When I decided I wanted to fly, I did it in a hurry. I passedby Private checkride on November 3, 1995, and purchased a 1982Mooney 231 less than three weeks later. By early December, I hadlogged enough dual that the insurance company would let me flymy new high-performance turbocharged retractable without an instructorin the right seat.
But knowing that I couldn’t get maximum utility from such an airplanewhile limited to VFR operations, I decided to try the accelerated10-day instrument rating "cram course" offered by ProfessionalInstrument Courses. This is a diary of my PIC training experience.
Initial contacts with PIC
I first called PIC the week I bought my Mooney, after having seentheir advertisement in AOPA PILOT magazine. I received a detailedinformation package from them less than a week later. PIC’s approachis to send an instructor to your location to get you through yourinstrument training in about ten days. The instructor brings anATC-610 simulator; you supply the airplane. PIC charges a flatrate of $3,250 plus reimbursement for their instructor’s airfareand motel.
About a week after I received the information package, Tom Seymourof PIC calls to ask if I have any questions. In discussions withTom, I learn that PIC sometimes has an instructor based in thestudent’s local area. In that case, PIC only charges for mileage;savings on airfare and motel bills could be $1,000. Do they havean instructor near me? Yes, only 30 minutes away. This makesthe package more attractive.
I give Tom a tentative "yes" for a late-February timeframe, since I still have a good deal of cross-country time-buildingto do to meet the FAA requirements for the instrument ticket. Tom tells me I need to get my XC time to 45 hours and take theinstrument written before the instructions starts.
Almost ready
On February 2, Tom Seymour of PIC calls. Am I going ahead? Yes. How am I doing on XC hours? I total it up and I have slightlyover 40 to this point. He goes over the equipment checklist:clipboard, timer, hood, maps and plates, plane, etc. Have I donemy written yet? Whoops, I’ve been so busy between work and buildingXC time, I never went to take the written. I’ve been getting90’s on the Gleim computer prep program, though, and I promiseTom that I’ll take it in a week. He says my PIC instructor shouldbe calling me soon.
The next day, Shel Bresin, the PIC instructor, calls and we chatabout preparations. Turns out Shel is a retired aerospace engineerand a Twin Comanche owner, with over 10,000 hours. He estimateshe has trained over 150 IFR students. We go over the annual andother equipment certification dates. The only thing that is closeto expiring is the 24 month static/encoder check. Even thoughit is valid through February, he says it will be better to getthe check done now in case we run into March. He also asks aboutmy XC hours and the plane we will be using. After he learns itwill be a Mooney 231, he asks me to try and get the XC time upto 47 hours since the airplane is so fast and he doesn’t wantto do more XC time than needed to fulfill the IFR XC requirement.
That week, I log two trips totalling cross-country 5.4 hours,and get the static/encoder certification and an oil change. I’mnow up to 45.8 XC hours. If I can, I’ll try to do another 1-2hours of XC flying; but otherwise, I’m probably close enough.
I settle down with the Gleim computer exam for the weekend, runningthrough about a dozen sample exams. I take the written "forreal" on Tuesday morning with CATS and score 100%.
On St. Valentine’s day, I take one more 1.1 hour XC to Apple Valley,making my total 46.9 XC hours going into the PIC course. Allthe preparations and requirements are now taken care of. I spendthe next two evenings reading the book that PIC sent me: InstrumentFlight Training Manual by Peter Dogan.
Well folks, it’s show time…
Feb 16 – (PIC Day #1)
Shel Bresin showed up promptly and, after introducing himself,set up the ATC-610 (a certified simulator). The ATC-610 takesup a big hunk of desktop and includes all the usual controls/avionicsfor IFR flight. All the flight controls, (yoke, rudder, flaps,and engine) work as well as the navigation indicators (VOR, NDB,ILS, DME). However, the tuning functions are fake; instead theinstructor can use them to position you on a grid for differentapproaches. We didn’t do any of that today. After about an hourof ground school, discussing the principles and behavior of variousinstruments, we went and "flew" heading and altitudeexercises on the simulator. The key principle here is to usestandard/calibrated settings of power and pitch combined withstandard rate turns to achieve repeatable and predictable performance. The only thing I don’t like about the ATC-610 is that the pitchcontrol seems very sensitive; I have to make a lot of adjustmentshunting for the desired pitch attitude. Otherwise, the ATC-610is very stable to "fly". Of course, Shel has the turbulenceset to 0!
After the simulator session, Shel goes through my logbooks, bothpilot and aircraft, and verifies the eligibility of each to fly. We catch lunch on the way to the airport. During lunch, I learnthat Shel was the manager for system integration and avionicsdevelopment for the B-2 bomber prior to his retirement. I askedhim if he ever had a chance to fly a B-2? No, but he did spendtime in the 6-axis B-2 simulator.
Finally, at the airport, we pre-flight and take off into scatteredat 3-5000′. From the takeoff, Shel takes notes on climb rates,airpseeds, power settings, etc. For the first hour, we performa number of climbing, level, and descending maneuvers and eventuallyarrive at a preliminary set of power and pitch settings for differentphases of IFR flight: Climb, Cruise, Cruise Descent, Clean Approach,Dirty Approach, Precision Approach Descent, and Non-precisionApproach Descent.
After deriving these figures, he asks me to put on the hood andwe spend the next hour practicing heading and altitude changes. What a difference from the simulator! I had 2-3 hours of hoodtime for my private pilot training, but that emphasized holdingstraight and level, level climb or descent, and 180 degree levelturns out of clouds; under those conditions I could generallyhold 100′ or 10 degrees, with an occasional bobble no worse than200′ or 20 degrees, quickly corrected. Here the exercise is tomake stabilized 500 fpm climbs or descents, maintain constantairspeed, while simultaneously turning to a new heading. I feellike I am all over the sky. I just can’t get it all to come together(except once) so that a 500 fpm climb/descent from say 6000′ to6500′ coincided with a 180 degree turn at standard rate so thatthe roll out and level off occur simultaneously. I find myselftoo tight on the yoke, fixating on the VSI, losing my scan, forgettingto reduce power for descents…arghh!
During this period, Shel senses my frustration, decides to trya change of pace. He does the radio work and and gets vectorsto set us up for an ILS approach at CNO. This is my first hand-flownILS. I take it in at intercept with about 2-3 dots deviation onglide slope and localizer and manage to steady it out at 1 doteach below 1000′ AGL. When I see the runway below the nose atthe middle marker, I was grinning from ear to ear. After a landingand takeoff, we do another hour of airwork with the VSI coveredup and that helps a bit. (I must not chase the VSI! I must notchase the VSI!) Finally, we get a pop-up VOR-A approach at EMT. Shel again handles the radio work for the initial vectors tothe approach, but after intercepting the IAF, he pops the approachplate into my yoke clip and tells me to fly the step downs tothe MDA as well as communicate with ATC and tower. We end upleveled off at 30′ above MDA, mid-field off the nose, and clearedfor entry to the pattern. I felt better again. Shel even asksif I have flown this approach before as we turned base.
I have two chapters of the Dogan book to read tonight, today’sassignment on instruments and the one for tomorrow on IFR flightplanning. We are to spend the day tomorrow in the airplane practicingunder the hood. On this first day, I am excited about how muchfun it is to fly an approach and find the airport under your nose;but discouraged about whether I will actually get the precisionplane handling down. I am also somewhat sobered at the prospectof partial panel unusual attitude recovery and partial panel approachesafter today’s performance.
Total time today: Sim: 1.1 hrs; Hood: 2 hrs; Actual: none; VFR:1 hr.
