Missed one on my written...$&@!! ADF question...

Hobobiker

Hobobiker

Line Up and Wait
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Hobo
Well, Jesse and others told me to bite the bullet and take the test today, so I did. I knew the moveable vs fixed ADF questions would likely bite me. I missed one, and it was a moveable ADF magnetic heading question, so I got a 98%. I originally thought 210 degrees, but talked myself into the 30 degree answer...which was wrong. Ugh. Oh well, I didn't need to be a member of the 100% club anyway...

Thanks for the push to get it done everyone...
 
told you that you'd do fine. ;)

Nice job. I personally wanted to make a 100%...but it opens the door for an examiner as well..."hmmm...ok Mr. Smartguy...let's see about that 100%..."

:)
 
kenjr said:
told you that you'd do fine. ;)

Nice job. I personally wanted to make a 100%...but it opens the door for an examiner as well..."hmmm...ok Mr. Smartguy...let's see about that 100%..."

:)
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Good point. I'm WAY happy with the 98...
 
Ya did better than me, I only got 96% on my PPE. Of course anything over 70% is a waste...
 
kgruber said:
What's ADF?
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I'm betting you're being sarcastic, but just in case I had trouble determining how to calculate the MB, RB, and MH on fixed card automatic direction finders and moveable card automatic direction finders. Even though I remembered MH+RB=MB, I still get confused between the two. I'm sure it will come with time, and I haven't asked my CFI to explain yet either. No ground school for me, just self taught from the various books which probably added to my confusion on this topic...
 
ADF question got me too. And a few others. I got a 94%. Ya' beat me.

Nice work.
 
Hobobiker said:
I've never seen an ADF in a plane yet either, although I'm a newbie to the world of aviation...
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I flew in IMC recently filing ndbs using an adf to navigate. Still works. Airplane had no better options.
 
Unless you plan on flying in Mexico or Canada or one of the other 167 countries in the world, you are not really going to need an ADF much in the US anymore - unless you don't have a GPS on board and actually need to use one - but placard it inop for the test . . .
 
jesse said:
I flew in IMC recently filing ndbs using an adf to navigate. Still works. Airplane had no better options.
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Thanks again for telling me to basically get off the pot Jesse. On to practicing for my checkride now...
 
I was thinking the same thing when I saw how hard you were working at it doing back to back practice tests. Just go get it done :)

The 100% club usually means you were unnecessarily anal about passing the test. There truly isn't a stigma associated with getting < 100% on a written. The only person that cares is you, for a few hours after it's over. Once you go for the checkride, you will remember the check ride for life, but you won't give a hoot about the written.

Regarding ADF's, the concept of tracking a bearing to a station, or knowing if a given heading is going to have you join inside or outside of a fix (by comparing your track to a known bearing to the station) can be really helpful...but ADF's themselves, not so much (and I have quite an affinity for them).

The first approach I ever self-studied and self-flew in the sim prior to instrument training was the NDB approach into Clear Lake up in Norcal (approach no longer exists). It took about 2 hours to plan and research, then I flew it, hung in there and landed, exhausted. I've loved IFR ever since. It's a very pure form of navigation and I do think it has application with other types of navigation...but just barely :)

Congrats on the written. Go fly.
 
comanchepilot said:
Unless you plan on flying in Mexico or Canada or one of the other 167 countries in the world, you are not really going to need an ADF much in the US anymore - unless you don't have a GPS on board and actually need to use one - but placard it inop for the test . . .
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Unless you visit Alaska. Not a lot of VORs around there, and GPS coverage gets spotty at polar latitudes. There are still quite a number of airways defined by NDBs up there.

And there are still lots of AM radio stations around.

To the OP, you did really good. Don't beat yourself up over it. It's worse if your only error was a dumb one. I missed an obstruction height question because I looked at the wrong obstruction.
 
jpower said:
They're excellent for listening to the baseball game! Also good lightning detectors. And landing counters when you're shooting touch and goes. Not much else that I'm aware of :)
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:yeahthat:

880 AM round these parts gets you John Sterling and Susan Waldman doing play-by-play and color for Yankees games; and if the indicator also feels like pointing and one were to actually follow it, will lead you to City Island in the Bronx (and a likely LGA class B bust).
 
jpower said:
They're excellent for listening to the baseball game! Also good lightning detectors. And landing counters when you're shooting touch and goes. Not much else that I'm aware of :)
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I can still shoot an NDB approach just fine.:dunno: Simplest piece of equipment in the plane if you have one.
 
