Oral
I forgot which presentation I had to go through for CFII ride but there was no surprise there. Again, always customize the slides especially the parts that is airplane specific (like Instrument Cockpit Check). There are a couple interesting questions though:
- Can you fly IFR if your GPS database is out-of-date:
Technially yes, you need to manually verify each point you will use matches. However, this quickly become unreasonable as ATC can send you to a random fix as long as you have (/G). You can, however, does not declare GPS capability and fly entirely based on NAVAIDs. - Instrument Proficiency Check (IPC): Come prepared with a IPC plan-of-action of your local area. AC 61-98 also describes FAA’s best practice when it comes to Flight Review and IPC.
- Alternates: Always do the proper procedure.
Select the approach you want to fly, check if there's a "A" sign, if so, check the alternate minimums and run the specified check required in there. - Say your condition is 700/5, can you use ILS 9 / VOR 27 as an alternate?
YesNow, if the wind is blowing 290/20G24, can you still use it?No, because we'll now be landing tailwind and we certainly are not going to do that in 20G24 condition and now your ILS 9 becomes circling approach and the other end only has VOR 27 approach, so none of them is a precision approach or APV.
This part took about 1.9hrs.
Flight
The DPE told me they only need to see one hand-flown approach and one autopilot-coupled approach and I can decide what I want to do with the other one (given I’m pretty familiar with G1000 and its autopilot capabilities, I happily chose to do 2 autopilot coupled approach.)
We started by doing a “mock IFR flight”. I hold short of the runway while asking him for a clearance to the nearby airports. They gave me a CRAFT clearance and we took-off. I contacted the DPE approach and they vectored me around (while under hood so I did not realize this but he declared that the vectoring was for clearing turns so we can dive into maneuvers right away). My steep turns was shaky as always 😅 but I did the teaching throughout and was within standards. Next is the unusual altitude where I will teach and do the recovery all by myself.
After that, they asked me to start doing the approaches, so I contacted the real approach this time, get on flight following and request a practice approach for a VOR approach with DME arc. I brief the plate with them and got ATIS and setup G1000 to fly the arc. Talked about 5Ts, explained that this is a non-precision approach so it has a MDA and where would be our MAP. The tower did ask us to go missed before the threshold for traffic so the DPE called go around for me.
We went missed and came back for ILS, again, briefed it and we got vectored in. I used the time to explain what is a PTAC call (and guessed exactly right on what controller would say lol). I explained this is a precision approach so it would be a DA and we would go missed as soon as we hit the DA if runway is not in sight. Autopilot flew this one so it was pretty easy.
We then head back to our starting airport, this one has a HILPT. I talked about how do you monitor autopilot to enter the hold, anticipating which direction to turn and verify with the on-screen notification. As we’re on the outbound leg, they turned off their screen so I went into explaining what to do if your PFD failed: Activate the backup, Try to get it back and tell ATC. We continued with the approach and make inbound CTAF calls, due to traffic, we need to circle to land to a crossed runway. I explained how would I setup the entry to conform with the traffic pattern. As the runway passing us 45 degree behind me, I declared that we should be able to enter the base and land from here so I start to descend from my MDA. Slightly side-loaded but again buttered the landing.
With that, my DPE said I passed the checkride! This part took about 1.5hrs. Their feedback for me is to talk more, I should also used the time to explain holding entries, etc. Definitely something that I need to work on more in general: talking more. Got very used hearing CFI talks the entire plane and now I need to be that person!