Well – today was the big day. Got up at 5:30am (for a 9:00am checkride) because I couldn’t sleep. Got a weather briefing, finished the flight planning to Monterey, loaded up, and went to breakfast. Studied for the oral while eating, and then the time had come.

Showed up at Mark’s office about 10 minutes early, and ran into a friend who was just coming from an instrument ground school in the same building. Chatted for a few, then headed in. Mark was very cool as usual, put me at ease immediately. After reviewing the forms, getting ID, etc, we started right in on the oral.

Right out of the gate there were all kinds of non-instrument questions – airworthiness, required documents, etc. Then he started to spin off into inspections for IFR flight, IFR equipment, etc. A lot of that stuff. Then immediately to weather. This was the part that concerned me, but it turns out I knew it even better than I thought. We went through metars and tafs, various charts (not actually showing them to me and asking me to decipher them, but asking which would be most useful), questions on thunderstorms, and fronts.

Then on to flight planning. We reviewed my chosen route to Monterey, including detailed review of the departure procedure, altitudes, lost comms, copying a clearance, and various fixes. We reviewed just about everything on the enroute charts, including airspace, altitudes to fly, airports, special use airspace, etc.

After that it was performance (including v-speeds, which I didn’t know very well), weight and balance, takeoff and landing roll, and instrument failures. That was about it – I’d passed the oral.

We checked the weather, and ironically it wasn’t good enough to do the practical. We rescheduled for next week, and we’ll keep an eye on the weather. Almost there!

Well, tomorrow is the checkride, so Kent and I went up for some final tuning. Things didn’t go as we’d planned, but it was good anyway.

The weather was ideal for IFR training – 4000 foot ceilings and light rain. We headed to Chino first to shoot the ILS there and have breakfast at Flo’s diner. GREAT food. I called the DE who is doing my checkride tomorrow, and asked what kind of cross country he wanted me to plan. He told me to plan a one way trip to Monterey. I told Kent I didn’t want any help with that – I wanted to do it all myself to be sure I could do it.

After a 20 minute hold for release, we then departed for Long Beach. As soon as we were off the ground, on went the stickers for partial panel. I flew pretty poorly – I hadn’t done any partial panel work in a while. It started to come back towards the end of the approach, after I’d busted altitude (just once – but by 300 feet). We landed and availed ourselves of the restroom facilities. Then came the problem. We started the plane back up, and the alternator appeared to have quit. We tried a few things, called our A&P for advice – nothing. Now we had a problem. We really needed to get it back to Van Nuys to be worked on for my checkride. We departed VFR, and as soon as the tower approved us for a frequency change, we turned off everything but the transponder to conserve battery. We made it back fine, and got the alternator replaced. A couple of fun trips around the pattern (just to test the alternator, and see who could do the best short field landing) and we debriefed at LuLu’s restaurant. I got everything in order, had Kent endorse everything that needed to be endorsed, and we were all done.

So that’s it. Checkride tomorrow. 41 hours of instrument time, 35 or so lessons, more money than I care to think about. I’m confident, but very nervous. Some final studying for the oral tonight (weather mostly) and then I’ll try and get some sleep.

Well, it’s been an interesting few days. For starters, I took and passed the written last Thursday. I wanted it out of the way, and felt ready to take it. I got a 90. Happy with that.

Then I flew VFR to Vegas to give the Lady Luck some extra cash I had laying around. They accepted it happily. Ironically, the weather was nearly IFR with bad turbulence for the ride home.

The plan was for me to fly on Monday with Gene Hudson for a phase check. Gene did my phase check for the private, and exposed several things that needed work. Only problem was, I didn’t have an airplane. The club 172 had some sort of plug fouling problem, and was stranded in Santa Barbara. After finding out that it was only minor, I scheduled two more training flights for the week. I’d have to do it without a phase check.

So today we flew the first. We decided to go from Van Nuys and shoot the VOR-8 at Burbank to a missed, then the VOR-A at Santa Monica. It was brutal. For starters, the radios had been looked at, and neither were working properly – squelch problems all the way around. Then the approaches themselves. Things happen SO fast in such a short period of time, it’s not even funny. By the time I got established on the approach course, we were crossing the FAF. I descended too fast, and my airspeed was way off. It worked out OK, but sloppy. We went to Santa Monica, and that went pretty good. I managed altitude well, and stayed reasonably ahead.

