Passed Instrument Checkride

rhvpilot

rhvpilot

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Nov 1, 2013
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san Jose, CA
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RHV PILOT
Finally I passed my instrument check ride yesterday!!!

Thank God it is over.

would not recommend anything but accelerated path.
 
Congrats!
Which accelerated program/company did you use?
 
Glad it worked out for you.

Mine will probably be in October, as the CFII is going on a vacation and then a CAP conference, and I'm going on an exercise on another weekend. I may need a safety pilot to keep sharp.

It's not the best idea to pursue an instrument rating and two CAP ratings at the same time. But now the two CAP ratings are both done (the instrument training helped the SAR work more than you might think, though).

Do you have a write-up? I'd be very interested, as it's a real good bet I've met your examiner, and I may end up using the same one.
 
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Congrats,now go fly,get that ticket wet.
 
MAKG1 said:
Glad it worked out for you.

Mine will probably be in October, as the CFII is going on a vacation and then a CAP conference, and I'm going on an exercise on another weekend. I may need a safety pilot to keep sharp.

It's not the best idea to pursue an instrument rating and two CAP ratings at the same time. But now the two CAP ratings are both done (the instrument training helped the SAR work more than you might think, though).

Do you have a write-up? I'd be very interested, as it's a real good bet I've met your examiner, and I may end up using the same one.
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I will try to do a write-up after some decompression.

By the way, thanks for volunteering safety pilot.
 
Good job.... Keep flying in IMC and stay proficient.
 
rhvpilot said:
I will try to do a write-up after some decompression.

By the way, thanks for volunteering safety pilot.
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No problem. As I said earlier, I learned quite a bit from you.

That safety pilot thing is real useful for the right seat, too, and I'd encourage other VFR pilots and especially instrument students to try it out.

You definitely did not take the easy way out with that 172/A. Though, to be honest, my own instrument training is done mostly without the GPS, except to get back into RHV. I do get precision approach practice pretty regularly on the RNAV Z 31R approach. At least when NorCal doesn't tell me to get the F out of the way of an incoming airliner for SJC (the ILS 30L at SJC has the same IAF).
 
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MAKG1 said:
No problem. As I said earlier, I learned quite a bit from you.

That safety pilot thing is real useful for the right seat, too, and I'd encourage other VFR pilots and especially instrument students to try it out.

You definitely did not take the easy way out with that 172/A. Though, to be honest, my own instrument training is done mostly without the GPS, except to get back into RHV. I do get precision approach practice pretty regularly on the RNAV Z 31R approach. At least when NorCal doesn't tell me to get the F out of the way of an incoming airliner for SJC (the ILS 30L at SJC has the same IAF).
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Good thing is I did all training hand flying no GPS!! It gives a little more confidence.
 
rhvpilot said:
would not recommend anything but accelerated path.
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I would say quite the opposite. I spread this training out over 5 months and to be honest, outside of cramming for the written for 2 days I never felt overwhelmed. I'm not going to say it was the easiest thing I've done, but it wasn't as hard as people seemed to have made it out to be.
 
OkieAviator said:
I would say quite the opposite. I spread this training out over 5 months and to be honest, outside of cramming for the written for 2 days I never felt overwhelmed. I'm not going to say it was the easiest thing I've done, but it wasn't as hard as people seemed to have made it out to be.
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I agree. I'm 10 lessons in and a lot of bookwork/sim work at home and I'm not sure I could drink from the firehose of an accelerated program without drowining:lol:
 
OkieAviator said:
I would say quite the opposite. I spread this training out over 5 months and to be honest, outside of cramming for the written for 2 days I never felt overwhelmed. I'm not going to say it was the easiest thing I've done, but it wasn't as hard as people seemed to have made it out to be.
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Thanks Okie,

Your valid points but I was referring to people in similar situation as mine, with full time job, wife and kids. I have my own airplane, passed my written and had friday, saturday sunday available every week.

The flight schools wanted to charge me 10 buck per hour extra for using my own airplane. I kind of had a bad luck with finding a matching cfi. Many a times, despite week advance notice, CFIs were not available for number of reasons, it would be a football game, a charter flight, wife's birthday, family vacation, you name it. Every time, I switched CFI (since first was gone for extended time), the next one had to "make sure I was able to fly the airplane" so he had to do everything all over again (including first 2 hours of finding out where I was in IFR training). My fourth CFI, did the same exact thing. After 70 hours of hood time, (60 hour with instructor), DPE told me the 8710 was not filled up correctly (my cfi was in a different state on a charter flight). Obviously, had to pay the examiner, get hold of the cfi next week for sign off and reschedule the check ride.

