Day 16 - Skills Test Day!

Hi All,

Almost 850 viewers already! Well, I was flying at 8am this morning, and my Skills test was scheduled for 5pm.

I met the examiner at the airport at 4pm, with all my documents; Licence, Medical, Weight & Balance, Performance Calculations, Logbook and the CAA forms.

He gave me a route to plan, The flight would be to Almeria Airport. The route invlolves completing the SID from malaga, joining the A44 airway at MGA VOR and Usually completing a STAR at the destination.

With the weather got, flight route planned, Notams & Flight plan sent to Eurocontrol, It was back within minutes; Approved.

There wasnt much else, he did ask some questions about the low level en route chart, but that was it really. Asked me about the weather, what runway to expect.

Once downstairs, he asked me to make a quick turnaround. Its bad in malaga as the Instructors/Examiners are the only one allowed on the ramp with the student. So when the examiner arrived, I didnt know if there was fuel in the plane, or even if the plane was in malaga.

While I had done the flight plan & route, he was looking over my Licence & Logbook, making sure I had done all training and met the requirments.

We soon got onto ground control for clearance and taxi, We started the long 3.2Km taxi to runway 13. They asked us to expedite, as there was a number of larger aircraft behind us.

We were given the VIBAS 1A departure, but the controller asked us to fly on a heading of 090 passing 1000ft to get us out of the way of all the other operations.
It was nice to see the control tower so close lol.

Before departure, I already had the Navaids set up and identified. I gave him my takeoff brief, and had all my performance calculations to hand. The Accerated Stop Distance Required was 800m, and we had the full 3200m. I probably shouldnt of told him this, because when we got to 71kts he called for an aborted takeoff. So we stopped and continued from C6 where there is still over 2300m of runway available.

After departure we were told to fly direct MGA to join A44 to AMR. Which we did, at FL100.

The airway is over 102miles, so it was very boring for the best part. We descended visually below the airway to perform our general handling parts of the flight test and continued at FL90 to AMR.

At the top of descent, I was given an engine failure. So, got it secured by just touching the relevant controls (except the cowl flaps) and started descending. We approached NUSMA, which is the Initial Approach fix for the NDB approach, Pumps On, Lights and pre-landing checks! The arc is a 17mile arc, but you only join it for 20degrees, than you are on the inbound bearing for the NDB.

The wind was 15kts, 30 degrees off the runway. I had my ADF needle glued the 068Bearing,
We did a single engine go around and a visual circuit.

I made one mistake, I had 2 stages of flaps on about 5 miles from touchdown. The 180hp engine struggled to maintain level at 740ft with gear and flaps 20. Once visual with the runway, we descended below MDA after the MAPt.
We passed Asymetric Commitment Height of 500ft. Basically, after this height above the runway you have to commit to land, as if you try go around, you will most likely loose 500ft in the process of applying full power and getting the aircraft configured in such a way that you will have a climb performance!

Once on the ground, that was the worst part over, the Non-Precision approach, and it had been done on one engine so that was a relief.

We taxied back to the runway and changed our callsign to return to malaga. We were cleared to FL140, I had to tell the controller that neither me, or the aircraft would make it to FL140. It was almost 35degrees outside. The climb performance at FL80 and above goes to about 200fpm.

Due to other traffic in the airport, we were given a non standard Departure. Flying to the AMR VOR, going outbound on the 220 radial for 20miles and holding.
Some of the way back was in IMC, we were in a nice layer of stratus cloud, It was nice and smooth and the OAT was still almost 10degrees.

Earlier in the day with my Instuctor we did an approach to Granada and the visibility was so bad that at the Missed Approach point on the VOR approach we couldnt see the ground! So we had to go around. Typical High Pressure haze sitting over the place.

The ILS into malaga was good, I was ahead and asked would I be given vectors or would I have to fly to MAR vor to complete the entire procedure. I was told to anticipate flying to the VOR and then getting vectors for a 14 mile final.

The interception on the ILS good, I heard a Ryanair 737 behind us being asked to reduce speed, the controllers words were " Due to a slow light aircraft on the approach",

So, the throttles were moved forward and we finished the ILS at 160kts. At 4 miles, I brought the power back and within gear operating speed got the gear down to slow things down. Worked great, and we didnt disrupt the airport operations.

I taxied back and saw the examiner write "PASS" on the report! Wahey! My centreline steering was so good that you could heat the "thud, thud, thud" from the nosewheel hitting the lights. Once parked up he told me I had passed! Im delighted, It was a really good flight.

So, Ive spent 12 hours at the airport. The test route was just under 3 hours! Im ready to hibernate for the next 2 days before I return home!

Bye for now...

Andrew