“Why not go out on a limb? That's where the fruit is.” ― Will Rogers

This morning I woke up early like I usually do for work, 5:30 am. This time though, I wasn't going to work. I grabbed my headset bag, my flight plan, sectional, and sunglasses, and headed to the airport.
With the feeling of fall in the air, I tried to huddle up in my hoodie and do my preflight quickly! You can definitely tell that fall is on the way! I set my sunglasses on the empty seat next to me in the helicopter for when the sun came up. Flipping my nav lights on and rolling up the throttle, I lifted off the ground and took to the crisp morning air. The exhilarating feeling of looking to the person next to you and seeing the empty seat instead is a bit of a chilly feeling at first if you are nervous.

"Gggosh! Is that Pottsburg or is that Panstown?"

After a few minutes in the air my mind and body calmed itself and settled into its routine, practiced muscle movements, and training took over. Going into the pattern, calling anyone out there in the world who is listening, and letting them know my intentions was eerie without the sound of other traffic around me or the reply of the ATC tower.

A check ride shouldn't be an extremely hard or daunting task to complete. After all, if you fail, you aren't condemning yourself to never getting your license. You are only postponing it. One fact that I like about check rides is that if you botch something up, it doesn't mean you fail completely! It only means that he will come back at a later date and redo that part of the check ride with you. Unless, of course, there are a lot of things that need work and then you'll get the pink slip.

My home airport on a sectional

My first destination has a golf course right next to it. Usually you get people who stare at the aircraft, watching as we wave back to them while in a hover on the runway. Today, it was the usual golfers who are not phased by a bright orange helicopter flying only a short distance away from them. They were probably more cranky about the fact that the wind from the helicopter was messing up their shot than seeing something out of their ordinary everyday lives.
After that pattern and taking off again, away from that airfield I went. Heading northeast towards the foothills I changed my gps and radio, checked my carburetor heat and looked for my next checkpoint. Curving around the Delta airspace in which I feel at home in, I glanced at my surroundings and tried to block the rising sun from my view by using the windshield.
Winding around towers, watching for crop-dusters and my next airport, it started creeping into my mind the thought of doing a check ride. Although I'm not too worried to do my check ride, it's a little different to think about when you are on the ground, sitting in a warm office with your instructors whom you trust and allow your worries to spill out. It is a completely different matter to think about a check ride when you are alone in the aircraft with the sound of the engine roaring in your ears while you try to summon the courage to realize you are doing it by yourself. No tips from the instructor can echo through your headset now!

 One pointer that I have heard is that if you blow the DPE away on your ground work, then he'll be more likely to make excuses for you on the check ride. Perhaps a wind gust did it? People don't enjoy having their judgement tested. He will be thinking "I really had this one pegged. This one really knows what their talking about!" 


Finally, I came upon the second destination in my flight. Even though I've been to this one several times, I still always have a bit of a hard time spotting that airport. It always seems to pop up on me a couple miles away as I am arriving. Although it was a bit windier, and definitely over the 10 knot report from my home airport only 10 miles away, there is no reporting station there so I could get away with it.
For those who don't know, solo student pilots have a 10 knot limit on flying.
Why not get in the extra practice? I quickly did that pattern and was off onto my next leg of my flight plan, where I had decided to go around one airport which is usually busier and stop off on my last destination. I knew I would be a little late getting back to the airport, but my ground speed was showing 70 with indicated airspeed at 85. I had a headwind.

 If you go into your appointment with a point to learn something, you will come away better on every check ride than before. If you fail, you will know exactly why you failed and it'll be obvious what to do better next time. It also would help you calm your nerves before or during the check ride to try to learn something. After all, he really is just a CFI with another certificate.

In the same sequence if you have too high confidence or too low confidence, it might not look good to your DPE, so keeping that in mind will benefit you either way.

Historic building that my school is in.
Those are our helicopters.

On my way home and knowing another student was waiting for the heli I knew it was no reason to rush. He can sit and wait patiently for me! But one thing that I could do was attempt to efficiently use the wind to push my ground speed faster. I came in for landing on the runway, taxied to my school and set the heli down smoothly.
You never know whether it'll be a good day or bad, and on the other hand if it'll be just another flight in your logbook, or one of your most memorable yet.
Overall, the check ride is nothing to be scared of, just remember that even though it may be nerve-wracking to show them what you can do! You've already done all the hard work. It may be a bad flight in your opinion but if he gives you a handshake and hands you your temporary certificate (remember, it's good for 120 days!) that it'll also be your most memorable to date!