I was signed off for my IR check ride in December. Then the longest, slowest moving low pressure system blanketed the area for 2 weeks. Once in a while, the weather and examiner would come available, but all planes were booked. Or plane and weather, but no examiner. Thus ensued many cancellations. That’s the Midwest for you.
I switched clubs and planes, high wing to low wing, steam gauges to G5s, Garmin to Avidyne, (this is a dumb switch when you are signed off). Oh well, its just fuel and time and weather watching in January and February in the Midwest.
Finally, signed off again (those endorsements do expire, ya’know) and now the weather watching and DPE scheduling dance resume. Cancel. Cancel. Cancel. I am sure he is super impressed in my ability to declare ‘no go’ when ice is forecast at 500’ and up. Finally, 2 weeks later, the forecast the night before is good…ish. I’ve been flying years…I’ve got this. Work time off booked, plane booked, DPE booked, what can go wrong? Launched to meet the DPE. Bumping along. Bumping along. Banging along. BUMPING AND BANGING along…this kind of sucks. That 8-12 KTS TAF morphed into 12G24 but only 30 degrees cross on landing, and not more than 60 sheering at 3000, so doable, right?
Land out after following the approach in…doable. Meet the DPE. Paperwork exchanged. More paper$ exchanged. Let’s do the knowledge stuff. FICONs and what to do if no report - good stuff. (Call the FBO or manager). Performance charts and how much runway do you really need (turns out the charts omit the stopping distance!). Cross country and alternates (go for the airport with towers, and lights, lots of lights!).Unless there is front moving that way, then choose the other one with lots of lights. Some on lost comms…vectored, cleared filed, etc. Wrapped after 90 minutes and said “Do you want to fly?”
So, here’s the thing. You want to stack the deck in your favor. Weather…and the approaches it favors. The plane you’ve flown the most. Slept well, etc. So what if you have cancelled more check rides than the number of licks it takes to get to the center of the tootsie roll pop? Its the Midwest, in winter. Suck it up and cancel.
I did the math. If I do the ride and pass, I’m done. If I don’t pass, well, I get to go fly with an instructor, and then fly with the DPE again (and cancel a few more times with each for good measure). Or take a discontinuance, and get to fly with the DPE some other day (and cancel a few more times). YOLO!
Buckle in - I ask, “Do you want a briefing?” “Nope.” “Okay, I have 1 house rule with experienced pilots - do not exit the plane while the prop is spinning.” “Deal.”
And off we launch….and the mistakes pile up. I didn’t have a plan for when exiting the simulated cross-country for the rest of the maneuvers, buttononolgy-wise, oops. So, x-country demo, bam-done. Unusual attitudes, bam-done. “Turn right 30 degrees and we’ll set you up to intercept the localizer.” Button mashing ensues. “Turn right 40 degrees and intercept, cleared for the approach.” Uh oh this happening fast…and I know this and…look down at the iPad and see I am final and yet, the G5 violently disagrees. Look and hope (this isn’t how to fly an approach)…and brain seize…alright cheat a little off the iPad and hope the G5 syncs up to my way of thinking. Post-mortem: direct to a way-point is different than VTF on an ILS. You can kind of get away with direct-to an IF on a GPS approach, but ILS’ have procedure turns and that isn’t going to work. “I am going missed.” “Good choice. Let’s get you vectors and try again.”
Vector around, and this exposition is getting to
@denverpilot territory so let’s tighten it up. More button mashing, same approach, VTF this time, and still….did not auto switch from GPS to LOC, even though the flight plan was there. Post-mortem: NAV logs show it bitching about a greater than 45 degree intercept. Post-post-mortem: ‘Suck it up buttercup, ATC will do that to you too. You do know how to manually switch it to radio based sources, dontcha?’ I figured that out 15 minutes later into the now discontinued check ride. Go back again for the non-precision variant, and fly it on the #2 NAV radio....which was working just as it should and I ignored #1.
We setup for the DME arc, more button pushing. Hit it and turn on course. Follow it smoothly. Moments later time to setup for the HILPT and then last approach partial panel. Hit the hold and exit the fix slowing down the for last approach. ‘Just hold it together….’….’1500’ to go’ turn a little here and there. Did I mention the never ending bumps for the last 50 minutes? Yeah, it sucks. “1000 to go….hold ion’….’700 to go….come on, nice wind shear and bumps, i can do this’….’100 to go, crap what happened in the last 600…oh that’s full scale. crud.’ Post-mortem: fixation because I was tired...that's real and have to plan for it. Total Hobbs for 4 approaches, a bit of the DME arc, and the rest of the stuff, 1 hour. That is fast!
Landed… so that’s a Notice of Disapproval. Sigh. It was the logical choice to go for the win, but I still regret it today. Oh yeah, today. Knocked out 2 approaches with a DPE, to ATP standards, about as unexciting as a check ride should be. Got my ticket punched. Cloud buster ability - unlocked.
