falconkidding
Line Up and Wait
Well after starting work on the IR in late July and multiple checkride attempts I've finally got my ticket.
31 hours simulated in a plane 7 with an instructor, about 1.5 in actual and 10 hours on some BATD from maybe the year 2000. Oral went excellet about 2.5 hours with nothing out of the ordinary but we didn't fly cause winds were 18 direct x-wind. The next week vis was below vfr mins, and finally got to fly this week.
Hadn't flown in a few weeks so met the instructor to fly in the AM but didn't get a chance to since it was foggy and didn't clear up till 10 min before the scheduled ride. Instructor came out when I was preflighting and said the DPE was on his high horse today (oh joy!). I've always known the DPE to be a Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde and he decides in the first 15 min if you pass or fail and builds his case from there so start strong.
Luckily I started on my A game. I think not flying for a few weeks actually helped. Went up did some upset recovery, did a hold, a dme arc then did 3 approaches. VOR partial panel, ILS, and a Loc. I was nervous as heck but after getting vectors for the Loc I knew I had this locked up and a few approaches later it was indeed in the bag.
It took almost as long to get my IR (late July to early nov)as it did my PPL. Scheduling a safety pilot was the biggest pain. Dealing with pilots canceling or delaying led to whole weeks where I didn't even fly despite wide open availability. So something I wanted done by august kept getting pushed back as I tried to get the 40 hours simulated time. If I had the money I would have just done a crash course but i've limited myself to about 7k to get my IR and comm.
It was actually an easy rating to get as far as flying. Not that I'm a super pilot (just listen to me on the radio or watch me land to get rid of that notion) but flying on instruments just clicked with me. Now to go get some use out of it.
31 hours simulated in a plane 7 with an instructor, about 1.5 in actual and 10 hours on some BATD from maybe the year 2000. Oral went excellet about 2.5 hours with nothing out of the ordinary but we didn't fly cause winds were 18 direct x-wind. The next week vis was below vfr mins, and finally got to fly this week.
Hadn't flown in a few weeks so met the instructor to fly in the AM but didn't get a chance to since it was foggy and didn't clear up till 10 min before the scheduled ride. Instructor came out when I was preflighting and said the DPE was on his high horse today (oh joy!). I've always known the DPE to be a Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde and he decides in the first 15 min if you pass or fail and builds his case from there so start strong.
Luckily I started on my A game. I think not flying for a few weeks actually helped. Went up did some upset recovery, did a hold, a dme arc then did 3 approaches. VOR partial panel, ILS, and a Loc. I was nervous as heck but after getting vectors for the Loc I knew I had this locked up and a few approaches later it was indeed in the bag.
It took almost as long to get my IR (late July to early nov)as it did my PPL. Scheduling a safety pilot was the biggest pain. Dealing with pilots canceling or delaying led to whole weeks where I didn't even fly despite wide open availability. So something I wanted done by august kept getting pushed back as I tried to get the 40 hours simulated time. If I had the money I would have just done a crash course but i've limited myself to about 7k to get my IR and comm.
It was actually an easy rating to get as far as flying. Not that I'm a super pilot (just listen to me on the radio or watch me land to get rid of that notion) but flying on instruments just clicked with me. Now to go get some use out of it.