850 will take ya to one of the most common reporting points for KAPA, the KOA tower. It's a 50,000W transmitter so finding KAPA from Kansas at night isn't a problem at all. ;)
 
I think its unfourtunate that they are going away. I have found them useful in the past, not so much now, but you never know. That is what I sweated the most about on the instrument checkride (NDB approaches). Actually did one not too long ago..still got it! lol
 
I'm new to the board, so pardon if the answer can be found in some of your earlier posts, but what was your study method? I have been procrastinating on my written, and I'm only a few short hours from meeting the cockpit requirements for my checkride, so I need to get off the pot so to speak.

Thanks, and great job.
 
thebruce said:
I'm new to the board, so pardon if the answer can be found in some of your earlier posts, but what was your study method? I have been procrastinating on my written, and I'm only a few short hours from meeting the cockpit requirements for my checkride, so I need to get off the pot so to speak.

Thanks, and great job.
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Get Sporty's Study Buddy and/or use this: http://www.exams4pilots.org/faatest.cgi

Repeat until you are getting in the 90's and go take it.
 
thebruce said:
I'm new to the board, so pardon if the answer can be found in some of your earlier posts, but what was your study method? I have been procrastinating on my written, and I'm only a few short hours from meeting the cockpit requirements for my checkride, so I need to get off the pot so to speak.

Thanks, and great job.
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I did exactly what Ken describes below your post. I used a Gleim paperback, the iPad Study Buddy app, and the www.exams4pilots.com website. I also read the PHAK (Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge) and AFH (Airplane Flying Handbook). Took practice tests just as if I were sitting at the real test until I was consistently in the 90's. Then it took my CFI reminding me that my tombstone wasn't going to state that "Wade got a 100% on his PPE" and a few others on this forum to get me to actually GET OFF MY BUTT AND GO TAKE THE TEST.

Good luck!
 
Never scored 100% on any of the 3 writtens I've taken, never worried about it and never was asked about the written test or quizzed on the missed questions by any examiner during the orals.

Don't know what all the fuss is about.....
 
DutchessFlier said:
Never scored 100% on any of the 3 writtens I've taken, never worried about it and never was asked about the written test or quizzed on the missed questions by any examiner during the orals.

Don't know what all the fuss is about.....
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Not sure there's any "fuss" at all, and that certainly wasn't my intent as the OP. I'm perfectly happy with the grade I received, but like any other test I take I strive for the best - which is 100%. I was merely posting that I missed a question on a topic that I presumed might bite me, which was ADF-related...
 
Yeah, we all have the tendency to get really ****ed off when the score is almost perfect.

But it's quite correct that it might get noticed exactly once more -- your examiner will need to establish eligibility, so he will actually look. He won't care what the score was as long as it was above 70%. That old saw about getting grilled harder if you ace it is a myth. The examiner will try to find the edge of your knowledge regardless of your score.
 
Don't feel so bad, Hobo... you did very well. I only got one wrong on my PPASEL written because I hastily ticked off the wrong answer by mistake. Just plain stupid of me. :mad2:

And if you think ADF questions on the ASEL exam is annoying, try dealing with ADFs, and HSI stuff, and multi-engine stuff, on the PP-Glider exam.
Yeah, really.:rolleyes2:

But speaking of NDBs: they are very useful (and not just for flying an arcing beeline to the station, or listening to AM radio stations), and having been brought up on them, it's a shame to see them fading away. Like VORs... and (now extinct) LORAN. Man, I miss LORAN. Worked flawlessly here on the East coast... very impressive for a surface-based system.
 
denverpilot said:
850 will take ya to one of the most common reporting points for KAPA, the KOA tower. It's a 50,000W transmitter so finding KAPA from Kansas at night isn't a problem at all. ;)
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Finding KAPA at night from Los Angeles is no challenge either . .
 
comanchepilot said:
Unless you plan on flying in Mexico or Canada or one of the other 167 countries in the world, you are not really going to need an ADF much in the US anymore - unless you don't have a GPS on board and actually need to use one - but placard it inop for the test . . .
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Very useful for listening to ball games when tooling along. :D

Don't worry about the score, you passed. Now, make sure you pass the check ride within 2 years or you get to take that darned written all over again. :D:D
 
Shoot! Thought there would be some good ol' ADF discussion here.
Grew up on it, and thought it was excellent aircraft control, cross-check, and situational awareness training...
(sigh) oh well, kinda like cursive writing, isn't it?
 
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