IFR checkride!
This morning started at 2 AM for me. After feeling so unprepared for the checkride from my previous two flights, my brain was running at 1000mph thinking about the knowledge and skills I would need to demonstrate to the IFR rating examiner. It was 2:30 AM and I wanted to sleep, but all I could think about was how I would fly a DME arc or whether I'd need to demonstrate steep turns.
I thought about all of the various weather charts that are available and how I certainly didn't have them all memorized - in real life I look at them to understand them instead of memorizing them - how much would the examiner want me to know off-the-cuff on the weather products?! Where would I need to park at KAKQ when I arrived there to meet the examiner? How exactly are the approach minimums affected when certain airport systems are inop? What was the weather going to do in the next few hours? Did I remember to do all of the cross-country planning the examiner requested? Had I forgotten some bit of documentation that was mandatory to bring with me? The questions and doubts kept pouring into my head, and sleep was not coming with them...
Eventually 5:30 rolled in and I decided I would go ahead and get up (I wasn't getting any real rest anyway) and start the finalization of my cross-country plan. We would not actually do the flight I was planning, but the examiner needed to be able to see if I could properly plan an IFR trip from KAKQ to KILG (Wilmington, DE). I had chosen my route a few days before and started the leg work to get the plan complete. However, the most important part was still in front of me... how would the weather affect the flight. That is something you have to decide just a few hours before the flight because forecasts any farther out are not reliable enough.
I used the AOPA flight planner to get a DUATS weather briefing for the route I had chosen. Using that, I calculated the magnetic headings the flight would require and determined if I would need to file an alternate destination (one to divert to if the destination's weather is too bad at arrival time). I also started printing weather charts, because I knew they would be useful as the examiner and I discuss my flight plan. Our cheapo Lexmark printer did a terrible job with the first few printouts and it quickly became apparent that the charts would not be useable. So, at 7:10 AM, I decided I needed to go into the office before heading to the airport in order to get decent printouts of the charts. I had wanted to get to the airport by 7:45 and was worried that this delay would prevent me from getting there in time, especially if traffic was bad.
Thankfully, as I traveled down Hwy 199 across town to my office, the traffic proved to be manageable (current construction usually has it bogged down at any time near rush hour). I ran into the office, pushed the cancel button on the big HP LaserJet so that it would start its lengthy warm-up/calibration process, and got to my office computer. I brought up the charts I wanted to print (surface prognostic charts and icing predictions) and hit "print." A few minutes later I had perfect chart printouts and was in the car heading to the JGG airport.
Arriving at the airport I found that the Flight School owner and my instructor had already pulled my airplane for the day, 5199A, out of the hangar (they needed to pull another plane out that they would be using). I got to the plane and did my pre-flight - everything looked good and I had a full tank of AV-GAS from the night before.
I went into the flight school office to try to relax for a minute and to look up some of the questions that had bugged me since 2 AM, at least the ones I could still remember. Charles answered a question or two for me, told me good luck, and headed out for his own trip.
I went back out to the airplane and started to get ready for the hop over to KAKQ, where I'd meet with the examiner for the checkride. Engine cranked - destination in the GPS - systems checked - flight controls free and correct - time to take off. I lifted off from runway 31 right on time and climbed to 400 feet before turning west a bit. Once I reached 1000 AGL I turned on the autopilot and told it to take me to 2000' and KAKQ via the GPS navigation. I practiced my use of the vertical speed settings on the autopilot to make sure I had that sorted out in my head. Apparently I HAD learned something from the night before. :)
The GPS showed I was 19nm from KAKQ and had a ground speed of 109kts. It wouldn't be long before the airport was in sight.
9nm out from the airport, I called up Wakefield UNICOM on 122.8 for an airport advisory. Getting no reply, I felt that it was likely they were using runway 20, using the winds in Williamsburg as an indicator (the Wakefield AWOS doesn't give wind info). But not being sure, I decided to fly over the field to get a look at the tetrahedron. Crossing midfield from east-to-west, I saw the tetrahedron barely favored using runway 20, there was a bit of a crosswind. So I proceeded away from the airport for about 20 seconds, lifted up the right wing momentarily to check for traffic, then made a right-hand 180-degree turn to cross midfield once more. Entering downwind for 20, I completed a fairly wide pattern for a decent landing and rolled out to the far end of the runway and onto the ramp.
