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Jet Journal
Check Ride
We are in a Lear 45 at 15,000 feet over the far northwest- ern corner of the continental United States, just on the edge of the Olympic mountain range near a VOR called Tatoosh (TOU). The weather is crummy, with cloud layers every 200 feet or so, making visual flight between them almost impossible. The purpose of this flight on this grey and rainy day is to complete a check ride and I am the victim sitting in the left seat. Rob, a very personable FAA Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) from out of town, is carefully watching my every move from the seat behind the cockpit and to my right.
The DPE is in the
back as it is customary
in aircraft requiring a
crew of two to have a
pilot already typed, cur-
rent and insured in the
airplane (in this case,
fellow Lear pilot Tim)
f lying as co-pilot. It is
about two o’clock in the
afternoon, and we have
been at this since nine
in the morning. The
first hour was spent get-
ting the FAA’s cumber-
some computer inputs
completed, followed by a two-hour oral exam on every aspect of the airplane. At noon, we took a lunch break at the local airport café. We then returned to do a pre-f light and brief on all of the airborne maneuvers expected by the FAA.
Now, we are working our way through those requirements in a block of airspace we arranged for with Seattle Center (with the controller being quite mindful that we stay within our assigned area). I have the autopilot on with the heading and altitude hold selected, and the power back while I wait for the little jet to slow down and stall. The airplane is slicker than a greased arrow and is decelerating way too slowly for the controller who is
concerned we will fly out of his airspace while in the middle of our maneuvering. Although it is not part of the pre-arranged check ride procedure, I deploy the spoil- ers to help slow us down, then stow them as we pass through 140 knots. We have just entered another cloud layer when all of a sudden everything breaks loose, with the stall warner announcing “stall, stall, stall,” and the stick shaker going off with a noisy vibration which to me, always sounds like an angry rattlesnake. At this point (surprise, surprise) the auto- pilot clicks itself, and the left wing drops slightly while the vertical speed picks up a lot in the downward direction.
by Kevin Ware look back at the DPE to see if that was
satisfactory, but the expression on his face is difficult to read.
Tim sitting to my right, however, says “good recovery” and that we need to do another one, this time in approach con- figuration. So, I slow the airplane down, call for flaps 20 at 200 knots, then full flaps and “aux ‘hyd’ gear down” at 150 knots and repeat what I just did. By this point, we have been in the air for about 45 minutes but are less than halfway through the check ride. Though I might look calm and collected on the outside, I can feel that the T-shirt under my dress shirt is already soaked with sweat. It’s a
reminder that I really don’t like check rides despite having taken dozens of them and not failing a single one. But, like an opera, you never know the outcome until it’s over.
Wet T-shirt notwith- standing, we then do steep turns which in spite of some turbu- lence and intermit- tent visual conditions, I manage to complete within the prescribed limits. When these are
completed, we are supposed to make an autopilot coupled approach followed by a single-engine go-around. But when activating the autopilot button, the thing refuses to engage. Now, check ride or not, Tim and I have a real airplane problem.
I ask him to pull out the POH (pilots operating handbook) and look up the checklist for autopilot failure. He quickly finds the correct page and says we need to find a particular circuit breaker on the pilot side of the cockpit. I tell him, “You have the airplane; I will look for it.” There are, of course, dozens of circuit breakers on my left, all set up in some logical fashion – at least in the eyes of an engineer, but not at all to a pilot in the
The trick is for me to recover as soon as possible while losing a minimum amount of altitude. So I pitch down the flight director bars to the horizon and push up power on both engines until the annun- ciator says “takeoff” (T/O), roll the wings level and watch as the Honeywell TFE731 engines kick in with every bit of their 7,000 pounds of thrust and accelerate us quickly through 180 knots. Now my job is to rapidly get back to the original altitude and heading, all the while being careful not to let the airplane go too much faster. The nose comes back slightly above the horizon bars, and the power is back to about 65 percent as I re-trim the airplane and get ready for the next maneuver. I
26 • TWIN & TURBINE / June 2019 Jet Journal