I passed my Instrument Practical exam today! Yee, Haw. It is awesome to have this in our bag of tricks to improve safety and capability. Tanya and I spent the last few days really sharpening my skill to a very fine point and the APRS (n4822C) track of the check ride does tell the story.
This morning I rolled out of bed before the sun came up (unheard of for me) knowing that we were expecting locally low ceilings due to temp/dewpoint, but that Brownwood (80mi NW) was forecast to have great weather. With only one eye open I peeked out the window. Yep, bummer, low solid overcast 600-1000′. At least I was ready for it and knew that it was just a thin layer that would lift as the temp came up. But I had a 9:30am appointment with the examiner 40min. away. I got busy doing all of the final touches with weather briefings, cross country flight plans, etc, and rechecked that I had all my paperwork and stuff packed in my briefcase. I got to the airport by about 7:45am with a plan to just camp out until I could convince the tower to declare 1000′ ceiling, then I was launching. The clearing line was already obvious at about 30mi. NW of the field. The field went to 1200′ just as I was prepared to pull the airplane out of the hangar. So I launched to the North West hugging the bottom of the clouds. Every now and then I saw little holes with blue sky above and could see that the layer was only about 200′ thick. Still the clearing line was another 25mi. ahead, not in sight. Note, this is very flat terrain and in my own backyard so it was safe and legal, but not really fun. I’m thinking, “I hope this is the last time I have to do this.” It was actually kind of fitting for today’s mission. Then I spied a slightly larger patch of sun hitting the ground ahead. I brought the power in to build up some “extra” airspeed and headed for it. When the sun hit me, I looked up and sure enough, exactly a 4000′ wide hole was above that I could clearly make it through. I wasted no time in pulling back to convert that airspeed into altitude. I’m sure it looked like 22C had been simply ejected from that hole from above. I climbed up another few thousand feet in smooth air on top and set the autopilot direct Brownwood. That was fun. In another 15min. I crossed the clearing line below right about where we knew it would be.
I can’t say enough good things about the Examiner Mr. Michad in Brownwood. He is a no stress, no hurry, not out to get you, kinda’ guy. He doesn’t play any tricks or try to get you into any kind of mental trap. A completely different experience for me compared to my private check ride back in 1993. First we dealt with all the paperwork details. Application, airman documents, aircraft documents, show logs that make the aircraft and airman legal… Then he moved into some oral questions. They were most all very basic, big (important) stuff, that if you can’t answer, you really shouldn’t get the license. He wasn’t interested in knowing if I knew all of the differences between an LDA and SDF approach, etc. Then we made a quick pass through most of the chart symbology. Easy. Then we briefed the flight, FULLY. He drew a quick diagram on a sheet of paper and left no question as to exactly what we were going to do: File an actual IFR flight plan direct to Abilene at 6000′ with remarks “FAA instrument check ride”, Get your clearance with Fort Worth Center on this frequency remoted on this field, Check in with Fort Worth in the air and use the autopilot at your discretion for enroute legs. Right here my brain just about blew up and I was telling myself to not comment or react, but I just couldn’t stand it. I said something stupid like “You mean I get to use the autopilot?”. He said “sure, I’m going to be able to tell very quick if you can fly straight and level. Your instructor wouldn’t have sent you here if you couldn’t. There is no need to get all tense before we do the fun stuff (approaches).” (briefing continues) Once handed off to Abilene approach, check in with them and say “IFR request” and ask for the ILS 35R approach then VFR back to Brownwood at 5500′. We will then fly direct back to Brownwood and fly the GPS 35 approach with the autopilot fully coupled. Note, one approach is required to use the autopilot if so equipped, and this one happens to be a full LPV WAAS approach . Our initial approach fix will be FICCU. On this enroute leg, we’ll do the two types of unusual attitudes, nose high and nose low. After the GPS 35 approach, climb maintain 3100′ direct to the BWD VOR and begin the published VOR 17 approach with a procedure turn for course reversal. When arriving back at the VOR, which is the final approach fix, enter a hold as published for one lap, then continue the approach inbound. Once inbound, this will be the partial panel approach. Full stop landing. For partial panel on the GRT displays, I just cut out a cardboard template that covered the attitude display of the primary PFD and left the ASI, ALT, and VSI visible and taped it in place. Total time for the check ride flight was 1.4hrs.
And that is Exactly what we did. He kept pretty quiet except for talking about all the cool toys in the panel and how nice this airplane was. The air was pleasantly smooth. Before we got in the airplane, I treated him like any other passenger and explained the experimental nature of the airplane, that I had built it, has 300hrs on it, quick walk around to see its condition, be careful not to step on the flaps, don’t grab the instrument panel, step fully in the seat when getting in (many people are afraid to step on the upholstery, I would rather them step in the seats than bend something else). I think that being overly prepared has paid off. We have flown a whole lot of hours in the last few months and days to this end. Yee, haw! Now it is time to just go dip a toe in some actual IMC just like this morning with 1000′ solid overcast, smooth, and only a couple hundred feet thick. Another learning curve is ahead to carefully explore this utility.
Now it is Tanya’s turn!