Checkride Done!

Ok, I’m really tired; I’m in Sheridan, Wyoming overnighting on my first trip flying with passengers and I don’t think I’ll be able to write all that I hoped to tonight (my checkride, the second installment of my Church With The Mogul series, and talking about this first IOE trip I’m on), so I think I’ll just do the first part and write the others over the next couple of days.

Thursday night (well, technically Friday morning, I’ll get to that in a second) I finally got to finish my aircraft training. They told us that we were going to have a plane at 9pm, but then called us in the afternoon and said we’d been pushed back to 11. The plan was for Rich to do an ILS approach to finish up his training, then have Rachel and Ashley each do a trip around the pattern to get their required night landing, and then finally to have John and I finish or at least get closed to done. Around 12:30am, we were done with Rich, Rachel, and Ashley, so we stopped to let them out and take a short break, then John and I headed out. John has me beat on seniority, so he got to fly first while I got to sit in the back and try to stay awake, then I finally got my turn at 2:30. It went ok, but I was definitely relieved to finally get done flying and get to bed about 4:15 in the morning (ironically, just as I was about to go to bed, I looked at the lappy and noticed on my instant messenger that Kathy was no longer idle, having gotten up to start her day about 45 minutes prior, so I said good morning before hitting the sack).

Later Friday afternoon I got a call saying that my checkride was going to be at noon on Saturday, so I quickly got to work trying to figure out if they were going to give me time off before IOE and I could go home or if I was going to just stay in Billings (or, worst case, they were to decide to send me to Boston for IOE). I couldn’t get a definitive answer out of Crew Scheduling, so I decided to gamble on the side of being able to go home and packed up my stuff (quite an undertaking, because I’ve settled in at the Rimrock and bought all that food). I packed most of my stuff to take home with me (hoping to leave a good sized chunk of the stuff I no longer need behind when I return) and gave the rest to Kevin to keep in his apartment while I was gone. Then when it was time to leave for the checkride I just left my key in an envelope at the front desk (so they could check me out if I left or just give it back to me if I didn’t) and took all my luggage up to the airport with me so I’d be ready to go.

The checkride itself went pretty good, though I made a few mistakes (landing with the yaw damp on was the big one), but hey, a pass is a pass. The bad news is that right after the checkride I got an email from Crew Scheduling saying that I’d be starting IOE the next day, so no trip home for me (but at least I get to do it here in Billings!). They told me that my first IOE trip would be the 66-90, which is a three day trip that heads out to Sidney, Montana the first day and then spends the next two days shuttling between Denver, Colorado and Sheridan, Wyoming (with a 24 hour layover in Sheridan where I am now). I’ll tell you more about that another time, for now I’m gonna hit the sack and try to get rested for Day 3 tomorrow, which is the longest day of this trip. Goodnight everyone!