Feb 17 – (PIC Day #2)
This morning we do 3 hours of ground school before flying. Firstwe go over the Instrument Quiz in the PIC course book, then reviewJepp and NOS charts, flight plans, and the IFR Flight PlanningQuiz at the end of the second chapter of the course book. (ThePIC course book is based on the same material in the InstrumentFlight Training Manual by Peter Dogan).
The weather is 1,300′ overcast and 2-1/2 for the morning. BecauseShel is planning to do more instrument maneuvering work and itis impossible to get a block altitude for maneuvering on an IFRflight plan in SoCal, he decids not to go out with a clearanceto VFR-on-top until we find out where the tops were. Shel sayshe doesn’t like requesting a clearance to VFR-on-top since itdoesn’t cover the situation where you lose your radio and don’tget to VFR-on-top by your cleared altitude. This falls underthe principle: never accept an IFR clearance without a known defaultin the event of a lost-comm emergency.
Since he wants to go over the ground school material anyway, weput off flying till noon. At lunch we chat some more about planesand I learned that earlier in his career he worked on some Bellhelicopters and then later the T-38 and F-5. Shel and I seemto get on well as we are both engineers. I learned that he iscurrently flying a Twin Comanche and he also does instructingfor AOPA courses on mountain flying. I can’t complain about theexperience that PIC instructors have and their efforts to matchup the instructor with the student.
After lunch, there are some breaks in the overcast and we cansee some layering at 3000′ to 5000′. I now learn Shel’s preferredmethod of getting to VFR-on-top. We file an IFR flight plan toPSP with the intention of cancelling once we reach VFR. The flightplan takes us to 11,000′ which gives us lots of altitude to getclear of the clouds, and if we should lose comm, we would proceedto PSP. When we contact ground control to get our clearance,I try to copy my first IFR clearance and my pencil breaks on thefirst word! Nervous? Who, me? I continue to copy the clearancewith the broken pencil, pressing as hard as I can, and try toread back from the impressions and scratches I made in the paper.Fortunately, Shel was backing me up! We take off and climb throughclouds till we break out at 3200′. We continue to climb to 5500’and then cancel IFR.
After repeating the climbing-turns and descending-turns sequencefor a bit, Shel makes a number of helpful suggestions: use thumband finger on the yoke, stop pulling back on the yoke as I reducepower for the descent (he says this is a common unconscious habitlow-hours pilots have from their traffic pattern work), use manualtrim (not the electric trim), nudge the controls, stop the trendsthen correct the error, AND KEEP THE SCAN UP! To helpme save face, he also notes that the controls on the Mooney 231are a bit sticky and suggests that I get the A&P to cleanoff some of the gummed-up lubricant and relube it when I get achance. As I try to follow these suggestions, I do a bit better.
To my chagrin, Shel now slaps a cover on the attitude indicator. We repeat the manuevers partial-panel. As I’m getting the hangof it, Shel covers up the heading indicator! Hey, that’s not fair!On my plane, the heading indicator is an HSI which is electric,not vacuum driven! Shel offers no sympathy, and leaves the HSIcovered. With no attidude indicator and no HSI, I have to do timedturns partial-panel while referencing the magnetic compass. Aftersome of these we head down for a break. It’s been two hours offlying, but felt like four.
As we taxi off the runway, two Stearmans take off behind us information (separated by 10′) with wingwalkers on each one!! Thiswas followed by a P-51 a minute later. CNO is great for stufflike this.
We take off again after a 20 minute leg stretch and continue withsome more partial panel work. I’m doing okay. Not great, but okay.Of course, any time I feel I’m doing okay, Shell throws me a curve.He tells me I just put my head down "to pick up a pencil"(I did?), and by the way, the plane is now doing really wierdthings. Recover! (How did I know this was going to happen?) Now Shel tells me I just lost my pencil again. (No I didn’t,I have it velcro’ed… oh all right… stupid pencil!)
Well, as it turns out, partial panel and partial-panel unusualattitude recovery are nowhere near as bad as I thought they wouldbe. After doing four unusual attitudes (and after I almost giveShel a heart attack on one—not because of a bad recovery, butbecause I shove the throttle in too far and overboost the turbopast redline before I scan the MP in the next fraction of a secondand pull it back), I even get a compliment on good recoveries. He gives me all my instruments back and we finish up with some45 degree steep turns. My altitude deviates about 250′ on thefirst one…way too much…and on the last one I manage to nailmy altitude within 20′ all the way around the turn, only to relaxtoo soon on the roll out and lose 80′.
After the maneuvering, we repeat the ILS and VOR-A approachesto CNO and EMT that we shot yesterday, but this time I do thefull approaches, including contacting ATC, getting and respondingto vectors, and following the approach plate. I’m getting a bitmore confident in the approach procedures; but even though I thinkI flew the approaches a bit more tightly than yesterday, I wasstill abrupt on the controls. I’ve still got a lot of work tosmooth things out.
My homework assignment for tonight is to work up a full IFR XCflight plan and read the 3rd chapter in the PIC course book onnavigation (and of course do the quiz). I feel a little bit betterthan yesterday as I can see I’m getting better, but I’m stillconcerned whether I’ll get good enough in time. For me the headworkseems to come okay, but the stick and rudder skills come moreslowly. The next two days are planned as simulator days.
Total time today (approximate): Hood: 3.5 hrs; VFR: 0.3 hr.
Feb 18 – (PIC Day #3)
We start off the morning by reviewing my IFR XC flight plan whichI worked up from EMT to Sacramento’s SMF. Here I’ve begun tofigure out one of the possible disadvantages of filing IFR. Themileage using a STAR, SID, and Victor Airways works out to 394NM. On this particular route, I know I’ve flown it VFR with adistance of about 330 NM. The majority of the extra mileage arisesfrom heading the wrong way for a standard departure transitionand having to double back the other way. Apparently ATC willsometimes give you a routing which will intercept the desiredairway, cutting out the departure transition, but sometimes not.
After reviewing flight planning, we start right off on the ATC-610simulator, going over navigation and flying it as we worked throughthe chapter. This is a real advantage of the simulator, discussinga concept, demonstrating it, flying some exercises, repeatingproblem areas and going on to the next concept. The simulatoris on and off as we switch back and forth between discussionsand practice. Through the day we work through VOR course interceptions,VOR procedure turns, VOR/DME arcs, NDB course interceptions, NDBprocedure turns, and the Five T’s (Turn Time Twist Throttle Talk). Shel plays mock ATC and mock weather generator (setting the windand ceilings). He gets really nasty on a couple of practice interceptsand approaches by dialing in winds of 50 knots! Again, I am surprisedat how much easier DME arcs were than I thought; I’ll have tosee if it’s really that easy in a plane.
We end up by practicing a couple of full VOR approaches (procedureturns, step downs, etc.), one full-panel and one partial-panel,and an NDB approach. In all cases, we fly the approach to theMAP and then execute the publish missed-approach procedure. Onthe NDB approach at the end of the day, I can’t get focussed enoughto figure out the wind in time and never get properly establishedon the inbound course—so I go right into the missed-approachat station passage without ever stepping down. This is a lessonon the dangers of flying a complicated IFR approach at the endof the day when you’re tired and the visibility is crappy. Thisstuff isn’t necessarily that hard in a comfortable chair and aquiet room, but I can see how easy it is to make a mistake. Ifigure that a moving map display has got to make a big differencefor safety of flight in IFR.
I’m to prepare for tomorrow by reading about holding patternsand non-precision approaches (yes, we’ve been jumping ahead ofthe course book by practicing real approach procedures) and alsodo another IFR XC flight plan. I also have the simulator, ifI have any energy left, to try some more of the NDB course interceptionswhich gave me trouble.
