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I went to Tri-cities on Thursday for my private pilot check ride (final exam). I survived the oral. I can only describe it as grueling. I took the FAA written exam just a couple of weeks ago; I have to say that if the examiner is really strict on the oral, being competent for the final exam is not sufficient preparation for the oral.
However, I survived. I got a weather briefing for the cross-country flight portion, which was forecasting lots of weather, thunderstorms, and mountain obscuration. The examiner stressed that the call was mine to make, and since I wouldn't go flying after a briefing like that, I decided to postpone the flight portion for another day.
Some miscellaneous things that it would have been good that I had known:
Thunderstorms have three phases: developing (contains updrafts) mature (contains precipitation) dissipating (contains downdrafts) Although my ground school went over weather, I'm pretty sure that I hadn't heard that explanation in quite that way before. Oh, and the direction that the "anvil" top on a thunderstorm indicates the direction that it's moving. This can be useful for navigating around them.
Know red/green tower light signals, or how to find them (They're printed on some kneeboards).
The big thing that the examiner was bugged about was that I had planned my cross-country using VOR navigation. I like VORs, they make sense to me and they're simple to use. The examiner's take on the private pilot practical test standards is that the cross-country must be done only with pilotage and dead reckoning. She gave me time to re-plan my flight, but since Thursday, I have re-done it to refine it and use the mountains better:
So I get to go back. I just hope I get it done before I leave for three weeks. At this point, I just want it over with.