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Instrument practical today...


Lance Keve

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1 hour ago, kortopates said:

Far from "'bout time" - you're on a very accelerated schedule from whats typical!

 

What kind of avionics equipment are you being tested on? e.g. vor/ils only? GPS? AP?

 

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Accelerated.  Ha, you’re probably right  I passed my Commercial written last week and will probably be taking that practical mid-October. DPE’s are really getting booked far out.  Just need the night VFR 2-hour, 100nm with Instructor flight to complete requirements.  Oh, and something about mastering manuevers. ;)  We all know how to do that with our Mooneys already, yes? 

 

VOR/LOC/ILS/RNAV. No NDB. I have 430W, 6-pack, and Stec-30 w/ Alt Hold. 

So, tested to ACS for that equip. although all was hand flown.  I trained using AP after manual was good but we didn’t use it on the test.  Could have but didn’t come up.  Did the AP ground check during run-up so it could have been fair game.  Wouldn’t have been an issue.

No surprises. Just planned a x-country, explained as part of oral, departed, intercepted first airway, then unusual attitudes, then ILS to missed to VOR hold to VOR partial panel approach with DG and AI both covered. Missed again, to RNAV ending in Circling approach. All approches were to 3 different runways at non-towered airport.  DPE acted as ATC which was a little less easy (different) because I was used to training with ATC. Only hit the mic button once, late on the last approach,  to respond to a heading vector assignment. I laughed, he smiled. I wasn’t the first. 

Anyway, that’s all I remember at the moment.  Long morning...

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Accelerated.  Ha, you’re probably right  I passed my Commercial written last week and will probably be taking that practical mid-October. DPE’s are really getting booked far out.  Just need the night VFR 2-hour, 100nm with Instructor flight to complete requirements.  Oh, and something about mastering manuevers.   We all know how to do that with our Mooneys already, yes? 
 
VOR/LOC/ILS/RNAV. No NDB. I have 430W, 6-pack, and Stec-30 w/ Alt Hold. 
So, tested to ACS for that equip. although all was hand flown.  I trained using AP after manual was good but we didn’t use it on the test.  Could have but didn’t come up.  Did the AP ground check during run-up so it could have been fair game.  Wouldn’t have been an issue.
No surprises. Just planned a x-country, explained as part of oral, departed, intercepted first airway, then unusual attitudes, then ILS to missed to VOR hold to VOR partial panel approach with DG and AI both covered. Missed again, to RNAV ending in Circling approach. All approches were to 3 different runways at non-towered airport.  DPE acted as ATC which was a little less easy (different) because I was used to training with ATC. Only hit the mic button once, late on the last approach,  to respond to a heading vector assignment. I laughed, he smiled. I wasn’t the first. 
Anyway, that’s all I remember at the moment.  Long morning...

Very good! You got the full training with waas GPS. Typically they have you fly one approach with the AP so you can demonstrate proper interception and configuration relative to the AP limitations (which he might have covered in the oral) and give you a departure of some kind. That was fast! I think average is more like 6 months with written done.


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Ah, yes. Forgot to mention having GPSS too so GPS approaches are easy. 

Saw the other thread discussion regarding the old Stec instruction manuals and confusion about usage on approaches when having GPSS. I initially found the same thing until looking more closely at the GPSS one. I believe Marauder was saying the same thing, based on the GPSS one being later than the AP one. 

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14 minutes ago, Marauder said:

Well, did you have to use that highly accurate magnetic compass you and I discussed endlessly?

 

Ha, yes, very briefly. 

And then when he covered the DG, I laughed and pointed to the other, new DG, I mean VCC.  It’s too easy. 

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Ha, yes, very briefly. 
And then when he covered the DG, I laughed and pointed to the other, new DG, I mean VCC.  It’s too easy. 

Well hopefully, on an approach Partial Panel you showed him how using your DTK vs TRK on the GPS was much better info than using the VCC!


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15 minutes ago, kortopates said:


Well hopefully, on an approach Partial Panel you showed him how using your DTK vs TRK on the GPS was much better info than using the VCC!


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That’s exactly what I did. Laughed, pointed to VCC, then one click switched off map page to DTK/TRK, and chucked again. It’s all fair game of what to use. His words too. 

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40 minutes ago, BKlott said:

Congratulations on your Instrument Rating! It is a very personally rewarding achievement.

It's quite an accomplishment, I thought much more difficult than the original PPL cert. But man, is it worthwhile! 

Congrats, Lance.

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Well done Lance! 

A quick anecdote from today. I've been in Dallas this week for work. I flew the Mooney up and parked at Dallas Love. We (my boss and I) were planning to leave Dallas at noon today to fly home to Austin (Smithville 84R). Today was a very convective day over much of Texas but we headed to the airport anyway. Just about the time I completed the pre-flight, a big cell moved right over the field and opened up. It was raining so hard we couldn't see any of the Southwest jets from where we were on the ramp. So we waited about 20 minutes in the FBO. Once it cleared enough to get out to the airplane without getting soaked, we climbed in, called for our clearance, fired up and called ready to taxi. Ground control said it might be awhile to get us out as Southwest jets were lined up everywhere. We were offered 13R even though we had a south departure and I quickly accepted. They might get us out quicker. We taxied to 13R and were lined up on Bravo behind two of those 737's. And the rain had picked back up to the point the prop couldn't keep the windshield clear. I called tower and said we were ready to go. Tower asked if we could get around the 73's. I said I thought I could. The next question was could we accept an immediate turn south on take off, terrain permitting. Again, yes. N252AD cleared for take off right turn as soon as able. We rolled past the Southwest jets and I swear I could see one of the First Officers saying, "hell we don't want to be flying today, what the hell is that Mooney doing?"  We took off, made our quick right turn to cross the 13L at mid-field, climbed through several layers, in and out of rain, got one vector from ATC around a cell building in front of us, leveled off at 10K ft in the clear and flew home in the sunshine for a standard VFR approach into home.

Without the IR, we'd have left the plane in Dallas, driven the rental car 3 hours to Austin only to drive back the next day to get the plane. And in spite of what it looked like to observers on the ground, it was safe, easy, and an enjoyable flight home. 

Go get that IR wet, and make sure it gets regular watering. When it's useful, it's very useful.

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