It is that time of the year. I can’t say again though as it is my first time. I’m talking about my annual recurrent checkride. First I had to deal with the necessary paperwork asked by TSA. Basically, as a foreigner, every time I need to do some kind of training on the ground, in a simulator or in an airplane, I have to submit a request to the government. It must stipulate the place, date and type of training among other things. The most frustrating part about this is that I have to pay a fee for every application. At least this time around, because it is a recurrent, the fee is kindly paid by the company I am working for. After a wasted month due to this legal matter, I finally got the ok to proceed. You would think that since I am a pilot actively working for an airline, I would not have to prove that I am safe enough to be left unsupervised near a plane… just saying. Because of my schedule, I was told to plan on doing my check ride once I got in Cincinnati between my inbound and outbound part of the trip. That means roughly between 1am and 4am. I was proactive enough to take a few days off prior to be able to review some basic information about the airplanes systems and the maneuvers. It was a bit tricky to study though because with my significant other, we had planned a quick trip to Buffalo to visit my parents, but as usual, she was very supportive and during our 8 hours drive back home she kept on quizzing me as I was driving. Talk about multitasking. We made it back in time for me to take a quick nap and hop in my uniform ready to tackle this somewhat challenge. After meeting with the check airman, we went thru the oral in a quick but efficient manner. It was nothing complicated as I have a good grasp of our procedures, the federal regulations and the airplane’s systems. Next was the flight portion and I was at ease. I enjoy flying it and I was very confident in my ability to demonstrate the necessary skills of a type rated pilot. I was really straight forward. I flew the Cincinnati two departure out of runway18C, then while enroute toward Dayton, we got cleared for a block altitude to do some air work. I executed some stalls and steep turns, did some emergency procedures related to engine failure than it was time for a couple instrument approaches. I started with an ILS, which is a precision approach where the pilot guides the airplane to the runway with the help of both a vertical and horizontal signal. While on glideslope, my check airman failed my left engine making this a single engine approach. As I reached 200 ft above the ground, I was told to execute a missed approach and therefore had to aboard it and climb away from the field with my only engine. This was made interesting thanks to the strong crosswind. I could see us drifting as we were painfully getting altitude. I finally reached my holding altitude and was vectored for my non precision approach. An NDB nonetheless. An NDB is an archaic system that is not used very often anymore and requires a lot more work than the modern systems now in place across the country. I shot this one with both engines and made it a circle to land as it is a required item for the checkride. When everything was done, we aimed the airplane back toward CVG and finally parked the airplane at DHL, just in time to get loaded and fly back to Cedar Rapids and Omaha. It is going to be a long morning but at least I get to keep my job for one more year.