It is just a personal opinion but when I look back, it would have been lot easier if I had gone some place for 7 days and gotten most (if not all) of it done in one shot.
 
fiveoboy01 said:
I agree. I'm 10 lessons in and a lot of bookwork/sim work at home and I'm not sure I could drink from the firehose of an accelerated program without drowining:lol:
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After, written exam out of the way and having read the flying handbook once, it didn't feel like drinking from the firehose. To be honest, it was the opposite, I felt thirsty but only one drop came out of hose every week. :)
 
Ugh! .... I had 34 hours of instrument time as of 9/11/2001. I was getting ready to plan my long XC flight with my CFII. Then, I lost my aviation job when they started parking passenger jets in the desert. I went back to college for 2 years, sent 2 kids to college for 4.5 years each, worked my behind off, and did not fly.

Now, I've got over 45 hrs of instrument time, passed my written and done my long XC. Today, I went out and did and easy IFR out and back. Got vectors for the RNAV approach back into home field, and after having done reasonably well up till then, totally lost the ball on a vector to final that left me left of the final approach course with a 20 degree intercept. I got so far behind the airplane, I felt like a complete newb! So, I'm STILL not ready for that checkride!
 
wilkersk said:
Ugh! .... I had 34 hours of instrument time as of 9/11/2001. I was getting ready to plan my long XC flight with my CFII. Then, I lost my aviation job when they started parking passenger jets in the desert. I went back to college for 2 years, sent 2 kids to college for 4.5 years each, worked my behind off, and did not fly.

Now, I've got over 45 hrs of instrument time, passed my written and done my long XC. Today, I went out and did and easy IFR out and back. Got vectors for the RNAV approach back into home field, and after having done reasonably well up till then, totally lost the ball on a vector to final that left me left of the final approach course with a 20 degree intercept. I got so far behind the airplane, I felt like a complete newb! So, I'm STILL not ready for that checkride!
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Falling behind the airplane is pretty common, I would recommend always slow down as much as you can (say 90 kts for C 172). If still feel behind, it is perfectly alright to ask for delayed vectors. Examiners actually appreciate it. Just my 2 cents!!!
 
rhvpilot said:
Falling behind the airplane is pretty common, I would recommend always slow down as much as you can (say 90 kts for C 172). If still feel behind, it is perfectly alright to ask for delayed vectors. Examiners actually appreciate it. Just my 2 cents!!!
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I only get behind when going from one approach to another. That's exactly what I do and slow the plane down to give me that extra time working things out.
 
Congrats!!!

With the IFR rating you should never stop trying to improving your skills. Try to shoot some approaches each month to keep you sharp.
 
Congratulations! Have you filed/flown IFR since? Keep the skills fresh as you're obviously proficient now (or you wouldn't have passed), but it doesn't take long for the sharpness to dull.
 
rhvpilot said:
Thanks Okie,

Your valid points but I was referring to people in similar situation as mine, with full time job, wife and kids. I have my own airplane, passed my written and had friday, saturday sunday available every week.

The flight schools wanted to charge me 10 buck per hour extra for using my own airplane. I kind of had a bad luck with finding a matching cfi. Many a times, despite week advance notice, CFIs were not available for number of reasons, it would be a football game, a charter flight, wife's birthday, family vacation, you name it. Every time, I switched CFI (since first was gone for extended time), the next one had to "make sure I was able to fly the airplane" so he had to do everything all over again (including first 2 hours of finding out where I was in IFR training). My fourth CFI, did the same exact thing. After 70 hours of hood time, (60 hour with instructor), DPE told me the 8710 was not filled up correctly (my cfi was in a different state on a charter flight). Obviously, had to pay the examiner, get hold of the cfi next week for sign off and reschedule the check ride.

It is just a personal opinion but when I look back, it would have been lot easier if I had gone some place for 7 days and gotten most (if not all) of it done in one shot.
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Congrats RHV!! This has been EXACTLY my experience with my current flight school. I was bounced around between 3-4 instructors, planes in for maintenance, etc. I did buy my own plane to make that part more reliable, but still had the instructor not-available situation. I get charged a $15 per hour surcharge for flying in my own plane, but it's still worth it. I also fly one day in the middle of the week and weekends due to work.

I've got about 20 hours to go under the hood before I'm ready for that checkride, hopefully no more than a month or two at the most.

Your situation gives me hope that I'll get it done eventually, it is super frustrating though. And yeah, just like you I thought about the accelerated programs, but for me I am unable to take off 5-7 days in a row from work and get it done so..it's the long route for me.

Again, congrats, have fun bustin' clouds.
 
Nice job! I plan to complete my IFR in own plane once the deal is completed. Agree my plan would be do few hours basic IFR and pass written then take 2 weeks off for an accelerated program like PIC to get it done. I too experienced many CFII too busy to stay focused on an accelerated or consistent program with a student.
 
That first flight that you file IFR and never put a hood on will feel so freeing.

The IFR rating is a grind, but it's worth it.
 
I greatly appreciate everybody congratulating me. it is very encouraging !!!
 
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