Pilot Life: One Last Practice Before the Checkride

Tomorrow's the day. Needless to say, I'm nervous. But I'm preparing as much as I can and that included one last practice flight flying solo and I used every available minute of my scheduled block time today!

N802CT will be my aircraft of choice!

After pre-flighting the aircraft, I got airborne as soon as practical and headed south to do all the maneuvers I was taught; I can expect to do any of these things I've learned the day of the checkride. I did everything from stalls, steep-turns, simulated emergency procedures, ground reference maneuvers and pattern work with all the landing techniques.

During my return and entry into the Spanish Fork pattern, I encountered an aircraft in the pattern entering the left downwind for Runway 30; I hadn't heard them make any calls over the CTAF. I didn't think about it as I focused on creating some spacing to avoid a collision. I later found out that the aircraft was NORDO (No Radio). I made three landings practicing the various techniques in the pattern while keeping an eye out for the NORDO aircraft at all times. After my third landing, I taxied off the runway and returned to the ramp. During my taxi back, my instructor texted me telling me good job with the NORDO aircraft I encountered; he must have either saw or heard what happened! After I shut the engine down and exited the aircraft, the instructor who was teaching in the NORDO aircraft came up to me and thanked me for giving him that spacing! Glad I did something (and pretty much everything!) right!