Part 3 - Day 2 of PAs
Published: August 15, 2016
On day 2 of PAs, I had a ground run early in the morning, which I scored 100 on. It was easy, ground is very difficult to mess up, in my opinion. You just have to be in control of what is going on, listen to readbacks, and pay attention to what you’ve been taught.
Later in the day, however, I would have my second local run. I was very worried about this run. My partner for this run was someone I was not fond of, and just prior to this run had run his first local run, which he scored extremely poorly on. Combined with his nerves and anxiety, along with his inability to run a solid problem, I was concerned it would affect my run on local.
When I approached the lab (lab 6, this time), overly nervous, I was pleasantly surprised to see an instructor with his headset on waiting to enter the room. He let me know that he would be running as my ground controller, because the student I was scheduled to run with had been mathematically eliminated (failed). What a relief! I would be running my problem with an instructor, and a good one, at that! I was so happy in that moment, but still nervous.
This run had a lot riding on it, I had the potential to score enough points after this run to have a passing overall score, and I would be able to sleep afterwards. I needed a mere 20 points overall on this run to keep me in the race since I had done very well on the previous problems, but still wanted to walk out with a passing score after day 2 of PAs.
Then the door opened, “come on in...” Gulp. Here we go. Same routine as last time, but I had an evaluator who was known for his hard grading! Bring it on, here we go. Soon enough, I had called, “ready” and we were rolling on the problem. Holy crap, this problem was way harder than my first one. I was sweating most of the time, but handled things pretty well. I figured my score would be in the 70s or 80s, I felt like it was a pretty sloppy run. I spun a few VFRs on 360s, which I never had done before this run, because I don’t like using that technique. I also missed a readback on a VFR who read back “right” instead of “left” downwind and next thing I knew he was overflying my airport, so I had to sort that out too. No fireballs, thankfully.
I didn’t realize time was up so fast, I hadn’t looked at the clock except to write “wheels up” times on the strips, and I didn’t honestly even process the time I was writing on them because I was so busy. The evaluator called “time” and I excused myself in the hallway. I was extremely nervous. I began pacing back and forth in the hallway, holding on to my hair with such a grip that I’m shocked it didn’t come out from my grip. It felt like hours, but in all reality, it was probably 2 minutes, maybe.
I heard the door open… the evaluator looked down the hallway, and motioned for me to come back in. I was literally shaking. “Pretty good run. Nothing on the first page (of the eval sheet), nothing on the second page, just two things on the last page… for an overall score of 90/100.” What? What! I had got a 90 on that horrible run? Okay, yes sir, I’ll take it!
With that run, I had officially passed the academy. I was sitting at 79% overall, and only needed 70% to pass, and still had one last ground run the next day. I walked back to the classroom with tears in my eyes, but tears of happiness.