Pulling up in front of the fence and turning the airplane around, I found a good spot to park and did the shutdown procedure. I took a few minutes to gather all of my books and charts, locked the airplane and pushed it back closer to the fence to keep from blocking the taxiway. Then I walked into the nearby terminal and was greeted by the examiner.
She led us back to a little conference room and did her best to calm my nerves with her friendly air. She asked me how nervous I was and I said, "About as nervous as I've ever been." She said, "Well, that's typical." I said, "Yeah, I'm just trying to keep myself as calm as I can."
So the first order of business was to verify that I was qualified to take this exam and checkride. She had me prove to her, using the airplane logbook, that the aircraft was in legal condition for IFR flight and then she reviewed my pilot's logbook to ensure that I met the minimum requirements. She checked my license and pilot's certificate as well as my medical certificate and determined that I was qualified to take the test. After I gave her the examiner's fee, we started on the oral portion of the exam.
She asked me to explain my cross-country flight planning. She was particularly interested in seeing me demonstrate an awareness of the most significant hazards for IFR flying: icing and thunderstorms. She also tested me on my knowledge of when alternate destinations are required, fuel requirements, aircraft documentation requirements, pilot currency requirements, how the vacuum system works, errors inherent in the magnetic compass, why the magnetic compass is a good tool, lost communications procedures, copying a complex clearance, what I would do if I experienced icing, whether my airplane was certified for icing conditions; in general she asked broad-knowledge questions using a real-life basis for them as opposed to testing my exact memorization of particular facts (though certain facts involving the legalities of flight were certainly covered). It seemed a pretty appropriate way to test someone going for an IFR ticket.
Throughout the oral exam, although I was able to answer 85-90% of the things with no problem, there were certainly some questions that I couldn't answer. I tried to be forthcoming when I didn't know the correct response, while at the same time trying to indicate how I would find the answer in a real-life situation. Around 2 hours and 15 minutes into the exam, the oral portion of the test was complete. I knew that I had not performed perfectly during the oral portion, but I also didn't feel that I had flunked the test.
She started to get up, but before she left the room she told me the approaches we would do for the practical (flight) test. We would be doing the VOR-9 approach into KFKN, the ILS-7 into KPHF, and the GPS-20 back into Wakefield (KAKQ). However, she brought up the fact that the winds were not favoring an ILS-7 approach into Newport News so we might have to go to Chesapeake or Norfolk to shoot a precision approach if Newport News turned us down. She also told me that during the flight anytime I reached the missed approach point, if she had not explicitly told me to "go visual" I was to act as if I was still in the clouds. She also reminded me that I would be pilot-in-command (PIC) and that while we had certain maneuvers that needed to accomplish during the test, the airplane would always be under my command.
So I pulled out all the approach plates I would need and started studying them. The three that she planned to do were all ones that I had done before, which made me feel a little more comfortable. However, I knew there was the possibility that the plans for the ILS approach might have to be changed on the fly, so I was careful to study all of the other possible substitute approaches as well. I looked at the charts for maybe less than five minutes and felt that I had the general idea of them in my head, so I started to head out to the plane, letting the examiner know I was ready to go (or at least as ready as I'd ever be).
She and I walked out to 99A. I started my preflight and she started plugging in her headset and getting her plan-of-action squared away. She seemed reasonably content to let me do the preflight on my own, which wasn't too surprising since the majority of the preflight tasks, at least at the walk-around stage, are standard VFR practices. I went to test the fuel for water, which I typically wouldn't have done since I had just flown the airplane recently, but she told me not to worry about it, recognizing that this was the case. So we hopped in the airplane, got buckled in and closed the doors.
I went through the starting-engine procedures and read the checklist aloud as I did each item. The examiner would ask the occasional question about an aircraft system, all of which involved short answers. With a quick look at the tetrahedron, which was surprising large when viewed from the ground, I realized that we needed to back-taxi so we could depart on runway 20. It was a good thing that we had to back-taxi because I needed some room to do the IFR instrument tests while taxiing (the runway 2 threshold was only 50 feet away from the parking area).
