It's confirmed, tomorrow is my phase one check. Since last night people have been coming up to me giving me advice, questions, and generally wishing me good luck. Cadets going up for their final flight check gets less attention than one who is going for their first check.
I've been mentally flying my sortie since the start of the week. I admit, there are parts where I'm less prepared for, especially since we're not allowed to practice it on our solo flights. Today I've been going through the procedures and emergency checklists. I feel as if I'm ready. There's not much else that I can do now but relax and be confident of my flying.
As I was sitting in my room, browsing the net on news of new gadgets, my former lead cadet came in.
"I heard your P-check is tomorrow with PD."
"Yeah, just confirmed it this morning."
"Not to put more pressure on you, but... please pass in one go. R's students haven't been passing in one go lately and he's not going to like it when he comes back from his holiday."
"Ok, there's nothing much more I can do but just go out there and do my best."
R is a good instructor, he's what we call teddy bear love, because of his girth and his kindness. He puts a lot of confidence in his students, letting us go for our first solos quite quickly. He takes care of his students. Other instructors might teach through fear, berating the student when they do something wrong, R tells us what we need to improve and announces his dissapointment if we manage to cock something up. We feel disappointed in ourselves if he's disappointed with our flight.
Back to mental flying and reviewing procedures.
Short Finals on Runway 06R
(roughly 300' high and 200' away)
