Dazzler
Well-Known Member
I passed the CFII checkride yesterday. It was relatively straight forward and I would rank it as one of the easiest, if not the easiest of the flight tests I have taken.
The temperature in the Twin Cities was -11 C, and I was not looking forward to preflighting, but luckily the airplane was in a heated hangar, making the experience a lot more tolerable. I had to ferry the aircraft to another airport (Anoka County, MN - KANE) for the test, and parked it outside in the cold.
The oral portion only lasted about an hour and it was mainly taken up with the usual paperwork stuff such as looking through logbooks and checking endorsements.
The examiner asked me about the required airworthiness checks, then we went into a discussion on how an instrument rating training schedule should be put together (use of a syllabus, PTS, FAA texts, etc.) No questions about how any of the instruments worked, which I had studied in depth! We discussed what is needed to obtain an instrument rating (50 hrs XC, 40 hrs instrument training, long XC, etc).
Then I had to teach an NDB approach. I had prior warning that I was going to have to do this so I had made up a nifty visual aid showing an ADF and an HI, and a needle to show the Relative Bearing to/from the station. She liked that a lot. All flight examiners love visual aids, so use them if you can!
Then it was out to the airplane, and she said there was no need for me to preflight as I had already done that earlier. I was pleased, as I wasn't really looking forward to preflighting in the cold, but then I thought maybe she was trying to trap me, so I did a quick check of the essential things anyway, such as checking the fuel caps, and inflation of tires. Then we hopped in the aircraft and started 'er up.
I taught the instrument cockpit check during the taxi, and she had me take off and track to the Gopher VOR. Then intercept a Victor airway. She played the part of ATC. When I was established on the airway, she suddenly told me to hold at FUDGE intersection, non-standard turns. Shoot! A realistic distraction! OK, keep flying the plane, get out the en-route chart, find the intersection and work out the hold entry. I kept talking throughout the hold entry, and let her know when I was established in the hold. It was a teardrop entry, and during the turn inbound I realised that I had quite a strong tailwind pushing me towards the inbound course. She said it was acceptable to turn beyond a standard rate turn in these instances, but not past 30 degrees of bank. I did that, and I nailed the inbound course. Arrived at the fix in 50 seconds - good enough - break off the hold and proceed westbound.
Next was recovery from unusual attitudes, steep turns, and timed turns to magnetic compass headings - all under the hood of course. They went well, so it was time to contact ATC approach control for real and pick up a squawk code for practice instrument approaches.
First was the ILS 10R KFCM. Again I made sure I was talking all the time, teaching how to prepare for the approach (MICE ATM CARD). Flew the approach down to minimums, then she had me look up. I was right on the glide slope, but off the localizer slightly (stupid wind!) with the runway off to the right - good enough though, so we go missed approach.
Next, the hood came off, and she played the part of the student and was flying. I had to teach intercepting and flying a DME arc to a LOC approach. Of course she was making deliberate mistakes, so I had my hands full pointing out common errors, correcting them, praising her when she got stuff right, teaching the procedures to fly the arc, and looking out for traffic. I told her that she would know if she flew the arc correctly if she ended up over Lake Waconia. She said "Well what if I was in IMC?", to which I quickly responded that she would still be over Lake Waconia. Fortunately she appreciated the joke!
We broke off the DME arc and it was hood time for me again. I was to fly the VOR-9 approach back to Anoka, partial panel (gyroscopic instrument failure). I told her that I would report the failure to ATC and would request a no-gyro approach, which she agreed with. She called out my headings as given on the magnetic compass, while I corrected using timed turns. The approach went well and concluded with a nice circle-to-land on runway 27.
I taxied back and shut down the aircraft, and went through postflight procedures: Make sure you reset the transponder to 1200 for the next flight, squawk any problems with the aircraft for the mechanics to take a look at, and walk around the aircraft looking for any damage or leaks such as red hydraulic fluid on the ground. The total flight time was 1.5 hours.
She turned to me and said "I look for a pilot who is competent and confident, and you have met the criteria. Congratulations, you have passed!"
With that we headed inside and she typed up the temporary certificate.