While back-taxiing, I went through all of the instrument tests out loud so she knew what checks I was performing, and when we got to the approach end of runway 20 I pulled off onto a small loop taxiway for the engine run-up. After finishing the before-takeoff checklist, I radioed to Wakefield traffic that we'd be departing on 20. Another airplane called out that they were on the NDB-20 approach into Wakefield, which was an approach I was not familiar with having no ADF in the aircraft. The examiner knew where that other airplane would be, and once she had sight of him, she let me know the traffic was no factor and we departed.
She cleared me to fly the runway heading to 1000' then direct to the Franklin VOR at 2000'. I had previously asked her if she had any particular concerns about me using the autopilot and she told me to feel free to use any of the aircraft systems as I would on a real flight and that if she ever wanted me to quit using a particular device she would turn it off or let me know. When I reached 1000' after takeoff, I punched in the autopilot to take me direct to the Franklin VOR at 2000' and let it do the flying. That just left me to manage power and rudder and double-check all the instrumentation. As I neared the Franklin VOR, she "cleared" me for the VOR-9 approach into FKN.
I did a direct entry into the hold still using the autopilot. At this point, the examiner told me I was cleared to change to advisory frequency. I already had the radio set up for the Franklin UNICOM so I announced that I was over the VOR to the west of the field. She said to me, "You need to say something more than that, don't you?" and it dawned on me that while I needed to give radio advisories that VFR-only pilots would understand, I also should provide the IFR-rated pilots with information about exactly what approach I was doing, and so I made another radio call with more information. The autopilot wasn't performing that great of a standard-rate turn to the right and we ended up overshooting the turn for the in-bound course of the hold. I turned off the autopilot after letting her know I was not too happy with the turn it made, and proceeded to get the airplane back on course. I had to do a fairly significant heading correction to do so, and since we were so close to the VOR I ended up with a full deflection of the needle when I saw the VOR go by on the GPS. I had arrived at my first big screw-up in the flight and had to decide whether to proceed or to do something else, and for a brief moment that lasted an eternity, I wasn't exactly sure. Then I reached a conclusion. I let her know that I wanted to do another circuit in the hold in order to get myself re-established; then I proceeded to do so. However, even on the second time around, I had a 3/4 deflection coming back in-bound at the VOR but this time decided that the needle would swing back in fairly quickly if I just maintained my heading (and I knew I didn't want to do another circuit in the hold anyway; one extra was bad enough).
Thankfully the needle did come back in pretty quickly. I left the autopilot off and continued the approach as published, making one or two more radio calls before reaching the field. I had listened to the weather when we were still enroute and knew we would need to use runway 27 which meant that a circle-to-land maneuver was in order. I knew I had to demonstrate at least one circle-to-land anyway, so I was happy to go ahead and knock it out in the first approach. As we neared the airport, she told me to "go visual" and perform a touch-and-go. Paying careful, careful attention to staying above the circling minimum descent altitude, I pointed the airplane to the right to enter a tight downwind for left-hand traffic to 27. Making normal pattern radio calls, I swung the airplane through base and final for a decent touchdown on 27. I put all my flaps back up, put the throttle to the firewall, held in plenty of right rudder, and we were off again.
She gave me another clearance to maintain runway heading until 1000' and then to climb to 2500' direct to KPHF. I set up the autopilot and the GPS to do those things for me (after getting my situational awareness back - the circle-to-land maneuver had taken a lot of focus). She told me to go ahead and contact Norfolk approach, whose frequency I already had in the backup radio. Calling up approach, I said, "Norfolk approach, this is Skyhawk 5199A with request." Norfolk approach came back with, "5199A, say request." "Norfolk approach, 5199A is 5 miles north of Franklin, request practice ILS-7 into Newport News." (I forgot to give them my altitude as I should have.) After approach clarified my aircraft type, they started vectoring me for the approach and we had a little bit of time on our hands. I set the autopilot to heading mode to track the vectors I was given, tuned in and verified the ILS frequency at Newport News, and set up the GPS to give me a visualization of the ILS at Newport News. For the next few minutes, the examiner and I made small talk and I monitored the instruments, paying close attention to the localizer needle. As we neared the initial approach fix, Norfolk approach cleared us for the ILS-7 and told me to cross JAWES intersection at or above 2000' and to contact the tower on 118.7.