Still, Shel seems very pleased with how fast we went through thematerial today, and thinks we’ll trade some simulator time formore plane time. After three days of this course, I have 5-6hours of sim time, 5-6 hours of plane time, and about 14 hoursof ground school; but add on top of that 2-3 hours of homeworkassignments each night. This is a full-time committment for the10-day period (I sent my family off to visit relatives for thelong weekend). I am working up IFR flight plans with my morningcoffee and going to bed with an IFR book (a great cure for insomnia,by the way). At the same time, it looks like I will probablyhave gone through all the procedural training by the end of thefifth day (there isn’t that much left to the course book—precisionapproaches and emergencies) and the remaining five days will befor building up my skill level, control, and situational awareness.
Total time today (approximate): Sim: 4.4 hrs.
Feb 19 – (PIC Day #4)
Today is a mixed bag. It starts off fine, with a review of anotherIFR XC flight plan, this one from EMT to SBA. Shel plans to continueto assign one each day for the next few lessons. As we go along,there is a lot of discussion of practical issues including otherapproaches that are similar but peculiar in some way, drawingon his experience. We then do a review of the holding patternschapter; which went quickly. Then we try some mock ATC holdswhich I sketch and figure the proper entry. No problem.
Next, the ATC-610 gets turned on and we start off to fly someVOR, NDB, and intersection holds. My first one is a VOR hold,which gets sketched on a pad as a Shel calls the clearance whileI fly. No problem figuring the direction of hold or entry, whichis direct. As I enter the hold and turn to the outbound leg,I watch the To/From flag flip and the the CDI swing back and forth. Wait a minute, the CDI says my turn ended up on the unprotectedside of the inbound leg. Check the OBS, yes it’s right. How the heck did that happen? That must be somewind! I take a cut in course back to the protected side, butafter the minute is up, I don’t make it back to the inbound coursein time for the inbound turn. Since I am still past the inboundleg, I overturn by almost 90 degrees to try to reintercept theinbound course. (I should have made a teardrop in the oppositedirection back to the protected side to reintercept rather thanturn even more to the unprotected side, but I only figured thatout later.) I reintercept, but now I only had to hold a 10 degreecrab and it’s in the wrong direction! What is going on? It seems as if there’s a 50-100 knot wind on the outbound legand a 10-20 knot wind from the opposite direction on the inboundleg. That’s obviously impossible. I know I’m in trouble.
Shel has gotten out of his chair at this point and is standingbehind me. I can almost feel his eyebrows rising. He watchesme make one more turn to the outbound leg as I crank in a rediculous50-degree crab angle. I am still losing ground, getting pushedto the inbound leg. Finally, mercifully, he stops the simulation. I am expecting him to tell me that he did something really deviousand I didn’t figure it out. But no, Shel is as confused as Iam!
Can we figure out what my path was? Well, I don’t understandwhat happened, but we sketch out what the ground track must havelooked like and it made a nice pretzel. Shel agrees that my ongoingcorrections were appropriate (except for that continued turn tothe unprotected side) and is actually sort of impressed that Ikept up with what was going on. Well, to make a long story short,after we fiddle with the wind settings and fly a few more holdingpatterns, it looks like the ATC-610 has learned how to simulateminiature cyclones overnight. Depending on which direction youwere flying, the wind really was shifting in direction and speedfrom 10 knots to 50+ knots! I fly these tests as real holdingpattern exercises but with the hypothesis that the sim is makingvariable winds. After we verify this over 3 more holds, Shelgets tired of watching me play and he makes a call to PIC in Connecticut. After a couple of calls back and forth, they locate another ATC-610in San Jose and arrange for it to be FedEx’d to us tomorrow.
We can’t go out flying because the weather here in SoCal has turnedfrom overcast/drizzle to continuous rain, low ceilings, and verylimited visibility. Light IFR might have been okay for training,if we could get clear between layers for VFR, but this was "hardIFR" with some PIREPS indicating multiple layers, fog/haze,going all the way up to 31,000′. We spend the rest of the afternoonfinishing up the non-precision and precision approach work groundschool.(Fortunately, I had read ahead and done the exercises.) Finally,at the end of the day, we fly a couple of ILS approaches on theATC-610 as we figure out a final approach course that only gothit by a 10 knot wind. I botch the first one by waiting too longto get into landing configuration and destabilizing the descentin the middle of the approach. The second one is flown as a localizerback-course initial segment with a procedure turn to the finalapproach course and that works out nicely, including an entryto a holding pattern (yes the crazy winds are still there forthe hold) for the missed approach after DH.
Because of the simulator problems and bad weather, our total timetoday is a little short, but we have almost all of the remainingcourse book stuff out of the way. All that remains is a shortchapter on emergency procedures. The rest will be simulator,flying, and test prep. The weather guessers expect that the weatherwill be equally bad tomorrow, so hopefully the simulator willget here without delay.
Total time today (approximate): Sim: 2.6 hrs.
Feb 20 – (PIC Day #5)
Heavy rain continues in Southern California. We discuss yet anotherIFR XC flight plan, SBA to BFL to EMT. I give Shel the correctanswer to the go/no-go question: we’re grounded! We have visiblemoisture (that’s an understatement), freezing levels below theMEA’s, and confirmed icing PIREPs.
The replacement simulator arrives at 10 a.m. by FedEx as promised. We unpack it and set it up; there are a few problems initiallybecause of a rudder adjustment, but it settles down pretty quicklyafter Shel figures that out. After setting the simulator up,we finish the coursebook chapter on emergencies. That’s it forthe book work: there is nothing else left on procedures or regulationsexcept for oral exam review. We break for lunch.
During lunch we talk about different kinds of emergencies andwhat to do about them. Shel tells me the story of his own in-flightengine failure single-engine over mountains in night IFR. (Obviouslyhe survived.) He had departed Van Nuys and was climbing overthe Tehachapi Mountains, headed for the San Joaquin valley. Ashe climbed, the oil pressure dropped. He immediately pulled throttleto low power, initiated a turn, and told ATC he was heading backfor Van Nuys. Before he could complete the turn, the engine seized. He then established best-glide speed and fortunately was ableto clear the mountains as he came back in over the San Fernandovalley. ATC suggested that he look for a freeway and that a helicopterwas going out to meet him. He was at about 4,000′ when he brokeout and was able to spot Interstate 5. One side was crowded,but there was a break on the other side, so he lined up for thatand made a successful dead-stick landing. Unfortunately, on theroll out, a drunk driver plowed into the plane, causing the insurancecompany to write it off eventually. They determined afterwardthat an oil line had ruptured. This incident is why he now fliesa twin.
After we got back from lunch, we go right to the simulator andstart flying VOR and NDB holds. We get a half dozen of thosein. Then, Shel sets up 3 or 4 VOR approaches to MHR and STS, flownas full approaches with missed approaches. Except for one timewhen I use the bearing rather than the radial and began the turnin the wrong direction, it all goes pretty well.
Shel would like to continue with the basic airwork when we getback in the plane, but again this requires good weather so hecan go VFR as safety pilot. If we don’t get enough improvementin the SoCal weather tomorrow, we will forego more refinementof the basics and get to work on actual approaches, holds, etc. In that case, we will file IFR and go for it.
Now that we’re halfway through the course, Shel tells me he anticipatesfinishing on time. He will call about scheduling an examinerfor Monday afternoon, February 26—day 10! We’re a bit behindin hours because of the bad weather and the simulator problem;total sim time is about 11.5 hours and total hood time is about5.5 hours. That means we have 23 more hours to make the requiredinstrument time, of which about 8.5 hours could still be simulator. Since we’re taking tomorrow as a break day, that leaves 4.5 daysuntil checkride to get the time in!!
Total time today (approximate): Sim: 3.4 hrs.
Feb 21
Shel and I take a break.
