IFR Checkride WX Questions

I was in the A&P school in 1972 because I could get student
loans to help. I said to the school financial people that
it seemed strange that I could borrow money to become a
mechanic while I already had a commercial ticket and held a
ground instructor advanced and instrument. His reply was
that Spartan would loan me the money.

I finished up the instrument, CFI, CFII, MEL and SES and the
powerplant too. Was out of school a year or so and went
back to finish the airframe. I trained when Elmo Mauer was
the guy in charge. Flew with Auggie and Norm Penick.

Finished up at Spartan in 75 and got a job in OKC at PWA.
After some strange jobs, ended up at Wichita in 78.



"Jim Carter" wrote in message
t...
| Jim,
| When were you at Spartan? I used to teach at Ross down
on Riverside and
| Spartan was the only other real school there at the time.
|
| I busted my II oral at TUL FSDO because I didn't know
what a High
| Altitude Teardrop Penetration approach was. There was a
pub'd one for TUL at
| the time - the old F100s used it.
|
| The inspectors reasoning was that I could hop in the
right seat of a
| Citation and give instrument training and that aircraft
was capable of
| executing the approach. I reasoned he was just ****ed off
and having a bad
| day.
|
| One of my previous CFI students had swallowed a valve
on takeoff with
| him about two weeks earlier.
|
|
| --
| Jim Carter
| Rogers, Arkansas
| "Jim Macklin" wrote
in message
| ...
| I would agree on that, organization. When I was training
at
| Spartan [Tulsa] for my CFI ratings, the "word" was that
the
| FSDO was very tough on CFII applicants.
| I showed up with my own, name embossed Jep bag with a
full
| set of IFR charts and the J-AID. After a few questions,
| maybe an hour or so, we went flying.
| But students who showed up with the school supplied
charts
| were being grilled half a day or even longer, because
the
| inspectors wanted to know that the student really knew
the
| material.
|
| It did not hurt that I usually began an answer to a
question
| with, "That's FAR 91.85, paragraph 2, ..."
|
|
|
| "Roger" wrote in message
| ...
| | On 2 Feb 2007 09:36:48 -0800, "Robert M. Gary"
|
| | wrote:
| |
| | On Feb 1, 10:37 pm, "Jim Macklin"
| | wrote:
| | Know how to interpret the material from on-line
| sources.
| | The key is, can you draw a crude picture of the
weather
| | [verbally or with a pencil] and then apply that to
the
| FAR
| | as to whether the weather, currently and forecast,
will
| | allow the operation.
| |
| | Partly, but every DE I've ever worked with required
the
| applicant to
| | show up with the classic charts and exhibit knowledge
of
| the symbols
| | (i.e. carry a secret decoder ring). Once rated, few
| pilots every use
| | these old style charts.
| |
| | They didn't even have me look at weather charts or
even
| the old style
| | codes and this was a few years back. Of course the
| weather was so bad
| | it bout beat the snot out of me flying up there to
take
| the test. I
| | told him I almost canceled, but decided to head up and
see
| "how it
| | went". He asked me about the forecast and if it was
| deteriorating,
| | getting better or as forecast. I also had everything
he
| asked for, in
| | a note book and _in_order_. After he asked for the
second
| document and
| | I just flipped a page, he said, "let me see that".
Looked
| through it,
| | asked me a few questions on weather, flight planning,
| aircraft
| | performance, and a few other things I've now forgotten
and
| he sent me
| | out to preflight the Deb.
| |
| | It's been a while, but "as I recall" the whole oral
part
| of the exam
| | was on the order of a half hour, give or take a bit.
| Thing is, being
| | *thoroughly* organized at least made it look like I
knew
| what I was
| | doing. :-)) He told me later that he usually expects
to
| take at least
| | twice as long on that part and it was rare to have any
one
| come in
| | with the *stuff* in a binder, let alone organized.
| |
| | Most of it was done as casual conversation, but I knew
| what he was
| | after with each question. If I didn't know the answer
I
| was able to
| | tell him right where it was and could find it in the
FARs
| or AIM.
| | When it came to the requirements to be able to drop
below
| DH on an ILS
| | I proudly rattled them right off only to be greeted by
a
| blank stare
| | as if he were waiting for something. Then he said,
| there's one more.
| | I went through them three times but always came up
short.
| Finally I
| | looked at him, held out my hand and asked if "I could
use
| the book".
| | :-))
| |
| | The conversation seems casual, but make a mistake and
you
| can expect
| | more questions on the same subject. Miss another one
or
| two on the
| | same subject and you may spend quite a while covering
that
| particular
| | segment and you WILL know (and remember) the answer
| afterwards, or the
| | test will be over.
| |
| |
| | -Robert, CFII
| | Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
| | (N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
| | www.rogerhalstead.com
|
|
|
|

On Feb 3, 9:33 pm, Roger wrote:
On 2 Feb 2007 09:36:48 -0800, "Robert M. Gary"
wrote:

It's been a while, but "as I recall" the whole oral part of the exam
was on the order of a half hour, give or take a bit. Thing is, being
*thoroughly* organized at least made it look like I knew what I was
doing. :-)) He told me later that he usually expects to take at least
twice as long on that part and it was rare to have any one come in
with the *stuff* in a binder, let alone organized.

The length of time of the oral is always interesting to me. I've had 7
checkrides with DE's and aside from the initial CFI none were more
than 30 minutes of oral. I had one checkride where the entire oral was
done while we flew out to the practice area, not a word spoken on the
ground. I'm not sure exactly what determines the length but I know
these DE's have given good students more than 2 hours too. Of course
my CFI oral was a good 6 hours, although I've heard 8 hours is
standard.

-Robert

Robert M. Gary wrote:
Partly, but every DE I've ever worked with required the applicant to
show up with the classic charts and exhibit knowledge of the symbols
(i.e. carry a secret decoder ring).

Wow. The FAA written exams love them to death, but during some fairly
large number of checkride orals I've never been asked a word about them;
it's all been practical stuff.

Once rated, few pilots every use these old style charts.

I started flight training at a time (early 90's) when the
walk-into-FSS-and-eyeball-charts routine was just ending, but I still
like some of the classic products (particularly the SA map and the new
colorized prog charts), even if I have to nose around the backside of
aviationweather.gov to find them. I don't particularly mind that the
written exam covers the entire gamut; people at least get exposed to all
of them, and afterwards can keep using whichever form made the most sense.

Jim Macklin wrote:
Know how to interpret the material from on-line sources.
The key is, can you draw a crude picture of the weather
[verbally or with a pencil] and then apply that to the FAR
as to whether the weather, currently and forecast, will
allow the operation.

You are not becoming a weather briefer or a professional
chart maker.

Nor a meterologists.