Wait a minute. Isnt that the Commercial Exam?
Maybe this is where some of the confusion lies, I thought we were talking about the Instrument Exam.
Right, the thing you have to understand is the control turns the compass card, not the needle. And "slaved mode" means it's slaved to the remote gyro, you need free mode if you have to adjust it.
But it's all true and it all works, sayeth this 40+ year CFI and former college faculty member.
You've just made my day. I'm so happy to hear somebody is actually viewing the tutorials and getting benefit. I'm not through with them yet and have been getting over some illnesses and death in my family but will soon be converting them to tablet-compatible presentations. I plan to have a tutorial on instruments, so I'll be sure to include the two points I mentioned above.
Actually, I do (did) sort of ask that. The underlying principle is that as the setting goes up, so do the hands. Clockwise (or not) of the knob is unimportant, just as in the question you posted, but in the question it's important to know you're turning the card and it helps to know which way to hold the switch. Those things can slew in really slow and you have better things to do with your eyeballs than sit there and stare at it.
The problem is that you are not testing anything useful. You're only testing someone's skill at visualization. Or more likely, their ability to memorize the answer. As far as centering the needle, you turn the knob until it centers. Then you look at the to/from arrow. If the needle is partially centered already it's obvious if you are turning it the correct direction or not. It would be more important to know if you are left or right of the desired radial, but that doesn't have anything to do with the direction you turn the knob.
Consider it a participation score.
Neither. The position of the CDI needle only tells you the location of the radial in relation to your location, not your nose, I.e., the heading you need to fly, not which way to turn. Once you've done that, you determine which way to turn by looking at your heading indicator and seeing whether the heading selected off the CDI is to the left or right of where the nose is currently pointed. Once you understand this fundamental principle, VOR orientation, interception, and tracking becomes very easy. but as long as you are operating under the false impression that the CDI needle tells you whether to turn left or right, you're going to have a lot of difficulty.
98.6% (1 incorrect) is the worst, I rather gotten a 95%, 1 wrong is like throwing a 1 hitter in baseball.
I did, and your statement shows a fundamental misconception about the VOR nav system which has caused me no end of headaches training people for the IR practical test.
Only in a very, very limited sense, and it interferes with the thinking needed to fly instruments accurately. I've spent many, many hours retraining people who think that way so they can learn to do VOR orientation, interception, and tracking well enough to pass an IR practical test.
The compass shows whether you're inbound or outbound and converging or diverging on the radial (wind effects disregarded).
Uh, no. If you tune in, say the 179 FROM Radial, and fly 359 course you will show "on course" but be flying the wrong way.I think when you start IR training you'll discover that you are in fact examining a trivial case, and your technique will fail you in most situations. It generally takes a couple of hours of talking, training aid, and sim work to get people to the point where I can put them anywhere within range of a given VOR, and then have them figure out where they are intercept/join/track a desired VOR radial quickly and accurately. The biggest barrier to accomplishing that is them having been taught that the needle position means "turn left/right" as there are many situations where you have to turn in the direction opposite the needle to get where you want to go.
Funny, I was never taught anything like that. I do remember way way back wondering if the VOR knew anything about my heading or whether it was strictly reading based on my location in space relative to the transmitter. I don't remember if I got the answer from an AC, the AIM, or whether I asked my instructor, but I was quickly set straight on the concept. I think that was in my primary training, it was certainly long before I started IR training.
We're sensitive to clues the speaker might not 'get it'.
Give a couple thousand hours of instrument training and you'll see what dtuuri and I are talking about often enough to make you crazy. It's that oversimplification which you expressed which leads to that problem. In fact, I can show you many VOR situations where with the needle left of center you have to turn right -- and I'm not talking LOC BC, either.
Did you enter the system early enough to "get" to teach four-course LF range station orientations?
Why would you think that I would be surprised by any of those situations? I can think of one or two trivial ones off the top of my head. I remember questions on the IR written (at least, the OLD written) with pictures of airplanes on various headings and positions relative to a VOR that would be good fodder for a discussion about that.