Feb 22 – (PIC Day #6)
After our short break, we resume with a quick hour on the simulator. This is primarily to do some NDB approaches, which I hadn’t doneyet in the sim, and also for Shel to pick me up as my car is inthe shop for a couple of days. The weather has cleared up a lotafter a three-day rainstorm that put about 6" of rain intothe rain gauge. After running through three NDB approaches, Shelcompliments me on flying them well and suggests that I might considergoing for a flight instructor rating in the future. (In viewof what came later, I don’t think he would have made that suggestionhad he waited until the afternoon.)
After pre-flighting the Mooney and getting a transponder code,we take off VFR and head to the PDZ VOR. On the way there, Shelcalls ATC and arranges for a 7-mile DME arc around PDZ startingat our inbound radial. I am a little late making my turn to startthe arc and end up at 6.4 DME, but after delaying my cuts a littleon the next 20 degrees, I was able to work it back out and holdthe arc between 6.9 and 7.2 NM for the next 50-60 degrees. Afterthat, we do a refresher sequence of airwork: climbs, descents,change of headings, partial panel, etc. We then request the NDBapproach into CNO for a break and lunch. Intercepting the inboundcourse from the NDB isn’t too bad, but I am so busy handling theplane, I neglect to start the timer at the FAF (NDB passage),so I don’t know where my MAP is. Five T’s, five T’s…
During lunch at Flo’s diner on the field (a popular SoCal aviationhangout), we review my IFR flight plan for EMT-TRM-MYF-EMT. Betweenthis plan, and the previously worked-out segments which constitutea trip from EMT-SBA-BFL-EMT, we have a choice of two IFR longXC’s, depending on the weather. During the recent storm, freezinglevels got down to 5-6000′, so having that choice might help onSaturday. Oh yes, the current schedule is: today and Friday:airwork and approaches, Saturday: long XC and more approaches,Sunday: work on weak spots, Monday morning: polish, Monday afternoon:checkride. That is if I don’t fall apart before then, and ifShel can find an examiner.
After lunch, we head out again, this time to do holds. VOR holds,NDB holds, intersection holds, parallel entry, teardrop entry,and (my mistake) direct entry. Shel asked ATC to give us holds(which is probably like asking a boxer if he would like to takea free punch). We are on a heading of 290 and ATC gives us anon-standard left turn hold on the 080 heading to a VOR. Well,I had shown Shel this visualization on the heading indicator Ihad worked out. If the inbound radial of the hold is within 70degrees on the right hand side of the current heading, then it’sa teardrop entry. If it’s within 110 degrees on the left handside, then it’s a parallel entry. If it’s neither, i.e. it’sbehind the current heading with respect to the tilted referenceline, then it’s a direct entry. If it’s non-standard left turns,then flip left for right when doing the visualization. If youdo it right, then you shouldn’t have to draw out the hold. Ihad been very careful in describing it to specify the inboundradial. (You saw this coming, right?) Well, in the midstof setting up for this hold, I invert heading for radialand convert a tear drop entry hold into a direct entry hold. Sigh.
I redeem myself a bit by doing the next two holds correctly usingthe same technique, though Shel says he’d still be happier ifI drew the holds to figure them out. He then requests the VORapproach into CNO for another break. Well, this approach justcompletely falls apart. I’ve not reviewed this approach platebefore and don’t get all the salient data out of it in time. Iovershoot the approach course, have to come back, don’t slow theplane down in time, desperately try to stabilize it, bust thealtitude minimums, forget to time for the MAP, and basically dojust about everything wrong. I am about 30 seconds behind theplane the whole way down, and never quite get caught up. Aboutthe best thing I can say about this approach is that Shel didn’thave to take over the controls. Flight instructor material, indeed!
I am thoroughly depressed after this performance and Shel goesto work to rebuild my confidence. He "finger flies"the ILS, VOR, and NDB approaches for CNO with me to make sureI become more familiar with them. He reviews the 5 T’s again(5 T’s, 5 T’s). He suggests a relocation of my timer to a morevisible spot. He indicates that on the next flight he will askfor "the option" on each approach so we can make a fullstop landing if I need a break between approaches. He also suggeststhat the 90-knot final approach speed we had chosen might makethe plane harder to handle and suggests we try a slightly higherspeed of 100 knots. He also suggests we double-check the powersettings we had come up with as I was spending an awful lot ofenergy correcting the plane. Now I know that my airmanship stillleaves a lot to be desired; under instrument flight, I still overcorrectand take several adjustments to damp out a bump. Since todayis awfully turbulent (cold front passage, lots of puffy cumulusabove us), I have been working really hard, much more than necessary. But Shel thinks that between my rough skills, turbulence, andskewed power settings, I may have more than I can handle.
So we go up again and spend a few minutes in climb, descent, andlevel flights redoing the calibrations and using the higher approachspeed and we come up with some different numbers. We try an NDBapproach using the new numbers. Good. We try the VOR approach,good on the procedures, but I am a little sloppy on the headingand end up misaligned with the runway by about 1000-1500′; stillsafe and within limits for circle-to-land. Then we try the ILSapproach and that goes off well. With those three under my belt,I begin feeling less hopeless, and Shel decides we should callit a day. So we head back for EMT and shoot the VOR approach,which also goes smoothly.
Okay, so I can probably do approaches if I’m not flustered andbehind the plane. But I’ve got to smooth out my plane handlingand burn the procedures into my neural patterns if I’mever going to pass the checkride. As a final confidence buildingremark, Shel points out that 5 hours of maneuvering is a lot offlying and apt to be tiring. On the way home, I ask Shel if hehad ever advised someone to quit or if anyone had ever cancelledmid-way through the course because of burnout. He says therewas only one instance, where the pilot just couldn’t seem to getthe airwork down and consequently couldn’t manage the approaches. I may have stacked the deck against myself by starting the coursewith just over 100 hours (Shel hasn’t had anybody come closerto the 125 hour minimum, and only two others in the 125-150 hourrange) and learning IFR in a complex high-performance plane whileI’m still learning the plane.
Total time today (approximate): Sim: 1 hr. Hood: 5 hrs.
Feb 23 – (PIC Day #7)
A very long day with some airwork for the first flight and threeother flights with multiple approaches. The plane and fate getin their licks also.
The first flight starts with an 8-mile DME arc around the PDZVOR for about 200 degrees of tracking. On this long an arc, Ihave a slightly harder time estimating the cuts to take for windas it comes at the plane in shifting directions. I am still ableto maintain 7.6 to 8.2, but I do so by easing in or out as muchas 30 degrees off the optimal tangent heading to the arc radialand I didn’t anticipate the changes as they come. After the arc,we do some partial panel, timed heading changes, and partial-panelunusual attitudes. We then do the VOR approach to CNO. (Shelseems to like CNO as a break stop because it is convenient tothe Lake Matthews practice area for airwork and has ILS/VOR/NDBapproaches.) Still having troubles with heading and pitch.
The second flight we fly the VOR approach to Corona, during whichI bust the minimums we had set before the flight. The MDA was1500′, which is what I went to, but there is lots of VFR trafficout of it at a TPA of 1500′ and uncontrolled, so Shel wanted touse 1700′ as the MDA. With the plate in front of me, I forgetabout the revision and fly to the published MDA. Then we go onto POC for a VOR approach.
On the missed from the VOR approach at POC, we are climbing outwhen we get a warning call for incoming traffic. The inboundplane, a Bonanza at 2500′, also gets a call to watch out for us. As Shel tries to spot the traffic, I am still holding us in aclimb on the missed approach course. We are climbing through2500′ and Shel still hasn’t found the traffic, when the POC towercontroller (who has radar) vectors the Bonanza to the left.(Remember the avoidance direction with two converging planes?Each goes to the right…) About 5 seconds after the vector isissued to the Bonanza, Shel grabs the yoke and pushes it downhard. So hard I hit my head on the ceiling. So hard welose 300′ in the blink of an eye. So hard I almost don’t hearthe first expletive I’ve heard from Shel (who is a very courteous,well-mannered type): "S**t!!"