When the localizer needle came into center, I turned the autopilot to nav mode and then approach mode so that it would fly the entire ILS approach for us. Switching over to the tower frequency, I told them that 5199A was with them on the ILS-7. They responded for me to report a 5nm final. About that time, the glide-slope started coming in, and as its needle centered, the autopilot started to pitch down to keep it centered. I knew we had a tailwind, so I pulled the power back pretty far to get the airplane to maintain 90kts indicated airspeed. A few minutes later, the examiner advised me that it looked like we were about 5nm out, so I informed the tower. The tower responded oddly; they told me I was cleared to enter the crosswind leg and to report turning downwind for runway 25. They also told me there was another aircraft shooting the ILS. For a moment I was completely stunned and had no idea what they were talking about. After a few seconds of silence on my part trying to determine what I was doing wrong, I radioed back, "Newport News tower, this is 5199A on the ILS, say again please." The controller then called up a different aircraft giving them the instructions I had heard for me a few moments before and I realized that they had just gotten the aircraft identifier backwards. The tower then came back to me and reminded me that I was cleared for the option on runway 7, so I realized that I was ok.
When we got 50' above decision height, I turned off the autopilot, flew manually down another 30 or so ft., and having not been told to go visual, put in some power, started my climb and told the tower I was going missed.
The tower came back and told us to do the missed approach and to go back to Norfolk approach on the radio. Since we hadn't gotten any other instructions, we started to execute the missed approach as published but got on the radio to Norfolk approach to let them know that we wanted to head back to Wakefield VFR, on our own. They cleared us on a heading of 270 to 2000'.
I started to activate the autopilot again when the examiner said we should go without it for the rest of the flight, which I had no problem with. After we crossed the James River, it was time to do a few maneuvers. She had me demonstrate a timed turn of 180 degrees (without the use of the magnetic compass) and I managed to roll out fairly close to the proper heading. Then we did a couple of unusual attitudes, which went without incident, and then it was time to start the GPS-20 approach back to Wakefield.
I hit the procedure button, selected the airport, chose an initial approach fix, and added it to the flight plan. However, the GPS was still showing that it was directing me back to Newport News. After going through the same motions on the GPS once more and not correcting the problem, I stopped for a moment to think about what I was doing wrong. I had had troubles like this before with the GPS and for a brief moment I wasn't exactly sure how I had solved them in the past. But then it dawned on me that I needed to tell the GPS that I was ready to actually start the approach. So I pushed the "direct to" button, pulled out the inner knob, and turned to find my initial approach fix. Then, after hitting enter, the GPS was finally set up and we were on our way.
A few minutes later I realized that my initial approach fix choice was less than optimal so I updated our "direct to" to go to NOXEE. The examiner covered up the attitude and heading indicators (since we needed to do a partial panel approach) and a few minutes later I was turning in-bound on the final approach course. Using the turn coordinator and the GPS I was able to maintain my course with only some minor s-turning involved. Not hearing any other traffic at Wakefield, I radioed that we would be landing on 20 but decided to not descend below circling minimums in case the examiner wanted us to use runway 2.
A few miles out from the field, I was told to "go visual" and saw the runway in front of us. I realized we were pretty high so I pulled the power way back, started getting some flaps in, and made an "on final" radio call. We weren't coming down as fast as I wanted, so I put in a mild slip (being conscious of the fact that I already had full flaps in) and we were finally on a descent path that would bring us down to the runway threshold. I made a less-than-perfect touchdown with some floating involved (I was probably a little fast and might have even had a tailwind) but before I knew it I was parking the plane and getting the impression from the examiner that I had done an ok job.
Thirty minutes later, I was leaving the Wakefield terminal with my new IFR temporary airman's certificate and some important pieces of wisdom from the examiner. She wanted to make sure that I took it to heart that some days it's better to drive or fly as a passenger on the big iron than it is to try to make my own way in the air.
I headed back up to Williamsburg with a new sense of confidence in my flying and an incredibly massive weight lifted off my shoulders. When I finally reached the taxiway at Williamsburg, I saw that my wife was there to greet me (I had given her a heads-up that I had passed before leaving Wakefield). After I cut off the engine, she came over to give me congratulations as did my instructor. It was an incredibly good feeling.
