PRpilotguy
Well-Known Member
Possibly one of the most nerve wracking moments of my life.
My dpe first took me for a walk to a local FBO for a cup of coffe and to check the weather (all of which could have been done at the place I was at). He started talking to me about different things and about the PTS and what he expected from me, etc etc. On the way back from the FBO he started the Oral
, so I was doing the oral while walking from one FBO to another. He's first question was about the 1-2-3 rule which was easy, the next one was about the IFR fuel requirements which again was an easy question. After that he asked about how can one find an alternate and again, I answered correctly. He then asked me a question about when it is possible to descend below MDA/DA. I told him that you can descend MDA if you have a normal rate of descent and doing normal maneuvers, have the required flight visibility and when you have the approach lights in sight, you can descend to 100ft above TDZE and land if you have the runway, runway lights, runway markings etc etc. On this question he got me however, because he asked me what happened if the airport did not have any approach lights, I told him that you could not descend to 100ft above TDZE but that if you have the runway, runway lights... you can descend MDA. He then told me that he understood what I meant to say but that it wasn't the correct way to say it. In other words, he stumped me.
We got into the small oral room and we went over the question to which he eventually told me the correct way to say it and didn't fail me. He then asked me about the flight plan (which a I did the day before going from KCRG to KMEM). He asked me the average TAS, GS, Winds Aloft, and the fuel required with and without IFR reserves, how the weather was, If I would have gone, if I needed an alternate, if there where any SIDS and STARS, how one finds the preferred IFR route etc. I answered all of them correctly. Then he took out an approach plate for an ILS and had me brief the approach. I got everything right except that I didn't say the visibility minimums and he asked me if I thought they weren't important. I didn't know what to say because I obviously knew they where I just didn't say them because I was probably nervous as all hell from the previous question and didn't think about it. After that he told me to preflight the seminole. Like literally the oral took less than 30 minutes. I preflighted the plane and after about 30 minutes he walked up and hoped in. At this point I was nervous but calm. He told me that he was going to act as ATC (because he didn't want to file IFR). So I started up both engines, got the ATIS and then "asked for clearance". The first thing he said was the I was not in the right frequency. I had ground on COMM 1 and ATIS on COMM 2. Since he told me it was going to be pretend I didn't know I actually had to switch freqs, but either way, I did, and asked for an IFR clearance to KCRG. I read back correctly and switched over to ground. At that point I asked for taxi clearance but didn't say the direction of flight (I was on the mindset that I was on an IFR clerance). So the controller told me the taxi instructions and asked for my route of flight. I told him the route of flight but didn't say the taxi instructions. The DPE spotted it and asked me what I was doing. I got on the radio and told ATC my taxi clearance. Either way, we taxied up to 14 via Alpha and got into the run up area.
I was wearing new shoes that where a bit long, so when I turn to line up with the wind, I hit the brakes too hard and the DPE jumped from his seat. I apologized like three times. After the runup and before takeoff checklist I switched to tower and put the "pretend" departure freq on the stby. I told him that I was holding short (as you know when you are IFR you need to wait for a release) but he asked me why I was talking to him when I needed to talk to the real tower. I didn't say anything but at this point I knew things where not going to go smoothly. I lined up, increased RPM to 2,000 and checked the engine instruments. Everything was green so I let off the brakes and slowly applied full power to those "powerful" 180 hp engines. I rotated at VR and after I put the gear up he told me to put on the hood so I did. After that I “contacted departure” and he told me to climb to 6600, direct the KSGJ VOR and expect the VOR approach runway 31 (if I remember correctly). I then immediately put the ATIS, got the weather and clicked on proc in the GPS. I however, forgot to click on KSGJ, but rather put the VOR runway 32 and KCRG. I was confused as to the dtk the GPS was telling me but I couldn't figure out the problem. So what I did was put in the VOR on NAV 1 and Id it. I couldn't hear anything. Not only did I put the proc wrong but I put the VOR freq wrong as well. I was stuck as all hell until the DPE pointed out the problem and I correctly entered everything, 6nm from the VOR. At this point I had yet to do the approach checklist. I probably went through that in less than a minute. When I was close to the VOR I hit vloc on the GPS and set the final app course on the HSI. However, I put the HSI 10 degrees less than what it was supposed to. The DPE asked me again what I was doing and I saw it and corrected it. I crossed the VOR and flew the outbound course until I saw 6nm on the GPS. The thing I didn't see was that I was going 6nm from the FAF, not the VOR. So I was actually 1.2DME farther away from the VOR. At this point the DPE told me that if I passed 10nm from the VOR I would fail. I literally prayed not to go beyond the 10nm limit while trying to keep a standard rate turn for the procedure turn. In the end I went 9.5DME from the VOR. At this point I was literally thinking about other career paths other than aviation.
