Check Ride: The details.

Flight #: 076
Examiner: Dale Morris
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N956SH
Duration: 1.3hrs
As PIC: 1.3hrs
Cumulative Time: 90.1hrs

This was the day I've been training for... a long time to get here, but I was prepared. Thanks Kristie! Oh, and while I was having my Check Ride Kristie was getting married... so big weeks for us both.

Anyway, the Check Ride for Private Pilot Rotorcraft:Helicopter is broken into three distinct parts; the FAA written, oral and flight examinations. All the previous HAI tests (oral, written and flight) were all based on this format so that I would be prepared for whatever I was thrown. Thankfully, I was well prepared. I took the day off from work, as this is really an all day thing.

Before we get into details, lets talk Dale. Dale, or "The Dale", as he is known around Hillsboro Aviation is somewhat of a legend. Dale is the toughest SOB pilot that has ever walked the earth. He's 22ft tall, carries a double bladed axe, and hangs out with a giant blue ox, named Babe. Nah, that's Paul Bunyan, but Dale has a similar mystique about him. Dale is certified to fly almost everything, both as a pilot and as an instructor. He flew in Vietnam, he worked for the FAA as a crash site examiner, and now he is the gatekeeper to pilot certifications at Hillsboro. He knows his stuff, as you can imagine. He also is a hard-ass; plain and simple. Dale is known for telling stories, with somewhat of a poetic license on the details, mind you, that usually start with statements like:

• "...this pilot I knew took his fiancee, which he just asked the night before, for a flight..."
  
• "...just got his private pilot license, just like you are doing now, the day before..."
• "...the FAA has a recording of the tower communications of this flight..."
  

...and end with a "punchline" like this...

• "...they pulled her from 10ft of water. Fingernails torn off, because she could not remove her seat belt."
  
• "...they brought back only the heart. Which is the only thing that did not burn completely to ash."
• "...and he died because he skipped that step. His death generated that FAA rule."
  

Severe dude. Now, I don't doubt the truth of the stories he tells. I'm sure they are all true... he's seen a lot of things in his life so far; but he does like to give you a bit of a shock.

Dale is also known for going for the weak spot. If you show a crack, he'll dive in and rip you apart. I've been told (and this could just be part of the myth) that he's kept candidates for 8 hour oral exams before... because they showed a weakness and he was on them like a junkyard dog. Along the same lines, Dale is known for his signature tag-line, "Prove it.". Which basically means you have to be prepared to back up every statement with actual written regulations in the FAR/AIM or Helicopter Manuals.

As I said, Dale is one serious dude.

FAA Written Exam
I took and completed this some time ago to get it out of the way. Got a 90%. Even though the test is out of the way, all the content on the test is directly applicable to the FAA Oral Exam. Passed, and behind me.

FAA Oral Exam
I arrived 15 minutes early, prepared, but nervous to meet Dale. At about 9:15, 15 minutes late, I got a call from HAI dispatch saying that Dale would be at least 20 minutes late. Great, this is exactly what I needed... a traffic-delayed, pissed off Dale.

Dale arrived at 9:45, about 45 minutes late. He came right in to the exam room, and I learned that he did not drive here today, but flew. So, clearly the upset at traffic thing was not going to be a problem. Turns out, Dale lives at the base of a mountain with his own private airfield. He and his wife both fly, and do most of their medium/long distance flying on their own. When Dale has a Check Ride week, he flies down to HAI for a few days.

First impressions... nice guy. No double bladed axe either.

Anyway, we jumped right in to things and he started by giving me a scenario. It was something along the lines of this,

Flash forward one week. I have my Private Pilot license and a buddy of mine is coming in to town. He wants to go to a flight to the coast for a quick tour of things.

No problems here. Lots of things to talk about... so I did. I talked about:

• the rights and privileges of a Private Pilot,
  
• the documentation I had to have on me for the flight,
• the fact that I could pay "no less than my pro-rata share for the flight",
• the methods and data I would gather for filing my flight plan,
• the air spaces I would have to cross/enter and the visibility, cloud clearances of each,
• the safety briefing I would give to my passenger before the flight
  

Along the way he threw in some additional details and scenarios to deal with. Things like indicator lights coming on, other traffic, weather conditions, etc. All in all it went really well. I was a little rusty on the minimum visibility requirements to land at an airport (not the airspace requirements), but knew exactly where it was in the FAR/AIM. I think if I could not locate it in the rules he would have dove on me a little, but since I did, we were good.