After recovering and settling down, we then do the VOR approachto CCB, another uncontrolled airport near POC, and make a fullstop landing for lunch. Naturally, I am curious as to what hadhappened. Shel explains the situation, as I’ve just summarizedit (I hadn’t paid as much attention to the traffic calls as usualsince he was the safety pilot). I then ask how close was close?200′, 500′? The answer: close enough to 0′ that it wasn’t worthmeasuring. I see…or perhaps it was just as well I couldn’tsee. Death wisping by unseen; this is IFR. Do I reallywant to do this?
After eating lunch, relaxing a bit, and clearing out some of theadrenalin, we file an IFR flight plan from CCB to SNA. Shel guessesthat a northerly wind would mean the ILS back-course is activeat John Wayne in Orange County, which is precisely what we get. On the climbout, Shel lets me stay visual for an extra 5 minutes,and I take the opportunity to demonstrate to him that I reallycan hold heading to 2 degrees and altitude to 20 feet, at leastvisually. Now why can’t I do that on instruments?
As we get vectored to the ILS back-course at SNA, which comesin over the Pacific, we get that infamous call: "Mooney 63Whiskey, keep your speed up if able, 737 behind you on the approach". Okay, we hve a 737 breathing down our back, so I keep the speedup at 110 knots. This is not a speed we had calibrated, so Iam playing around with it a bit. (I also forgot that the maximumflap extension speed in a Mooney 231 is 112 KIAS, so we aree awfullyclose to exceeding the rated speed.) I am trying to fly the backcourse localizer in when I realize that I am holding so much leftbank to stay on course, that my hand hurt. I mention this toShel and he looks over at the wing and exclaims: "you don’thave any flaps down!". Excuse me? I look down at the flapindicator, there it is, 10 degrees down. I ask him to look overat the left side, and the flaps are down on that side! Retractflaps quickly! The flaps really don’t slow the plane down thatmuch, so maybe we edge up to 112 or 115 knots.
In a Mooney? The fastest I’ve ever landed my Mooney before wasat 90 knots and I vow never to make that mistake again! The nice,docile final approach speed for a Mooney is 75 knots over thethreshold, anything more and you can eat up miles of runway infloat. I ask Shel what the runway length is at SNA. 5700′ hesays. As I go visual and get a look at the situation, I startpulling power and pitching up to get the speed down. I end upover the threshold at 90-95 knots. Well this seems manageableenough that I think I can take a shot at it. I float down therunway and I just hold it off and let it bleed off airspeed untilwe finally touch down and we exit on Taxiway J; which, lookingat the airport diagram, looks like about 4200′.
On the ground, we test the flaps, and they extend and retractfine. What’s going on? It turns out that there is enough slopin the right flap linkage compared to the left flap (which wastight) that the air loads pushing against flaps result in a 5degree difference in their positions, thus a net roll moment! This had apparently been present before, but less noticeableat the lower airspeeds we’d been using. At 110 knots, the forcesrequired to counteract the roll moment increased significantlyenough that I couldn’t help noticing. But I had been flying approacheswith this defect this whole time! No wonder I was having troubleholding headings on approaches. (Well, it makes a nice excuse.) After discussing this a bit, we decide to try doing the approacheswith flaps retracted and a bit less power and see if we can stillhold 100 knots.
We take off and head back to CNO, where we do three ILS’s in arow. The second one is a poor job by ATC: we are vectored tointercept the glide slope inside the OM! The other two are better. We land, and discuss whether the no-flaps approaches are workingfor us or not. There is nothing very conclusive, other than thatthe no-flaps configuration really does result in a somewhat easiertime holding the ILS course than before. We try to contact amechanic to see how much work is involved in tightening up theflap linkage, but everyone is closing up for the weekend.
We take off again and do the VOR and NDB approaches to CNO andthen return back to EMT with the VOR approach as usual. The Mooney,however, decides not to cooperate. Not content with presentingus with the flap problem, we now discover that the cowl flapswon’t retract in flight, but they work fine on the ground. Ourguess is that an over-center knuckle has shifted slightly andthe extra pressure at airspeed locks the mechanism in the over-centerposition, preventing the retraction mechanism from pulling itpast center. Flying with the cowl flaps open requires more carefulengine management and probably knocks 10-15 knots off the airspeed,which is not fun if you’re trying to do a XC.
We’ll figure out tomorrow if we’re doing a XC or can get a mechanicto look at the plane first. Shel mentions that the majority ofhis courses have had some kind of mechanical trouble that interruptedor threatened to interrupt the schedule. In the meantime, Shelalso tells me that we had a possible time slot for an examinerfor Monday afternoon.
Total time today (approximate): Hood: 6 hrs.
Feb 24 – (PIC Day #8)
What a day! Just as everything seemed to be coming together,it all fell apart in a completely unexpected way.
I get up at 7:00 to check the morning weather summary from DUATSfor a flight EMT-SBA-BFL-EMT. The weather is VFR, but there arelots of clouds building up and a Pacific cold front is comingfrom the west and an Arctic cold front is coming from the northeastand they are threatening to mix it up. Freezing level is forecastat 8-10,000 in SoCal, but at the front it’s as low as 4,000. We have a basic "go" for the planned departure and routetimes, but the weather is deteriorating. Fortunately, on thelast of the planned legs, we will be heading away from the advancingfront and it is not forecast to get bad till late evening.
I meet Shel at EMT at 8:30 in the morning and discuss the situation. I notice a tab on the cowl flap retraction knuckle is slightlyout of position, we adjust it and tighten the nut and decide tosee if we can retract the cowl flaps on climb-out. If we can,we will continue flying. The airports we picked for the IFR XCall have nice long runways, and it will not be an problem to landthe Mooney flaps-up. I am discovering a different technique forlanding Mooneys, which is good experience.
We take off, and the newly-adjusted cowl flaps work fine so wecontinue on to SBA. The wind direction favors the VOR approachto SBA rather than the ILS and I had dialed in and set up aheadof time. The descent profile goes fine and I am holding thingspretty well. My only problem is I was holding 1000′ for somemargin against the MDA of 920′, but we hit a couple of bumps ofturbulence and despite my best efforts and the 80′ fudge factor,the altitude gets as low as 890′. When we land, the tower advisesus that there was a puff of smoke and suggests it might have beenthe brakes. We stop and check the undercarriage and don’t noticeanything peculiar in either brake/wheel area or exhaust/underbellyarea. I mention that it might have been me accidentally holdingbrake as well as rudder when we landed as there had been a strongcrosswind component, and we chalk it up to that.
We depart SBA for BFL. This involves a significant climb to 9000’to cross the coastal range with an almost immediate descent foronly a 70 mile hop. We are in actual IMC for a good chunk ofthis climb and Shel has me take off the hood. (We had been inactual for about 0.2 hours before this, but I never knew the differenceas they were for just a few minutes here and there and so Shelnever found it worthwhile to call my attention to it, though heshowed it to me today in the logbook.) After all this training,this experience in actual is not as disorientating as I had foundin my first IMC experience when I was training for my PPL. Ido manage lose 200′ and deviate from airway centerline by about2-3 miles as we cross RZS, but that is because I discover I hadput the wrong flight plan on my clipboard and I didn’t know theoutbound heading from RZS and so have to dig out the enroute chartor correct flight plan. We get the ILS into BFL and there isa nice stiff wind blowing, but almost straight down the runway. Again, I have everything dialed in and planned out ahead of time,and this approach also goes well until I let the plane fall 3dots below the glide slope just before DH because I hadn’t fullycompensated for the 10% slower ground speed. Shel pulls my hoodbefore I have a chance to correct, and I land visually.