So after almost nine months of training, I had completed my 2004 New Year's resolution of getting back into flying and getting my IFR rating. It was one of the most challenging things I've ever done, but in the end, a very rewarding one.
I thought about all of the various weather charts that are available and how I certainly didn't have them all memorized - in real life I look at them to understand them instead of memorizing them - how much would the examiner want me to know off-the-cuff on the weather products?! Where would I need to park at KAKQ when I arrived there to meet the examiner? How exactly are the approach minimums affected when certain airport systems are inop? What was the weather going to do in the next few hours? Did I remember to do all of the cross-country planning the examiner requested? Had I forgotten some bit of documentation that was mandatory to bring with me? The questions and doubts kept pouring into my head, and sleep was not coming with them...
Eventually 5:30 rolled in and I decided I would go ahead and get up (I wasn't getting any real rest anyway) and start the finalization of my cross-country plan. We would not actually do the flight I was planning, but the examiner needed to be able to see if I could properly plan an IFR trip from KAKQ to KILG (Wilmington, DE). I had chosen my route a few days before and started the leg work to get the plan complete. However, the most important part was still in front of me... how would the weather affect the flight. That is something you have to decide just a few hours before the flight because forecasts any farther out are not reliable enough.
I used the AOPA flight planner to get a DUATS weather briefing for the route I had chosen. Using that, I calculated the magnetic headings the flight would require and determined if I would need to file an alternate destination (one to divert to if the destination's weather is too bad at arrival time). I also started printing weather charts, because I knew they would be useful as the examiner and I discuss my flight plan. Our cheapo Lexmark printer did a terrible job with the first few printouts and it quickly became apparent that the charts would not be useable. So, at 7:10 AM, I decided I needed to go into the office before heading to the airport in order to get decent printouts of the charts. I had wanted to get to the airport by 7:45 and was worried that this delay would prevent me from getting there in time, especially if traffic was bad.
Thankfully, as I traveled down Hwy 199 across town to my office, the traffic proved to be manageable (current construction usually has it bogged down at any time near rush hour). I ran into the office, pushed the cancel button on the big HP LaserJet so that it would start its lengthy warm-up/calibration process, and got to my office computer. I brought up the charts I wanted to print (surface prognostic charts and icing predictions) and hit "print." A few minutes later I had perfect chart printouts and was in the car heading to the JGG airport.
Arriving at the airport I found that the Flight School owner and my instructor had already pulled my airplane for the day, 5199A, out of the hangar (they needed to pull another plane out that they would be using). I got to the plane and did my pre-flight - everything looked good and I had a full tank of AV-GAS from the night before.
I went into the flight school office to try to relax for a minute and to look up some of the questions that had bugged me since 2 AM, at least the ones I could still remember. Charles answered a question or two for me, told me good luck, and headed out for his own trip.
I went back out to the airplane and started to get ready for the hop over to KAKQ, where I'd meet with the examiner for the checkride. Engine cranked - destination in the GPS - systems checked - flight controls free and correct - time to take off. I lifted off from runway 31 right on time and climbed to 400 feet before turning west a bit. Once I reached 1000 AGL I turned on the autopilot and told it to take me to 2000' and KAKQ via the GPS navigation. I practiced my use of the vertical speed settings on the autopilot to make sure I had that sorted out in my head. Apparently I HAD learned something from the night before. :)
The GPS showed I was 19nm from KAKQ and had a ground speed of 109kts. It wouldn't be long before the airport was in sight.
9nm out from the airport, I called up Wakefield UNICOM on 122.8 for an airport advisory. Getting no reply, I felt that it was likely they were using runway 20, using the winds in Williamsburg as an indicator (the Wakefield AWOS doesn't give wind info). But not being sure, I decided to fly over the field to get a look at the tetrahedron. Crossing midfield from east-to-west, I saw the tetrahedron barely favored using runway 20, there was a bit of a crosswind. So I proceeded away from the airport for about 20 seconds, lifted up the right wing momentarily to check for traffic, then made a right-hand 180-degree turn to cross midfield once more. Entering downwind for 20, I completed a fairly wide pattern for a decent landing and rolled out to the far end of the runway and onto the ramp.
