Cole F – Commercial Pilot

My checkride started bright and early at 8am at Torrance airport. Being able to do my checkride at Torrance airport was very nice because we were able to complete the oral portion in the PSA offices (a setting I was very familiar with) and complete the flight portion in the same airspace I had been training in. After starting out on my planned cross-country, Andrew (the examiner) diverted me to John Wayne airport, where we did a normal landing and then turned back around towards the Long Beach practice area. On the way, we worked our way through some of the air work required, like slow flight, approach to landing stall, and departure stall. After simulating an engine failure, we used the breakwater to do eights on pylons, followed by a climb back up to finish up the required maneuvers, we did lazy eights, steep turns, and then headed to Torrance to finish our landings. The first approach terminated in a go-around, the next in a soft-field landing, then a short-field landing, and finally the power off 180 to wrap up the exam. I can’t thank all the instructors who helped me get ready for the checkride, gaining so much insight from different instructors helped me find what helped me the most in my training and I felt more than prepared for the checkride itself.