At BFL, we call FSS to check on the weather and they indicatethat the front is currently between FAT and BFL. On the basisof this information, we decide to skip lunch at BFL as originallyplanned, and file back to EMT immediately. This climb is onceagain to 9000′, but a slightly longer leg. We request and getthe NDB approach to EMT and again I have everything set up onthe radios and dials before we even took off (pre-planning andanticipation seemed to be making all the difference) and the NDBis fairly decent, though I have to make a big heading correction(a no-no) toward the end due to a gust.
So I finish my IFR XC with a fairly respectable performance, yesa couple of flubs, but none so serious that it warrants more thangentle admonition versus exasperated frustration. Shel suggestsI might be tired and wants to know if I am up for further flying;I tell him I will let him know after lunch. We have a nice relaxingtwo hour lunch, during which Shel grills me on typical oral questions. One of the questions is how long is a VOR check good? That remindsme we need to start a log for the VORs in my plane. At the endof lunch, Shel suggests that a quick flight over to POC (theyhave a VOR ground check point) would take care of that test. I feel up enough for a single approach to POC. Well, of courseShel isn’t going to let me get by with just one, we are goingto do one coming back to EMT too. Okay, two. By the way, hadn’tI said I wanted to top the tanks at CNO? (They have really inexpensiveavgas.) Okay, three. But that’s it!
So we file and fly the VOR approach to POC. Everything set upagain and pre-planned, and it goes like clockwork. Shel soundspleased. We do the VOR check (one was dead on and the other was2 degrees off), log it, file for CNO, and make the NDB approach. Again, it goes very well. Shel is sounding really pleased. I am starting to appreciate how much preparation, pre-planningand anticipation make the approaches go 10 times easier.
Last flight of the day from CNO, we plan the usual VOR approachback to EMT. Do the runup, get our clearance, take runway 26and start the takeoff run.
Shel: Was that a pop?
Me: I didn’t hear anything. Was it that bump we took a secondago?
Shel: I’m not sure. I thought the engine backfired.
We are at 70 KIAS, time to take off or abort. We take off.
Tower: Mooney 63 Whiskey, be advised that you were streaming blacksmoke or oil on takeoff. State your intentions.
Shel and I both utter the obligatory expletives (not on the air)as we heard and felt the engine beginning to get rough. It wasgoing to go!
Shel: Tower, we’re heading back.
Tower: Roger, 63 Whiskey, cleared to land, any runway. (Anotherclassic phrase I got to hear for real. Tower then went to workclearing planes off the runways or sending them on go-arounds).
Me to Shel: Uh, if you can, I’d like you to take the plane. (Ihave 130-140 hours, Shel has over 10,000. I’m not proud.)
Shel: Okay, I’ve got it. (He’s not stupid.) We’re going forrunway 3. (It’s a 130 degree turn, we were at 2-300′, but theengine was still developing some power, we didn’t know how muchor for how long).
Me: (Watching the turn, we were holding altitude, we were gettinglined up with runway 3, we were going to make it… Gear!) Geardown?
Shel: Gear down! (I toggle the gear switch, and I had an anxiousmoment waiting for the green light to come on. It went on.)
Now, we have another problem. The airspeed and altitude thatwe carefully preserved in the turn are now our enemies. We arehigh and fast as we cross the threshold. Fortunately, runway3 is over 6000′ long, and we use up about 5000′ of it before weare down to taxi speed. We shut the engine down voluntarily assoon as we turn onto the taxiway. We were down. I have surviveda real engine failure—through the great foresight of making sureI had a 10,000-hour CFII/ATP on board when it happened.
My sick Mooney is now resting in a hangar at Chino waiting fora full evaluation. Popping the cowl reveals at least a blowncylinder. It could be anything from a new cylinder/piston toa full engine overhaul. Considering what happened, I’m inclinedto go for the full overhaul, even if it’s only one cylinder. I’mnot sure I can bring myself to trust that engine again. The failurewas probably aggravated by the numerous throttle cycles the enginehas had to go through for this training, but that cylinder hasshown up weak (but over 60) on compression tests before; and Isuspect would have gone sooner rather than later. It’s goingto be at least 2-4 weeks before the plane flies again and witha new engine that has to be broken in for the first 50 hours,I’m not going to want to put on the kind of abuse that got puton the plane in the last few days. Besides I now want to addspeed brakes and an engine monitor to the plane, to help avoida recurrence.
What do we do next? I don’t know yet. I actually don’t needany more flight time. The flights from EMT to POC and POC toCNO got me over the 20 hour minimum. I could make up the otherhours as simulator time. But I need a plane to fly the checkrideand I need time to get comfortable in it and to know how it flies. Shel and I will discuss it tomorrow. Tonight, I’m going to celebratethe lack of physical pain and try to anesthetize my wallet inpreparation for the major surgery it is about to undergo.
Total time today (approximate): Hood: 3.5 hrs.
Feb 25 – (PIC Day #9)
After yesterday’s dramatic events, my concern is to try and letas little of this go to waste as possible. I can’t do anythingabout the plane, the repairs are going to be what they are andI’ll have to deal with that when I find out how bad it is. But,this training process (which is prepaid) is peaking right nowand if I let it go, I might not get back to it for months andit might take a lot of hours to get proficient again. So, I’vedecided to just plunge ahead and try to finish the rating andnot let the time and money go to waste.
Shel arrives at 8:30 and we calculate how much more time I needat this point. I have just over 50 hours of XC (including theIFR); just over 20 hours of hood time in the plane; about 15 hoursin the simulator; and about 135 total hours. So I meet all thetime requirements, except I am 5 hours short on total instrumenttime. We proceed to the simulator where we do some practice approachesfor warm-up then go to partial-panel approaches. After 2.5 hoursof simulator work, it is lunchtime and we head down to the FBOwhere I worked on my PPL. The Piper Warrior that I first trainedin was my preference for a substitute plane, but it was missingan ADF antenna and its VOR was still 40 degrees off (which I discoveredon my PPL checkride—they never fixed it). I had been checkedout in Cessna 172s and 182s and one of the 172s was in fairlydecent shape with dual comm, dual VOR’s, GS, LOC, ADF, transponderand encoder…and it wasn’t signed out for the next threedays.
So, we take it out for a test flight. An annoyance is that oneof the nav radios has a missing units digit in the display; soyou have to index to the point where it crosses over from 10x.yyto 11x.yy and then count up or down. This also forces you toident the station, since the procedure is error prone—but ofcourse, identing is always good. The VORs tracked within a coupleof degrees and the ADF looked like it was working fine. So webegin calibrating its various profiles for cruise, climb, descent,approach, etc. After an hour of this, I go under the hood, andShel does a quick run of airwork with me: climbs, descents, 45degree turns, partial panel, partial-panel unusual attitudes,etc. The plane feels fairly decent. On top of this, the 172 hasthe advantage that it is about 20% slower than the speeds at whichwe calibrated the Mooney; we were getting speeds at 80-100 knotsrather than 100-132 knots. Thus, I will have more time and willcorrespondingly be less rushed, which is good of course.
We decide to do one approach of each type and make sure therearen’t any surprises in the radios or indicators. We go overto CNO and get the ILS approach first and fly that down; the glideslope and localizer work fine. We then get the VOR approach andcheck both VORs for tracking and intercept and those also workfine, though I was unfocussed again and flew through the approachcourse before Shel began tapping the VOR. (Hey, I had 4 hourssleep last night!) I decide to call it a day and request theNDB approach to EMT and fly it very respectably, holding the NDBto within 3 degrees and getting all my step-downs and times. We decide to go with the 172 for the checkride.
