After two weeks of trying in vain to contact the DE (designated examiner) based at Cobb County, I finally had to go to plan B to schedule my instrument checkride. So on Monday, I scheduled my exam with Don Jones at Andrews-Murphy on the 20th of this month.

Last night, I met with Larry Hutchison, the AGI at Superior. He had sat in on one of Don Jones's instrument checkrides last November and based this lesson/review on those notes. Basically, if I did well tonight, I should have no surprises on the oral exam. One thing he did emphazize is that Don liked to ask questions that stressed application and decision making and not just providing the "right answer". Personally, I prefer questions like that because it involves less tedious memorization but rather allows you to take concepts and explain why you would do something that way. In that way, it makes it more evident that I've actually absorbed the information rather than just learning a bunch of information to pass a test. Overall, Hutch thought I did a good job, but gave me a few items to brush up on, specifically some more detail into some of the regulations (I'd start answering something and leave off an item or two) and weather products, specifically Airmets and Sigmets.

So I've got all of my endorsements in my log book, and all of my paperwork is filled out. All that remains now is to fly to North Carolina and take the test!