DrBenny
New Member
Hey guys! It has been a long time since I logged in. I really don't know why I haven't done so. Anyway, for those of you who know me, I think I started logging in back in 2002 or so, before I had my PPL. Got that in the summer of 2003. Then I spent a year of pointless flying around (the very best type), including a monster 3,000 n.m. cross country. In late 2004 I started the IR, and in this past summer, I got that rating. Future plans include the comm, and multi (surprise).
For those of you who are still reading, and want to continue following my dull life story, here is the write-up of my IR checkride, from this past July:
Ben meets the DPE
The whole thing lasted six hours. We met at 14Z today at BWI's Signature. Oral started friendly enough, and we went over the required paperwork. The DPE was exceptionally nice, which actually began to have an opposite effect. (I believe in medicine and psychology they call that a "paradoxical effect.") In any event, I eventually got around to showing him my written test. Since it was a perfect score, he joked that we should just forget the ground portion and go on out to the airplane. Of course, that wasn't to be the case.
Next, we moved on to discuss some of the issues the new PTS stresses--ADM, CRM, LAHSO, and so on. Then, we started on some questions about weather. I did reasonably well on them. Next we looked at some items on the L charts. Here, the DPE was interested in making sure the I understood the symbology. I had no problems with those questions, either. He asked me if I had ever had any experience with icing. I told him that I hadn't. He then stressed to me that icing can happen QUICKLY, and that the problem might not be so much the performance of the aircraft as that you just can't see anything out the windscreen. That sobered me up some.
Next up I got some questions on lost comms while flying along a route. The answers weren't hard there, either. Like many of the others, the problems were posed as scenarios. The question that he decided to expand upon was one concerning EFAS. He wanted to know how I would find out about weather at my destination once I had already launched. I told him I could call 122.0, and I said it was an FSS frequency. This answer wasn't incorrect, but he stressed to me that EFAS was solely dedicated to weather. He gave me the background on this service, reminded me of the importance of it. Now, I am a teacher, so I took all of this (and all of everything that was to happen) to heart. IOW, I didn't disgregard anything that was told me just because I was taking the practical examination, or I was nervous, etc.
Finally, we went over go/no-go situations. This section was very educational. He wanted to know what type of weather I would fly in with a non-KI single, and what, practically speaking, the IR was good for in such an aircraft. I told him that I was conservative, and that the main idea was that I didn't want some innocuous clouds to get in my way, but that I wasn't about to go launching in 0/0 or in icing conditions. I told him that until I got more experience in IMC--I only have about 20 hours of actual--that I wouldn't launch in anything lower than a 1,000 ceiling, and that my destination had to be as good. He liked these types of conservative responses. By this time, he was satisfied with the ground portion (formally called the "oral" portion) of the test, so it was out to the Zlin.
OK, time to fly
The DPE was intrigued by the aircraft, and was looking forward to the flight. I was careful to do everything by the book during all phases of flight. I have a good checklist, and I made use of it when it was required. Launching from Class B BWI, you really need to be on your game, and I seemed to be doing OK. I got my clearance, went through the rest of the appropriate checklists, and presently was cleared for takeoff. As I ran that engine up to the full 200 horses, I prayed, Lord, please help me to keep my head out of my a** today.
On course to KESN, we actually lost our #2 radio. I couldn't believe it. I thought, at first, that the DPE was doing this to me to test how I would handle the situation. As it turned out, it was a real failure. Luckily, since we have two NAVCOMMS, there was no real problem. The DPE asked me what I wanted to do. I said that I would just wait to clear the ADIZ, and then we could cancel. At that point I would get KESN's weather, and the DPE could act as my controller. He seemed satisfied with this. I verified my position via DME and a radial, and then further verified my position with ATC. After doing this, I cancelled IFR.
OK, Ben; let's get to the bread a butter
The first approach, the LOC Rwy 4, was nearly beautiful. I wasn't ever more than a dot off. Satisfied with this, we missed and climbed to 2,000'. The DPE took the opportunity to talk to me about flying more with my feet so that I wouldn't have to work as hard with the stick for slight turn corrections. As before, I took every opportunity to learn from this experience. Of course my CFII had taught me this, but probably because of nerves I wasn't using my feet as much as I should have done.
