YES! Passed the check ride

Whew. Well that was a grind.

After 17 mos of training I took the check ride today. It got scrubbed a
couple of time because of weather, winds once, snow once. The day
started with a flight from KFIT down to KSFZ to meet the examiner.
Beautiful flight 24 minutes or so down to Rhode Island. Winds today were
light on the surface roughly 300@20 at 3000.

The check ride consists of 2 parts, the oral exam and the actual ride.

The oral part last about an hour. The examiner did a great job building
the scenario up as a planning exercise. Questions like what does the
pilot have to do to be current (6+1 in 6 ...), what does the plane have
to do to be able to fly VFR (xpdr check in preceding 24 mos, VOR check
....). Then we went over the flight plan he asked me to do. LEB-PVD. I
chose to fly to the White River One with Keene transition direct KPVD.
So we talked about that, why did I choose it, what altitude why. It was
all very very very thorough. More than I am typing here.

Then he asked about a bunch of weather scenarios, what if the ATIS at
KLEB says the winds are 070@30G38kts. Would you fly IVV1? What would you
do? Why?

What if the winds at PVD are 050@10 clds OVC300 can you land? What about
an alternate? Why?

What about choosing an alternate? How do you do it? Could you land at an
airport without an instrument procedure? Why, when? etc etc. What
happens if your alternate (BDL) has ceilings of 500 ft? Can you land
there? How much fuel do you need ... On and on. Like I said, very
thorough in the flight planning phase of the discussion. It was actually
fun. You always wonder how much you've actually learned. But to go
through it with a guy like that is a blast. He's a stud. It's fun.

I asked him two questions on routing, how does ATC assign what they
assign? You never get what you ask for up here in the Northeast US. I
also asked him on the checkride if I could use him for CRM? He said,
he'd as an autopilot during approach transitions so I could set stuff up.

After passing through that gauntlet, time to fly!

The examiner said he'd act as ATC for the ride, take the plane for the
unusual attitude stuff but it is my ride so off we go.

First clearance, fly runway hdg, climb 1100, left turn 350 climb and
maintain 3000. It's all going smoothly, nice nice. Then he takes the
plane and does the unusual attitude drill. Up and down, left and right
and down and up and wiggle wiggle wiggle, open your eyes and recover.
Hey, where'd my AI go? (he covered it) ok plan B. Airspeed climbing,
turning left, descending ... chop the power, level the wings, stop the
descent, add power climb back to 3000 on 350 hdg. Good!

N15892 intercept the ORH localizer for the ILS 29 approach. Nailed that
one. Did a touch and go, needles were dead nuts all the way down. Which
was nice. A little xwind from the right but it tracked very smoothly. Dh
1190, off come the glasses and hey, that's a runway! A little fast over
the threshold but I figured with the touch and go, no big deal. Off we
go, climb straight ahead to 2000.

N15892 turn left direct PUT. Approach #2. But first the hold. N15892
hold at the PUT VOR EFC 1945Z. Round and round we go. Got the one minute
leg on the 2nd lap.

N15892 cleared for the VOR-A to 5B3. Report leaving the FAF (PUT).
Center on 185 on the OBS, descend to 2600, hit the VOR, start the clock,
turn right to 211, identify SNAPO (5 DME) and descend to the MDA of 900
feet. 5:40 seconds elapse are we out of the clouds yet? Did I say we
were out of the clouds? No you did not sir, going missed!

Climbing right turn to 2600 ft, direct PUT. Approach #2 in the bag.

Gives me some vectors to buy some time as I set up the next and last
approach. Fly a little, turns the knobs a little. Fly a little, turn the
knobs a little, check the altitude, check the speed, turn the knobs, ok,
ready to go. GPS-B to SFZ.

Back to the VOR, right turn 111, step down a couple of waypoints, circle
to land runway 23. GPS approaches are pretty easy on the GNS430. That
was the one I screwed up though. I forgot to report leaving the FAF. But
he prompted me so I recovered on that one. Descend to 1000 ft, MDA is
980 with the NOTAM applied. Circle to land and done.

The last thing he asked me to do after I shutdown was show him how that
I could program an arbitrary flight plan into the GNS430. Thankfully I
studied that a lot.

And that's it. Took about 3:30 hrs total time. Flew back to KFIT,
straight in to 32 and put the horse away. What a day.

I'd really like to thank my CFIIs Tony and Bill. Couldn't have done it
without them. It is quite a feeling of accomplishment. It is good stuff.

KC

Kevin Clarke wrote:
And that's it. Took about 3:30 hrs total time. Flew back to KFIT,
straight in to 32 and put the horse away. What a day.


Good for you. You're going to get more use out of that rating than any other
you may collect, with the exception of the Private License you already earned.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

On 03/01/07 17:50, Kevin Clarke wrote:
Whew. Well that was a grind.

After 17 mos of training I took the check ride today. It got scrubbed a
couple of time because of weather, winds once, snow once. The day
started with a flight from KFIT down to KSFZ to meet the examiner.
Beautiful flight 24 minutes or so down to Rhode Island. Winds today were
light on the surface roughly 300@20 at 3000.

The check ride consists of 2 parts, the oral exam and the actual ride.

The oral part last about an hour. The examiner did a great job building
the scenario up as a planning exercise. Questions like what does the
pilot have to do to be current (6+1 in 6 ...), what does the plane have
to do to be able to fly VFR (xpdr check in preceding 24 mos, VOR check
...).

Is a check of the VOR required for VFR flight? ;-)

I think you probably meant IFR...

Great story. It sounds like you're DE really put you through your paces.
I wish mine had; My check ride was quite a let-down. I passed, but didn't
feel like I showed the DE that I was capable. Oh well, shortly after that
I got an IPC from another CFII and felt a lot better.

Great job. Just don't let that rating get rusty. Get out there and use it!


--
Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Airplane
Cal Aggie Flying Farmers
Sacramento, CA

"Kevin Clarke" wrote:

Whew. Well that was a grind.

After 17 mos of training I took the check ride today.

Attaboy, Kevin.

Welcome to FOGG, the Fraternal Organization of Gauge Gazers.

Use your new rating every chance you get.

--
Dan
C-172RG at BFM