Friday, January 16, 2009

Checkride: pass or fail?

Answer: neither! I got everything briefed up today after showing up 2 hours before brief time, and I thought all of that went really well. Then we stepped out to the jet (and it was freezing today!), and just as we were starting to preflight our plane a van rolled up and told us we were at the 'wrong' one and that they actually had another tail assigned to us. So we moved over to that one, did the inspection, engine start, taxi, and takeoff with no problems. I was feeling really good, my climbout on the arc was going great, and just as we were about to hit our level-off of 16000', the master caution started blinking and we had an bleed air duct fail. That means that the sensor has sensed over 350 degree temperatures in the wrong place and 600 degree air is going somewhere it's not supposed to. So we tried to trouble shoot and it wouldn't fix itself (this was all me flying the plane while the IP ran the Dash-1 and checklists for the problem). Since we couldn't get it out we just called center and got turned around for a visual approach to a full stop. Since it was so cold out today we weren't aloud to switch over to another jet either, so that was the end of that... Oh well, I guess these things happen, though it was certainly the last thing I expected: to not even complete the ride! So now when we get back on tuesday I'm scheduled for a 1030 takeoff with a 0800 brief with the same check IP. I would have liked to have had the weekend to study up on Navigation stuff for this next block, but so much for that idea.

One good thing is that I got out early so I'm going to make it into Montgomery in time for dinner now. Looking forward to the weekend! Then, the weekend of the 30th I'm scheduled for my cross-country; things are happening fast! Nice thing about this past week was that it went by so fast with a flying event every day. Looking forward to getting this checkride over with. Thank you to all for praying for me, and please continue to do so for Tuesday now. Pray for good weather!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your Tuesday checkride take-off is right when the inauguration swearing-in ceremony begins! Will be staying up late to watch it, and it will be easy to remember to be praying for you at the same time!

Proud of you and love you!
Mom (and Dad in Nias, too!)