The flight back to Flying Cloud by myself was very serene, with the fading sun on my right, aircraft departing Minneapolis St Paul International on my left, and my new certificate in my pocket!
The temperature in the Twin Cities was -11 C, and I was not looking forward to preflighting, but luckily the airplane was in a heated hangar, making the experience a lot more tolerable. I had to ferry the aircraft to another airport (Anoka County, MN - KANE) for the test, and parked it outside in the cold.
The oral portion only lasted about an hour and it was mainly taken up with the usual paperwork stuff such as looking through logbooks and checking endorsements.
The examiner asked me about the required airworthiness checks, then we went into a discussion on how an instrument rating training schedule should be put together (use of a syllabus, PTS, FAA texts, etc.) No questions about how any of the instruments worked, which I had studied in depth! We discussed what is needed to obtain an instrument rating (50 hrs XC, 40 hrs instrument training, long XC, etc).
Then I had to teach an NDB approach. I had prior warning that I was going to have to do this so I had made up a nifty visual aid showing an ADF and an HI, and a needle to show the Relative Bearing to/from the station. She liked that a lot. All flight examiners love visual aids, so use them if you can!
Then it was out to the airplane, and she said there was no need for me to preflight as I had already done that earlier. I was pleased, as I wasn't really looking forward to preflighting in the cold, but then I thought maybe she was trying to trap me, so I did a quick check of the essential things anyway, such as checking the fuel caps, and inflation of tires. Then we hopped in the aircraft and started 'er up.
I taught the instrument cockpit check during the taxi, and she had me take off and track to the Gopher VOR. Then intercept a Victor airway. She played the part of ATC. When I was established on the airway, she suddenly told me to hold at FUDGE intersection, non-standard turns. Shoot! A realistic distraction! OK, keep flying the plane, get out the en-route chart, find the intersection and work out the hold entry. I kept talking throughout the hold entry, and let her know when I was established in the hold. It was a teardrop entry, and during the turn inbound I realised that I had quite a strong tailwind pushing me towards the inbound course. She said it was acceptable to turn beyond a standard rate turn in these instances, but not past 30 degrees of bank. I did that, and I nailed the inbound course. Arrived at the fix in 50 seconds - good enough - break off the hold and proceed westbound.
Next was recovery from unusual attitudes, steep turns, and timed turns to magnetic compass headings - all under the hood of course. They went well, so it was time to contact ATC approach control for real and pick up a squawk code for practice instrument approaches.
First was the ILS 10R KFCM. Again I made sure I was talking all the time, teaching how to prepare for the approach (MICE ATM CARD). Flew the approach down to minimums, then she had me look up. I was right on the glide slope, but off the localizer slightly (stupid wind!) with the runway off to the right - good enough though, so we go missed approach.
Next, the hood came off, and she played the part of the student and was flying. I had to teach intercepting and flying a DME arc to a LOC approach. Of course she was making deliberate mistakes, so I had my hands full pointing out common errors, correcting them, praising her when she got stuff right, teaching the procedures to fly the arc, and looking out for traffic. I told her that she would know if she flew the arc correctly if she ended up over Lake Waconia. She said "Well what if I was in IMC?", to which I quickly responded that she would still be over Lake Waconia. Fortunately she appreciated the joke!
We broke off the DME arc and it was hood time for me again. I was to fly the VOR-9 approach back to Anoka, partial panel (gyroscopic instrument failure). I told her that I would report the failure to ATC and would request a no-gyro approach, which she agreed with. She called out my headings as given on the magnetic compass, while I corrected using timed turns. The approach went well and concluded with a nice circle-to-land on runway 27.
I taxied back and shut down the aircraft, and went through postflight procedures: Make sure you reset the transponder to 1200 for the next flight, squawk any problems with the aircraft for the mechanics to take a look at, and walk around the aircraft looking for any damage or leaks such as red hydraulic fluid on the ground. The total flight time was 1.5 hours.
She turned to me and said "I look for a pilot who is competent and confident, and you have met the criteria. Congratulations, you have passed!"
With that we headed inside and she typed up the temporary certificate.
The flight back to Flying Cloud by myself was very serene, with the fading sun on my right, aircraft departing Minneapolis St Paul International on my left, and my new certificate in my pocket!
