Private Pilot Checkflights are very thoroughly planned by the students. A day before mine my examiner told me to plan a flight from Seattle over the mountains to Wenatchee. I spent a half day on this flight plan. I would follow a river and a highway towards the east. Passing Skykomish Airfield I would find powerlines which I could follow over Stevens Pass all the way to my destination. Despite I knew this flight was going to be an exam I still looked forward to this beautiful mountain flying. Unfortunately I never came farther than the second waypoint.

Neil, the examiner, didn’t talk much. He pulled the throttle to idle and I knew what was going on.

Mayday Mayday Mayday, Cessna 805W is declaring an emergency, I have lost the engine, 1 mile north of Monroe forced landing at Firstair airport, white aircraft red stripe, two souls on board, Mayday Mayday Mayday! (click to read the whole story ‘passed the exam’) After my emergency landing we proceeded with the rest of the practical test and we never really set off for this journey.

Today I think I really should go to Seattle once to do this flight. But until then I enjoy the route on my flight simulator. Yesterday I took off with my kneeboard, E6-B and plotter at hand. I even followed the powerlines and flew over Stevens Pass – it was a real joy to find out that my one year old plan actually worked perfectly. The flight was even more beautiful as I imagined…

PS: I was not very active on this blog for a while. In the meantime I flew with my family and a flying club around France and Spain. I was offered the opportunity to write an article about the experience for the aviation magazine ‘SkyNews.ch’. I would appreciate it a lot if you read it. 🙂 Page 19, issue of October. On this blog I will start a ‘flyout section’ soon. Stay tuned!