A Beautiful Day 2 Learn

I awoke early this morning for my MEI (multi engine instructor) check ride. I went to school, completed the required paperwork, prepared the airplane and flew to Wichita with my instructor. We got there in plenty of time and I was patiently waiting for my examiner to drill me from head to toe with questions that I may or may not know the answer to.

The time came, and they stole me away from the deafening silence of the lobby. After taking me through the oral portion of the examination, we headed outside for the flight. We loaded up and were on our way. Takeoff: beautiful—right on up and away to the practice area—altitude was perfect! Bring it on…I think. We began some maneuvers and it was going smoothly…until…yup…I said something that I thought was correct about a specific descent/procedure and nope…in an instant…I was insanely confused about what I had done wrong (re-thinking and re-thinking it). So that was it. Snap. Done. So I had officially failed my first check ride.

I am given the opportunity to continue and complete as much as I can, so I do. We continue on to another maneuver and I was still doing ok-but on the recovery, I let the airplane fly me instead of me fly the airplane and I lost too much altitude and got out of the standards required for the maneuver. Of all things to mess up on, this specific maneuver was the last one that I was worried about! I had done this maneuver perfectly and smoothly over the past week in practice…and I guess I must have still been a bit shaken up and just didn’t get it done right today. We finished up everything except my last landing-which we will complete when I go back on Thursday morning. I appreciated this, as they saved me some money in not doing the extra pattern and landing.

Overall, I am disappointed that I failed in the specified areas—but in the end, it will make me a better pilot. How does that phrase go? You learn more when you fail than if you had done everything right.—or something like that? No, I haven’t forgotten how to fly, but I just didn’t do it right or well enough today. Yes, I am disappointed that I’m not all done—but am I ever really done? There will always be another flight, another landing, and other student, another day. So, I take it in stride, learned my lessons and will wake up with a new day ahead of me tomorrow.