It's official. I suck.
well, got an incomplete on stage two. I wasn't PIC enough. I have this weird mental thing where if I'm not legally PIC, I act like a student, even if I have the controls.
I had some legit things that I just didn't do correctly that I need to burn into my brain (arrival procedure).
But I need to learn that as "fake PIC" i need to decline requests from the right seat when they'll get me in trouble.
example, using foggles, being given headings and altitudes. Given request to turn to XYZ heading and ascend to 3,000ft. He stopped me before I got to 3,000ft and says "you've lost situational awareness, if you had continued that climb to 3,000, you would have violated airspace". Fair enough, and I had lost track of where I was, but in my defense, I'll never (as a PPL) be having a situation where i'm flying through the clouds and worried about airspace (since I would have been on 121.5 by then, which gives me the clearance I need to enter airspace to save my bacon. There's no scenario where I would ever be in a cloud and worrying about that kind of stuff.
His point that I lost track of where i was is 100% spot on, and that's on me, but I think stage checks are kind of goofy if it's not instruction, but I still have to do what a passenger tells me to do, unless i think it's not something I should do???
Later, was given a diversion. whipped out my map, estimated heading (turned the plane that way right away) distance, time and fuel. While doing that, made a series of errors (some fair, some perhaps not so).
He directed me to then put that airport in the G1000, which i really don't use except for the radio, as I thought in VFR PPL we were supposed to do all paper/hand calcs (I leave it on of course, but I don't cheat and look at it, except for traffic awareness)
I spent a couple of minutes trying to figure out how to put in the airport code (never did figure it out). All the time, we were flying roughly the heading to the diversion, and I could see visual checkpoints that would get us there., but I let the plane descend, because I thought I was getting near the 1,800 foot bravo shelf and since I didn't know exactly where I was, I was being "better safe than sorry" and decending towards 1,600 (ground height in the area is 200-300 ft).
He ends the ride there and says, actually, you're not near that shelf, but are over an airport, with a TPA at 1100, so you are about to descend into an altitude where planes might be crossing midfield. Again, my bad and my responsibility, but it was all set off by being told to use the GD GPS. If i could have ignored the order to use the GPS, i could have just flown us to the diversion airport and would have been well orientated during that two minutes I was fighting the G1000 and would not have lost situations awareness, since I would have been looking outside and referencing the sectional on my lap vs stabbing buttons on the G1000.
So, my bad for listening to a "passenger". I think though that others should help explain to me if i'm required to be familiar with the G1000, or forbidden from using it? which is it? Are we required to BOTH know how to use all the avionics and nav equipment in any plane we fly AND be doing it on paper map and E6B at the same time? Seems dumb, frankly, and the day after you get your license, seems like you'd do one or the other, not double your workload by trying to do both on the fly during a "diversion" which is an urgent change in plans.
So, i'll spend 10 hours and $1,000+ learning the G1000 system that i'll never touch again after my checkride since my plane has a 430w (can't use it for training, long story)
rant over. I made plenty of mistakes and should not have passed (the grade I received was deserved!) but I think it's wonky to forbid and require someone to use a piece of equipment and most of my issues were due to this issue of "am I PIC or not?" "am i required to do what you say, or are you just a passenger asking me to show off my crazy plane flying skills?"
Also, are you supposed to tell the examiner and the check ride instructor to go fish if they give you vectors in simulated IMC? With stage check, they're legally PIC, so i was treating it that way. Next time, I'll be in charge and will decide when/where we'll be doing maneuvers...