Instrument Checkride Practical – Part II

After some scheduling difficulties due to weather, as well as my catching a nasty cold, we finally got back together to finish the practical. Same drill – I picked him up at his office. We talked about last weeks bust, what a good learning experience it was, etc. Then off to finish what we couldn’t get to before.

He told me to depart VFR, and gave me a clearance to fly (since I hadn’t passed that part of the test last time), which consisted of some radar vectors, and the interception of a radial. The vector he’d given me was taking me through the radial, so I kept flying it. He then turned me back to the radial (this was a test to be sure I wasn’t going to do what I did last time – I passed), and then issued intersection holding instructions. I was flying straight in on the opposite side of the holding course, so a parallel entry was called for. I told him that’s what I’d be doing, and mentioned that I could technically do a teardrop from there as well. He said “your choice”. I did the parallel, and as I almost got established on the inbound course, he said “OK – fly heading 150, and let’s see a steep turn to the right”. No flying the hold? OK by me. Steep turns went fine.

Next he asked me to put the plane into a climbing right turn. I did, and he said “OK – now put your head down, close your eyes, and maintain the turn”. I tried, and after about 30 seconds, he said “Look up and recover”. I was in almost a 90 degree descending right turn. I recovered fine, and he said “Good job – now take us home via the Van Nuys LDA-C approach”.

Called up SoCal approach, got a clearance, and aside from not descending soon enough after passing the FAF (I’d have got down there eventually) he had me go visual and land. All done!

So now I’m instrument rated. Truly another license to learn. I recommend it highly. It was challenging, exciting and really fun. It has also made me a MUCH better pilot. More accurate, more in tune with the airplane and my surroundings, and more aware in general. I had planned to get my commercial now, but I’ve decided to wait a while – maybe a year or so, to just enjoy this, work on the house, and spend more time with my gorgeous wife and fabulous daughter.

So there you go.

Instrument Checkride Practical – Part I

I felt really prepared for today. The examiner told me what we’d be doing after we finished the oral last time – the BUR ILS 8 to a missed, back around for the BUR VOR 8 to a missed, out to the practice area for steep turns, unusual attitudes, holds and then back for the VNY LDA-C. I’ve flown all of those approaches before, so I knew I could do them.

Since the examiners office is at the extreme south end of the field and the plane is at the extreme north end of the field, he told me to preflight and just come pick him up. I did, and arrived 10 minutes early. After a few minor questions, we were on our way.

I got my clearance to BUR, taxied back for takeoff, did my runup, and set up my avionics. I wanted to do absolutely everything I could before we took off, so I even got the ATIS at the departure airport (it’s close enough that you can do that from the ground) before we left. We were cleared to go, so off we went.

The departure procedure calls for runway heading below 1700 until crossing a radial, then a turn to 210 to intercept and fly another radial. I’ve flown this departure many times, so I was very prepared. Only I wasn’t. Once I got close to the second radial to fly outbound, I started turning to intercept. The DE said “What heading are we supposed to fly?” I stopped turning to make sure I was doing the right thing, and said “he didn’t give me a vector, so I’m flying the DP”. He said “OK”. But it was far from OK.

I got around to about heading 300 when the controller came on and said “Cessna 57E – turn immediately to heading 210”. I did, and the next thing I heard was “Cessna 57E, you may have been involved in a pilot deviation – I have a number for you to call – advise when ready to copy”. I freaked. The controller MUST have made a mistake. The DE said “Well, that about kills it for today – do you want to fly some approaches anyway?” I was incredulous. I said yes. I flew the ILS 8 at Burbank then the VOR-A at Van Nuys (partial panel) fine. We landed and started talking.

It turns out that the DP only calls for the intercept to the LAX 323 radial in the case of lost communications. Is says to fly heading 210 and EXPECT vectors. Simply put, I flew it wrong. I got in touch with my instructor, and asked him to describe the procedure for me. He described it exactly the way I flew it – the wrong way.

We went back to the DE’s office to get my paperwork and to call the phone number I was given. I was extremely polite, and explained that I had misread the DP, that I understood how dangerous it was, and (hoping for sympathy) that I was on a checkride. I got the sympathy I was looking for – the guy was very nice, explained again why it was so dangerous, and told me that he wouldn’t be filing a pilot deviation. I thanked him profusely.

So I have to go back Monday for one more approach, holds, steep turns and unusual attitudes. Oh yes – and to show I can fly a DP correctly. Not happy today, but not as unhappy as I’d have been if I had just flown poorly. The DE commented that I flew fine – but being asked to call the TRACON is pretty much your no-brainer bust.

Instument Checkride – Oral

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!

Last chance to clean up

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.

The home stretch

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!