I enjoy reading this kind of thing, Congratulations - I'm sure this is a milestone for everyone who undertakes such a test.
Chris On Thu, 2003-07-24 at 18:11, David Megginson wrote: > I passed my instrument flight test this morning -- thank you all for > the positive karma you sent my way. We did the test in the real > thing, hard-core IFR with a 400 ft ceiling and rain. My visual > contact with the ground during the entire test was probably less than > two minutes. A narrative follows for people who like that kind of > thing (everyone else can stop reading now). > > The ground work went fine, but I wasn't worried about it. After > startup and clearance copying, we taxied to 04, and I double-checked > the ceiling with ground before switching to tower (when the DFTE asked > earlier, I told him that 400 ft would be my personal limit). At that > point the DFTE took the foggles from me, said that I obviously > wouldn't be needing them, and put them away for the rest of the > flight. > > We took off, and in a few moments, the world vanished into white all > around us. We were cleared up to 6000, then direct to the Ottawa VOR > to start a simulated cross-country to North Bay. At the VOR, I turned > onto V316, intercepted it promptly, and was stabilized on course and > groundspeed by 2 DME (not bad, since we were 1 mile above the VOR to > start with). I then hauled out my E6B, calculated a revised ETA and > fuel burn based on my current DME groundspeed, and then just sat back > and relaxed the rest of the way out to 9 DME. > > Ottawa Terminal then cleared us back to the VOR for a hold north on > the 360 radial. I flew back the 270 radial (90 TO), then turned > sharply to intercept my inbound radial outbound with reverse sensing > for a parallel entry (I like doing it that way, so that I get DME > groundspeed readouts to plan the rest of the hold). We did a couple > of laps in the hold, then I asked terminal for a couple of vectored > approaches (no full procedures in hard-core IFR, since I'd mess up > their very busy airspace). They vectored me around for a while, then > set me up to intercept the NDB 07 (at which point the examiner failed > my DME, just to keep me honest on the stopwatch work). The approach > went fairly well -- I did bust MDA by 20 ft, but caught it and > recovered in less than a second, and the DFTE didn't mention it in the > debrief. My compass precessed a few degrees during the descent, so I > ended up a bit away from the runway when we got a glimpse of the > ground straight down through the mist just before going missed, but > there's nothing to do about that. > > Tower handed me back to terminal, who vectored me south to bring me > around for the ILS 07 to a full stop. I asked for a bit of time to > prepare, but they had a boatload of arrivals about to hit (all > airliners), so I agreed to go straight to the approach and just asked > not to be vectored too close into the NDB on final. They brought me > around for an intercept 8 miles out and then asked for maximum > approach speed, so I opened the throttle, pushed the nose down, and > shot on in at 110 kias. The needles stayed nicely centred all the > way, but I did feel my first unease in IMC when I thought of how fast > I was flying and how close to the (invisible) ground I was as I got > closer to DH. The runway came into view less than a mile back, just > as I was calling out advisory visibility, and 50 feet above DH the > DFTE said "OK, you're visual, go ahead and land". > > Fortunately, 07 is an 8000 ft runway, since I was at 110 kias and 250 > ft almost over the threshold and the runway was wet and slick. I > brought up the nose and dropped flaps, but I didn't want to do any > serious braking on the wet surface, so I let the plane roll on past > the intersection with 14/32, ending two or three miles on the far side > of the airport from our destination on the North Field. We had a long > taxi back, but the DFTE didn't say anything about whether I'd passed > or failed, and the 20 ft MDA bust started to loom larger in my mind. > When I came inside (wet) for the debrief, he chewed me out for not > putting on carb heat every 15 minutes or so in IMC (not part of the > test, fortunately), then filled out the examination form in front of > me from memory. The NDB approach was one of the last items, and it > was only when I saw him give me a 3/5 for that that I was fairly > certain I'd passed. He then shook my hand, told me that I was a good, > safe, competent IFR pilot, and endorsed my license. > > Well, that's it for now. We have to retake the IFR flight test every > two years in Canada, so I'll be back up in Summer 2005. > > > All the best, > > > David -- Christopher S Horler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