I was honestly ready to give up but I continued on. I did the approach and was having trouble with my altitudes because since I was VFR I had to add 5000 to all of my published altitudes and was getting confused. However, I did the approach, went missed and was told to expect the RNAV 31 at KSGJ. So I did everything I had to and the examiner put me in partial panel but I didn't call to declare an emergency. The examiner asked me why I didn't think this was an important thing and I told him that I was nervous but he told me that wasn't an excuse. I continued the approach which was way easier than the VOR approach and went much smoother (in my mind). After going missed I was put in unusual attitudes, but these where not typical unusual attitudes where the CFI puts you in a descent or climb, the DPE was literally pulling about 2-3g's and I was still partial panel (something I had never done before). But I guess I did ok. After that I was told to do a published hold at JEVAG, a fix in the ILS runway 32 and KCRG. I crossed the fixed and turned to the outbound course. During the outbound course, the DPE told me to descend to 3,000ft so I started descending, but I was going fast and there was a strong wind pushing me towards the inbound course. At that point the DPE asked me if I could descend to 2,000ft but in a question, not an instruction. I was confused by the question and said that I could indeed descend to 2000, he asked me if I sure about that. I said yes because the minimum altitude inbound to JEVAG was 1900, which was also the GS intercept. I really didn't know what he meant. After that I was cleared for the approach, however, I forgot to set up the GPS and still had the missed hold activated. Not a big deal because I was flying a vector until I intercepted the LOC and didn't need the GPS for much of anything but he still pointed it out. I was supposed to set up vectors-to-final on the GPS. I guess in the real world, its not a big deal since you are still flying the approach correctly, but it is company policy to set it up in order to have the best situational awareness which I understand. I flew the glideslope pretty well and at about 200ft from DA he took the controls because we where landing with a tailwind.
We taxied out and I was starting to feel calmer for the worst was over, and he didn't say anything about me failing and indeed I PASSED. I honestly can't believe it for I honestly believe that was THE worst flight I have ever done. I was totally behind the airplane and made many mistakes, but I guess I didn't do as bad as I think I did or at least didn't break any standards. I have learned that I need to stay calm and that you need to think things through. A nervous pilot is a bad pilot but an examiner does not care if you are nervous, he only wants to see you meet those standards. It is not about impressing the examiner, it is about assuring him that you won't kill yourself the next time you fly.:beer:
My dpe first took me for a walk to a local FBO for a cup of coffe and to check the weather (all of which could have been done at the place I was at). He started talking to me about different things and about the PTS and what he expected from me, etc etc. On the way back from the FBO he started the Oral
, so I was doing the oral while walking from one FBO to another. He's first question was about the 1-2-3 rule which was easy, the next one was about the IFR fuel requirements which again was an easy question. After that he asked about how can one find an alternate and again, I answered correctly. He then asked me a question about when it is possible to descend below MDA/DA. I told him that you can descend MDA if you have a normal rate of descent and doing normal maneuvers, have the required flight visibility and when you have the approach lights in sight, you can descend to 100ft above TDZE and land if you have the runway, runway lights, runway markings etc etc. On this question he got me however, because he asked me what happened if the airport did not have any approach lights, I told him that you could not descend to 100ft above TDZE but that if you have the runway, runway lights... you can descend MDA. He then told me that he understood what I meant to say but that it wasn't the correct way to say it. In other words, he stumped me. We got into the small oral room and we went over the question to which he eventually told me the correct way to say it and didn't fail me
. He then asked me about the flight plan (which a I did the day before going from KCRG to KMEM). He asked me the average TAS, GS, Winds Aloft, and the fuel required with and without IFR reserves, how the weather was, If I would have gone, if I needed an alternate, if there where any SIDS and STARS, how one finds the preferred IFR route etc. I answered all of them correctly. Then he took out an approach plate for an ILS and had me brief the approach. I got everything right except that I didn't say the visibility minimums and he asked me if I thought they weren't important. I didn't know what to say because I obviously knew they where I just didn't say them because I was probably nervous as all hell from the previous question and didn't think about it. After that he told me to preflight the seminole. Like literally the oral took less than 30 minutes. I preflighted the plane and after about 30 minutes he walked up and hoped in. At this point I was nervous but calm. He told me that he was going to act as ATC (because he didn't want to file IFR). So I started up both engines, got the ATIS and then "asked for clearance". The first thing he said was the I was not in the right frequency. I had ground on COMM 1 and ATIS on COMM 2. Since he told me it was going to be pretend I didn't know I actually had to switch freqs, but either way, I did, and asked for an IFR clearance to KCRG. I read back correctly and switched over to ground. At that point I asked for taxi clearance but didn't say the direction of flight (I was on the mindset that I was on an IFR clerance). So the controller told me the taxi instructions and asked for my route of flight. I told him the route of flight but didn't say the taxi instructions. The DPE spotted it and asked me what I was doing. I got on the radio and told ATC my taxi clearance. Either way, we taxied up to 14 via Alpha and got into the run up area. I was wearing new shoes that where a bit long, so when I turn to line up with the wind, I hit the brakes too hard and the DPE jumped from his seat
