Murdoughnut
Well sized member
A little bit of background - I had started studying for the IR about 2.5 years prior to taking the checkride, and had started flight training a year and 10 months before taking the ride. My checkride was scheduled for August 30th, and my written exam was set to expire at the end of September (I cut it close!)
My instrument training was wrought with setbacks. About halfway through my initial go at it, the plane I co-owned went down in Tampa Bay with one of the other owners and his parents. All three were killed unfortunately, and we were without an aircraft for about 6-months. A few months after I started back up again, my company began laying people off and I took a break from flying to ensure that I could build my safety net. Near the end of my training, my instructor's wife became ill, making it harder to find time to fly.
But after all that, I was scheduled to meet Frank Marcalek at Clearwater Airpark on August 30th for the checkride. Frank is an all around class act and great member of the aviation community. He had given me my PPL ride a few years before, so I was familiar with his laid back, conversational style. Unfortunately that didn't put me at ease in the days before the ride, but it did help a lot during the actual test.
My plane is actually parked at KPIE about 6-miles away, so I preflighted it and flew to CLW to meet frank at noon. I flew there fully expecting not to be able to complete the flight test, as weather in the area tends to get very convective after noon. Frank and I sat down and he reviewed all of the necessary paperwork, including the aircraft maintenance logs. He browsed through my log book, asking me about specific trips I had taken (in a very casual manner - "I've never been there, I bet that was fun" type of verbage). After he confirmed that I was qualified to take the test, he went over the requirements and formalities. We then jumped into the oral.
As is Frank's style, it was super casual. That's not to say he was lax, but that the oral instead felt like a casual conversation between two friends. The actual oral portion only ended up lasting about an hour. Frank is the type of examiner who can size up whether you know the info or not in a few minutes. Fortunately I had spent years studying the IR material and was very proficient in the theory and regs. He asked me about IFR currency and threw out several terms to see if I knew what they meant. He asked me some general questions about equipment failures and what instruments would be effected.
For the flight planning portion, he had me pull out my charts and tell me how I'd go about planning a flight to Opa Locka from St. Pete. The first thing I told him (which was what he was looking for) was that I wanted to check the AF/D to see if there were any preferred IFR routes into the area (which there were). I have to thank the guys on JC who told me to make sure I didn't neglect the AF/D. It was good advice! From there he gave me a hypothetical weather situation which was just above the necessary minimums for having to file an alternate. I told him I'd file one anyways since the weather was marginally above the mins (2,500', 3sm). That too was the right answer, because the MEA for the last segment of the route was 3,000 (which meant I'd be in the clouds if I lost comm).
Coming into Opa Locka, he then asked me about what I'd do if I lost comms. Fortunately a friend of mine had taken the ride with Frank the year prior, and discussed this very situation. The non-GPS approaches into Opa Locka are RADAR REQUIRED. This means they can't be used in the event of comm failure. Wanting to be fair, I told Frank that I had discussed this scenario with my friend following his ride. Frank was happy to know that something he had taught was passed on. He asked me what I would do instead, which was to fly to the IAF for the GPS 9 approach. He asked me what I’d do if I got there early. I knew I had to hold until the ETA, but I couldn’t figure out where at first. I guessed on the bearing from which I had just arrived to the IAF, which was correct.
After this Frank said everything looked good, and we headed to the plane. I did a walk around check, including checking the pitot tube for heat. My aircraft checklist does not include the necessary IFR checks, so I actually printed one up on my own based on the PTS and attached it to my kneeboard. I went through all of these checks, verbally communicating everything so both Frank and I would know what I was doing. I ran up the engine, went through a passenger brief, and departed to the west via Frank’s direction.
After putting the hood on, Frank had me do a steep turn, which I nailed. From there, we did two unusual attitudes, one climb, one descent. Those went good as well. Frank told me to call Tampa approach and ask for three approaches into KPIE. The first one was the ILS, which we were vectored for. I’m glad the ILS was first, because the thermals picked up for the following two, causing some unwanted distractions. I overshot the localizer slightly, but only by about two bars, and quickly corrected it. I flew the localizer great the whole way, and was a dot or two above the glideslope most of the way in. We flew the published missed after arriving at DH, which included a hold at LAFAL intersection. I nearly screwed up here, though. Frank asked me what my altitude should be, which reminded me that I had been passed to approach and forgot to call (because I was still flying the published missed). I told him the altitude and that I needed to call approach, acting as if I hadn’t forgotten. Approach gave me 3,500 in the hold.
