VFR Progress Test, PT1

The whole purpose of me going to America was for me to achieve my CPL (Commercial pilot's licence) and the first test on the way to that is to basically take a mock CPL in the single engine DA40 (DA20 or C172 if you're in New Zealand). It's examined in very similar if not the same measurements, from your departure, your navigation skills, diversion, general handling, emergency procedures and then a couple of circuits back at Goodyear.

On the day of PT1, I woke up about 5am for an early brief. I was picking my route up from dispatch at 6am. My route was to fly from Liberty Bridge to Aztec, two very well known points if you're use to flying over southwest Arizona, mainly because theres not much else to see on the ground other than cacti, dried up river beds and tumble weeds. The scenario is that we're flying a commercial flight for a photographer to take some aerial photos of the surrounding area. 

Prior to getting to the aircraft, I had a thorough grilling about the route we had, which MSA we had, the mass and balance, the altitudes we'd be flying and why I'd selected that altitude as well as the weather. There are probably more bits, but I can't remember right now. 


So, that all going well, we moved to the aircraft, I performed my walk around, which included checking the fuel level, the engine intakes (mainly to ensure we had no extra 'passengers' in there), the tyres, the engine tach times and that the airframe is generally all in good condition. That all being good, me, my examiner and our CFI (his examiner) all climbed into the diamondstar and I began our flight. I started with a safety briefing to the passengers  and then continued with the checklists, starting the engine/ testing the brakes, getting the atis and progressing to the staging area where the engine run up test will be staged. 

Following the engine run up, I'd give a take off safety brief before progressing to the holding point and calling Goodyear ground for permission to taxi to the runway. 

Following the departure, we changed frequency to rainbow valley and once above Liberty Bridge I started the timer and changed the heading to start tracking towards Aztec. Prior to arriving at Aztac, and correctly identifying it, I was given a diversion to plan for, requiring a heading, track, altitude based on our magnetic direction and a time to fly there ±3 mins. 

Arriving to the diversion, a small dirt runway called Tonapah, we performed some air work (steep turns, climbs/ descents etc) and some emergency drills such as Practise Forced Landings and engine fires before flying back to goodyear for some circuit variants, flapless landings, glide approach and a standard landing with landing flap.

I then taxied the aircraft back to the stand, chained it up and headed on back inside for the debrief!