After dinner, we decided to fly out towards Simi Valley, do a hold, and then shoot the LDA-C back to Van Nuys. After leaving Van Nuys, Kent gave me an intersection hold. I handled it well – a real confidence builder. One turn around the hold, and I had it nailed. The approach to Van Nuys went well too.

So the plan is to spend Friday working out some final problems, prepare for the oral a bit, get all the paperwork in order, and try and relax for Saturday. MAN am I nervous!

Tonight we decided to head out to Santa Barbara (SBA) for one last cross country, and do it to checkride standards. Departed Van Nuys around 5:30pm, and climbed on top of a pretty nasty haze layer. Smooth and clear (from what I hear) the whole way from there. That is until we got to SBA – clouds over the coast meant we’d get some actual on the VOR 26 approach.

Not quite. I started my descent, and Kent had me lift the hood just before we hit the clouds. Problem was, that was right when I got to the MDA! We were AT the minimum altitude for the approach, and still on TOP of the overcast! I thought about continuing to the missed, but we figured we had better just ask for the ILS instead. Turns out if we had just continued the approach, we’d have been able to land anyway – the overcast stopped right at the coastline. Good lesson there.

So we got vectored around for the ILS. I was cleared for the approach and told to maintain 2000 until established. This was where I made my first disqualifying mistake, had it been a checkride. The localizer started coming in, and for some reason I didn’t start to descend – I waited until the needle was centered. By that time, the glideslope needle was pegged. I flew the rest of the approach fine, but didn’t really give any thought to what happened.

From there, we headed back to Van Nuys, via a very strange clearance: runway heading, vectors CMA, then the Lima-1 routing. Not at ALL sure what that routing was, and can’t find it anywhere. We got vectored for the ILS once we got to CMA, but had to ask for it. I’ll have to look that one up. The approach SHOULD have been a snap, but instead I did the SAME thing I did at SBA! By the time I noticed the problem, the glideslope needle was pegged. Good experience all the way around.

When I said we decided to fly one more cross country, that was because I scheduled my checkride today! Next Saturday, October 28 will be the big day. This leaves only a few days for tuning and other practice. Written is tomorrow, phase check is Monday, after a VFR flight to Vegas for my sister’s wedding.

Now we come to the most painful phase of the training – polishing the skills to get ready for the checkride. Not that flying of any kind is boring, mind you, but being under the hood tightening up things that you already know about doesn’t exactly rank as “exciting”.

So we went up for some airwork today. Started out with something I haven’t actually done under the hood yet (although I did them plenty without the hood for my private license) which was steep turns. A bit rusty at first – rolling in and out wasn’t smooth enough – but other than that they were OK. Then a hold over at Fillmore, which went fine. Then came unusual attitudes – fine again. Feeling pretty good, but not good enough to do an intersection hold. We’ll save that for next time. We shot the ILS coming home, which went well, considering the confusion on the radio. A jet and a twin behind me ended up putting me on the left (non-ILS) runway, so Kent had to vector me to the runway. I held the glideslope well, so that was good.

Friday the 13th. Perfect day for 300+ miles of flying, all under the hood.

To meet the requirements of the rating, the trip needs to be 250NM total, three legs, one leg over 100NM, and three different approaches. I planned a trip from Van Nuys (VNY) to San Diego-Montgomery Field (MYF) to Camarillo (CMA) back to Van Nuys. My goal was to stay ahead of the airplane at all times, so I created a nav log that included all the necessary frequencies, radials, timing, distances, etc, for each leg. I reviewed the route extensively the night before so I’d feel prepared.

We launched around 9:15. The clearance for the first leg was exactly what I’d filed – V186 V363 V25 MZB. A few vectors that actually shortened the route a bit, but other than that, there were no surprises. Trimmed the plane well, stayed ahead, never busted altitude, and maintained positional awareness. Shot the ILS at MYF, parked and grabbed a quick snack before heading back out.

