Changes in Instrument Proficiency Check Requirements

Roy Smith wrote:

In article m,
"Richard Kaplan" wrote:


"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
.com...

I"m not sure how far back you're going. My IFR PTS is pretty old but
still includes a table of things required for a PC. I think that a lot
of CFIIs just didn't know what an IPC was.

The difference is that the prior PTS versions did not state that all the IPC
items in the table are required for an IPC; thus a reasonable interpretation
has been that 61.57(d) givet a CFII the discretion to choose among those
items.

The newest PTS now explicitly states that all IPC items in the table must be
included in an IPC.


I seem to remember there used to be wording to the effect that an
ICC/IPC needed to include a "representative sample" of the PTS checkride
tasks. I can't remember if that was in the PTS itself or part 61/91
somewhere. Or maybe it's just a faulty memory circuit?

That being said, I'm about to give my first IPC in an plane with an
approach certified GPS. I spent some time re-reading the PTS to make
sure my plan is up to snuff, and here's what I came up with for the
flight portion:

------------
Two flight legs, each with full route clearance on ground, flight to
another airport, at least one approach, and full stop landing. One
leg done with NAV radio only, another with GPS.

VOR leg will include airway intercept and tracking, partial panel VOR
approach, p/p missed, and p/p hold. Partial panel unusual attitudes.
Full panel ILS to a full stop.

GPS leg will include programming flight plan, constant airspeed and
rate climbs and descents, in-flight reroute, GPS approach, full
procedure, circle-to-land to a full stop.
------------

The rest of the PTS material will be covered in the oral.

The bizarre thing is that, AFAICT, the PTS lets me have the guy do a
VOR, LOC, and ILS, and never touch the GPS once. Given that all our club
planes are now equipped with approach-certified GPS, I just can't see
doing that. The hard question is where to draw the line.

If I require a GPS approach at all, the PTS would be perfectly happy to
have us punch in Direct Destination and get vectors to the approach.
But that only exercises a miniscule portion of what you really need to
know to fly IFR with the box. I think the selection of GPS tasks listed
above is a reasonable compromise, but it still leaves a lot untouched.
I guess at some point you need to trust the checkee's PIC judgement to
practice on his own and not attempt things in IMC that are beyond his
abilities.

Based on my flight yesterday, depending on which GPS you have, I'd want
to see the approach with the IAF being the fix in the middle of the "T",
and I'd want to see the MAP flown as well rather than a full stop
landing. The reason being that, at least with the King 89B radio, there
are a couple of things that come into play in these two circumstances.
If you fly to one of the fixes at the ends of the "T", you don't fly the
PT for reversal an thus can fly the approach in leg mode. This is very
straightforward. However, to fly a course reversal you must enter OBS
mode prior to arriving at the IAF. If you don't, it gets very
confusing. Same with flying the missed. The 89B stops autosequencing
at the MAP and you have to manually select the fix that defines the
hold. These are both easy to overlook in the heat of battle. :-)


Matt