I entered the hold with a teardrop, and ended up a bit long and a bit far on the inbound course, which I corrected before getting to the fix. Frank told me to ask for the full VOR 4, which they gave me. Approach vectored me around quite a bit before clearing me direct to the VOR about 3-miles out. I took me all 3 of those miles to get over top the VOR. On the outbound course, my DG had gotten off by about 30-degrees, so I ended up fighting the VOR indications for 1:45 of the 2:00 outbound course, before finally getting lined up just in the nick of time (I was really starting to sweat). ATC had cleared me for the approach and told me to maintain 2,100 until established inbound. On my last practice ride with my instructor, I had flow the same approach, receiving the same instruction. Except that time I heard “outbound” (since this is what you would expect) and descended too early. (not even my instructor caught it). I was glad for this mistake, as I was sure not to make it during the ride. I made the procedure turn and followed the approach course inbound, with some slight s-turns around the final approach course.
We flew an assigned missed after that and received vectors for the GPS 35R approach, which was done partial panel. Now this is where it nearly went FUBAR. I programmed a specific IAW, but ATC gave me vectors to the FAW. There’s a way on our GPS to switch to direct to any waypoint on the approach. You hit the cursor, highlight that waypoint, and hit the direct key. Easy enough, expect when I tried to rotate the knob to get to the correct waypoint, I turned the wrong knob. This gave me the option of renaming a fix which wasn’t at all what I wanted, and no about of button pushing would make it go back. Approaching the FAW, I still didn’t have it right, and I told Frank I was going to have to ask for vectors to go around and do it again. I was afraid of what this might mean, but Frank was actually happy with that decision, and said it was the right one. Long story short, I did the approach again, and made the same exact mistake! Fortunately this time I somehow (dumb luck) figured out how to get it to go direct to the FAW, confirmed activation, and flew the approach successfully.
From there I was cleared to head back to Clearwater Airpark. Trying to be conscious of pattern mistakes that might fail me after all of that, I entered a base and made a decent landing at CLW. I definitely remained in test mode, however, and was very careful during the taxi and shut down to follow the checklists. When I shut her down, Frank shook my hand and congratulated me on a successful ride. His only debrief item was that I should use the moving map more when doing a partial panel approach, as it’s a valuable source of heading information (better than the mag compass anyways).
After all of the setbacks, to say I was relieved was an understatement. Now I can’t wait to get up in some actual IMC! Thanks to everyone at JC who helped me along the way – there were honestly too many to list! From people who let me borrow DVDs, and software, to those who posted their experiences, it was all extremely valuable!
My instrument training was wrought with setbacks. About halfway through my initial go at it, the plane I co-owned went down in Tampa Bay with one of the other owners and his parents. All three were killed unfortunately, and we were without an aircraft for about 6-months. A few months after I started back up again, my company began laying people off and I took a break from flying to ensure that I could build my safety net. Near the end of my training, my instructor's wife became ill, making it harder to find time to fly.
But after all that, I was scheduled to meet Frank Marcalek at Clearwater Airpark on August 30th for the checkride. Frank is an all around class act and great member of the aviation community. He had given me my PPL ride a few years before, so I was familiar with his laid back, conversational style. Unfortunately that didn't put me at ease in the days before the ride, but it did help a lot during the actual test.
My plane is actually parked at KPIE about 6-miles away, so I preflighted it and flew to CLW to meet frank at noon. I flew there fully expecting not to be able to complete the flight test, as weather in the area tends to get very convective after noon. Frank and I sat down and he reviewed all of the necessary paperwork, including the aircraft maintenance logs. He browsed through my log book, asking me about specific trips I had taken (in a very casual manner - "I've never been there, I bet that was fun" type of verbage). After he confirmed that I was qualified to take the test, he went over the requirements and formalities. We then jumped into the oral.
As is Frank's style, it was super casual. That's not to say he was lax, but that the oral instead felt like a casual conversation between two friends. The actual oral portion only ended up lasting about an hour. Frank is the type of examiner who can size up whether you know the info or not in a few minutes. Fortunately I had spent years studying the IR material and was very proficient in the theory and regs. He asked me about IFR currency and threw out several terms to see if I knew what they meant. He asked me some general questions about equipment failures and what instruments would be effected.
For the flight planning portion, he had me pull out my charts and tell me how I'd go about planning a flight to Opa Locka from St. Pete. The first thing I told him (which was what he was looking for) was that I wanted to check the AF/D to see if there were any preferred IFR routes into the area (which there were). I have to thank the guys on JC who told me to make sure I didn't neglect the AF/D. It was good advice! From there he gave me a hypothetical weather situation which was just above the necessary minimums for having to file an alternate. I told him I'd file one anyways since the weather was marginally above the mins (2,500', 3sm). That too was the right answer, because the MEA for the last segment of the route was 3,000 (which meant I'd be in the clouds if I lost comm).
