Checkride taken and CHECKRIDE PASSED!!!
Well folks, I passed the checkride and I must say that I actually did pretty well. My instructor sat in the back seat and swears that he will never do that again - too nerve racking. I asked him what he was worried about - he said that he had never sat in the back seat of that plane, only in the front left or right and it was a lot different. I told him to expand his boundaries a little
The oral questions part was pretty simple since I have had the same examiner for all but my private certificate. He did ask the differences between the props on the Baron and the props on the Arrow (took my ASEL comm in that). He knows I know all about the gear since my instructor actually had a partial gear up in that plane (details later). The fuel system is pretty easy to figure out. I haven't heard about the caviating problem but I'll be sure to ask about it.
The examiner was pretty impressed with my handling of the maneuvers and how well I responed with the engine cuts on roll-out and climb-out (300-400 feet, gear up and BAM, critical engine says "see-ya" - Identify, Verify, Feather, come around for normal landing). I must say that I could have done better on the single-engine VOR/DME approach. I didn't descend fast enough and would have landed long on the runway but it was do-able. ATC had us all over the sky and cleared me late for the intial approach - don't know what was up with that deal, they weren't too busy. Another instructor said to tell them "checkride in progress" on the initial call. I said "no offense, but..." I didn't want any favors - I want real-life scenarios here. The short-field landing to drop off the examiner was impressive too. Not trying to be arrogant but I just fealt really good about the ride - better than I had fealt after the other ones in the past.
About that partial gear up landing that my instructor did --- He was on final and had done a normal pattern (when anything changes - everything remains the same). One last checks that everything is down, everything is forward (minus the throttles of course). Single (i.e. only) green light for the main gear is on and the window indicator for the nose gear is down. Time to land. Left side feals low, mixtures to cutoff. Left prop strikes once and left flap and wingtip are damaged. Apparently, the gear release pin for the left main did not pull and the motor (all-electric gear) bend the push-rod for that side. The ride side went down fine as did the nose. This is the draw-back to having only one gear indicator light instead of one for each leg. The plane was repaired (was actually flown to the repair shop with the gear down and locked and a new prop) and runs great.
By the way, on the way back to home base after the checkride, I told my instructor that the plane is a great one and is actually fun to fly when you can sit back and relax and just fly it (i.e. when you're not sweating like crazy from doing a maneuver every minute). I don't care - it's flying and it's good enough for me!!! I needed the workout anyway.
Thanks for the tips and advice. See ya'll on the airways.