"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
...
On Jun 27, 11:47 am, Tom wrote:
Hi guys. I've been doing my training, took the written yesterday and
have my checkride in 2 weeks.

Couple of questions.

1) The tolerance for MDAs on the test is +100/-0. The natural response
to this is of course to target the altitude MDA+50ft, giving 50ft
buffer in either direction.

My question is this: how do you manage this on the checkride? If the
real MDA is 460, so your MDA+50 is 510, do you say "1000 for 460...900
for 460...800 for 460" etc? You can't really say 510 can you, as the D/
E might think you have the wrong MDA. But if I say 460 I tend to go
down to 460 - and then it's all too easy to accidentally go down to
459 and that's a bust.

Yea, don't get too close to the MDA. Just tell the examiner you're
flying it a bit higher (within the standards). In real IMC you may
choose to fly it 200 feet high if you are ultra sharp on your skills.

I've always thought adding any sort of buffer to the MDA is a bad idea for
novice instrument pilots. Never continue an IFR approach past the MDA, but
always be prepared to go to the MDA.

Here's why. The typical scenario is a novice instrument pilot adds a buffer
to the MDA, say 200' like you said. Then he flies to his imaginary MDA and
doesn't break through. So he may try it again, only lower (almost always a
bad idea), or he may go to his alternate only to find it worse and then try
to go back. All are recipes for disaster.

Approaches are designed to be flown to the MDA which provides a reasonable
safety margin already. If you don't have the skills to fly to the MDA, pick
an easier approach in which you can or don't fly IFR.