Passed that sumbitch...

T

TomRV4

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Tom
Made it through my Instrument Checkride today with 'flying colors'...feelin' good...

Tom
 
Welcome to the League of Temporary Airmen!
 
Pete Michaud out of Brownwood (KBWD).

A genuinely nice gentleman with a LOT of check ride experience. Made me feel very comfortable through the whole process.

I highly recommend him...

Tom

DavidWhite said:
Way to go! Who was your examiner?
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Congratulations! Are you going to write up your experience? (did i miss another thread?)

Any "tricks"? What did you feel you had trouble with?
 
TomRV4 said:
Pete Michaud out of Brownwood (KBWD).

A genuinely nice gentleman with a LOT of check ride experience. Made me feel very comfortable through the whole process.

I highly recommend him...

Tom
Click to expand...

If you ever need a safety pilot send me a message. I've heard good things about Pete. Which flight school did you use?
 
Congrats! Definitely a feeling of accomplishment after the IR ride.
 
Way to go! I felt that ride was far more of a workout than the PP ride. So glad to have it done, just as I know you are.

Congratulations, once again.
 
Thanks for all the congrats!

It was probably the most anticipated, trying, and satisfying thing I've done since I started flying. And as many people have said before, I feel it has made me a better pilot in all other areas to boot.

I flew my low slow Rans S7S Courier for the first time this evening since I started my Instrument training in early December of last year (in a Cirrus). I found myself maintaining altitude and heading much easier and more accurately than I've done in the past...and it was effortless...

I just had a better feeling for the small changes that were occurring, and the way the airplane was 'talking' to me, and made the corrections without even thinking about it. Sweet!

Tom
 
ajstoner21 said:
Congratulations! Are you going to write up your experience? (did i miss another thread?)

Any "tricks"? What did you feel you had trouble with?
Click to expand...

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
 
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DavidWhite said:
If you ever need a safety pilot send me a message. I've heard good things about Pete. Which flight school did you use?
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David,

Thanks for the safety pilot offer. Might just take you up on that. I fly over to the NB airport every now and then. I'm based at Boerne Stage so don't hesitate to head my way if you're out and about and say hello. Just let me know.

I answered David in another post with my flight school info...

Tom
 
TomRV4 said:
David,

Thanks for the safety pilot offer. Might just take you up on that. I fly over to the NB airport every now and then. I'm based at Boerne Stage so don't hesitate to head my way if you're out and about and say hello. Just let me know.

I answered David in another post with my flight school info...

Tom
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Tom, I spend alot of time at Boerne Stage airfield. It's where I started flying. If you see this plane on the ramp I'm around somewhere.


310845_2311347348404_1390996903_32742265_7404479_n.jpg
 
DavidWhite said:
Tom, I spend alot of time at Boerne Stage airfield. It's where I started flying. If you see this plane on the ramp I'm around somewhere.


310845_2311347348404_1390996903_32742265_7404479_n.jpg
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Cool! Thanks David.

I'll keep an eye out for you. I'm the third hangar door from the south end of the airport. If you see my hangar door open, or any of the planes below out and about...flag me down!

Tom

My Rans S7S Courier, I finished it Nov. 2010, and July 2011...see last pic...

012.jpg


My RV4. I built her and made the first flight in 1988. 1400 hours later and going strong!
RV4.jpg


My father in law's Cirrus that I was fortunate enough to use for my instrument training. Yep, I'm one LUCKY guy!
Cirrus.jpg


My Rans after its encounter with the little tornado at SnF last year. She proudly flew 120 feet, cartwheeled across and kissed a nice pretty Seneca, and landed between a Mirage and under a Meridean. I'm still trying to figure out how to log the flight time. After being totaled by the insurance company, I bought the remains, and she's back flying as good as new. The blue and white plane in the background is my Courier's twin. My good friend Rick and I built the two planes together, we flew them together to SnF, they both won trophies...Rick's for Grand Champion Kitbuilt and mine the Best Workmanship Award, they were both destroyed together and they were rebuilt together. Can't keep a good Ran's S7S down!
SnF.jpg
 
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I know I've seen your Rans before, and pretty sure I've seen the RV. Ive got RV envy ever since I flew in an RV7. Those are both sweet planes
 
Hi Tom,
Congrats! I flew both my instrument and comm rides with Pete. He is a dear sweet man. My IFR ride took 2.5 hrs under the hood. We had screaming winds too and a fair amount of turbulence and I was in my C152/U. On the hold for the ILS in Abilene Pete asked me, Jean do you realize we are flying sideways? My answer: Not now Pete I'm busy. He just chuckled.
I almost blew the step-down back at brownwood, but he asked me a question to prime me to catch it and I saved the approach.
Anyway, good on you and have fun. What beautiful planes you've built.
 
Good for you Tom!

Good read too, wind could be a *****, when flying to Flagstaff using just the VOR (no DME) I can tell we get close when the plane starts bouncing.

Congrats.
 
ajstoner21 said:
Congratulations! Are you going to write up your experience? (did i miss another thread?)

Any "tricks"? What did you feel you had trouble with?
Click to expand...


Andrew,

Are you getting close to your IR checkride? I'm just barely starting on my IR now. Who will be your DPE?
 
TomRV4 said:
Made it through my Instrument Checkride today with 'flying colors'...feelin' good...

Tom
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Tom,

Congratulations!

I just finished my Private and am in the extreme beginnings for my IR. Mentally it's almost like starting all over again.

Enjoy!
 
Thanks all for the congrats!

Jeanie...I'm planning to take a little trip to west TX this weekend, and have a few questions I'd like to ask you. Please check your PM's...

Tom
 
If you are on short final for 35 into BWD and see a steady red light from the hanger, what is wrong on the field?
 
Traket92X said:
If you are on short final for 35 into BWD and see a steady red light from the hanger, what is wrong on the field?
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Heh, heh...i see you know Pete!

That's one of the two questions I got wrong on my oral!

Anyone that hasn't been hit with that one have a guess at the answer??

Tom
 
TomRV4 said:
Heh, heh...i see you know Pete!

That's one of the two questions I got wrong on my oral!

Anyone that hasn't been hit with that one have a guess at the answer??

Tom
Click to expand...

Passed my check ride in June. Missed two questions also. Don't remember the first one, but that one I won't forget:rofl:
 
Yep, he asked me that on short final during my comm ride... I said, "hang on Pete we can talk about it in a moment". I couldn't for the life of me figure it out... He's so cute
 
Tom, Congratulations. My Instrument examiner was (is) a very good friend and a former instructor. The oral took over two hours and then he said Lets fly. All of the training I had received we always left KILE (Killeen) turned west and did our practice over KTPL (Temple) As I took off and started to head west, he said lets goto Georgetown which is south of Killeen. Made the course correction and he said hold on the Georgetown NDB. I knew at once I failed as I had never held on an NDB in any training I had received, but somehow he did not tell me to go back to the airport. I was at 2000 MSL and he said fly to Waco. I tuned into the Waco VOR and got no response. After less than 1/2 second. He shouted at me. WHERE ARE WE? It clicked and I tuned into the Austin VOR and flew NW to Waco where he had me do a couple of approaches. We then flew back to the airport and whlie I was in his office a mutual friend of ours called and although this was on the 10th of December many years ago, he told our mutual friend that he was giving Larry Letzer (me) an early Christmas present. That's when I got my IR.
 
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