12 Mar 2006: IFR Stagecheck 2 - Passed!
Today was the day for the second stagecheck. Got to Hanscom about 9:30 with rapidly changing weather. Wind was calm when I arrived, I preflighted with runway 29 active and by the time we were ready to taxi, ceiling was overcast at 5,000 feet and runway had switched to 23 with a 10 knot breeze. The examiner was great pointing out some new info such as IDing the departure runway localizer in case we needed to make an emergency landing right away. I rotated at 55 knots and my wheels hadn't even left the ground when he told me to put on my foggles. I did and he returned control of the plane to me for the climb out.
I had just completed my climb checklist when he failed the attitude indicator and HSI and told me to turn to 270 and climb to 3,500. I did using the magnetic compass with no problem, as soon as I reached 3,500 asked for a descent to 3,000 while coming to a heading of north. That worked out OK as well but just as I was leveling off at 3,000 he took control of the plane, told me to close my eyes and we started to roll around in an unusual attitude recovery exercise, still under partial panel.
When he told me to recover, the airspeed was increasing, rpm going high and the turn coordinator was pegged to the left........a decending spriral. Recovery was pretty smooth, power to idle, center ball and return coordinator to level, pitch up using the VSI and altimeter to ensure positive rate of climb while getting more throttle back in. He complimented me on the quick recovery but told me to proceed direct to GDM, the Gardner VOR and arcto the north at 10 miles.
At 10 miles I banked 90 degrees to the north, identified we were on the 100 radial and began the arc. Turbulence started to pick up. By the 070 radial it was hard to control attitude and by 050 radial, my head was banging off the cockpit roof. All the while wemaintained between 10.0 and 10.2 miles from the VOR.
Next he instructed me to "intercept and track the 040 radial and hold as published". I intercepted the 040 radial and began to track inbound slowing the plane to 90 knots which was early, but I thought it might smooth the ride a little. I explained that the entry would be paralles on the 298 radial and that turns were non-standard (to the left). Boy, this guy was throwing all kinds of stuff at me and cranking the radio volume up to be as distracting as possible.
I turned to 298 degrees at GDM and began my outbound track and started the 5 T's, turn the plane, start the timer, twist the OBS to the inbound course, throttle back to 90 knots and talk ("Cessna 221693 entering hold at 35 minutes past the hour"). What I didn't do was check the groundspeed on the GPS which was showing about 80 knots. So when I started the procedure turn, I was back over the VOR before the turn was completed.
OK. Set up for the next orbit, but as I passed over the VOR we hit some bad tuurbulence, not only vertical but horizontal as well. By he time the turn was complete, out groundspeed was 50 knots and I was holding a 45 degree crab to the left. The air smoothed out and I held the outbound heading for 2 minues and turned turned intercept the inbound radial. But even with a 90 degree interecept angle, the needle wouldn't come in and we passed over the VOR at 125 knots grounsdpeed and into heavy turbulence. I made another turn to the left this time holding 50 degrees of correction. Our groundspeed dropped to 40 knots andthis time the air smoothed out. Suddenly the HSI needle began to come in and shoot to the center so I took the wind correction out and the needle didn't move. After the left turn, I interecepted the inbound again but this time out groundspeed was 135 knots. Now we were drifting south ! I corrected for the drift and then we were back into the heavy turbulence and the needle started to move back the other way, we were drifting north and the groundspeed began decreasing as well.
I was shure I had flunked the holding portion of the test. After 20 minutes at GDM, the examiner finally said, "I can't for the life of me figure out where the winds are coming from, We must be flying right through a shear zone at the VOR." So he told me to proceed direct to Hanscom. The ride back was very rough and it was hard to hold course as we decended through the shifting winds. The extended base was fine as was the landing. While taxiing back, he told me I had done a fine job and he passed me. When I told him about my disappointment in not getting the hold set up perfectly he told me that he was more interested in the logic I used to work it out. Entry was good, corections were appropriate and most importantly, I keptto the protected side of the hold.
Whew! All of the work paid off. Now it's time to move up to some real fun....approaches.
I had just completed my climb checklist when he failed the attitude indicator and HSI and told me to turn to 270 and climb to 3,500. I did using the magnetic compass with no problem, as soon as I reached 3,500 asked for a descent to 3,000 while coming to a heading of north. That worked out OK as well but just as I was leveling off at 3,000 he took control of the plane, told me to close my eyes and we started to roll around in an unusual attitude recovery exercise, still under partial panel.
When he told me to recover, the airspeed was increasing, rpm going high and the turn coordinator was pegged to the left........a decending spriral. Recovery was pretty smooth, power to idle, center ball and return coordinator to level, pitch up using the VSI and altimeter to ensure positive rate of climb while getting more throttle back in. He complimented me on the quick recovery but told me to proceed direct to GDM, the Gardner VOR and arcto the north at 10 miles.
At 10 miles I banked 90 degrees to the north, identified we were on the 100 radial and began the arc. Turbulence started to pick up. By the 070 radial it was hard to control attitude and by 050 radial, my head was banging off the cockpit roof. All the while wemaintained between 10.0 and 10.2 miles from the VOR.
Next he instructed me to "intercept and track the 040 radial and hold as published". I intercepted the 040 radial and began to track inbound slowing the plane to 90 knots which was early, but I thought it might smooth the ride a little. I explained that the entry would be paralles on the 298 radial and that turns were non-standard (to the left). Boy, this guy was throwing all kinds of stuff at me and cranking the radio volume up to be as distracting as possible.
I turned to 298 degrees at GDM and began my outbound track and started the 5 T's, turn the plane, start the timer, twist the OBS to the inbound course, throttle back to 90 knots and talk ("Cessna 221693 entering hold at 35 minutes past the hour"). What I didn't do was check the groundspeed on the GPS which was showing about 80 knots. So when I started the procedure turn, I was back over the VOR before the turn was completed.
OK. Set up for the next orbit, but as I passed over the VOR we hit some bad tuurbulence, not only vertical but horizontal as well. By he time the turn was complete, out groundspeed was 50 knots and I was holding a 45 degree crab to the left. The air smoothed out and I held the outbound heading for 2 minues and turned turned intercept the inbound radial. But even with a 90 degree interecept angle, the needle wouldn't come in and we passed over the VOR at 125 knots grounsdpeed and into heavy turbulence. I made another turn to the left this time holding 50 degrees of correction. Our groundspeed dropped to 40 knots andthis time the air smoothed out. Suddenly the HSI needle began to come in and shoot to the center so I took the wind correction out and the needle didn't move. After the left turn, I interecepted the inbound again but this time out groundspeed was 135 knots. Now we were drifting south ! I corrected for the drift and then we were back into the heavy turbulence and the needle started to move back the other way, we were drifting north and the groundspeed began decreasing as well.
I was shure I had flunked the holding portion of the test. After 20 minutes at GDM, the examiner finally said, "I can't for the life of me figure out where the winds are coming from, We must be flying right through a shear zone at the VOR." So he told me to proceed direct to Hanscom. The ride back was very rough and it was hard to hold course as we decended through the shifting winds. The extended base was fine as was the landing. While taxiing back, he told me I had done a fine job and he passed me. When I told him about my disappointment in not getting the hold set up perfectly he told me that he was more interested in the logic I used to work it out. Entry was good, corections were appropriate and most importantly, I keptto the protected side of the hold.
Whew! All of the work paid off. Now it's time to move up to some real fun....approaches.
posted by Robert at 6:57 PM
1 Comments:
Congratulations! Great job Daddy-O!! The kids & I knew you could do it!!
Post a Comment
<< Home