The next leg wasn’t quite the same. I filed by phone from MYF, and got a completely different clearance from what I filed. My new clearance was vectors to OCN V23 LAX VNY. No problem. I’ll just have to handle it in flight. And I did. Stayed ahead, even dialed in radials for fixes I was simply crossing, in order to verify my position. Busted altitude once coming in towards final for CMA, but nothing horrible. I caught it quickly, corrected and that was that. The approach was tough. The VOR 26 at CMA is difficult to begin with – two step downs from 4400 to 2000 in a short distance make workload high. The winds were keeping me south of the final approach course, until we got closer, then they shifted and kept me north. This threw me. I didn’t manage speed very well, but I ended up just about where I should have been when took off the hood. Landed, and in for lunch.

Leaving there, we just got Tower Enroute back to VNY. Once we were talking to approach, we requested the LDA-C, which they gave us. I flew this one well too, with the only problem being that the #2 VOR head has a thing called ARC – Automatic Radial Centering. You just push the OBS in, and it centers the needle with a TO indication. Pull it, and it centers with a FROM. Pretty cool, eh? Not really. See, the problem is that if you’re not careful, you can inadvertently push it in, and it starts centering. You can’t stop it until it’s done. That happened TWICE while I was trying to dial in the radial that identified the FAF for the approach. VERY irritating. Circled for 16R, and came home.

Very educational, and a real confidence builder. I feel good about my skills now, and know I can handle the tasks associated with flying IFR without killing myself. So THAT’S good. 4.5 hours is all I need now. This will probably be 2 lessons with Kent to clean things up, a phase check with Gene Hudson (the same CFII that did my PP phase check). I’m going to take the written next Friday, so that will be done. Then a VFR flight to Vegas for the weekend. That will be nice, considering I haven’t flown while seeing OUTSIDE the plane for about 10 flights now. Then the checkride!

As the checkride approaches, it’s time to start getting things tight. Tolerances are now lower – 50 feet on altitude, 5 knots on airspeed, 2 degrees on heading. We thought we’d head to Camarillo, then to grab a bite at Santa Monica (SMO). We departed VFR, with the plan being that Kent would give me vectors. No dice. It was practically IFR anyway, so we called up for the approach into Santa Monica. No problem. Vectored back to the Van Nuys VOR, then on to the approach.

It was an interesting one, too. In and out of clouds until we got established on final, and then it was solid IMC down to the MDA. Low visibility made it hard to see the runway until we were a few miles out. I tried to stay ahead, and paid good attention to the altitude, but forgot to get the ATIS coming in. Not good. I’ll be more ahead next time.

After a nice dinner, it was back up to shoot the ILS at Van Nuys. An interesting departure procedure, then somewhat routine flying back. As I got to the outer marker at Van Nuys, I was asked to maintain best forward speed on the approach. OK, then. At 120 the whole way, I had to really concentrate to keep it on the glideslope. It got away from me a bit at the end, but not too bad. More Wednesday, then my cross country Friday!

Today we decided to just go a quick one out to Camarillo (CMA) and back to Van Nuys (VNY) – I had to pick up the daughter at preschool, and had only 90 minutes or so. Should be plenty of time.

Only it wasn’t. By the time we got our clearance and got released, 20 minutes were gone. We got vectored around quite a bit, and were told not to descend on the final approach course until told to do so. We found ourselves over the FAF, 2000 feet too high. The approach frequency was like a party line. When the controller finally got back to me, he said we’d be vectored for spacing, and that we were number 7 in sequence! I knew I wouldn’t have time. I told him I’d like to go back to Van Nuys. He sounded relieved when he handed us to another controller.

Van Nuys was about the same. We got vectored around endlessly. Fly heading 360. Fly heading 180. Fly heading 360. Finally he turned us to the approach. By the time we got on the ground, I had 20 minutes to get to preschool. Made it in time, though.

It was a good flight anyway. Lots of airwork, and I flew it pretty well. Maintained altitude, got a better feel for the plane even. Decent approach, although they switched us to the left (non IAP) runway after we broke out. Kent had to vector me down to the DH. Still good.

Planning my cross country for next Friday. It has to be 250 miles, with one leg over 100 miles, and 3 different approaches. I’m looking to do VNY-MYF-CMA-VNY – which just covers it. Can’t wait.