Situational awareness
Next, the DPE wanted me to verify my position. As luck would have it, I was picking up the ESN NDB, so I told him I could navigate there. The DPE wanted to know more precisely where I was, though, so he asked me how I could find this out more accurately. In response, I tuned the BAL VOR and found what radial I was on, and then found out how far out I was on the DME. He asked me to cross check with another VOR, and I verified my position. All of this was simple enough (and, of course, learnt for my PPL).
Back to Baltimore
From there, we picked up our clearance back to BWI. The approach controller was EXCEPTIONALLY busy, but also quite accommodating, thank goodness. Presently I was cleared for the ILS Rwy 28 approach, and expect the VOR Rwy 28 approach. Here as at Easton I silently thanked my CFII for forcing me to fly partial panel nearly all the time for the past two months. With full panel, I did rather well on this approach. I was off by a dot at one point, and the glideslope drifted down a dot at the very end, but I did OK, I guess. As requested by the tower, the DPE had me go around at DH, so the prop went full in as did the throttle, and the tower was issuing instructions for the missed.
Holding and one more approach
Vectored around to ODOFY, the DPE requested a hold from the controller. Although they were very busy, they were nice enough to approve it. I did reasonably well on this, though I was probably lucky that the winds were light! Finally it was the moment of truth--the VOR Rwy 28, partial panel. Well, guys, long story short--the approach went off quite well with the needles behaving nicely. I had trusted that my CFII would overprepare me, and true to form, I had gotten my wish.
Finishing up
"Sheesh, it is hot today, Ben," said my DPE. "Let's land and get back into the air conditioning!" The landing was nice and soft, but without enough crosswind correction. Too bad--the previous day's landings were really dreamy! No big deal, though; I can practice those anytime.
After taxiing back, I shut down the airplane. Immediately after completing the checklist, I got a handshake and a "Congratulations, Ben--you're an instrument pilot!" We took a few pictures, went into Signature, finished the paperwork, and debriefed. He basically thought I did quite well, and just went over few points with me and my CFII, and I was done!
So, here I am, nearly 400 hours into the game, four and a half years after starting. I have about 100 hours of X-C time, 80 hours of instrument time, 20 hours of actual, and now I am an INSTRUMENT PILOT! I'm embarrassed because I had worried so much about the ride!
Thanks for reading!
For those of you who are still reading, and want to continue following my dull life story, here is the write-up of my IR checkride, from this past July:
Ben meets the DPE
The whole thing lasted six hours. We met at 14Z today at BWI's Signature. Oral started friendly enough, and we went over the required paperwork. The DPE was exceptionally nice, which actually began to have an opposite effect. (I believe in medicine and psychology they call that a "paradoxical effect.") In any event, I eventually got around to showing him my written test. Since it was a perfect score, he joked that we should just forget the ground portion and go on out to the airplane. Of course, that wasn't to be the case.
Next, we moved on to discuss some of the issues the new PTS stresses--ADM, CRM, LAHSO, and so on. Then, we started on some questions about weather. I did reasonably well on them. Next we looked at some items on the L charts. Here, the DPE was interested in making sure the I understood the symbology. I had no problems with those questions, either. He asked me if I had ever had any experience with icing. I told him that I hadn't. He then stressed to me that icing can happen QUICKLY, and that the problem might not be so much the performance of the aircraft as that you just can't see anything out the windscreen. That sobered me up some.
Next up I got some questions on lost comms while flying along a route. The answers weren't hard there, either. Like many of the others, the problems were posed as scenarios. The question that he decided to expand upon was one concerning EFAS. He wanted to know how I would find out about weather at my destination once I had already launched. I told him I could call 122.0, and I said it was an FSS frequency. This answer wasn't incorrect, but he stressed to me that EFAS was solely dedicated to weather. He gave me the background on this service, reminded me of the importance of it. Now, I am a teacher, so I took all of this (and all of everything that was to happen) to heart. IOW, I didn't disgregard anything that was told me just because I was taking the practical examination, or I was nervous, etc.
Finally, we went over go/no-go situations. This section was very educational. He wanted to know what type of weather I would fly in with a non-KI single, and what, practically speaking, the IR was good for in such an aircraft. I told him that I was conservative, and that the main idea was that I didn't want some innocuous clouds to get in my way, but that I wasn't about to go launching in 0/0 or in icing conditions. I told him that until I got more experience in IMC--I only have about 20 hours of actual--that I wouldn't launch in anything lower than a 1,000 ceiling, and that my destination had to be as good. He liked these types of conservative responses. By this time, he was satisfied with the ground portion (formally called the "oral" portion) of the test, so it was out to the Zlin.
OK, time to fly
The DPE was intrigued by the aircraft, and was looking forward to the flight. I was careful to do everything by the book during all phases of flight. I have a good checklist, and I made use of it when it was required. Launching from Class B BWI, you really need to be on your game, and I seemed to be doing OK. I got my clearance, went through the rest of the appropriate checklists, and presently was cleared for takeoff. As I ran that engine up to the full 200 horses, I prayed, Lord, please help me to keep my head out of my a** today.
On course to KESN, we actually lost our #2 radio. I couldn't believe it. I thought, at first, that the DPE was doing this to me to test how I would handle the situation. As it turned out, it was a real failure. Luckily, since we have two NAVCOMMS, there was no real problem. The DPE asked me what I wanted to do. I said that I would just wait to clear the ADIZ, and then we could cancel. At that point I would get KESN's weather, and the DPE could act as my controller. He seemed satisfied with this. I verified my position via DME and a radial, and then further verified my position with ATC. After doing this, I cancelled IFR.
OK, Ben; let's get to the bread a butter
The first approach, the LOC Rwy 4, was nearly beautiful. I wasn't ever more than a dot off. Satisfied with this, we missed and climbed to 2,000'. The DPE took the opportunity to talk to me about flying more with my feet so that I wouldn't have to work as hard with the stick for slight turn corrections. As before, I took every opportunity to learn from this experience. Of course my CFII had taught me this, but probably because of nerves I wasn't using my feet as much as I should have done.
Situational awareness
Next, the DPE wanted me to verify my position. As luck would have it, I was picking up the ESN NDB, so I told him I could navigate there. The DPE wanted to know more precisely where I was, though, so he asked me how I could find this out more accurately. In response, I tuned the BAL VOR and found what radial I was on, and then found out how far out I was on the DME. He asked me to cross check with another VOR, and I verified my position. All of this was simple enough (and, of course, learnt for my PPL).
Back to Baltimore
From there, we picked up our clearance back to BWI. The approach controller was EXCEPTIONALLY busy, but also quite accommodating, thank goodness. Presently I was cleared for the ILS Rwy 28 approach, and expect the VOR Rwy 28 approach. Here as at Easton I silently thanked my CFII for forcing me to fly partial panel nearly all the time for the past two months. With full panel, I did rather well on this approach. I was off by a dot at one point, and the glideslope drifted down a dot at the very end, but I did OK, I guess. As requested by the tower, the DPE had me go around at DH, so the prop went full in as did the throttle, and the tower was issuing instructions for the missed.
Holding and one more approach
Vectored around to ODOFY, the DPE requested a hold from the controller. Although they were very busy, they were nice enough to approve it. I did reasonably well on this, though I was probably lucky that the winds were light! Finally it was the moment of truth--the VOR Rwy 28, partial panel. Well, guys, long story short--the approach went off quite well with the needles behaving nicely. I had trusted that my CFII would overprepare me, and true to form, I had gotten my wish.
Finishing up
"Sheesh, it is hot today, Ben," said my DPE. "Let's land and get back into the air conditioning!" The landing was nice and soft, but without enough crosswind correction. Too bad--the previous day's landings were really dreamy! No big deal, though; I can practice those anytime.
After taxiing back, I shut down the airplane. Immediately after completing the checklist, I got a handshake and a "Congratulations, Ben--you're an instrument pilot!" We took a few pictures, went into Signature, finished the paperwork, and debriefed. He basically thought I did quite well, and just went over few points with me and my CFII, and I was done!
So, here I am, nearly 400 hours into the game, four and a half years after starting. I have about 100 hours of X-C time, 80 hours of instrument time, 20 hours of actual, and now I am an INSTRUMENT PILOT! I'm embarrassed because I had worried so much about the ride!
Thanks for reading!
