IFR Written... nerves!

MetalCloud

MetalCloud

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Oct 12, 2015
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MetalCloud
So I'm a little over halfway with my IFR training. I love it. It's challenging and busy but at the same time relaxing and fun.

It's time for me to conquer the written. Now, I should have done it a month ago. For some reason, I'm hitting a wall and I don't know what it is. Been through half the King vids, but I'm just not attacking it like I did the PPL material.

Not sure what I'm looking for... encouragement, ass kicking, or what. But just needed to get it out there.

Think I can get it done by the end of the month?
 
I had to retake the written b c mine expired. Got a 92. Know GPS and approach plates inside out. Ignore adf, ndb and marker beacon questions. Get ASA and Bob Gardner books. Work through all questions. Took me 3 weeks to go through all questions, but I work 50+ Hour weeks.

Good luck.
 
Information overload. Just get it done and then you can go flying. I just took five writtens in a month or so. It was a total slog at the end.
 
Yes. SheppardAir, 2-3 days of steady work using their system, do practice exams, memorize the memory sheet well enough to recreate from blank piece of paper, get endorsement, take test. You could be done in 1 week.
 
Whoa!! Wow now I feel like a lazy ass lol

Yeah... Have the new ASA book coming tomorrow and have the ASA app for iOS. I'll work through it and get 'er done.

Man I love flying.
 
Like that AM. Never used Sheppard but can try. The whole "having to call" is weird for me but I'll look into it
 
I took the test last month and was a bit overwhelmed because it seemed like there was a question for every topic. I passed, but not in the high 90s like I did on the Private. Skip ADF, study approaches and go through as many practice questions as you can find. It was not harder than the Private, just more topics were covered.
 
I'm in the same "boat." Nothing between me and the IFR check ride except retaking the written which expired.

I have Dauntless and Sheppard... I think Sheppard is a little better at 'drilling the answers in'

Need to sit down for a couple days and get this done.
 
Has Shepard Air been/King videos been updated to include the new ACS format (including getting rid of the ADF/NDB questions)?
 
LevelWing said:
Has Shepard Air been/King videos been updated to include the new ACS format (including getting rid of the ADF/NDB questions)?
Click to expand...
Not sure... but if you happen to call them at (940) 642-4945 and get the question answered, let us know what you find out!
 
Used Shepard air for my IR worked great, scored above 90. Using it now for my commercial as well.
 
Used the Gleim book and learned the material. Then used Sheppard Air to finish up. Scored 90. That was 2014.

Written expired. Had to redo.. read a little. Took the test this AM. 78.. lot more approach and departure questions. Wording has changed on the questions. Good enough score for me. Looking to wrap up the rating ASAP.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
 
Took it today got a 78. I used Gleim online ground school scored 90-95s all day long on practice stuff but on the actual test I felt like I only recognized maybe 40 % of the questions. No ADF DME localizer ILS or VOR stuff I had 0 weather related questions except for 3-4 icing ones. The rest was plates, regulations, and atc stuff and maybe 5 gps questions. I probably would have scored 85 or so if I would have bothered with the long solve for flight time problems that take three sheets and 10 min to run through the whole flight calculating everything.
 
Planning to take it next week. Ugh. Slogging through Sheppard.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Keep Calm and Slog On. You'll do fine.
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Thank you. Been running through the sections since Sunday (albeit off and on). Going to take most of tomorrow off and pour through it over the weekend / Monday. Will plan to take a practice test or two on Monday then take it Tuesday or Wednesday.

Seem reasonable?
 
Yup! Also practice recreating the memory sheet they provide from a blank sheet of paper. I did that, used the first 10 minutes of the exam to download what I memorized to the paper provided by the testing center. More than half of my questions were answered by that sheet.

And once you get 80-85% or more on two or three practice tests, send screen shots of those results to SheppardAir and they will send you the logbook endorsement to take the exam. Then go take the exam within the next day or two to minimize knowledge erosion.
 
I took the test a couple weeks after the ACS changes took effect.

Prior to taking the exam I studied the hell out of Shepherd Air. I read the whole ASA book. I took a weekend class from Aviation Seminars.

I prepared well. I took several practice tests (IDK maybe 6 or so over a week) and consistently scored high 80's / low 90's with about 30-40 minutes used on each test.

I was the 1st guinea pig to take the "new IFR" test at the testing center I went to, and boy am I glad that I actually learned some concepts along the way rather than listen to the Aviation Seminar guy that kept saying, "just memorize the questions". Of the 60 or so questions I had I would easily say 75%+ were completely new and not seen on Shepherd Air or ASA book. There were a handful that were actually deliberately tricky by looking very similar to old questions with subtle changes. I took 1 hour and 45 minutes to complete the test scoring a 78 that I was extremely proud of. There were 3 or 4 that were bad where the correct answer was either not present or more than one correct answer, etc.

For the record I consider myself a very good test taker. I managed to make my way through veterinary school which had some of the most brutally comprehensive exams imaginable.

**** My advice- Do NOT listen to those that took the test prior to the ASA changes. IDK, maybe since it's been a couple months they've caught up with the new questions but I obviously had bad timing for trying to rely (a little) on those test question banks. Either than or I just got a bad draw on a bad test or was just having a bad day?

FWIW a buddy of mine that took the Aviation Seminar with me did not pass on attempt #1 and had similar feelings about it.
 
Oh man. Ok. I called and scheduled it yesterday... Earliest opening is next weekend. So I have some more time. Took a practice test last night and got an 80. Some I guessed correctly, and some I missed that I should have gotten. So lots more to do. Will memorize Sheppard sheet for sure.
 
