mhcasey
Well-Known Member
8AM Wednesday March 7, 2007 at Austin Bergstrom with DE Charles McDougle.
- Make sure that your IACRA works and you have a 61.30 endorsement (errors in these two put us off to a rocky start).
- DE actually looked at my written test results (98). I told him about the question I missed and he laughed. Unfortunately, I don’t think the high score resulted in an easier oral).
- Straight up questions: Fuel requirements, alternate airport, required equipment.
- Weight and Balance – he did not look very closely at it.
- NOTAMS and general weather picture including METARS/TAFS
- What if the weather was this at Midland and San Angelo? He pulled out a few METARS with 600/2 and 800/2. Can we file SJT as an alternate? Yes.
- What if you were flying to San Antonio and the weather was 800/2 everywhere? Could you file San Marcos as an alternate? No; on the approach plate it says HYI is not an authorized alternate.
- What if you were flying to San Antonio and the weather was pretty decent. You know you can make it to SAT, but don’t think you could make the alternate with 45 minutes of fuel. What would you do? If I legally had to file an alternate, I’d better be able to get there with 45 minutes of fuel, so I’d plan a stop before San Antonio to get more fuel. (He said you could also just find a closer alternate).
- Why did you choose this altitude? Most favorable winds.
- What is up with box 8? I had written the route in my own personal shorthand since my instructor never taught me the standard format. He had me try to file it. The FSS guy actually took it, but we discussed the proper notation.
- What usually happens when cold fronts blow through this area?” Thunderstorms.
- Know what zigzags on prog charts are (surface icing).
- Would you want to fly into this area? Is it IFR or VFR? (Points to enclosed area on prog charts, area of radar summary with intense echoes, etc.)
- What kind of weather is probably going on around here? (Points to Great Lakes Region with intense radar echoes).
- He has a pretty big packet of old weather charts and forecasts that he seemed to randomly choose from.
- I knew that lifted index charts measure lapse rate, but had never before seen one. He told me it was my homework to study them, and told a story about a day he was planning a flight with no t-storm forecasts, but had checked the lifted index chart and noticed how unstable the area was and decided not to fly. Sure enough, there were devastating thunderstorms that day.
- Do you always get a weather briefing? Absolutely. Even if the weather is totally clear, you never know what you may have missed or if there are significant NOTAMS or TFRs.
- Some basics: What is this R? MRA. What is this thing? VOR COP. What is this altitude? MOCA.
- A lot of questions about the El Paso area. He incorporated weather into his questions a lot.
- How do you fly this approach if cleared to WHOLE iaf and cleared for the ILS 22 El Paso Approach? It is poorly charted, but you can descend to 8800 right after WHOLE, 6600 after PIERS to intercept the localizer, descent to 5900 until AGUAS, etc. The tricky part was noticing that you can’t immediately descend to 6600.
- What if you are circling to land on 26L? Level off at the circling mins and fly a left pattern for 26, remaining within 1 mile of the runway.
- What if you’re in a T-38? I told him I thought that the distance from the runway for circling approaches was dependant upon your aircraft category, which he didn’t argue so I guess it’s right.
- Several Lost Comm Scenarios using the enroute chart of the If you’re here, controller says this, and your radios go out, what do you do? This portion included instructions from the controller to expect to fly a direct off airway route before losing comm. During this portion, you would maintain the previous MEA because it was higher than the minimum IFR altitude for that quadrant, as well as the previously assigned and expected altitudes.
- He then briefed me on the flight and we determined that due to equipment (VFR GPS with no DME), we would have to fly the localizer and NDB approaches in San Marcos, and the ILS into Austin. We did not start out on the flight plan route, so there was no diversion.
- Discussed control exchange and how we’d handle an emergency. I had him confirm his brakes were working. I asked if I could brief the first approach on the ground since by the time we were out of Austin’s airspace, we’d be very close San Marcos. He approved, so I did. We received a local IFR clearance and are cleared to San Marcos via vectors.