. I apologized like three times. After the runup and before takeoff checklist I switched to tower and put the "pretend" departure freq on the stby. I told him that I was holding short (as you know when you are IFR you need to wait for a release) but he asked me why I was talking to him when I needed to talk to the real tower. I didn't say anything but at this point I knew things where not going to go smoothly. I lined up, increased RPM to 2,000 and checked the engine instruments. Everything was green so I let off the brakes and slowly applied full power to those "powerful" 180 hp engines. I rotated at VR and after I put the gear up he told me to put on the hood so I did. After that I “contacted departure” and he told me to climb to 6600, direct the KSGJ VOR and expect the VOR approach runway 31 (if I remember correctly). I then immediately put the ATIS, got the weather and clicked on proc in the GPS. I however, forgot to click on KSGJ, but rather put the VOR runway 32 and KCRG. I was confused as to the dtk the GPS was telling me but I couldn't figure out the problem. So what I did was put in the VOR on NAV 1 and Id it. I couldn't hear anything. Not only did I put the proc wrong but I put the VOR freq wrong as well. I was stuck as all hell until the DPE pointed out the problem and I correctly entered everything, 6nm from the VOR. At this point I had yet to do the approach checklist. I probably went through that in less than a minute. When I was close to the VOR I hit vloc on the GPS and set the final app course on the HSI. However, I put the HSI 10 degrees less than what it was supposed to. The DPE asked me again what I was doing and I saw it and corrected it. I crossed the VOR and flew the outbound course until I saw 6nm on the GPS. The thing I didn't see was that I was going 6nm from the FAF, not the VOR. So I was actually 1.2DME farther away from the VOR. At this point the DPE told me that if I passed 10nm from the VOR I would fail. I literally prayed not to go beyond the 10nm limit while trying to keep a standard rate turn for the procedure turn. In the end I went 9.5DME from the VOR. At this point I was literally thinking about other career paths other than aviation. I was honestly ready to give up but I continued on. I did the approach and was having trouble with my altitudes because since I was VFR I had to add 5000 to all of my published altitudes and was getting confused. However, I did the approach, went missed and was told to expect the RNAV 31 at KSGJ. So I did everything I had to and the examiner put me in partial panel but I didn't call to declare an emergency. The examiner asked me why I didn't think this was an important thing and I told him that I was nervous but he told me that wasn't an excuse. I continued the approach which was way easier than the VOR approach and went much smoother (in my mind). After going missed I was put in unusual attitudes, but these where not typical unusual attitudes where the CFI puts you in a descent or climb, the DPE was literally pulling about 2-3g's and I was still partial panel (something I had never done before). But I guess I did ok. After that I was told to do a published hold at JEVAG, a fix in the ILS runway 32 and KCRG. I crossed the fixed and turned to the outbound course. During the outbound course, the DPE told me to descend to 3,000ft so I started descending, but I was going fast and there was a strong wind pushing me towards the inbound course. At that point the DPE asked me if I could descend to 2,000ft but in a question, not an instruction. I was confused by the question and said that I could indeed descend to 2000, he asked me if I sure about that. I said yes because the minimum altitude inbound to JEVAG was 1900, which was also the GS intercept. I really didn't know what he meant. After that I was cleared for the approach, however, I forgot to set up the GPS and still had the missed hold activated. Not a big deal because I was flying a vector until I intercepted the LOC and didn't need the GPS for much of anything but he still pointed it out. I was supposed to set up vectors-to-final on the GPS. I guess in the real world, its not a big deal since you are still flying the approach correctly, but it is company policy to set it up in order to have the best situational awareness which I understand. I flew the glideslope pretty well and at about 200ft from DA he took the controls because we where landing with a tailwind.
We taxied out and I was starting to feel calmer for the worst was over, and he didn't say anything about me failing and indeed I PASSED. I honestly can't believe it for I honestly believe that was THE worst flight I have ever done. I was totally behind the airplane and made many mistakes, but I guess I didn't do as bad as I think I did or at least didn't break any standards. I have learned that I need to stay calm and that you need to think things through. A nervous pilot is a bad pilot but an examiner does not care if you are nervous, he only wants to see you meet those standards. It is not about impressing the examiner, it is about assuring him that you won't kill yourself the next time you fly.:beer:
