Pre-Solo check ride

May 18, 2009 - I met Don B. at the airport today for my pre-solo check flight with another instructor. Don instructs in the evenings and on weekends. We started as usual with a pre-flight inspection of the Diamond, then we got in and taxiied out to runway 24. There was almost no wind today, no clouds, and great visibility. I took off and headed to the north. After we got to 3000 feet, Don asked me to transition into slow flight. After a little while in slow flight we moved to power on or departure stalls. You reduce throttle, maintain altitude while the plane slows, add in one notch of flaps to the takeoff position, keep holding back pressure to maintain altitude and when you get to around 50 knots go full throttle to simulate a takeoff and continue to pull back on the stick. The nose of the plane is really high and soon the stall warning horn goes off and the plane begins to fall forward. Push the stick forward to get the nose down and establish 78 knots airspeed and begin to climb back to the original altitude. After a couple stalls, Don reduced the throttle to idle and asked me what was the first thing I would do if the engine failed. I said that I would establish a glide speed of 73 knots. The second thing I would do would be pick a proper place to land. There was a large open field off to my left so I turned and glided toward the one end of the field. We continued toward the field until we reached 2000 feet. From here Don told me to level out and maintain this altitude and fly him back to Blue Ash. We were much further east of where I had been practicing, but I saw Kings Island and the WLW tower. I headed south and when we passed the WLW tower I turn southwest to setup for the entry into the pattern. I made all the radio calls and entered the pattern but on my first landing attempt my approach was too high and too fast, I knew I would float halfway down the runway so I decided to go around. Same thing happened on the second pattern, but I did get a side slip in but it was too little, too late. I went around again. Third attempt I was setup much better on final and made a halfway decent landing. I raised the flaps to takeoff, applied full throttle and took off again. Fourth time around I made my best landing to date, it was very smooth. Took off again on another touch and go and went around for the final time. The last landing was also pretty good and I rolled to the end of the runway, turned on the taxiway, and headed back to the tie down spot for the Diamond. I felt pretty good about todays flight and Don must have too because he cleared me for my solo. I'm exited about soloing and I hope to get it in this week. I'm scheduled to go back on Thursday, so lets hope.