Getting nervous about IFR checkride

benyflyguy

benyflyguy

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benyflyguy
Starting to get a little freaked out about my checkride this Sunday am. Weather should be ok. I’ve studied. I’ve flown. I’ve flown the possible approaches with my CFI .
Wondering what should I be studying or looking at now? Get good sleep, relax, trust the process. I get all that. But still just looking for some pointers on what to look at or think about.
I know I’ll probably make some mistakes. Bend not break, fess up and correct ASAP.
What else should I be doing or looking at? Watched some checkrides on YouTube that as helped the process. Have all my documents ready too.
 
Don’t worry about it, if you’re good you’ll
pass, if you suck you’re going to fail, worrying about it won’t help at this point.

Also don’t “fess up” just correct it and keep going, unless he says you failed you didn’t.
 
Try to relax and de stress,if your ready you’ll feel it.
 
I passed mine in August. I impressed the heck out of the examiner on the oral so maybe he went easy with me on the practical. It was a pretty easy practical. Nothing for you to do now but relax and put yourself in the best frame of mind. Good luck!
 
Pilot cafe instrument. It covers most all you will need. It's a free download. A ton of good info there.
 
Just did mine tuesday. I got freaked out because the same dpe failed a guy at my school the day before on his instrunent ride. Turns out that kid couldn't even intercept and track a radial. One thing i wish my instructor would have worked with me more is the gps. I had a 650 and i was expected to know how to use it, including the loading of victor airways (which i used planes with 430s for all my longer xc).

That, and pilots cafe. I had practically all the acronymns memorized, but i didnt get asked a single one. And don't forget to check non standard alternates and takeoff!
 
Cici said:
Just did mine tuesday. I got freaked out because the same dpe failed a guy at my school the day before on his instrunent ride. Turns out that kid couldn't even intercept and track a radial. One thing i wish my instructor would have worked with me more is the gps. I had a 650 and i was expected to know how to use it, including the loading of victor airways (which i used planes with 430s for all my longer xc).

...
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Yes, if it is in the airplane, you are expected to know how to use it. Make sure that you don't grab an airplane with a working ADF :confused:
 
Examiner's favorite question, maybe?

"You fly to your selected alternate which has only a non-precision approach. What minimums must you have there in order to legally fly that approach?"
 
That is feeling is normal, it means are about ready for tech check ride.
There shouldn’t be anything on the check ride you haven’t done over and over again multiple times.
Also as a stress reliever just remember that normally anything you get right on the check ride is one less thing you need to do on a retest if you do mess something up. You willl also mess up a number of things that aren’t grounds for failure, so just plan on that. The DPE I use has told me his attitude going to some of his checkrides was lets just do as much as I am able to do, we will fix the rest later.
Also if you do Fail usually the retest is easy, since most of the test is already over before you start. The worst thing you can do is stress yourself out to the point you can’t really even start the check ride. Just relax go show him what you know and you will be fine.

Brian
CFIIG
 
I passed mine in August. Although I was a little nervous beforehand it really was a piece a cake
 
alfadog said:
Examiner's favorite question, maybe?

"You fly to your selected alternate which has only a non-precision approach. What minimums must you have there in order to legally fly that approach?"
Click to expand...
Good one. There's a whole bunch of questions like this which can be asked about alternates. Heck, many pilots think they have to fly to their filed alternate, let alone not knowing what they are allowed to do when they are there.
 
FWIW my Instrument checkride was the easiest checkride I have taken. Probably cause I did it in my own personal plane which I’m so familiar with.

Good luck mate
 
Just passed my checkride. Hardest checkride i've taken (will be the 4th total). Examiner was brutal.. will never use him again.. Just remember, keep pushing even if he/she is tearing you up the entire flight. Keep trucking and move on..
 
alfadog said:
Examiner's favorite question, maybe?

"You fly to your selected alternate which has only a non-precision approach. What minimums must you have there in order to legally fly that approach?"
Click to expand...

Interesting question, when you pick it, it needs 800/ 2 or whatever the published alternate minimums are, but when you fly to it, it just needs to meet the published approach minimums appropriate for your aircraft. At the end of the day though, you are not required to fly to your alternate if a better option is available. Furthermore, under part 91 you are allowed to take a peek on the approach even if it is advertised below the approach's minimum criteria, BUT that's probably not too bright to do for a newly ticketed IFR pilot.