He then went in to his stories. And, the myths are true... he tells stories in the most graphic and gory details you can imagine. The moral of all the stories are:

• Private Pilots know nothing. They think they know everything. That is what gets them killed.
• The rules are there to be followed. Each and every one is put there because of a (near)fatal accident of another pilot.
• You will have an accident / failure. Question is not if, it is when.

We continued talking about general rules, mostly in the context of stories and experiences he had. Dale likes to talk. He's seen a lot, and he likes to tell you about it. Each of his stories generated new questions, and we would talk about the decisions the pilot made correctly/incorrectly, etc. Very conversational.

We reviewed my logbook, and I learned that I did a few things incorrectly along the way, which he helped me correct. Nothing too big, but I neglected to list the actual airports I visited during my "Triangle of Death" flights.

That lead to some further questions about regulations, required documentation kept in the helicopter, carried on my person, etc.

Then he asked me if I had any questions for him. I did. I wanted to know about the Robinson Factory Safety Course that I am required, by the FAA, to take once I have my Private Pilot Certificate. The conversation turned helicopter-technical, but very friendly. He told me that even if the course was not required, it would be highly recommended gave me this as an example, the H/V (Height & Velocity) diagram that is in the Robinson R22 Flight Manual.

The diagram illustrates the safe (unshaded) speeds and above ground level height in which to operate a helicopter. Basically, this describes how to fly safely. Looking at the graph to the right, you can see it is safe to fly at 5ft above the ground at 40knots. But, unsafe to be at 200ft at 40knots. Why? Well, in case of an emergency you will need to get into an autorotation to land safely. And, the two things you need in an autorotation are altitude and velocity. You convert both of these into rotor RPM to generate lift and get you to the ground safely.

At 200ft/40knots you don't have enough "fall time" to speed up the rotor sufficiently to generate enough lift to stop your descent.

At 5ft/70knots you are going too fast to be able to flare and slow the helicopter before you fall to the ground.

So, he asked, "Then is 300ft/40knots safe?". I quickly said, "Yes.". Bzzzt... well, sorta.

Dale said this is exactly why one attends this course. The course is given by Robinson test pilots... the best in the world, by his calculation. They created this graph through actual flights. Hundreds of them to fill in the graph. They would climb to 20ft/20knots, kill the engine, and try to land. In this case, the would hit the ground like a bag of rocks. If the helicopter would still fly, back up, and 20ft/30knots, and so on. While 300ft/40knots is technically safe, it is safe for a Robinson test pilot... most likely not me. The tests were also performed in helicopters at the top of their game, the ones at HAI are pretty well "worn in", to say the least.

I told him I was already signed up, August 25-28th, and he was impressed and called an end to the oral exam. Told me to go ahead and pre-flight the helicopter and that he was going to have lunch.

All in all, great session, I thought. He was tough, and I could clearly see where he would chase you down like a dog if you mis-stepped. I had really prepared for the exam and he really seemed to like most of my answers.

I packed up, and headed out to good ol; 956SH for the flight exam.

FAA Flight Exam
I had been told to just relax on the flight with Dale... that he likes to give "extreme critiques" during the flight, but to just let them float past you. Only be concerned for the "take me back to HAI" comments. That means you failed.

Anyway, pre-flight went well, liftoff was perfect and we headed out to the west practice area for our maneuvers. At my first checkpoing, "1 West" or the Hillsboro stadium, he asked me to divert to Skyport Airport. I located it on my map, set a new course, and headed for it. As soon as I had the airport in sight, I told Dale, and he asked me to climb to 2000 ft and show him settling with power.

I began my climb, did some S turns to check for any surrounding traffic, oriented myself into a tailwind attitude, and then started to slow down. I got the first onset of vibrations at about 20knots, mentioned that we were coming up on settling with power. Continued to slow, and got a quick drop of about 50ft, quickly recovered and was at about 1900ft in straight and level flight. Perfect execution.

Dale then asked me to turn around for an off airport landing, and I headed to the general area he was pointing out. About 2 minutes later he announced, in the calmest most relaxed voice, "Simulated Engine Failure", and began rolling off the throttle. Now, I knew he was going to do this, at least once, in the exam... but I'm used to Kristie. Her method is a little bit different. More along the line of "ENGINE FAILURE!!!" and killing the engine. I've got about 1/2 second to slam the collective down and get in to an autorotation. With Dale... cake. By the time he finished the second sylable of "engine" I was already lowering the collective. Took us in to a perfectly smooth autorotation. Once I told him my landing spot, he had me recover and we continued on to our off-aiport location.

We came to a nice area, surrounded on three sides by high trees.
He asked me to land. I did my off-airport check (PAWOTFEEL), making sure to be aware of obstacles, wind, turbulence, etc.... I landed nicely.