Pulling up in front of the fence and turning the airplane around, I found a good spot to park and did the shutdown procedure. I took a few minutes to gather all of my books and charts, locked the airplane and pushed it back closer to the fence to keep from blocking the taxiway. Then I walked into the nearby terminal and was greeted by the examiner.
She led us back to a little conference room and did her best to calm my nerves with her friendly air. She asked me how nervous I was and I said, "About as nervous as I've ever been." She said, "Well, that's typical." I said, "Yeah, I'm just trying to keep myself as calm as I can."
So the first order of business was to verify that I was qualified to take this exam and checkride. She had me prove to her, using the airplane logbook, that the aircraft was in legal condition for IFR flight and then she reviewed my pilot's logbook to ensure that I met the minimum requirements. She checked my license and pilot's certificate as well as my medical certificate and determined that I was qualified to take the test. After I gave her the examiner's fee, we started on the oral portion of the exam.
She asked me to explain my cross-country flight planning. She was particularly interested in seeing me demonstrate an awareness of the most significant hazards for IFR flying: icing and thunderstorms. She also tested me on my knowledge of when alternate destinations are required, fuel requirements, aircraft documentation requirements, pilot currency requirements, how the vacuum system works, errors inherent in the magnetic compass, why the magnetic compass is a good tool, lost communications procedures, copying a complex clearance, what I would do if I experienced icing, whether my airplane was certified for icing conditions; in general she asked broad-knowledge questions using a real-life basis for them as opposed to testing my exact memorization of particular facts (though certain facts involving the legalities of flight were certainly covered). It seemed a pretty appropriate way to test someone going for an IFR ticket.
Throughout the oral exam, although I was able to answer 85-90% of the things with no problem, there were certainly some questions that I couldn't answer. I tried to be forthcoming when I didn't know the correct response, while at the same time trying to indicate how I would find the answer in a real-life situation. Around 2 hours and 15 minutes into the exam, the oral portion of the test was complete. I knew that I had not performed perfectly during the oral portion, but I also didn't feel that I had flunked the test.
She started to get up, but before she left the room she told me the approaches we would do for the practical (flight) test. We would be doing the VOR-9 approach into KFKN, the ILS-7 into KPHF, and the GPS-20 back into Wakefield (KAKQ). However, she brought up the fact that the winds were not favoring an ILS-7 approach into Newport News so we might have to go to Chesapeake or Norfolk to shoot a precision approach if Newport News turned us down. She also told me that during the flight anytime I reached the missed approach point, if she had not explicitly told me to "go visual" I was to act as if I was still in the clouds. She also reminded me that I would be pilot-in-command (PIC) and that while we had certain maneuvers that needed to accomplish during the test, the airplane would always be under my command.
So I pulled out all the approach plates I would need and started studying them. The three that she planned to do were all ones that I had done before, which made me feel a little more comfortable. However, I knew there was the possibility that the plans for the ILS approach might have to be changed on the fly, so I was careful to study all of the other possible substitute approaches as well. I looked at the charts for maybe less than five minutes and felt that I had the general idea of them in my head, so I started to head out to the plane, letting the examiner know I was ready to go (or at least as ready as I'd ever be).
She and I walked out to 99A. I started my preflight and she started plugging in her headset and getting her plan-of-action squared away. She seemed reasonably content to let me do the preflight on my own, which wasn't too surprising since the majority of the preflight tasks, at least at the walk-around stage, are standard VFR practices. I went to test the fuel for water, which I typically wouldn't have done since I had just flown the airplane recently, but she told me not to worry about it, recognizing that this was the case. So we hopped in the airplane, got buckled in and closed the doors.
I went through the starting-engine procedures and read the checklist aloud as I did each item. The examiner would ask the occasional question about an aircraft system, all of which involved short answers. With a quick look at the tetrahedron, which was surprising large when viewed from the ground, I realized that we needed to back-taxi so we could depart on runway 20. It was a good thing that we had to back-taxi because I needed some room to do the IFR instrument tests while taxiing (the runway 2 threshold was only 50 feet away from the parking area).
