I passed - I now have my PPL!!

On Saturday 31st July 2011 was the date of my test. The night before I went over everything in my head, from Navigation, Air work from stalls to medium level turns and Emergency procedures.

This flying examination that can only be taken when everything else on the training course has been completed. The flight training school will give you a list of the tasks to be demonstrated on the skills test and they will also carry out practise test to pick up on any points that need refining, this was 3 days before and all I wanted to do was my landings and my stalls.

Before the test, I read the in-depth publication that the CAA produced to show what the skills test would include. There is 6 main sections that the test is broken into.

The main sections are:
• Departure procedurs
• Air work
• En-route procedures
• Approach & Landings
• Abnormal & Emergency Procedures
• Simulated asymmetric flight


The PPL flying skills test last approx: 2 hours, this was exactly what I did and it was very tiring towards the end. This test had to be taken within 6 months of completing all training, for me this was 3 days so it was perfect. All the above sections of the flying skills test must be completed within 6 months of making the first attempt at it, this may be landing due to bad weather on the day or unable to complete the circuits (Flapless & Glide etc).

This test is always carried out by a CAA approved examiner; mine was CFI Martin Blunden, part of my flying school Sky Leisure Aviation. You should know your examiner before your test, as they are often the CFI of the flight school.

The day of the test I spent the whole day at the airport, to arrange weather and graphs needed and to use the aircraft while it was on the ground to fly manoeuvres in my head and I was relaxed come the test and this really helped as I found out no difference between the test and the training I previously completed and practiced. The flight went well, I had a few nervous moments in the flight due to being on a test but all went to plan.

The morning I had to show the examiner that the weather and forecasts would be within limits, for me this was CAVOK (Ceiling and Visibility ok), show him my Plog for our navigation section. This was from Shoreham to Wye (near Ashford) to Biggin Hill. The plog included all ETA’s, degrees the flight would be taken, altitude and fuel needed. This Plog was attached to a weight and balance sheet which I had to show that the aircraft was within limits.
After this I went out and checked the aircraft out to make sure it was flyable. The aircraft on the day was G-BZEC. This aircraft was the one I had flown the last 5 lessons before the test and done my last solo circuits in.

Once we had taken off and we were near to Wye he made me divert to Battle. The day had calm winds so it was easy to gain the directions in degrees and ETA’s for the diversion. I arrived at battle on time but I did have to divert around a active glider site.
Once at battle we started the Air-Work, first it was stalls with flap and a landing configuration, then stalls with 30 degrees flap. After this I went straight in my Steep turns to the left and right. The next main part was instrument flying with out the use of the horizons or site, like you are in clouds. And finally my PFL (practice force landings without power). Once the air work was complete we returned back to Shoreham for glide and flapless landings, with a calm wind this was perfect conditions and rather late in the day so there was no one else in the circuit.

After my landing checks I was advised that I had passed and was over the moon as I worked really hard for this, 13 months this had taken me but hoped it would have been soon but good old English weather didn’t help!!

I will now be in use of my aircraft G-CGFG and will be building my hours up for bigger things.

Kev.