IR Oral checkride help

Chewie von Nubbins

Chewie von Nubbins

New Member
Need a little help guys/gals.

I have the IR checkride coming up this week and would like a little help in getting some usual oddball questions that come up in the IR oral. Besides the usual MEA, MAA, OROCA, MSA type of questions, what are some questions that you can recall that might help me out come oral time?

I have the ASA IR oral guide, and have been studying it cover to cover. Also, been hitting all aspects of the low enroute charts and approach plates.

So, I'll start it off by asking a couple of questions that I do not know the answer for:

What 3 requirements must be met in order to descend below MDA / DH while executing an instrument approach procedure?

What are the terrain requirements for an area to be deemed "mountainous."


Hopefully this thread will not only help me out, but also be able to help others out in the future for their checkride.

Thanks in advance. Appreciate the help.
 
1) It's in the oral exam guide, I bet. "runway enviornment" in sight, able to land in the touchdown zone, and flight visability above minimums.

2) Nearest I can tell, it's if said terrain is in the designated mountainous areas of the chart that shows montainous/non-mountainous. Dumb answer, but that's what I'd say. In other words, I think some FAA guy made up a chart one day and that was it. I'm sure he was working with some sort of guidelines, but I've never seen them in print, which is what you're looking for.

I remember a thread about this very question, so you might search for it.
 
How many GPS satellites are there, If you have Autopilot, know how to use it, know what CFIT is and what are some possible causes. I think those were the only ones that made me think a second or two.
 
F0506002.gif


I think its a joke, but here it is.

AIM chapter 5
linked from:
http://www.faa.gov/airports_airtraffic/air_traffic/publications/ATpubs/AIM/Chap5/aim0506.html

Suggest LOTS of AIM study before the ride.
 
Chewie von Nubbins said:
Need a little help guys/gals.

I have the IR checkride coming up this week and would like a little help in getting some usual oddball questions that come up in the IR oral. Besides the usual MEA, MAA, OROCA, MSA type of questions, what are some questions that you can recall that might help me out come oral time?

I have the ASA IR oral guide, and have been studying it cover to cover. Also, been hitting all aspects of the low enroute charts and approach plates.

So, I'll start it off by asking a couple of questions that I do not know the answer for:

What 3 requirements must be met in order to descend below MDA / DH while executing an instrument approach procedure?

What are the terrain requirements for an area to be deemed "mountainous."


Hopefully this thread will not only help me out, but also be able to help others out in the future for their checkride.

Thanks in advance. Appreciate the help.
Click to expand...

1. Not exactly sure probably an area thats covered with any land elevation that peaks higher than some. and you must stay 2,000 feet over it but in an airway or an OROCA you should meet this minimum. I would check the AIM or
this website: http://www.faa.gov/education_research/

2. You can descend 100 ft below MDA once you have the runway end lights in sight. If you look on one of the first pages of the selected airport on your Jepps you can see what shape and intnsity they are.
You can also descend to minimums when you have the runway environment in sight (look at FAR for the definition of this FAR 91.175) such as , runway lights, markings,TDZE markings, lights, centerline PAPI's, VASI's.

if you also meet the visibility and altitude requirments published on the approach. also if you are in a current position in which you can make the
runway safely.

3. Your doing a circle to land approach, you meet the DH then you begin your circle and about downwind from the runway you pop back into the clouds? what do you do? How would you execute it?

4. How to stay current as an IFR pilot. I use 66HIT as an acronym.

5. Study the oral guide, and know every symbol on your plate and low enroute as it is fair game.

Hope this helps. Keep us posted on your ride!
 
DE727UPS said:
1) It's in the oral exam guide, I bet. "runway enviornment" in sight, able to land in the touchdown zone, and flight visability above minimums.
Click to expand...

Bingo. 91.175(c) spells out the 3 requirements very clearly.

CaptainChris87 said:
2. You can descend 100 ft below MDA once you have the runway end lights in sight. If you look on one of the first pages of the selected airport on your Jepps you can see what shape and intnsity they are.
You can also descend to minimums when you have the runway environment in sight (look at FAR for the definition of this FAR 91.175) such as , runway lights, markings,TDZE markings, lights, centerline PAPI's, VASI's.
Click to expand...

Disagree. Rather, you can descend to 100' above TDZ once you can see the approach lighting system. You may further continue descent if the red terminating bars or the red side row bars are distinctly visible and identifiable.