Coming into Opa Locka, he then asked me about what I'd do if I lost comms. Fortunately a friend of mine had taken the ride with Frank the year prior, and discussed this very situation. The non-GPS approaches into Opa Locka are RADAR REQUIRED. This means they can't be used in the event of comm failure. Wanting to be fair, I told Frank that I had discussed this scenario with my friend following his ride. Frank was happy to know that something he had taught was passed on. He asked me what I would do instead, which was to fly to the IAF for the GPS 9 approach. He asked me what I’d do if I got there early. I knew I had to hold until the ETA, but I couldn’t figure out where at first. I guessed on the bearing from which I had just arrived to the IAF, which was correct.
After this Frank said everything looked good, and we headed to the plane. I did a walk around check, including checking the pitot tube for heat. My aircraft checklist does not include the necessary IFR checks, so I actually printed one up on my own based on the PTS and attached it to my kneeboard. I went through all of these checks, verbally communicating everything so both Frank and I would know what I was doing. I ran up the engine, went through a passenger brief, and departed to the west via Frank’s direction.
After putting the hood on, Frank had me do a steep turn, which I nailed. From there, we did two unusual attitudes, one climb, one descent. Those went good as well. Frank told me to call Tampa approach and ask for three approaches into KPIE. The first one was the ILS, which we were vectored for. I’m glad the ILS was first, because the thermals picked up for the following two, causing some unwanted distractions. I overshot the localizer slightly, but only by about two bars, and quickly corrected it. I flew the localizer great the whole way, and was a dot or two above the glideslope most of the way in. We flew the published missed after arriving at DH, which included a hold at LAFAL intersection. I nearly screwed up here, though. Frank asked me what my altitude should be, which reminded me that I had been passed to approach and forgot to call (because I was still flying the published missed). I told him the altitude and that I needed to call approach, acting as if I hadn’t forgotten. Approach gave me 3,500 in the hold.
I entered the hold with a teardrop, and ended up a bit long and a bit far on the inbound course, which I corrected before getting to the fix. Frank told me to ask for the full VOR 4, which they gave me. Approach vectored me around quite a bit before clearing me direct to the VOR about 3-miles out. I took me all 3 of those miles to get over top the VOR. On the outbound course, my DG had gotten off by about 30-degrees, so I ended up fighting the VOR indications for 1:45 of the 2:00 outbound course, before finally getting lined up just in the nick of time (I was really starting to sweat). ATC had cleared me for the approach and told me to maintain 2,100 until established inbound. On my last practice ride with my instructor, I had flow the same approach, receiving the same instruction. Except that time I heard “outbound” (since this is what you would expect) and descended too early. (not even my instructor caught it). I was glad for this mistake, as I was sure not to make it during the ride. I made the procedure turn and followed the approach course inbound, with some slight s-turns around the final approach course.
We flew an assigned missed after that and received vectors for the GPS 35R approach, which was done partial panel. Now this is where it nearly went FUBAR. I programmed a specific IAW, but ATC gave me vectors to the FAW. There’s a way on our GPS to switch to direct to any waypoint on the approach. You hit the cursor, highlight that waypoint, and hit the direct key. Easy enough, expect when I tried to rotate the knob to get to the correct waypoint, I turned the wrong knob. This gave me the option of renaming a fix which wasn’t at all what I wanted, and no about of button pushing would make it go back. Approaching the FAW, I still didn’t have it right, and I told Frank I was going to have to ask for vectors to go around and do it again. I was afraid of what this might mean, but Frank was actually happy with that decision, and said it was the right one. Long story short, I did the approach again, and made the same exact mistake! Fortunately this time I somehow (dumb luck) figured out how to get it to go direct to the FAW, confirmed activation, and flew the approach successfully.
From there I was cleared to head back to Clearwater Airpark. Trying to be conscious of pattern mistakes that might fail me after all of that, I entered a base and made a decent landing at CLW. I definitely remained in test mode, however, and was very careful during the taxi and shut down to follow the checklists. When I shut her down, Frank shook my hand and congratulated me on a successful ride. His only debrief item was that I should use the moving map more when doing a partial panel approach, as it’s a valuable source of heading information (better than the mag compass anyways).
After all of the setbacks, to say I was relieved was an understatement. Now I can’t wait to get up in some actual IMC! Thanks to everyone at JC who helped me along the way – there were honestly too many to list! From people who let me borrow DVDs, and software, to those who posted their experiences, it was all extremely valuable!
