CPL Skills Test !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After last weeks flyaway, there was only one more thing to do in New Zealand - my Commercial Pilot Licence Skills Test. I'm extremely pleased to say that yesterday (Saturday afternoon) I took and passed this test and have gained my first pilot licence and can now freely go flying !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The test comprises of:

• Navigation leg
• Diversion
• Basic Instrument Flying (in case you inadvertently go into cloud or lost visibility)
• Recovering from unusual attitudes
• Position fixing
• Steep Turns
• Stalling
• Emergencies
• Asymmetrics (1 engine 'failed')
• Circuits

After having 3 mocks during the week, I felt quite confident for Saturday; however when I saw my name on the schedule for Saturday, there was a bit of a shock and realisation that all of the last 7-8 months of training was going to be tested in a 2 hour flight the next day.

After arriving at the training centre quite early, I had a short brief with the examiner before being given a navigation leg to plan, along with his weight for the mass & balance calculations as well as all the performance calculations (such as take-off and landing distances). After all this planning and a couple of hours wait, it was finally my turn. The weather deteriorated throughout the day and with only a couple of hundred feet clearance from cloud, I had to not only aviate, navigate and communicate, but also had to think about the possibility of ending the flight due to the weather preventing me from continuing. I was however quite lucky as the cloud stayed where it was, and I was able to get to my original destination and diversion point, before going over the western coast for general handling where the cloud was higher and more broken. Once the general handling and air work was done, I came back to Hamilton for 4 circuits and then that was it, the test complete.

It was great that I only had to wait a couple of minutes after getting back to get my result - PASS. It feels great that I have earned the privilege of being able to now go flying with passengers (and earn some money from it too!!!!). 

But that is now it for flying in New Zealand. I have no more flights to do, so the next time will be in Bournemouth after we leave NZ on the 15th May. I have no idea what I will be doing over the next week and a half other than catching up on a bit of sleep.