Last week D. signed me off for my “stage check”. Since I’m learning to fly under FAR Part 141 (the part that deals with specialty pilot schools), my training is a little different than most people who learn under Part 61. Part 141 supposedly follows a rigid syllabus which is prepared by the flight school and approved by the FAA. 141 Private training is divided into three “stages”, at the end of each I have a “stage check”. I already did my first one, where all I have to do is prove that I can fly the plane, do some basic maneuvers and land. Last week, I finished “stage 2” where I learn to plan and fly a cross-country course, as well to do things like short and soft field takeoffs and landings. I get to demonstrate these things to one of a few “assistant flight instructors” who mostly do this sort of thing rather than teach these courses, since the person giving the exam can’t instruct the students he’s examining.

Anyway, D. signed me off at the end of last week. I finally got a call on Monday that my stage check would be Tuesday at 2pm. On Tuesday morning, I got a call that the plane was down for maintenance and my stage check would be Wednesday at 2pm.

That’s today. I plotted out a course on Monday night for Gainsville, TX. I’m not going to actually fly there though, because after I fly the first couple of checkpoints, they’ll divert me somewhere else, and I get to figure out a new heading, distance, ETA, fuel burn, etc. All while I’m flying. Yay. Tuesday morning I got up to get the weather about the same time D. called. Today, I got up, got the weather, figured out the nuances of wind correction and magnetic deviation, groundspeed, estimated time, etc. Then I realized I still had time. so I figured out fuel burn for “cruise” flight. Then I decided to do it right, and figured out time/speed/distance/fuel burn for the appropriate climb with today’s weather. And accounted for engine run-up taxi/takeoff. This is all amusingly insignificant when you consider that- A) I’m not actually going to be flying there. B) The amount of fuel burned is a whopping 9.5 gallons. The plane holds 40. Yes, I think that’s plenty.

So I bicycled in the heat with all the appropriate material. D. had asked me to meet him a half hour earlier so he could fix some paperwork he’d messed up and needed my logbook to do it. Fine. D. didn’t show up until about 2pm, but then B., who was supposed to give me the stage check, was nowhere to be found.

So after figuring out which plane I was supposed to be out, I went to do a preflight. I arranged everything in the cockpit, did the interior check, and then did my walk-around. I start with the left wing and finish with the nose. Everything looked good until I knelt down to inspect the exhaust pipe and nose wheel. I’d already spent a fair amount of time checking everything else. And what did I find? I nice little puddle of oil, dripping from the exhaust pipe. That’s just wonderful. It was not an insignificant amount of oil.

When he arrived, B. agreed. And there we were with yet another plane in for maintenance.

Thursday is completely booked. I’m in the schedule for Friday at 8am.