While back-taxiing, I went through all of the instrument tests out loud so she knew what checks I was performing, and when we got to the approach end of runway 20 I pulled off onto a small loop taxiway for the engine run-up. After finishing the before-takeoff checklist, I radioed to Wakefield traffic that we'd be departing on 20. Another airplane called out that they were on the NDB-20 approach into Wakefield, which was an approach I was not familiar with having no ADF in the aircraft. The examiner knew where that other airplane would be, and once she had sight of him, she let me know the traffic was no factor and we departed.
She cleared me to fly the runway heading to 1000' then direct to the Franklin VOR at 2000'. I had previously asked her if she had any particular concerns about me using the autopilot and she told me to feel free to use any of the aircraft systems as I would on a real flight and that if she ever wanted me to quit using a particular device she would turn it off or let me know. When I reached 1000' after takeoff, I punched in the autopilot to take me direct to the Franklin VOR at 2000' and let it do the flying. That just left me to manage power and rudder and double-check all the instrumentation. As I neared the Franklin VOR, she "cleared" me for the VOR-9 approach into FKN.
I did a direct entry into the hold still using the autopilot. At this point, the examiner told me I was cleared to change to advisory frequency. I already had the radio set up for the Franklin UNICOM so I announced that I was over the VOR to the west of the field. She said to me, "You need to say something more than that, don't you?" and it dawned on me that while I needed to give radio advisories that VFR-only pilots would understand, I also should provide the IFR-rated pilots with information about exactly what approach I was doing, and so I made another radio call with more information. The autopilot wasn't performing that great of a standard-rate turn to the right and we ended up overshooting the turn for the in-bound course of the hold. I turned off the autopilot after letting her know I was not too happy with the turn it made, and proceeded to get the airplane back on course. I had to do a fairly significant heading correction to do so, and since we were so close to the VOR I ended up with a full deflection of the needle when I saw the VOR go by on the GPS. I had arrived at my first big screw-up in the flight and had to decide whether to proceed or to do something else, and for a brief moment that lasted an eternity, I wasn't exactly sure. Then I reached a conclusion. I let her know that I wanted to do another circuit in the hold in order to get myself re-established; then I proceeded to do so. However, even on the second time around, I had a 3/4 deflection coming back in-bound at the VOR but this time decided that the needle would swing back in fairly quickly if I just maintained my heading (and I knew I didn't want to do another circuit in the hold anyway; one extra was bad enough).
Thankfully the needle did come back in pretty quickly. I left the autopilot off and continued the approach as published, making one or two more radio calls before reaching the field. I had listened to the weather when we were still enroute and knew we would need to use runway 27 which meant that a circle-to-land maneuver was in order. I knew I had to demonstrate at least one circle-to-land anyway, so I was happy to go ahead and knock it out in the first approach. As we neared the airport, she told me to "go visual" and perform a touch-and-go. Paying careful, careful attention to staying above the circling minimum descent altitude, I pointed the airplane to the right to enter a tight downwind for left-hand traffic to 27. Making normal pattern radio calls, I swung the airplane through base and final for a decent touchdown on 27. I put all my flaps back up, put the throttle to the firewall, held in plenty of right rudder, and we were off again.
She gave me another clearance to maintain runway heading until 1000' and then to climb to 2500' direct to KPHF. I set up the autopilot and the GPS to do those things for me (after getting my situational awareness back - the circle-to-land maneuver had taken a lot of focus). She told me to go ahead and contact Norfolk approach, whose frequency I already had in the backup radio. Calling up approach, I said, "Norfolk approach, this is Skyhawk 5199A with request." Norfolk approach came back with, "5199A, say request." "Norfolk approach, 5199A is 5 miles north of Franklin, request practice ILS-7 into Newport News." (I forgot to give them my altitude as I should have.) After approach clarified my aircraft type, they started vectoring me for the approach and we had a little bit of time on our hands. I set the autopilot to heading mode to track the vectors I was given, tuned in and verified the ILS frequency at Newport News, and set up the GPS to give me a visualization of the ILS at Newport News. For the next few minutes, the examiner and I made small talk and I monitored the instruments, paying close attention to the localizer needle. As we neared the initial approach fix, Norfolk approach cleared us for the ILS-7 and told me to cross JAWES intersection at or above 2000' and to contact the tower on 118.7.