- While taxiing I checked the compass and DG. He asked What else are you checking? TC rolls with the turn and the ball slips outside, the attitude indicator is erect and stable after 5 minutes, and the altimeter is within 75 feet.
- Tower assigns runway heading, so on takeoff I use the GPS to maintain 173. He finds this odd and during the debrief states that I should have just flown 170 on the DG. We discuss it a bit and decide to look it up in the AIM later (I still haven’t, but I think for takeoffs, maintaining the heading on the DG is the correct procedure, but during normal flight you are expected to compensate for crosswinds).
- We’re cleared direct to GARYS (iaf for the NDB approach), but the ADF does not appear to be working. I ask if we should do the localizer approach first and then see if the ADF is working. I don’t know. Ok we’re doing the localizer 12 approach into San Marcos, etc. (rest of the briefing). He also let me choose which approach to do partial panel, and I choose this one. He instructs me to circle to land 17. When we turn outbound, he covers the DG and AI, turns off the GPS, and switches the NAV 1 freq so that I can’t use the glideslope.
- The approach goes fine and after turning final, he tells me to go missed. We fly tower assigned MAP (climb to 3,000 and head 350). There’s another aircraft practicing approaches, so I tell him what we’re doing and that ATC should keep us well clear of him. I continue to monitor CTAF after I switch back to Austin.
- We receive a few vectors, then are cleared back to GARYS to hold. The ADF kicks back in, so I track to GARYS (no GPS), make a parallel entry, and utilizing both the ADF and localizer in the hold. He only had me do about a lap and a half, then cancelled our IFR clearance with ATC to go “do some maneuvers.”
- We exit the traffic pattern to the SE and do 2 very unusual attitude recoveries. Expect to be nose low and very fast with the trim reset quite a bit, then just the opposite.
- We call Austin and request vectors for the NDB 12 approach into San Marcos, which we receive. Unfortunately, the ADF is out again. I continue to fly assigned vectors and get established on the localizer course (1 degree off of the NDB approach) and wait for the ADF to kick in, which never happens. I continue to fly the approach beyond GARYS. During the debrief, he asked how I was able to identify the FAF (I had begun a descent). I tell him that the marker beacon lit up, we intercepted the glideslope at the appropriate altitude, and we were on the 215 radial off centex (on the chart). He’s surprised that I kept up with it all, but mentions that ADF or an IFR GPS was actually required for even the localizer approach, though I’m still not sure where he got this information. Also, when we determined that the ADF would not work, he asked what I would do if we were in actual? I said I’d continue to the MAP and go missed. How are you going to identify the MAP if you don’t have tha ADF and thus have no idea where the final approach course is? Good point. I would immediately climb to the MSA and call Austin for further instructions (which we do).
- We ask Austin for vectors for the ILS 17L. Austin gives us a heading which we fly for a long time. I check the weather and continue with my checklists. Winds are reported 320@10G16ish, so I expect to have to use a lot of correction. When I’m established on the localizer, I’m surprised that only a few degrees of correction are needed to stay on the localizer, so I call for a wind check: 190@7ish. With the weak winds, the approach was no problem and I made an extremely smooth landing.
- We taxi into Atlantic FBO where I make an incredible parking job, hoping that the trifecta of a great ILS, landing, and parking job would qualify as a non precision approach. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and he explains that he’ll have to issue a discontinuance due to maintenance, aka the ADF failure (en route he had tried to find an alternate approach we could fly, but with no DME and his unwillingness to use the VFR GPS as DME, there was nothing with 60 miles we could fly).
- I expect the final non precision approach to be pretty easy whenever I can get on the schedule with him. He was impressed with my “situational awareness, flying, and communication.” I think he liked my radio management – smooth radio calls, and always monitoring what I was supposed to: CTAF when still with Austin, Austin when on CTAF, got the wx ahead of time, and identified all navaids. He also seemed to appreciate my use of checklists, including the 4 million GUMPS checks I made during the flight.
- Overall a nice guy and a fairly smooth checkride thus far. Points of emphasis were weather, fuel management, and lost comm. Procedures. In flight he only spoke when he needed to give me instructions.
