ARFlyer
En-Route
I had my instrument checkride on Friday afternoon and passed with flying colors! Below will be a summary of the checkride. I apologize beforehand about the length. 
I meet up with the DPE at the airport at 1 that afternoon and chatted for a few minutes before starting. He started the checkride by stating that this is just two pilots talking about flying. So just, answer any questions as if I was one of your friends. We started with IFR currency and aircraft equipment requirements and moved on to my x/c planning. He was amazed at my knowledge of charts and approach plates. I told him since I love maps it come easy to me. Since we flew through that section he told me about an ILS approach in NH with waypoints that spell out “I tawt I taw a puddy tat”. Can anyone guess who says this? He also told me about how partial panel was done in the early days. The pilots would use there whiskey compass for horizontal stability and the airspeed and RPM gauge for vertical stability. He gave me one “bonus” question which was when did an ATIS not report clouds or visibility in the report. To which the answer is about 5000’ and 5 miles. He said very few people get that question right. I learned the reasoning behind the marker beacon color and morse code choices. After that bit of knowledge, we stopped for a break and the flying part of the ride.
When I went out to pre-flight I found a med-evac heli parked in front on the aircraft, which surprised me. I had pushed the plane back behind our fuel farm, which is closer to flight ops then the shade hanger. I had a conversation with the med-evac pilot and found out he was friends with a few of our professor/CFIs. The flight part I found was easier then my EOC had been with our chief CFI. We did a ILS, VOR and a partial panel GPS back into our home airport. During the flight he tried to distract me by asking questions about my life and random stuff. However, I have always talked during flights so I am use to holding a conversation. The ILS was interesting to say the least.
The ILS was the full procedure ILS 5 into KHOT. This involves hitting HOT VOR over the field at 4000’ and proceeding outbound 230* to the IAF of HOSSY. Well while outbound, you can descend to 2600’ before HOSSY on the feeder route. Once you hit HOSSY your good down to 2500’ until your back inbound with the GS. Anyway outbound to HOSSY I found myself head on into “company traffic”. Our chief CFI was in the other Piper inbound on the VOR 5. Therefore, I had to stay at 4000’ until we both past HOSSY. This put me 1500’ high on my procedure turn. Thankfully, I was able to get the aircraft down and slowed before inbound HOSSY. The DPE said I did a very smart thing by staying high and informing MEM Center, the DPE, of our situation. During the approach, I busted altitudes a few times but corrected as swiftly as possible. The approach goes over some high ridges so thermals and rising air makes the approach kind of fun in the spring and summer. At one point, I was at idle with the plane nosed over and still was gaining altitude. The DPE told me not to worry that he had done this approach many times before and knew how hard holding altitude is on a warm sunny day.
The rest of the flight went without a hitch. My unusual attitudes were fine and my glass cockpit “partial panel” was good. The partial panel was dimming the PFD and flying on my STBY ATT, AS and ALT. I just pulled up the GPS approach on my MFD and used the compass rose for my HDG.
After shutdown, he said we had some things to talk about and to meet him inside. He proceeded to teach me some things that he saw as lacking. As he was teaching me this, I found out later that he had printed my temporary cert. All I saw walking in was pink paper and the printer. So the first thing in my mind was “Where did I screw up!?!?” I can say he had me going for a minute!
Overall, it was a fun learning experience. The DPE was a really nice person and taught me some interesting stuff. He said that my study skills and my CFI was above normal and excellent!
I meet up with the DPE at the airport at 1 that afternoon and chatted for a few minutes before starting. He started the checkride by stating that this is just two pilots talking about flying. So just, answer any questions as if I was one of your friends. We started with IFR currency and aircraft equipment requirements and moved on to my x/c planning. He was amazed at my knowledge of charts and approach plates. I told him since I love maps it come easy to me. Since we flew through that section he told me about an ILS approach in NH with waypoints that spell out “I tawt I taw a puddy tat”. Can anyone guess who says this?
He also told me about how partial panel was done in the early days. The pilots would use there whiskey compass for horizontal stability and the airspeed and RPM gauge for vertical stability. He gave me one “bonus” question which was when did an ATIS not report clouds or visibility in the report. To which the answer is about 5000’ and 5 miles. He said very few people get that question right. I learned the reasoning behind the marker beacon color and morse code choices. After that bit of knowledge, we stopped for a break and the flying part of the ride. When I went out to pre-flight I found a med-evac heli parked in front on the aircraft, which surprised me. I had pushed the plane back behind our fuel farm, which is closer to flight ops then the shade hanger. I had a conversation with the med-evac pilot and found out he was friends with a few of our professor/CFIs. The flight part I found was easier then my EOC had been with our chief CFI. We did a ILS, VOR and a partial panel GPS back into our home airport. During the flight he tried to distract me by asking questions about my life and random stuff. However, I have always talked during flights so I am use to holding a conversation. The ILS was interesting to say the least.
The ILS was the full procedure ILS 5 into KHOT. This involves hitting HOT VOR over the field at 4000’ and proceeding outbound 230* to the IAF of HOSSY. Well while outbound, you can descend to 2600’ before HOSSY on the feeder route. Once you hit HOSSY your good down to 2500’ until your back inbound with the GS. Anyway outbound to HOSSY I found myself head on into “company traffic”. Our chief CFI was in the other Piper inbound on the VOR 5. Therefore, I had to stay at 4000’ until we both past HOSSY. This put me 1500’ high on my procedure turn. Thankfully, I was able to get the aircraft down and slowed before inbound HOSSY. The DPE said I did a very smart thing by staying high and informing MEM Center, the DPE, of our situation. During the approach, I busted altitudes a few times but corrected as swiftly as possible. The approach goes over some high ridges so thermals and rising air makes the approach kind of fun in the spring and summer. At one point, I was at idle with the plane nosed over and still was gaining altitude. The DPE told me not to worry that he had done this approach many times before and knew how hard holding altitude is on a warm sunny day.
The rest of the flight went without a hitch. My unusual attitudes were fine and my glass cockpit “partial panel” was good. The partial panel was dimming the PFD and flying on my STBY ATT, AS and ALT. I just pulled up the GPS approach on my MFD and used the compass rose for my HDG.
After shutdown, he said we had some things to talk about and to meet him inside. He proceeded to teach me some things that he saw as lacking. As he was teaching me this, I found out later that he had printed my temporary cert. All I saw walking in was pink paper and the printer. So the first thing in my mind was “Where did I screw up!?!?” I can say he had me going for a minute!
Overall, it was a fun learning experience. The DPE was a really nice person and taught me some interesting stuff. He said that my study skills and my CFI was above normal and excellent!
Last edited:
Ah! the DPE was acting as safety pilot!