Wind was such that I had to do a max performance take-off into the direction of the trees. I told him so, and he agreed. I lifted off, and then told him I was going to back up a bit and hover back towards the "mouth" of the area to give myself more of a safety margin for takeoff. That was a genius move. He was very impressed that I would make such a decision. All credit goes to Kristie, of course, cause she taught me everything... but that is the kind of thing Dale really likes. Working outside the box. Anyway, I took off, with plenty of room to spare.

Once I climbed to altitude, he asked me how much power I was allowed to pull, maximum, and I told him. He then asked me to head back to HAI to go in to Charlie pattern for more maneuvers.

I checked weather at the airport, talked to the tower and requested clearance back in to the pattern. I was given permission, and we flew the 5 minutes back to the airport.

Once I got there, he asked for a normal approach to the 2nd pad. I executed this, and landed within 4 feet of my desired spot (the requirement). He then asked for a normal take-off and a running landing. I did. Running landing was a little sloppy at the end, but within requirements. I'm supposed to say on the center line all the way down, but was about 1ft off to the right by the time we stopped. All I got was a "Pass, but nothing to write home about.".

Dale then asked me for a autorotation to any pad of my choice. I came around, set things up, and killed the throttle. Slid right in to an autorotation... but I was going to overshoot my spot. So I called a go around. A go around is pretty much like a do over when you were a kid. Once you call do over, all rules go out the window and all bets are off. Same thing with a go around. If you are not feeling right, or something is off, doing a go around means that you just want to try again. Dale can't ding you on the maneuver, can't fail you for making a good decision, etc. So, I got to try it again.

This time I started a little earlier, entered nicely, and was very focused on not dropping below my safe speed. So much so, in fact, that I was a bit high. I suppose you would rather be a bit fast than a bit slow, but still, was not perfect. I got another "Pass, but again, nothing to write home about." comment out of Dale. Which was fine... I hit my spot, I did it safely... done.

Next, Dale asked for a hover autorotation. Oh boy, my nemesis... the hover auto. I set up, executed... and it was crap. Well, not totally crap, but it was a lot bumpier than my normal. He gave me a look and said "That the best you can do?". I told him no, and said that I could do better and he said "Then show me on that is better." So I did. This time, it was not as a rough of a landing, but my attitude was off... I was still withing the 10º heading I specified, but still not great. He was satisfied tho.

We then went to the edge of the north helipad for a slope landing. If you could really call it that. Think of parking your right tires on a curb. What would that be... 3º slope? maybe? Anyway, that is what he wanted... and that is what I gave him. Simple, fast, done.

Then I got what I had been longing for... "OK, lets head back to the ramp, you are all done.".

Success!

Got clearance from the tower, headed back to the ramp and shut down. As soon as the collective was fully down, he came on the intercom and said, "Congratulations.".

As I was completing the run-down procedures, he asked me why a post-flight was necessary. I came up with some crap about wanting to leave the helicopter in good condition for the next person, and to make sure there were no problems I needed to report. "Is that all?". I jumped out of the helicopter and began my post-flight. He followed around asking why I was touching all the bearings and looking at the teletemps. It was then when it struck me... you do a post-flight to check the condition of the helicopter when it is still hot. If you have a bearing near-failure in flight, land, and don't check during a post-flight... the bearing will cool down and probably fail your next flight. If you check at the end of your flight, you will know instantly when you touch a 200º bearing that it is bad... right then and there.

After I gave him a "better answer", he told me a story about a pilot that had just come in from a mission... landed and was tempted to skip the pre-flight in order to head to a party that was going on in the hangar. The pilot did a quick post-flight and ended up touching a tail rotor bearing that was red-hot. Burned the hell out of his hand. The mechanic that investigated told him that the bearing was completely seized up and the tail rotor was minutes away from catastrophic failure. If the post-flight would have been skipped it would have surely come apart at lift-off the next day.

I finished with my post-flight, and on the way back to do the log-book signing, Dale tole me that last story was a true story about him in Vietnam. And he said, again, that the rules are there to save your life... his surely would have had a turn for the worse if he ended up skipping the post-flight.

That's it... we signed the logbook, got my temporary Private Pilot certificate signed, and we were done.

I've got to say, while Dale is one tough examiner, he does not meet the mean, rude, crude, dude reputation that is whispered around the airport. I can see he hard-ass side, no doubt, but he's a really nice guy. I really came in prepared for this because of that reputation. And that is the point, after all.

We got along quite well. In fact, he invited me up some day for "the best damn home-made ice cream you've ever had. I'm not bragging, you understand, it is a fact."