I passed my instrument checkride last night and am the proud new owner of a new temporary airmen certificate with a new rating. This message board, has been a great resource for discussion and splitting regs and hairs down to the smallest details. After discussing all of these things with all of you fantastic pilots, the oral exam was a breeze. My CFII had me well prepared and all of the flying portions went just as expected. The entire practical test went EXACTLY according to the ACS. Nothing more, nothing less. ACS 10/10, highly recommended. Thank you to everyone for your support.
That's great. Glad to hear someone enjoys the hair splitting and 'knows how to use it.' So, uh, didja do that Approach to Gateway?
No, we were not able to do that approach. We did approaches at KCGZ and P08. He didn't even ask about it during the oral. But if he did??? I knew it inside and out.
Congratulations on the rating. How far up the “stack” did you have to go for the KCGZ approaches? Practicing instrument work there while doing my AMEL is an experience that I won’t soon forget.
When the examiner first requested top of stack, we were told 5,500 was open. (I tracked the whole flight with breadcrumbs on the iPad) That was ~10 miles (5 minutes) out. We climbed up to 5,500. But before we even got there, 5k opened up. I crossed TFD for a teardrop entry at 5k. I have been lucky to have a really good CFII that is VERY proficient at handling the stack, the radio calls, and all the traffic there. It allowed me to focus on flying. Every once in a while, I'd ask a question about stack traffic and he (CFII) would tell me to ignore it and focus on the flying. It definitely took some trust, but that was why I hired the grizzles gray beard CFII, and not the wet-behind-the-ears CFII that's about to bolt for the airlines. All that being said, I'll never forget the time a Cirrus departed 23 on an IFR flight plan while there were a half dozen planes shooting approaches from TFD into runway 5...
Congrats. That “stack” is an abomination. I despise everything about it. It’s exactly the wrong way to go about doing things. I would think twice about ever landing at casa grande again unless my plane was on fire and out of gas, and the wing is falling off. Yes, I’ve been triggered.
Oops, 10/29 not 10/27 There's no link, but here's the text of the email the airport manager sent out:
Good. Congrats. Use it, and use it to the minimums you were trained for. Higher personal mins deteriorate your proficiency imo.
Great point. The challenge out here in the desert SouthWest is getting actual IMC... It just doesn't happen all that often. But I'll certainly be looking for opportunities.
My solution is to not fly within 50 miles of it. honestly, I don’t know what the problem is they are trying to solve, so I can’t offer a solution. all I know is that solution results in way too much people telling other pilots how to fly their plane. When I went in, I was on an ifr clearance and I guarantee you that atc doesn’t know the crap going on there. As soon as they let me switch I was greeting with people screaming at me that I was doing it wrong. I live 3000 miles away and was on an ifr plan. How the hell was I supposed to know about this asinine procedure? Beyond that instructors where yelling at students in other planes to the point the radio was useless.
Eh - my take is to "continue training with SF to the minimums" and when flying "for real" for now use your personal minimums until they get really solid and then decrease as you can.
Ah, wow. That sounds like a recipe for disaster. I can see why you feel that way. There is a published non-binding procedure (link below) on how things are "supposed" to operate there. It's actually available on the FAAsafety.gov website. The one on the FAA website is old (which is another problem). There is a newer version of the guidance that was put together by the Arizona Flight Training Workgroup. (2nd link below). On the very last page of the newer presentation it says: "This procedure is for VFR aircraft only. IFR aircraft must abide by ATC clearances and regulations. Aircraft operating IFR that are unfamiliar with these procedures may be instructed to enter the stack by Albuquerque Center at any altitude. Aircraft from out of state or users who are not familiar with these procedures will not be using them. Please be patient and kind." It sounds like the other pilots around you that day were not abiding those instrcutions. The problem I can see is that the only way you know any of this is if you're a local and have local knowledge of the practice. There is the note on the sectional chart, but again, that is non-binding and how are you supposed to know what to do with that. When I was down there with my CFII, the highest I ever had to go was 6500 MSL, which meant there would have been five planes below us in the stack. If you factor in planes that are going missed and coming back to the stack, you can have upwards of 10 planes all trying to practice ILS approaches at KCGZ. I've been out there at over an hour after Sunset, and 6:00 AM, and still had two or three other planes out there practice the ILS. Honestly, I feel like the local controllers should have known not to put you in that situation. "The stack" is notorious here. Ya, there's an ILS at KCGZ, but it's there for training. You can probably count on one hand the number of times/year that the FAF is in IMC conditions. https://www.faasafety.gov/files/events/WP/WP07/2017/WP0775796/Stanfield_VOR_proceduresR2.pdf https://aftw.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/AFTW_Stanfield_VOR_Procedures_Rev6.pdf
I got mine a year ago and I agree. It followed the ACS to the letter. Nothing more, nothing less. Congratulations!
I think “cleared for the visual, caution numerous VFR training flights holding at all altitudes at Stanfield VOR” would be a fair warning to an IFR arrival. I think I came into the stack at 10,000 once. I think my biggest feeling of relief in my flying so far was when my MEI told me that the DPE would handle the radio at the Stack (and also vector me to avoid the complicated airspace in the popular southeast practice area as a whole).
