So I got failed on my -II today....

[FlyingFisherman]

The CFII ride was cake. Of course...I went into it over prepared and with a good attitude. Trying to be super pilot king of the skygods by not writing down your clearance should get you failed right off the bat and if I was the DE I'd stop the flight then and there.

 

[Apathy]

Alcohol certainly isn't making me any stronger!!!!!:beer: Bigger, but not stronger.:laugh:

:laugh:!!!!!!!! :beer:

 

[wmuflyguy]

At least give me that holding on an intersection with a single VOR receiver, with considerable crosswind, no DME to alleviate triangulation, and no frequency swap button, in a 172, with an a$$hole DE with the sh$tiest attitude, is not necessarily the easiest thing to perform

I'm pretty sure you have to supply an aircraft that allows you to accompliosh all tasks in the PTS. You could have said unable, for a DME or intersection hold. (though i wouldn't let you off the hook for the intersection hold, It is doable, but not easy).

 

[hindsight2020]

There was no problem with the airplane as it went configured for the checkride. I went into the aircraft with the expectation of it having an operational DME, when it didn't I made the mistake of continuing with the checkride. That decision right there was directly responsible for the dissaproval, because at that point I had set myself up for a whole lot of difficulties, particualrly with the intersection hold. The single VOR had GS capability (which covers the ILS) and the aircraft had an ADF, which enabled me to proceed with the VOR approach that required "DME or ADF"..so once again, I screwed myself by taking a knife to a gunfight. Plus you had to see how choppy it was, I'm not making an excuse, you just had to be there to understand how miserable the conditions were. Somebody touched on that point with the question of whether or not you would have performed an instrument lesson in those conditions. Well, in spite of it being SKC VFR the answer would be no, since it would have not been conducive to learning. By implication then, a -II checkride surely wouldn't have been productive either, alas it wasn't. So I think that assertion goes to the heart of what my error was.

One day at a time though, I take pride in the fact that I managed to satisfy all other tasks successfully and only have to perform the hold next time (if God smiles on me that day and the DE is reasonable). As for "not letting me off the hook" for the intersection hold bust, it was a statistical crapshoot at that point, I have done them successfully in my CFII training and in single pilot IFR currency flights, so I'm not in the least concerned about my ability to tackle them on a day to day basis. Like I said before, what I did take from the experience was a re-evaluation of external factors to the flight and how it plays into my decision-making process.

Besides, talking to pilots about pilot performance is like asking people in prison "what you in here for?" : "Well... you didn't know? We're all innocent here!" You'll get 1000 replies of "I could have done that in my sleep, that's cake" and maybe one reply of "could have happened to me bro" That comes with the territory so it's all good. The advice was still appreciated though.

 

[kaj837]

I have always thought the retest concept was somewhat flawed. Many years ago I failed my initial CFI ride because I stupidly forgot to tell the Inspector to do clearing turns before "teaching" him straight ahead stalls. I then had to take an hour or so of dual and go back and have him do clearing turns. I screwed up badly, but going back doing a couple of turns and one power off, straight ahead stall seemed silly. I have never neglected them since though and that was a loooong time ago.

As far as the aircraft equipment goes even though in the bad, old days we did fly IFR regularly with one 27 channel transmitter, tunable receiver Narco Omnigator, usually with an ADF, would I do it today? Hell no. Too much work, and too much chance of screwing up. Now if stuff starts failing once you are already there probably you will get special handling from ATC to ease the workload.

 

[SSDD]

Hindsight,

You mentioned this a couple of times and noone has commented on it. Even though the only thing you failed is the hold, the examiner can "sample" other maneuvers, and you can bet he'll be evaluating the whole flight.

Just a heads up.

 

[Pilot_Ryan]

You want wind + holds, try it in a piston helicopter with the same winds you quoted. Outbound leg was 10 knots GS, inbound 120 knots, with a huge correction angle. (You can do the math and figure out how agonizingly long the outbound leg was.) This was on my rotor CFII ride.

 

[MauleSkinner]

Did my -II ride with 30 knots of crosswind on the non-terminal NDB approach...piece of cake!!:nuts:

 

[Goose Egg]

Hang in there, buddy. I busted my CFII ride too. (It was NOT the easiest ride of them all; it was the hardest!) But I'm standing here to tell you that it hasn't hurt me at all (at least not yet), and I really learned a lot about having the proper attitude and mindset through the experience. This too shall pass. Go back to the same guy, do your hold, and get the freak out of there.

-Goose

P.S. My easiest ride ever was probably the CFI-G. It was a two-question oral and about .6 flying.

 

[hindsight2020]

True words of wisdom Goose.

Did the re-check yesterday, brought a machine gun to the fight this time. Dual VOR, dual standby-frequency nav/coms, ADF, heading bug, NICE NEW GYROS, IFR GPS (albeit I didn't use it). DE had me do another intersection hold and it was a cake, like flying MS flight Simulator And the weather was even windier and much colder yesterday. (20F, 270 @ 19G24KTS at the surface)...The wonders that a heading bug do for the mental math!

Did write down my clearance this time, put all my radials before takeoff too, (in hindsight, what a brainfart the first ride was, I do all these "items" by default when I go single pilot IFR as part of my flow..d$mn it ) and made all the callouts entering, leaving the hold, and transitioning from enroute to terminal for the approach.

Felt really good getting that little piece of paper, I slept much better last night Now to find a job and start learning once again, looking forward to it.

Thanks for the feedback folks

 

[Goose Egg]

Congrats! It does feel good.

-Goose

 

[Apathy]

True words of wisdom Goose.

Did the re-check yesterday, brought a machine gun to the fight this time. Dual VOR, dual standby-frequency nav/coms, ADF, heading bug, NICE NEW GYROS, IFR GPS (albeit I didn't use it). DE had me do another intersection hold and it was a cake, like flying MS flight Simulator And the weather was even windier and much colder yesterday. (20F, 270 @ 19G24KTS at the surface)...The wonders that a heading bug do for the mental math!

Did write down my clearance this time, put all my radials before takeoff too, (in hindsight, what a brainfart the first ride was, I do all these "items" by default when I go single pilot IFR as part of my flow..d$mn it ) and made all the callouts entering, leaving the hold, and transitioning from enroute to terminal for the approach.

Felt really good getting that little piece of paper, I slept much better last night Now to find a job and start learning once again, looking forward to it.

Thanks for the feedback folks

Very nice, congratulations:beer: on me

 

[Lead Sled]

Congratulations! By the way, you have now learned a valuable lesson - anyone can bust any ride anytime. Now the next lesson to be learned is that know one will ever care if you bust a checkride or two along the way. Now back to work.

'Sled