When the localizer needle came into center, I turned the autopilot to nav mode and then approach mode so that it would fly the entire ILS approach for us. Switching over to the tower frequency, I told them that 5199A was with them on the ILS-7. They responded for me to report a 5nm final. About that time, the glide-slope started coming in, and as its needle centered, the autopilot started to pitch down to keep it centered. I knew we had a tailwind, so I pulled the power back pretty far to get the airplane to maintain 90kts indicated airspeed. A few minutes later, the examiner advised me that it looked like we were about 5nm out, so I informed the tower. The tower responded oddly; they told me I was cleared to enter the crosswind leg and to report turning downwind for runway 25. They also told me there was another aircraft shooting the ILS. For a moment I was completely stunned and had no idea what they were talking about. After a few seconds of silence on my part trying to determine what I was doing wrong, I radioed back, "Newport News tower, this is 5199A on the ILS, say again please." The controller then called up a different aircraft giving them the instructions I had heard for me a few moments before and I realized that they had just gotten the aircraft identifier backwards. The tower then came back to me and reminded me that I was cleared for the option on runway 7, so I realized that I was ok.
When we got 50' above decision height, I turned off the autopilot, flew manually down another 30 or so ft., and having not been told to go visual, put in some power, started my climb and told the tower I was going missed.
The tower came back and told us to do the missed approach and to go back to Norfolk approach on the radio. Since we hadn't gotten any other instructions, we started to execute the missed approach as published but got on the radio to Norfolk approach to let them know that we wanted to head back to Wakefield VFR, on our own. They cleared us on a heading of 270 to 2000'.
I started to activate the autopilot again when the examiner said we should go without it for the rest of the flight, which I had no problem with. After we crossed the James River, it was time to do a few maneuvers. She had me demonstrate a timed turn of 180 degrees (without the use of the magnetic compass) and I managed to roll out fairly close to the proper heading. Then we did a couple of unusual attitudes, which went without incident, and then it was time to start the GPS-20 approach back to Wakefield.
I hit the procedure button, selected the airport, chose an initial approach fix, and added it to the flight plan. However, the GPS was still showing that it was directing me back to Newport News. After going through the same motions on the GPS once more and not correcting the problem, I stopped for a moment to think about what I was doing wrong. I had had troubles like this before with the GPS and for a brief moment I wasn't exactly sure how I had solved them in the past. But then it dawned on me that I needed to tell the GPS that I was ready to actually start the approach. So I pushed the "direct to" button, pulled out the inner knob, and turned to find my initial approach fix. Then, after hitting enter, the GPS was finally set up and we were on our way.
A few minutes later I realized that my initial approach fix choice was less than optimal so I updated our "direct to" to go to NOXEE. The examiner covered up the attitude and heading indicators (since we needed to do a partial panel approach) and a few minutes later I was turning in-bound on the final approach course. Using the turn coordinator and the GPS I was able to maintain my course with only some minor s-turning involved. Not hearing any other traffic at Wakefield, I radioed that we would be landing on 20 but decided to not descend below circling minimums in case the examiner wanted us to use runway 2.
A few miles out from the field, I was told to "go visual" and saw the runway in front of us. I realized we were pretty high so I pulled the power way back, started getting some flaps in, and made an "on final" radio call. We weren't coming down as fast as I wanted, so I put in a mild slip (being conscious of the fact that I already had full flaps in) and we were finally on a descent path that would bring us down to the runway threshold. I made a less-than-perfect touchdown with some floating involved (I was probably a little fast and might have even had a tailwind) but before I knew it I was parking the plane and getting the impression from the examiner that I had done an ok job.
Thirty minutes later, I was leaving the Wakefield terminal with my new IFR temporary airman's certificate and some important pieces of wisdom from the examiner. She wanted to make sure that I took it to heart that some days it's better to drive or fly as a passenger on the big iron than it is to try to make my own way in the air.
I headed back up to Williamsburg with a new sense of confidence in my flying and an incredibly massive weight lifted off my shoulders. When I finally reached the taxiway at Williamsburg, I saw that my wife was there to greet me (I had given her a heads-up that I had passed before leaving Wakefield). After I cut off the engine, she came over to give me congratulations as did my instructor. It was an incredibly good feeling.
So after almost nine months of training, I had completed my 2004 New Year's resolution of getting back into flying and getting my IFR rating. It was one of the most challenging things I've ever done, but in the end, a very rewarding one.
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