After a second mock test on Monday, in very bumpy conditions, I was feeling fairly confident about my skills test on Tuesday. The thing with instrument flying though is that you have to be constantly wary of all aspects of what the aircraft is doing, and can't focus on any one thing for too long. You receive a squawk code from ATC and in the time it takes you to set it on the transponder, you've spent 10 seconds looking away from the attitude indicator and have climbed/descended 100 feet, or turned 10 degrees off course. To try and prevent this you have to try and do everything in the aircraft without looking at what you are doing, just glancing occasionally to check your accuracy. This can get pretty tiring after a while.
To reduce workload you need to try and set up as much as possible before your wheels leave the ground. This is good airmanship anyway even if a VFR flight, but with instruments the need is even more pressing, so before take off, checking/setting nav aids (and secondary aids) and setting the likely next frequency into the standby channel, ready to switch when required.
The day of my test arrived and thankfully it was a beautiful sunny morning, as I drove out for my 10am briefing with the examiner. The briefing took about an hour involving a lot of paperwork (no surprises there) and a talk through of what the plan for the flight would be, what the assessed procedure would be and what else he was looking for. I then had a few hours to prepare as our slot for the ILS at Southend was booked for 1500.
At 14:30 we met at the aircraft which I'd refuelled and checked out already and prepared for flight. As soon as the wheels left the ground, he put the screens up so I couldn't see out of the aircraft, and I made a turn onto our heading towards Southend. We switched to Southend Radar and advised them that we were inbound for a vectored ILS approach. This is probably the easiest approach type as the controller gives you headings to follow and altitude to keep, already wind corrected, which reduces your workload. As he advised us that we were on our base leg, I remembered to do all the pre-landing checks (even though I knew we would not be landing), and re-identify the ILS.
Every other time we've done these approaches, the airport has been quiet and we've received a full early clearance from the radar controller. Of course this being the test, things didn't go so smoothly and we were asked to change to the tower as we were on our final approach. Luckily I'd remembered to set this in the standby frequency so the switch was quick and easy. I was then advised to "continue approach"which is not a clearance to do anything else. I heard him line up an Airbus on the runway we were heading for, and he advised me to "expect late clearance to go around". This threw me a bit as I knew we were going to go around (as opposed to land) but my decision height was supposed to be 550 ft. When we got to 550ft I still had not received my go-around clearance from the controller and for a couple of seconds I was unsure what to do. In the time I took to remind myself that the priority in aviation is always, "aviate, navigate, communicate" and initiate my go-around, we had descended to 500ft. I went around, informed the tower I was doing so, and was asked to make an early turn out to avoid the aircraft that was just taking off!
The rest of the test went as expected, timed turns and unusual attitudes with full and limited panels all went well, and half an hour later the screens were down and I was doing the bad weather circuit to land back at Stapleford on 22L. I was fairly sure that I had failed for busting my decision altitude, so when we pulled up to the parking stand I was expecting bad news. Fortunately, I got the chance to explain my (incorrect) rationale with the examiner, and as I had only marginally busted the DA, and had had a sign off on all of the instrument approaches with my instructor, he passed me! Phew!
To reduce workload you need to try and set up as much as possible before your wheels leave the ground. This is good airmanship anyway even if a VFR flight, but with instruments the need is even more pressing, so before take off, checking/setting nav aids (and secondary aids) and setting the likely next frequency into the standby channel, ready to switch when required.
The day of my test arrived and thankfully it was a beautiful sunny morning, as I drove out for my 10am briefing with the examiner. The briefing took about an hour involving a lot of paperwork (no surprises there) and a talk through of what the plan for the flight would be, what the assessed procedure would be and what else he was looking for. I then had a few hours to prepare as our slot for the ILS at Southend was booked for 1500.
At 14:30 we met at the aircraft which I'd refuelled and checked out already and prepared for flight. As soon as the wheels left the ground, he put the screens up so I couldn't see out of the aircraft, and I made a turn onto our heading towards Southend. We switched to Southend Radar and advised them that we were inbound for a vectored ILS approach. This is probably the easiest approach type as the controller gives you headings to follow and altitude to keep, already wind corrected, which reduces your workload. As he advised us that we were on our base leg, I remembered to do all the pre-landing checks (even though I knew we would not be landing), and re-identify the ILS.
Every other time we've done these approaches, the airport has been quiet and we've received a full early clearance from the radar controller. Of course this being the test, things didn't go so smoothly and we were asked to change to the tower as we were on our final approach. Luckily I'd remembered to set this in the standby frequency so the switch was quick and easy. I was then advised to "continue approach"which is not a clearance to do anything else. I heard him line up an Airbus on the runway we were heading for, and he advised me to "expect late clearance to go around". This threw me a bit as I knew we were going to go around (as opposed to land) but my decision height was supposed to be 550 ft. When we got to 550ft I still had not received my go-around clearance from the controller and for a couple of seconds I was unsure what to do. In the time I took to remind myself that the priority in aviation is always, "aviate, navigate, communicate" and initiate my go-around, we had descended to 500ft. I went around, informed the tower I was doing so, and was asked to make an early turn out to avoid the aircraft that was just taking off!
The rest of the test went as expected, timed turns and unusual attitudes with full and limited panels all went well, and half an hour later the screens were down and I was doing the bad weather circuit to land back at Stapleford on 22L. I was fairly sure that I had failed for busting my decision altitude, so when we pulled up to the parking stand I was expecting bad news. Fortunately, I got the chance to explain my (incorrect) rationale with the examiner, and as I had only marginally busted the DA, and had had a sign off on all of the instrument approaches with my instructor, he passed me! Phew!
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