As mentioned above, the 3 requirements to descend below DH/MDA are:
1) able to land in touchdown zone using normal descent rate and maneuvers
2) flight visibility not less than prescribed for the approach
3) runway environment in sight
 
We are starting to get examiners harping on WAAS now. Make sure that on the GPS plates you are looking at the proper MDA and not a DA if you don't have WAAS.

Also, know about the scaling of the GPS CDI from 1.0 nm to .3 before reaching the final approach fix.The AIM covers this.
 
What is the frequency range of an ILS localizer and why is one side of the ILS 'diagram' shaded and the other side not on the top-down view?

I was pretty well prepared for my IR ride and was answering his questions easily so I think this was just a "gotcha" question, but still.
 
JJ429PA said:
What is the frequency range of an ILS localizer and why is one side of the ILS 'diagram' shaded and the other side not on the top-down view?

I was pretty well prepared for my IR ride and was answering his questions easily so I think this was just a "gotcha" question, but still.
Click to expand...

Nice one. So, what is the answer?

108.10 - 111.95 for the localizer. What about the shaded side and other side of the ILS view?
 
The shaded side of a localizer symbol shows what used to be on the instrument face of a vor/loc display. The bottom of the dial had a blue arc on the bottom right side and on the bottom left side was ...yellow, I think. The idea was to be able to look at the 'color' you (the loc needle) were in, regardless of left/right. That was supposed to make it less confusing on back-course approaches, which were much more common.

I forgot all about that, until I read this, and so I looked in the current Instrument Flying Handbook to see if that piece of useless trivia is mentioned, and I don't see it referenced anywhere, so wtf is an examiner asking the question for?

I know -- it just gripes me.
 
Great thread..this is helping me a lot, my Inst. ride is coming up in the next 2 or 3 weeks. One question, since I'm using the Govn't plates, will all his questions concerning plates be on those, or are Jepps fair game as well?

Matt
 
What is the frequency range of an ILS localizer and why is one side of the ILS 'diagram' shaded and the other side not on the top-down view?

I was pretty well prepared for my IR ride and was answering his questions easily so I think this was just a "gotcha" question, but still.
Click to expand...

Haha well if I could have recalled the answer I'd have posted it too :crazy:. But seriously, I think he was just showing me no matter how much you think you know, you don't know everything. I really doubt he expected me to know about the shaded/unshaded business. I did know the LOC frequency though. Now that I think about it, I believe it went more like:

"What is the LOC frequency range?"
"108-111.95"
"Okay then, what does the shaded area mean?":banghead:

Just make sure you're over-prepared, and you'll be rewarded with that nice warm feeling you get halfway into the oral that says, "Hey, I'm on top of this!"
 
You Mofo's are awesome! Thanks for all that contributed to this thread, and I encourage it to keep growing. A couple of the questions really helped me out.

I passed the checkride today. The DE really threw me for quite a big loop with departure procedures, and SIDs. But, I made it through it and knocked the bottom out of the flying portion.

He actually asked me: "If you are circling and you break out of a cloud layer and then ID the runway environment, but...as you are circling, you get back into the OVC layer. What do you do? I knew this question because of the question about decending 100 feet below the DH. Then, I followed up to his question and added the bit about decending 100' below the DH on the ILS. Then, I told him the freq range for the ILS was 108.1-111.95 on a 3o glide slope. I saved myself a bit by adding this information.

I will post more about the checkride in the checkrides section within a couple of days. But, I wanted to drop back in and thank you guys for the help with this thread.
 
What are the terrain requirements for an area to be deemed "mountainous."

Mountainous Terrain = area of varying terrain contours where elevation figures change 3,000 ft within 10 miles
 
JJ429PA said:
and why is one side of the ILS 'diagram' shaded and the other side not on the top-down view?

I was pretty well prepared for my IR ride and was answering his questions easily so I think this was just a "gotcha" question, but still.
Click to expand...

the localizer barbed symbol is shaded because it operates on two separate frequencies. the 'white side' modulates at 90 hz...the 'dark side' at 150 hz. when you are 'centered' on the localizer, then the separate frequencies are 'synchronized'. if you are anywhere in the 'white side', regardless of aircraft heading, the needle is deflected right..period. if you are anywhere in the 'dark side', regardless of heading, the needle is deflected to the left. understanding this helps enormously, especially with respect to back course operations, which can disorient some pilots. so, if flying a back course and the needle is deflected 'right', you know you're in the white sector and looking at the plan view, you'll know automatically which way to correct if unsure. think.. 'white'? 'right'... :bandit:
 
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