Did I get it right or am I going to flunk?
 
PaulS said:
At the end of the day though, you are not required to fly to your alternate if a better option is available.
Click to expand...

What if you lose comms and you never find VMC before you get there?
 
Make sure your paperwork for the plane is in order and be prepared to explain what inspection and when it’s needed and know where to find it. I got my first letter of discontinuance because we hadn’t removed the expired registration when we got the new one, and something the old one got put back in the plane.

I got a lot of what if scenarios in the oral that he used to get into questions about required equipment, alternates, fuel, wx etc. I got grilled on required equipment and what to do if i found something to be inop. Different flight scenarios, and he went into icing pretty deep too. Mostly it was him telling stories and stopping to ask me questions.
He went over a couple of the question codes I issued on the written and wanted to make sure my instructor made a log entry showing her and I had done ground covering those topics.

Know everything in your plane. And be prepared to use it. We have an adf receiver in our plane, luckily no approaches within 80 miles, but as we were coming in finishing the ride he asked me to turn it on and use a local AM radio tower to show him how to track a bearing. I think at that point he was just trying to lighten the mood as he had put me through some serious sweating.
 
Ryan Harris said:
Just passed my checkride. Hardest checkride i've taken (will be the 4th total). Examiner was brutal.. will never use him again.. Just remember, keep pushing even if he/she is tearing you up the entire flight. Keep trucking and move on..
Click to expand...

Congrats!

Care to give us debrief?
 
PaulS said:
Get where?
Click to expand...

The scenario: You filed to XXX with YYY as your alternate. En route to XXX, you lose comms and you never get VMC. You shoot an approach to XXX but it's below minimums so you go missed. At that point, aren't you required to fly to YYY (assuming you never hit VMC between XXX and YYY) even though ZZZ might have been a better option?


PaulS said:
At the end of the day though, you are not required to fly to your alternate if a better option is available.
Click to expand...
 
PaulS said:
Interesting question, when you pick it, it needs 800/ 2 or whatever the published alternate minimums are, but when you fly to it, it just needs to meet the published approach minimums appropriate for your aircraft. At the end of the day though, you are not required to fly to your alternate if a better option is available. Furthermore, under part 91 you are allowed to take a peek on the approach even if it is advertised below the approach's minimum criteria, BUT that's probably not too bright to do for a newly ticketed IFR pilot.

Did I get it right or am I going to flunk?
Click to expand...
You pass :D
 
asicer said:
The scenario: You filed to XXX with YYY as your alternate. En route to XXX, you lose comms and you never get VMC. You shoot an approach to XXX but it's below minimums so you go missed. At that point, aren't you required to fly to YYY (assuming you never hit VMC between XXX and YYY) even though ZZZ might have been a better option?
Click to expand...
No, you are not required to fly to YYY. Go to the better option.
 
Need 5000’ ceilings for checkride. Was forecast all week to be ok, until last night. Stuck with 3500-4000’ overcast/broken. This am same. I even had the planes out. I thought we could do paperwork and oral but apparently they aren’t allowed to start a checkride without the intent of finishing. So we move to later in the week possibly next weekend!
If weather clears this afternoon and his commercial ride cancels i might have a window.
 
benyflyguy said:
Need 5000’ ceilings for checkride. Was forecast all week to be ok, until last night. Stuck with 3500-4000’ overcast/broken. This am same. I even had the planes out. I thought we could do paperwork and oral but apparently they aren’t allowed to start a checkride without the intent of finishing. So we move to later in the week possibly next weekend!
If weather clears this afternoon and his commercial ride cancels i might have a window.
Click to expand...
Why is the MEA on T212 higher than the MEA on V106?

T212 MEA.JPG​
 
Just try to relax and trust the process. Your CFII signed off that you are prepared to take the exam....I would trust that he/she knows what they are doing. Also, always remember.....a good pilot uses all available resources. You are asked to bring a POH, FAR/AIM, Charts and other materials to the exam for a reason....if you get stuck on something on the oral exam and you can't remember, it doesn't hurt to ask whether you can refer to your available resources to find the answer.....GOOD LUCK!
 
dtuuri said:
Why is the MEA on T212 higher than the MEA on V106?