We will do a day of approach and holding work tomorrow in the172. After today’s time, just an hour or two tomorrow and I willmeet my minimum time requirements in all categories. Tomorrowwill give me some more time to become familiar with the 172, andafter that it is up to me.
Total time today (approximate): Sim: 2.5 hrs. Hood: 1.5 hrs.
Feb 26 – (PIC Day #10)
When I get up this morning, I look out the window and it lookslike a really nice day. Shel shows up and says he has an approachhe wanted me to try, HMT (Hemet). To him this approach is anacid test of whether or not you truly understand NDB approaches. It starts off with an intersection between an NDB and a VOR,followed by the interception of a bearing to the NDB, followedby a course change outbound from the NDB, with a very short timeto get on-course for the final approach segment, then the missedapproach is a climbing turn on a heading with an intercept ofanother bearing from the NDB, and then entering a hold definedby the fix of the intersection of the VOR and NDB. Add fairlysteep descent profiles and some real terrain and I see why heuses it as a test. He sets it up on the simulator and I succeedin pleasing him by catching every nuance of the approach. A goodstart to the day. Unfortunately my feeling of satisfaction wasshort-lived.
We then proceed to EMT where the 172 is waiting for us. Oncewe get in the air, I discover that it isn’t a very nice day atall, with lots of turbulence. We start off in the practice areaagain, where we do some more timed turns and 45-degree-bank steepturns. Shel then has me shoot VOR approaches into L66, POC andCCB. On the approach to L66, I forget to time from the FAF andI am holding heading very badly. Into POC, I am late interceptingthe initial segment. And into CCB, I don’t get slowed down intime and I don’t estimate a correction for the extra speed, sothought I was a mile out when I was actually almost entering downwind. In all, I blow it badly on all three. Part of it is the turbulence,but Shel later demonstrates that the turbulence is actually throwingthe plane off course or altitude a lot less than I am; I am justovercontrolling.
After introducing me to the examiner at CCB, Shel has me fileIFR to CNO and we do the ILS in. Again, I lose it and almostdrop out of the glide slope. I would have, except we intend toland and Shel doesn’t want to do a missed approach, so he takesover and gets us back on the glide slope and course and givesit back to me. Once we land, I discover the winds are varyingfrom 210 to 300 and gusting from 15 to 25 knots, and there areclumps of puffy low-level cumulus all over the place, so it isn’ta terribly good day to fly a precision approach. But as Shelpoints out, you have to be able to get it down even when its turbulent. You probably don’t have enough fuel to wait for it to settledown and it might get worse.
I am getting thoroughly demoralized at this point and am veryquiet during lunch, which Shel notes. Afterwards, we stop offat the repair shop that has my Mooney. They had pulled the oilfilter and cut it open, and though there was a slight amount ofvisible metal flaking, there were no ferrous flakes, so the blowncylinder may not have damaged any bearings, crankshaft, rods,etc. The mechanic also did a compression check on the other cylindersand they came up mid-70’s. So now I have to make a decision aboutjust replacing the cylinder, rings and piston, and other miscellaneousparts, or to go for a full overhaul or reman. The shop will getme costs on the different options later this week. I am not inclinedto trust the engine, but it would be nice to put off a full overhaulfor another year. Tough decision.
After lunch, we go up again, and Shel wants to do some holds. I blow the first entry, and to rub salt in the wound, Shel pointsout that it was exactly the same entry and hold I blew the lasttime. The next one is good, and Shel is complimentary about thewind angle correction I crank in and the inbound/outbound lengthcorrection. After the holds, he has me do the ILS, VOR, and NDBapproaches into CNO. The wind has stabilized direction a bit,but it is still blowing/gusting strongly. I am able to do thethree approaches acceptably this time and he is more satisfiedwith my flying. Finally, on the NDB approach we land and refuel.As we look around we can see clouds all over, rain showers tothe west and northeast, and the snow level in the mountains downto 1500′-2000′. So on this flight, we get a full IFR clearancerather than just class C service back to EMT, just in case.
Shel gives me the choice of the VOR or NDB approaches into EMT. I say I am tired of NDBs so I opt for the VOR. As we approachour assigned altitude, he pops the no-peekies over the attitudeand direction indicators, and I hve to fly the approach partialpanel. Thanks a lot Shel, you just couldn’t let my last approachwith you be an easy one, could you? Fortunately, the air hassettled down a lot along the route to EMT and I finish up witha pretty much perfect partial panel approach.
With this performance, I think Shel decides I am probably as readyas I am likely to be in the near future…and that I could passthe checkride if I would just settle down. So he saysit was a "go" for the checkride—he is willing to signme off.
Total time today (approximate): Sim: 0.6 hrs. Hood: 3.5 hrs.
My total actual/hood/sim time before checkride: (approximate):44 hrs.
The Checkride
Shel had signed me off, done the paperwork, and now it was upto me—checkride time. I fly to the examiner’s office at CCBin the Cessna 172. The weather is calm and cool.
When I get there, the examiner is out flying but he has left anIFR XC for me to flight plan, with a specified destination weather(guaranteed to make me flight plan an alternate). I sit down,pull the Jepps and a flight plan sheet, identify the most obviousroute and call the FSS for a weather briefing. In actuality,the visibilities and ceilings along the route are pretty nice,but the killer is forecast showers combined with freezing levelsSFC to 4000′. Sigmets are out for heavy rime ice. The conditionsare prevailing, not just local, so no alternate route was anybetter. I go ahead and do the flight plan including alternate,but I note down that the flight is a no-go as far as I was concerned.
While I am working this out, the examiner sticks his head in tomake sure that I have gotten started and then goes to his officewith my application, flight log, aircraft logs, and other paperwork. I finish fairly quickly as the route was familiar from the IFRXC I had actually flown. While I am working, he reviewed allthe paperwork. (Shel was very meticulous in double-checking thatall the requirements had been met.) He then takes a look at myflight plan and asks me various questions about the route, fuel,alternate, etc; pretty much as expected. I point out that I wouldnot fly that plan today for the reasons stated, and he was satisfiedwith that.
He then has me open up the enroute chart and makes sure that Iknow the various symbols. He does the same for a sample approachplate. The oral then skips on to some miscellaneous questionsabout requirements to maintain instrument currency, VOR checkmethods, instruments required for IFR flight, etc. My guess isthat my written test score created a pretty good initial impressionand he is skimming a variety of subject areas quickly and makingsure that my knowledge is commensurate with the score. Satisfiedwith that, he cuts the oral exam off after about 30 minutes andtells me to go file an IFR flight plan for our departure witha destination at CNO. He advises me that he intends to fly theILS and NDB at CNO, then come back on the VOR approach to CCB. I call FSS and file, then pull the plates and charts.
Now that it is flying time. I am anxious, but I try to followShel’s advice to me before the checkride: slow down, keep thescan going, and 5T’s. I begin following this advice by takingsome deep breaths and deliberately slowing my walk out to theairplane. I do a simplified pre-flight, but emphasize flightcontrols, engine oil, and instrument checks, and indicate to theexaminer that the initial pre-flight had been more thorough, butthese checks on a second flight of the day should catch any realproblems and he seemed to accept that. We taxi to the runup areaand call for our IFR clearance and release. After being advisedof a 5 minute delay, I take the opportunity to double-check theradios, OBS settings, and ID’ing the stations. Since the stationscame in on the ground, that saves a task that would have beendone in the air. I also have the ILS approach to CNO up on theyoke clip and the CCB VOR approach topmost on my clipboard inthe event of an emergency return. These are all organizationalnuances that Shel had taught and I think the examiner noted them.