Thank you! I admit I was a little surprised. In fact at one point I was sure I was going to be taking it again in 30 days lol
 
Now get out there and get the flying part completed.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Now get out there and get the flying part completed.
Click to expand...

Definitely! That's the fun part! Only about 7 required instrument hours to go. So now we're going to shoot approaches and have fun. Next stop: checkride!
 
MetalCloud said:
So now we're going to shoot approaches
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One tip an instructor gave me that really is helping....

Take the approach plate and annotate the heck out of it!​

Whether you do it to the paper plate using colored pens and highlighters, or in ForeFlight with it's annotation mode, consider marking them up like the following:

2015-03-10-11.22.31[1].png 2015-03-10-11.12.56[1].png

I always do something similar, but add things such as "5 Ts" at key points to remind me to perform the Turn Time Twist Throttle Talk routine. And I add other bits depending on the plate to make it a bit more readable and useful during a high workload situation.

The tip is to take what you're given, and then make it better and even more useful to your way of flying.
 
AggieMike88 said:
One tip an instructor gave me that really is helping....

Take the approach plate and annotate the heck out of it!​

Whether you do it to the paper plate using colored pens and highlighters, or in ForeFlight with it's annotation mode, consider marking them up like the following:

View attachment 47824 View attachment 47825

I always do something similar, but add things such as "5 Ts" at key points to remind me to perform the Turn Time Twist Throttle Talk routine. And I add other bits depending on the plate to make it a bit more readable and useful during a high workload situation.

The tip is to take what you're given, and then make it better and even more useful to your way of flying.
Click to expand...
Annotating the plates is a good idea, especially with different color highlighters or colors in Fore Flight because it draws your eyes to the important parts immediately without having to spend time looking around, especially if it's a plate you're not familiar with. Good tip.
 
AggieMike88 said:
One tip an instructor gave me that really is helping....

Take the approach plate and annotate the heck out of it!​

Whether you do it to the paper plate using colored pens and highlighters, or in ForeFlight with it's annotation mode, consider marking them up like the following:

View attachment 47824 View attachment 47825

I always do something similar, but add things such as "5 Ts" at key points to remind me to perform the Turn Time Twist Throttle Talk routine. And I add other bits depending on the plate to make it a bit more readable and useful during a high workload situation.

The tip is to take what you're given, and then make it better and even more useful to your way of flying.
Click to expand...


I tried liking this post twice but apparently you're only allowed to do it once.

For a guy working on the flying part of IFR rating... this is awesome! I'm gonna go home today and play with the highlighters. I do find myself very frequently searching for info on the fly.
 
arkvet said:
I do find myself very frequently searching for info on the fly
Click to expand...

This is what I'm trying to avoid. The workload is already high enough without having to scan for the bit of info you need now.

So I'll take the profile view information (heading and altitude) and put that on the appropriate segment of the plan view.

If a frequency switch is part of the sequence (say you're headed to the IAF on a radial from a VOR and then need to switch to the ILS), this is also made obvious on the plan view.

The tallest obstacle is highlighted.

The missed approach details are annotated next to the dotted line (climb to, turn, VOR name, Freq, radial)

The missed approach hold entry type (direct, teardrop, parallel) is written in.

And this is a big one..... NOTAMS declaring a change to a plate, such as changes to the minima or a VOR that is part of the IAP is out of service (such as HUB near Houston Hobby). The change likely will appear on the next chart cycle, but until then, you as PIC are still required to know and abide by that change. So doing something to call attention that the minimums are different, or that VOR is OTS is an important thing.​


Essentially ANYthing that I feel I would want to know in the heat of battle, but would spend precious time trying to find elsewhere on the plate is added to the appropriate spot on the plate where I would need it.

With Georeferencing of plates, the moving airplane shows me where in the sequence I am, and my annotations call out which part of the sequence I need to know.
 
AggieMike88 said:
One tip an instructor gave me that really is helping....

Take the approach plate and annotate the heck out of it!​
Click to expand...

That'll work as a good way to get you to read the correct stuff in the training environment, but it'll suck mightily in turbulence later. You'll have to get used to just looking and not writing eventually.

It's hard enough to even get the iPad switched over to the damn plate when it's bumpy if it's not locked down in a mount... Then just reading the damn thing after that can be a challenge... :)
 
denverpilot said:
but it'll suck mightily in turbulence later
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Which is why I don't wait until the last minute to brief the approach. The more mighty the sucketh, the earlier I'm going to work on assimilating the info.

That way when I'm 10, 5, and 2.5 minutes from the IAF, it's more review than trying to read the entire plate and annotations.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Which is why I don't wait until the last minute to brief the approach. The more mighty the sucketh, the earlier I'm going to work on assimilating the info.

That way when I'm 10, 5, and 2.5 minutes from the IAF, it's more review than trying to read the entire plate and annotations.
Click to expand...

Still won't work sometimes to write on anything. Turbulence doesn't care how far out you are. Heh. You'll see. Grin. I had fun with it the other day. Couldn't have written anything down if I tried, including the ATIS. Just memorized the ATIS letter and briefed the approach out loud and flew it, when I could read it, and that was all we could do.
 
Never said I was doing the writing and annotating while in flight. That's done with my prep at the kitchen table the day before the flight.
 
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Perhaps something here might pique your interest and help expand your knowledge. I have purchased a few of their programs and find the content very useful.
 
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