Prepping for IR checkride - questions

In article ,
"Steven Barnes" wrote:

My examiner left our panel mounted VFR GPS on while I was doing partial
panel stuff. After that approach, I noticed him casually turn the GPS to a
page that didn't give me any useful info. Not sure if it was on purpose or
not. At least it gave me a chance to see how the winds were affecting my
ground track. Made the next 2 approaches, even without GPS, a bit easier.

I'm sure it was on purpose.

A couple a weeks ago I did an IFR dual Cross Country with a student who
had his Garmin 295 (VFR GPS) Mounted in the airplane. I fully believe
in using everthing you got and were were IMC for about 1/2 of the
flight.

Just as we intercepted the Arc for a VOR DME approach in IMC I noted
that the the GPS appeared to be frozen. We flew the full approach to an
actual missed. We never did see the airport and then shot the ILS at
another nearby airport and and were climbing out for our return flight
before we felt like we had enough time to see what was going on with
the GPS. It was completely locked up and still showed us on the Arc for
the VOR DME Approach. We finally had to remove the batteries to reset
it as even the power switch was frozen.

Your DE was just simulating this exact scenario. It was great lesson
for my student.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL

On Wed, 22 Dec 2004 03:39:08 GMT, Steven Barnes wrote:

My examiner left our panel mounted VFR GPS on while I was doing partial
panel stuff. After that approach, I noticed him casually turn the GPS to a
page that didn't give me any useful info. Not sure if it was on purpose or
not. At least it gave me a chance to see how the winds were affecting my
ground track. Made the next 2 approaches, even without GPS, a bit easier.

On my checkride, I did everything possible NOT to use my VFR panel mounted
GPS on my partial panel approach UNTIL the DE gave me a subtle hint to use
"every available" tool in my plane.

With that subtle hint, it didn't take me long on my partial panel approach
to code in DRCT JAN, put it on the CDI page and fly my partial panel with
the help of the GPS.

I had to set the CDI page to show my track and desired track, all while
flying the plane.

The DE's rational was that you lost vacuum, you still have electrical, so
use all tools available on the electrical system.

On my full panel approaches, the DE was glad I used the GPS to monitor the
tracking of my flight in the CDI window. It helped me figure out the
crosswind component to set my header bug on my localizer and ILS
approaches. I never use the map feature anyway, so it felt comfortable for
me on the CDI window on my checkride.

Allen

My instructor told me to think of the checkride as a "day's work", and he
was right. It took loads of mental and physical energy, and I felt like I
had put in a full day at work by the time it was over.

-Alan Pendley
PP-ASEL-IA
=============
Make sure you have had plenty to eat about an hour before the start. It is
amazing how much energy you burn just on the oral and you need to make sure
you have plenty of energy left for the flying. Do not be tempted to skip
eating because of nerves etc. The food is really
important.

Hey Paul...good luck on the checkride. I just started my instrument
work and posts like this are great reading. I'm sure to come back to
things like this, hopefully sometime in the spring when I get to take
the DPE along.

As for the high score on the written, IMHO, I don't think it matters to
the examiner. A good examiner is going to probe for what you know/don't
know no matter what your written score.

Looking forward to your post about the checkride.

Jack Allison
PP-ASEL, Instrument student

Paul,

Heading control: The PTS says "...not consistently outside the
limits..." Most examiners are going to give you considerable leeway.
What they are looking for, really, is how 'ahead' and 'in control' are
you? Are you always inside the limits but working yourself into a
frenzy to do it, or are you occaisionally outside the limits but
clearly in command of the flight? A couple of 20 d deviations during
the approach briefing probably will not bust you. Don't do it on the
ILS, tho.

Some tips on heading control: 1) trim the aircraft to a true, exact
hands off perfect trim. 2) Let go of the yoke 3) use light rudder
pressure to keep the TC at 0 turn. 4) go work the side task (i.e.
approach briefing) for five seconds or so 5) look back at the
instruments; 6) don't touch the yoke, just use light rudder pressure to
set up a slow (one wingtip) turn rate towards the desired heading 7)
go back to the side taks *while* that correction is taking place (dont
sit and watch it until on heading and then look away; use the time
while the correction takes effect. 8) Never touch the yoke when your
eyes are not actively scanning the flight instruments.

VOR tracking: Your CFII is doing a good job at challenging you, but
for the checkride no reasonable examiner is going to require a
perfectly centered needle over the VOR. If you are getting a pegged
needle only for a second or two when crossing the VOR, you are doing
better than most, and will pass the checkride just fine. The terrain
clear area on an airway is 4nm each side; the deviation off center that
corresponds to two seconds pegged is, well, insignificant. If you
really, really, really, want to nail that vor down to the last foot,
try this; as you get really close, the needle starts to get 'twitchy,'
and hard to track. At that point, abandon any heading information, but
simply turn at standard rate in the same direction as the motion (not
position) of the needle. You can really nail it this way, but it is
questionable that this is the best use of your mental resources at that
moment. You probably have other things to do which would be of more
use.

Written: No, that means you studied. Make sure when you go in you
know what question you missed and why.

Regards,

Gene