We get our release and we take off. He has me put the hood onat 50′ and we proceed to our transition point. Along the way,we get a couple of altitude amendments, a heading amendment, andfinally radar vectors to the approach course. The air is a lotbumpier than when I first arrived, but not as bad as the day Iwas all over the place. I am really focussing on keeping thescan up, managing airspeed, and using the attitude indicator.The climb and headings are being held well within tolerance. While we are flying to the VOR, he shoves some approach platesunder my nose and asks me what type of holding pattern entriesI would fly for them given my current heading. I give him theright answers. I slow the plane down one vector before intercept,and when I get the vector for intercept I am pretty stable andam able to turn on to the localizer with the needle centered inthe doughnut. Intercepting the glide slope, I wait till I havethe glide slope centered. then pull power for descent and keepone dot above the glide slope. I do lose the localizer brieflyout to 2-3 dots, but a couple of small heading changes bring itback to one dot and that’s about where it stays when I hit DH+80′. (I can hear Shel saying, "don’t wait for DH, you’ll bustthrough it for sure".) At this point, I apply power fora missed approach, and the plane descends to DH+50′ then gaineda positive rate of climb as I continued to clean it up.
We head back to the VOR for the missed approach hold and thenrequest the NDB approach. The ADF is already set up to the NDB(which is the LOM on the ILS), so all I have to do was to setthe VOR for an intersection as a backup to NDB station passageas the stepdown fix. So far, everything has gone well…I’vefelt ahead of the plane, and I haven’t gotten flustered. As weare vectored to the approach course, we are cleared direct tothe NDB and cleared for the approach. The direct course we areon is within 5-8 degrees of the approach course and within 4 milesof the NDB, so I then made a pragmatic decision and use the timeand a few quick heading changes (all within +/-5 degrees) to setup my bracket and crab for the approach course rather than strictlymaintain the direct course. We pass over the station as I beganthe descent with the wind correction angle already cranked in. I hold it close enough to what it should be that the examineractually tells me that he thinks the ADF is off a bit and to lookup and see why (we were 1000′ north of centerline despite thesteady course).
Again we are outbound on the missed approach and the examinerrequests the VOR approach at POC. Wait a minute, POC? I thoughtit was CCB. Did I hear wrong or did he spring this on me? Weare climbing and getting vectors to intercept the approach courseas I reach toward the backseat to try and find my Jepps. Flythe plane first, hold attitude and heading. I finally get a holdof the Jepp binder and pull it into my lap, almost knocking theexaminer’s headphones off. I force myself to slow down and continuescanning the panel, while I flip through looking for the approachplate. I finally locate it and succeed in getting it out of thebinder and up on the yoke clip without any significant deviations. I quickly dial in the VORs and OBSs and ID’d them as we get avector to intercept. Once set up, the pace slows down again andthe approach goes off very easily. He calls off the approachjust before the VOR (one mile short of the airport). A briefbit of airwork and some more partial panel work, which was anticlimactic(I think he decided that I really knew what I was doing—littlerealizing how sloppy I had been just the day before), and he tellsme to take off my hood and head for CCB. I know I had passed,but he hasn’t said so yet. (Oh, please, don’t let me screw upa VFR landing after all these hours of IFR!) I land safely and,as we taxi to transient parking and stop, he reaches over to shakemy hand. I had passed my IFR checkride!
During the debrief, the only two things he mentions are: (1) Ibegan my left turn on the NDB missed approach late, which callsfor a climb on runway heading to 1400′ then a left turn whereasI had delayed to 1700′ before I began the turn; and (2) I havea tendency to bracket the turn indicator for a standard rate turn(roll-in, roll-out, roll-in, roll-out)—the natural result ofpaying more attention to the turn indicator rather than the attitudeindicator. Of course this is not a good practice, that will requireimprovement on my part; but at the same time, I have to give somecredit to my lack of emphasis on the attitude indicator with doingwell correspondingly on partial panel work and partial panel approaches.
Epilog
Would I recommend PIC? Well here’s sort of an answer. It’s notfor everybody. I’m glad I got my rating, but I’m not entirelysure I would do it again this way. Not because PIC didn’t dotheir job as promised—they certainly did. But despite the minormiracle of taking a 100-hour pilot and getting him IFR rated in10 days, this particular pilot almost burned out. On the morningof Day Ten, I almost didn’t care whether I passed or failed. Fortunately, I pulled it together for the afternoon checkride.
Is there something special about the PIC course? I think thetwo most important factors were the instructor himself and theeffective use of a simulator. I don’t know what the other PICinstructors are like, but mine clearly loved flying and was agreat pilot and teacher. To the extent that PIC has better instructorsto assign, they provide more value. The simulator is also a greathelp for pilots who might have trouble visualizing some of themore complex procedures: entering a hold, intercepting and holdingan NDB bearing, flying a DME arc, etc.; giving them lots of chancesand repetition. For some other pilots, like myself, who are luckyenough to find that easy, more time might have to be spent inthe plane because their flying skills aren’t commensurate withtheir navigation or visualization skills.
Despite the fact that the one-time bill is hard to swallow ($3,250+ airfare/motel [if needed] + plane), I have decided that it isprobably less expensive than the slower piecemeal method offeredby most FBOs. Think about this: Shel was with me 9 hours a dayfor 10 days; about 90 hours of work for him! That only worksout to $36/hour, plus you get to save up to 20 hours of airplanetime by using the simulator which is included in their price. Figuring $50/hour for a plane, this is a savings of $1,000, oran equivalent credit of $11/hour on the instructor’s time, puttinghim at $25/hour. That’s what I paid for instructor time at myFBO, so PIC’s is really a pretty fair deal—if you can manageto pay it all at once.
But, you must be COMMITTED. This is going to take 10 days offull-time attention. If you have a wife or girlfriend(or husband or boyfriend), they had better understand this andbe supportive. You cannot be returning pager calls or thinkingabout work. Get rested up beforehand.
And don’t try to write a daily diary like this one that can costan extra hour of sleep!
My impression is that PIC is the ideal course for a pilot whohas a few hundred or even a few thousand hours under his belt,is very comfortable in the plane, and just needs to focus sometime and energy to get their rating. Or perhaps the short version,3-5 days, for the IFR student who has put in 50 hours of training,2-300 of total time, but can’t quite finish up.
It is probably a good idea to be very comfortable with the airplaneyou intend to use. I made a lot of work for myself with my high-performanceMooney; the Cessna 172 was a lot easier to handle and so leftmore time to manage the approaches. Also, when you get your XCtime, don’t just work on heading and altitude maintenance likeI did. Work to understand the plane’s behavior, responsivenessand performance as you change the operating conditions, not justwhat you have to do to maintain the operating conditions.
At the same time, don’t use your own plane—use somebody else’s. The kind of engine cycling that you go through practicing approachafter approach is very abusive, particularly if your engine isturbocharged. As I found out the exciting way.
If you practice with an IFR simulator, practice for real. Don’tjust fly the approach for fun. Fly the approach plate, changethe plane configuration as you would in real life, make sure yourun through the 5 T’s at each appropriate point. Do it for realbecause you want to get the habits ingrained.
While I feel that I really do know what I am doing, I also knowfirst-hand how easy it is to lose it when the workload increasesin IMC. I recently participated in a discussion group about thevalidity of "personal minimums", with some pilots sayingthat personal minimums didn’t make sense: i.e., if you are ratedfor IFR, then you should be able to fly to the published minimums. Now that I have been through this and gotten my rating, I agreewith the concept of personal minimums. Yes, I can technicallyfly to published minimums, but I think my "margin to overload"is lower now than it will be when I have more experience. Thusa progressively decreasing threshold, to increase your initialsafety factor, makes a lot of sense to my way of thinking.
Well, that’s my story. Time to fly for fun again!
