Right, and who would ever have believed that I would hold an instrument rating? For the longest time, not I.
There'd been many a delay, most all of which were related to the possibility of ice in clouds. I did NOT want to be a pilot killed by icing, and more reasonably I did NOT want to be a pilot who, upon lifting off the runway on his checkride, discovered the examiner jotting a note on a page and turning to me saying something like "you may return to the airport, you've taken off into known icing conditions contrary to the regulations in......" or something like that. It's happened to other guys.
So, the morning of the eighth scheduled checkride dawned clear, cold, and not a cloud in the sky, the same way as it had been for about three days. I knew that this would be my lucky day. So, I was up well before dawn, and on a ferry heading for Boeing Field. And checked my email. To discover I was being dumped....
Not the most auspicious start to the day, but best for the both of us, that's for certain. And maybe it WAS good luck. Not yet sure.
Got to work, ride scheduled for 1:00 pm, having learned the lesson about morning flights. Had a phone call from the designated pilot examiner, with whom I'd built a very friendly relationship during the previous seven cancellations, whether they'd been in person or on the phone..... He told me he was in LA, but would be back by lunch, probably at Boeing Field a bit late, maybe 1:30. No problem.
Imagine then my surprise as, while out on the ramp pre-flighting at least an hour in advance of the scheduled time I heard a voice saying "there's reports of a cloud in Oregon, so we're going to cancel due to icing, right?". Nice sense of humor there boyo. Got me laughing, and nudged me in the ribs for my caution.
But, caution is what keeps pilots alive, and I have no need to apologize for the cancellations.
Ride went just fine. Hate it when you look over and see the examiner jotting notes, but they were all minor points, things he most definitely wanted to point out in the de-brief, but not ball-busters.
It's a wonderful thing, to know that now I have a chance to fly with the big boys.
Very grateful to my flight instructor David Cowan, my DPE Johnny Summers, and to all the people at Galvin Flying who helped and encouraged me, as well as to my pilot buddies Mark, Christine, Steve, Rob, Scobie and all the others who understand how important this is to me.