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That’s a good question. I beleive it is because the RNAV route is a wider airway then the victor route and has higher in this case for obstacle clearance. Usually the Tango routes are same or lower then the Victor airways.
 
dtuuri said:
Why is the MEA on T212 higher than the MEA on V106?
Click to expand...
They made it up just to show that all of the general rules we think we know have exceptions :D

Like this one where the LNAV/VNAV minimums are lower than the LPV minimums.

upload_2018-12-23_11-33-34.png

I used to have one with LOC minimums lower than ILS but that one was change=d some time ago. I know there are a few out there.
 
midlifeflyer said:
No, you are not required to fly to YYY. Go to the better option.
Click to expand...
Interesting.

The DPE in the King Schools practical test video asked this very question and the conclusion they came up with is that if you can't negotiate with ATC then must go to your filed alternate.

However, this article in IFR Magazine says that when FSS transmits your info to ATC your alternate ends up in the bit-bucket. It's as if your alternate were something akin to a VFR flight plan: a paper trail for SAR to follow.
http://www.ifr-magazine.com/issues/1_3/features/Alternate-Alternatives_24-1.html

I'll have to shoot off an email to Martha&crew for clarification.
 
I want to contribute something positive that might reduce your jitters a little. Just two years ago I faced the same. And passed.

I had all the jitters and all the nervousness. My wife brought the cold slap of reality to me.

Here’s pretty much worst-case:

You go out, and fly and eventually the ride isn’t a pass. It will be because one item wasn’t up to standard.

This offending bit is identified.

You go up once with your instructor and get that bit correct.

You fly once more with the DPE to show that you now have this right. And you’re done.

That’s it. That’s worst-case. Can you handle that? If you can, maybe your jitters are a little more at-ease.

Now. Go pass it.
 
asicer said:
Interesting.

The DPE in the King Schools practical test video asked this very question and the conclusion they came up with is that if you can't negotiate with ATC then must go to your filed alternate.

However, this article in IFR Magazine says that when FSS transmits your info to ATC your alternate ends up in the bit-bucket. It's as if your alternate were something akin to a VFR flight plan: a paper trail for SAR to follow.
http://www.ifr-magazine.com/issues/1_3/features/Alternate-Alternatives_24-1.html

I'll have to shoot off an email to Martha&crew for clarification.
Click to expand...
It's not quite the bit bucket, but close. In the ordinary course of events, ATC doesn't see and doesn't care about your alternate. I'not sure how yo negotiate somehting they don't see.

The exception to not seeing is lost comm. ATC can ask what your filed alternate is if they want some idea where you might go. But there is still no requirement to go there.
 
asicer said:
The scenario: You filed to XXX with YYY as your alternate. En route to XXX, you lose comms and you never get VMC. You shoot an approach to XXX but it's below minimums so you go missed. At that point, aren't you required to fly to YYY (assuming you never hit VMC between XXX and YYY) even though ZZZ might have been a better option?
Click to expand...

At what point are you authorized to proceed to YYY? Your clearance did not include a route to YYY. Under emergency authority do as you are required to meet the emergency.
 
benyflyguy said:
Need 5000’ ceilings for checkride. Was forecast all week to be ok, until last night. Stuck with 3500-4000’ overcast/broken. This am same. I even had the planes out. I thought we could do paperwork and oral but apparently they aren’t allowed to start a checkride without the intent of finishing. So we move to later in the week possibly next weekend!
If weather clears this afternoon and his commercial ride cancels i might have a window.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how the gubimint shutdown affects checkrides, but there is some speculation that DPEs aren't supposed to give checkrides. Hopefully that isnt the case....
 
Cici said:
I'm not sure how the gubimint shutdown affects checkrides, but there is some speculation that DPEs aren't supposed to give checkrides. Hopefully that isnt the case....
Click to expand...
Yikes!! Didn’t think about that. He was doing a commercial checkride in the afternoon which is why we couldn’t wait for afternoon.
 
benyflyguy said:
L


thats not on the paper map. Maybe generated by what ever @dtuuri took screen shot with perhaps.
Click to expand...

It is on my WingX charts. You will also find the x on various approach charts when an additional fix is required and has no pilot navigation purpose.

In any event, it is a stump the chump question from a practical test because an IFR applicant is not required to know TERPs criteria.
 
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