Congratulations! Are you going to write up your experience? (did i miss another thread?)
Any "tricks"? What did you feel you had trouble with?
Warning!!! This is long and quite probably boring to most of you, but it feels good to talk about...and besides, it's all about ME since I started this thread
Andrew,
I started my training in early December of last year through Accelerated Flight and Instrument Training (AFIT). It is a 10 day program for the rating. My wife gave it to me as an anniversary gift last year (what a woman!)
Due to some LOW IFR weather around central Texas in early December, as well as the holidays and other commitments, I was unable to complete it in the 10 days. AFIT was good to work with, and rescheduling was not a problem. It actually probably worked better in the long run, because it was good (at least for me) to have a little extra time to study up on some of the areas I wasn't quite comfortable with. In the end, I'm very glad I did it in an accelerated program. Total immersion was a good thing for me...
Now to your question
No real tricks were thrown my way. That being said, it was very intense...especially the flying part (duh).
The oral was straight forward, and covered a 'little bit' about all the pertinent areas involved. I studied hard for that part, and it paid off. The examiner mentioned later that he knew-that I knew-the info right off the bat. Had I not answered confidently (and correctly), I believe he would have asked a LOT more questions...
The flying was interesting. Started in Brownwood TX, filed a flight plan direct to Abilene, and hand flew the ILS 35R approach. Straight forward except the wind was a *****. Got cleared for the approach with the standard 30 degree intercept. Approach control, not aware that a 29kt wind at 4,000 blowing me like crazy toward the localizer would have a significant affect on a total rookie, gave me the turn a little late (at least that's my story...). I know I should have compensated better, but I was SO focused on maintaining altitude and heading, that I didn't look at the big picture early enough...Oops...
By the time I got my head back in the 3 dimensional game (as far as I'm concerned, 4 with that damn wind!), I had to really correct hard to keep from being blown into the next county. Finally got pretty well situated on the localizer, and ended up holding from a 28 degree wca (at 4,000msl) down to about 6 degrees as I FINALLY got to DA (at 1,976msl). Whew!
Went missed and directly back to Brownwood, did unusual attitudes on the way, and answered more appropriate questions about IFR stuff.
Since I was flying an SR22 Cirrus with the Avidyne glass panel and dual WAAS 430's, I was given the GPS 35 LPV approach to fly...and got to use the fully coupled autopilot approach. I pushed all the right buttons and it flew the plane perfectly right on down chute. Nice!
But then the fire drill started. Directly off the missed, I was to fly the VOR 17 approach right back to the opposite runway...
Climb out to 3100' while reprogramming the GPS; push the right buttons to get all the electronical goodies to talk to each other; fly directly to the BWD VOR; then outbound and do the procedure turn; back inbound to the published hold for a turn; then fly the approach to a circle to land. Oh yea, partial panel thrown in there too. Even remembered to start the clock when I was supposed to. Whew! (I know you experienced guys are chuckling about now...)
Anyway, that's my story. Be prepared is my best advice. Most examiners are human I think, at least mine was. I didn't do perfectly by any means, but I corrected immediately when I needed to, and had all the basic procedures down pat. RELAX as best you can, and just don't forget to do what you were trained to do. Worked for me!
Tom