off 2 VORS, timed turns and unusual attitude. All of which, I felt at the time went rather well, however I would say that even at this stage, I am not fully confident on the steam dials, especially after building a rather unhealthy dependency on the G1000 during the instrument phase of my single engine time. 

After all the instrument stuff, it was onto the last part of the test, which was general handling. We covered all the stalls, steep turns and a Vne dive. All of which are okay at this stage of training since these manoeuvres are all drilled in early on and throughout the training. Steep turns are rather different at first in the Seneca since the visual references are completely different. I found the best way which was shown to me by an instructor was to line the top or bottom of the center windshield bar and the bottom or top corner of the windshield with the horizon. That usually gave a perfect 45 degree turn with little or no altitude loss. I am aware, reading that sentence back that the technique is quite hard to imagine, I do assure you that it does work! Anyway, the Vne dive, isn't strictly a dive at Vne. The controls are handed back to the student once the examiner has got the plane established in a dive at or near Vno, and the idea is to safely recover the aircraft and get it established into a Vx climb before it hits Vne. 

After that, was the arrival back in to Falcon Field. That was it, or was it? We arrived from the South West, pretty much on a straight in for runway 4R. It was immediately clear that the traffic pattern was hectic. When I got my initial call in, the tower immediately responded with "Seneca 91KT, do not enter Falcon Class D", at which point we had to hold in a rather awkward area between two Class D airspaces, with Phoenix Skyharbor's Class B also lingering near us. Thankfully at this point, I was allowed to use the GPS which had the airspaces mapped out on the screen. After about five minutes, tower got back to me and I was cleared for a straight in on runway 4R. 

The landing, after-landing and shutdown went without a hitch. After assisting me in pushing the aircraft back, the examiner gathered all of his belongings and told me to meet him back inside the building. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the point where my heart rate started to increase by several BPM, I could feel my capillaries swell up and my nerves somewhat more sensitive. I even found it trivially difficult to tie the aircraft down. Once I'd eventually gathered all of my stuff, I made a long walk back to the academy building where the big bad examiner was waiting. 

Once I was inside the academy, the debrief began. My examiner did mention that I got one of the ground questions wrong, which was where the radio-telephony license is located. My reply was that I didn't know, however he informed me that there is no certificate, and that it would only be there on international flights. I was caught out on that question. Other than that, he mentioned that I should have familiarised a bit more with the DGI since I had a habit of checking and moving it too often, and that in the future if I am not familiar with the aircraft, then I should really ask for another. He also made comments on the approaches; admittedly they weren't amazing so he did just say to use less abrupt control inputs when on final. Other than that, he said that he was happy with everything else, there was not one point where I busted any of the altitude or speed limits, and so he ended with the words "I don't want to fly with you again, so It's a pass". At that point in time, it felt like 1000 tons had suddenly lifted off my shoulder. All of the work I put in over the last seven months, and especially since starting the multi-engine phase had all paid off! 

My winning CPL route

After getting my logbook stamped, I pretty much had to do a lap of the building to get this CAE form signed my different people from different departments, for example: Finance and Accommodation. Not that I minded really since I felt so over the moon at what I had just achieved. Along the way, I took the opportunity one last time, to speak to a few instructors and staff from HR who I had kept in touch with throughout my training here. It was a rather surreal feeling because I was in a routine, this is the building that's provided me with the wealth of knowledge that I possess today, this is where I became a pilot. And this place has helped me to become the proud holder of a Commercial Pilot License. 

My advice for the CPL Skills Test is to put the work in early. As soon as I got the study materials for the Seneca II, I read over and over again. Whenever I had a day off, I'd go to the academy especially to sit in an unused Seneca out on the ramp to chair fly and learn procedures. I even practiced diverting myself, just so I could get used to doing it in-flight. Some of these things certainly seem ridiculous, but hey I passed! I have no regrets of the amount of time I spent studying for this. Everyone on this course has paid a serious amount of money to do this, so it's in everyone's interest to get the most out of it. This is what I've always wanted to do, and now I'm doing it. The road was rocky, and everyone had their own challenges. Ultimately you have to put the work in yourself. There is plenty of time for fun, but the time is to be used wisely. Our class were hit with delays quite badly, which explains why me and a few other comrades ended up finishing after seven months instead of the usual five. Apart from that though, there really isn't much for me to complain about. My time in Arizona has been simply incredible, the people, the places to see, and the flying, I feel truly blessed to have had this opportunity, and hand on heart, if someone gave me the choice then I would go through ground school again to relive this experience. 

It is the end of one journey, and the beginning of a new one. That evening I boarded BA288 back to London Heathrow on standby. The next chapter of my story is the Instrument Rating. Stay tuned.

Now a Commercial Pilot!