Checkride Scenarios

[ChiFlyer]

With the FAAs emphasis on scenarios now for checkrides; does anybody have some creative scenarios that would be useful to teach a private student.

e.g: Radio failure at night and you are near an uncontrolled field that has pilot controlled lighting but is not currently lit.

 

[RichardRambone]

With the FAAs emphasis on scenarios now for checkrides; does anybody have some creative scenarios that would be useful to teach a private student.

e.g: Radio failure at night and you are near an uncontrolled field that has pilot controlled lighting but is not currently lit.

Thats funny you say that. That very scenario actually happened to me.

 

[ChiFlyer]

Another one I see students forget about is the TFRs around sporting events. Important one for Chicago since the first thing a new private pilot wants to do is fly along the skyline right by Wrigley and Soldier Field; not sure if the Sox in US Cellular count as a "Major" Sporting Event though, might have to call the FSDO on that one.

 

[Flyerjosh]

Medical emergencies are good. I used to teach fires in the cabin (including going as far as having my student try to "deploy" the extinguisher that was mounted between the seats...). Brings up good conversations about halon and breathing.

Weather related scenarios are also good. I always tried to file IFR at least once with each PVT pilot student and take them into a block of airspace to do real IMC 180 turns.

 

[SBD]

Anything having to do with FAR 91.3. See to what extent that they would excercise the right. Medical, aircraft, currency problems.

 

[340drvr]

One hypothetical I like to talk through: X-ctry (or long local flight) and the weather starts getting lower, lower, lower, you've done a 180, but now you're stuck in some valley underneath a lowering ceiling, fuel is low, visibility deteriorating, etc........whadda ya gonna do, kid? Most students, after discussing the requisite "better go/no go wx decision making," will talk through ATC radio, emergency, etc., then plan on climbing into solid IMC and getting vector help. (with only 3 hours of req'd hood time.) Very few will consider another, perhaps safer option.....land on the dirt road just below you and park that sucker, then get on your cell-phone.....might not always be the best option, and, logistically messy, perhaps; but in many instances, it could be the safest choice. (Of course, I'm out west, lots of empty country roads around, this might not work in the Chicago-burbs). Point is, I'm always surprised at how few students can think just a bit out of the box and come up with this as a possible solution.

 

[ChiFlyer]

You bring up a good point 340drvr, where would you draw the line though between making it to an airport with detriorating Wx and putting a perfecty good airplane onto a field or road?

 

[MauleSkinner]

You bring up a good point 340drvr, where would you draw the line though between making it to an airport with detriorating Wx and putting a perfecty good airplane onto a field or road?

Perfectly good airplane landed on a field or road has a LOT better chance of still being perfectly good than continuing with that perfectly good airplane into deteriorating weather.

One of these days I'll get ambitious and scan in some pictures I"ve got of a Baron up to the gear doors in mud with no damage. Just clean up the gear and fly it out. Well, there WAS a crane involved in the process

Fly safe!

David

 

[Ralgha]

"No matter what you do, you have 7 minutes of fuel remaining."

An examiner popped this one on me on a checkride once just as we started a (long) GPS approach. I flew the approach at near full power, made it to the vicinity of the airport with a minute or so to spare, at which point he told me my engine failed.

Great fun, most enjoyable checkride experience I ever had, quite seriously.

 

[340drvr]

Perfectly good airplane landed on a field or road has a LOT better chance of still being perfectly good than continuing with that perfectly good airplane into deteriorating weather.

MS has the right idea, for a non-instrument pilot, seems like the odds for survival are way better to just park. The scenario is rather contrived, I'll admit; I guess the image is getting trapped in some valley, with obscured hills and deteriorating weather all around, no nearby airstrip to get to. Also realize, my home ground is Wyoming and Montana, where it's a long way between airstrips, and landing on a quiet highway, taxiing to the nearest historical marker pull-out, and parking overnight is perhaps a more feasible option than somewhere more congested.
Even so, better to walk away from a dinged up bird in a cornfield than smear it in CFIT or spatial disorientation. A much-preferred outcome, of course, would be to instill better wx go/no-go decisin making from the start!