Checkride

I arrived at 9 AM for a 10 AM checkride, feeling more nervous than I should have. That first hour allowed time to finish filling out the standard 8710 form and to preflight the plane. The plane had been ramped overnight for an oil change (which didn't happen due to rain) and it had been pushed back into the water before I arrived, a fact that would figure into the first 10 minutes of the test.

The wind had changed direction completely and was about 10 knots out of the north rather than 5 knots from the south as it had been for all my lessons. That meant we'd have a long taxi down the lake and then point back toward town and takeoff, leaving it to me to judge when we had enough distance to leave the water and clear the town. I discussed the distance with my instructor and resolved to be plenty conservative. We could talk sports or something while traveling downwind.

The examiner arrived right on time. We got through the paperwork, spoke a bit, and then hopped in the plane. The plane was docked pilot-side-to, so I got in last. I put the water-rudders down, fired it up, and we set off. We started a tight, right 360 and I discovered, to my dismay, that I couldn't push the left rudder pedal down to straighten out. The pedal was stuck as if there was a control lock on it. I pushed as hard as I could, but couldn't move it. By then we were pointing back at the dock, so I shut the engine down.

My instructor came down to see what was happening. "Is there a control lock on this thing?" I yelled, feeling a bit foolish. "No, apply some power!"

I started back up again and when we were pointing away from the dock applied power. The water pushed the rudders back to their straight positioin and everything was normal. Afterwards, I learned that when they'd pushed the plane back into the water from the ramp, the rudders had been pushed to a 90 degree position and the only way to straighten them out was with power. The rudder cables wouldn't do it.

That was not a great way to start a checkride, but I calmed myself down a bit and looked forward to a long taxi downwind. After a few minutes, the examiner suggested a step-taxi (which is part of the exam, anway.) I pulled the water-rudders up (finally, I figured those things out.) I got it up on the step and the plane immediately turned to the left - a combination of P-factor and weathervaning (and maybe not enough right-rudder, but who knows.) Anyway, the easy way to get things back under control is to kill the power, so I did that, the plane settled down, I put the water-rudders back down, and we continued to slow-taxi downwind.

After about five minutes (maybe ten) we turned around and looked at the town in the distance. I took off and was at about 500' over the town, so I guess I'd left plenty of room. The closer one gets to town, the more likely it is that boats will pop out of coves, so the extra space is a safety advantage for that reason too.

We climbed to 3100' and did a stall and steep turns. The right-turn wasn't all that great (it could have used more rudder), but I acknowledged that and we continued on.

We came back for a smooth-water landing, although the water was pretty rough. On that landing, I managed to skip the plane off the surface like a kid skips a stone and was back up to about 15' when I decided I didn't know what the plane was going to do next and I didn't want to find out, so I went around.

Now I was wondering what I'd been thinking when I decided to get this rating, but I resolved to stick it out. I knew I could land the thing; I just hoped I'd land it on the next try. Well, the next landing (smooth-water again) was fine, and the attitude was pretty good too. Then I took off again and came back for a normal landing.

Finally, we were almost done. I step-taxiied back, docked (which almost required a second attempt due to an off-dock wind and optomistically cutting the power early.) That was it. I passed!