Group 1 Ride coming up soon... Questions.

[DanWEC]

Just completed the hour requirements for the Group 1 rating. Ride booked for a week or so away. I have a question though- are there ground items that get quizzed beforehand? On the initial multi rating test a month or so back I got dinged with a 2 (the only one) because I couldn't come up with the exact location of the reset breaker for the janitrol heater.
It's the same examiner (Don at Buttonville).
Also, does TC's site list standards for the flight test? There are flight test guides for every rating except for this one, that I can see.

Any other tips are welcome!

Cheers,
Dan

[ILSfan07]

There will absolutely be ground test items. Have a look at the flight test guide here.

http://www.tc.gc.ca/publications/EN/TP9 ... P9939E.PDF

Ideally you should have read it a while ago, but better late then never! It's a good idea to be very familiar with the information in this document.

[DanWEC]

Ah thank you. Complete brain fart. On TC's publication site I saw all the relevant guides, however I didn't realize it was only the "new publications" section I was looking at. Scrolling down corrected that.

Thanks again!

[ILSfan07]

No problem, good luck on the ride. If your instructor is recommending you, it means he's seen you perform to flight test standards many times. Now all you have to do is take a deep breath, relax and do it again for the examiner!

If you haven't done much ground stuff yet, I'd ask your instructor to sit down with you for an hour or so and go over a few flight planning scenarios and general IFR knowledge.

[PanEuropean]

Hi Dan:

For sure, the examiner will ask you quite a few questions about your planned route before you even go out to the aircraft.

I did an instrument rating renewal earlier this week, here are some of the questions that my examiner asked me during the pre-flight briefing:

1) How is the minima for the alternate airport calculated and applied (see CAP GEN pages 24 and 25).

2) What do various symbols on the approach plates mean?

3) What is the departure minima for the airport of departure? If it is non-standard, the required cieling will be evident, but what about the required visibility?

4) How are corrections determined and applied to minima in cold weather (see CAP GEN page 29).

5) If the aircraft is in a hold and has been given an Expect Further Clearance (EFC) time, and then suffers a radio failure, when should the pilot commence the approach at the destination?

6) How is the ELT on the aircraft accessed and operated? How are the emergency exits operated? How are the fire extinguishers operated?

7) What does this funny symbol on the LE chart mean (could be any funny symbol - just use the legend on the LE chart, look it up if you are not sure).

8.) Be prepared to show, using the appropriate documents, the validity of the C of A, the insurance, the C of R, and the servicibility of the aircraft (reference the journey log, when is the next service due?). Also be prepared to show your navigation log and weight and balance calculation.

If you are not sure of the answer to a question during the briefing, don't guess - be honest, say "I'll have to look that one up", then refer to your publications (CAP, enroute chart, AIP), look it up, satisfy yourself that you have the correct answer, then present that answer. You don't get any extra points for speed but you do lose points for the wrong answer.

I'm not entirely sure how initial instrument rating checkrides are conducted (last one I did was 30 years ago), but the renewals usually follow this format:

a) Depart on a SID, then transition to the flight planned route.

b) Enter a hold somewhere before your first approach, make a few orbits.

c) Transition (efficiently!) from the hold to the first approach. By efficiently I mean don't carry out undue manouvering if it is not required.

d) Do a published missed approach.

e) Encounter some kind of small abnormality enroute to the alternate and deal with it (e.g. generator failure).

f) Make the second approach at the alternate (usually this is the precision approach), expect the engine to fail as you are intercepting the localizer.

Hope this information helps. Good luck with your ride!

Michael

[DanWEC]

Michael- Much thanks to you! That was a great encapsulation. I really appreciate that, and printed it out as a page on my study guide.
My ride date just got bumped a few hour ago to September 16th... ouch. I scheduled a refresher trip with my instructor a few days beforehand to keep things sharp.

Thanks again!

Dan

[PanEuropean]

Hi Dan:

September 16th - wow, must be busy in Toronto! I started phoning around to make an appointment for my ride last Thursday, and did the ride this Tuesday. I might have had an easier time because I supplied my own plane.

Here are a few additional thoughts, for what they are worth:

1) Seems that the period of validity of the TAFs for some of the major airports in Canada has been extended to 30 hours - this can make the TAF a bit confusing to figure out if you are not aware of this change - so, go to the Nav Canada web page, grab a TAF for Vancouver (YVR), which is one of the airports that has the extended forecast interval, and become familiar with the new format.

2) Every plane will have a power setting that achieves a certain level of speed and vertical velocity for a given weight. The whole trick to stress-free IFR flight is to know the appropriate power setting for what you want to do - for example, the power setting to achieve level flight at the desired holding speed, the power setting to achieve the desired rate of descent on a precision or non-precision approach (two power settings actually - one for both engines operating, and another for just one engine operating). If you know what these power settings are and have confidence in them, then the whole process becomes a lot simpler - you just set the power appropriately for the desired task (hold or approach), and trust that the aircraft will soon deliver you the speed and vertical velocity you want.

3) Likewise, every plane has a certain pitch attitude that will give you the desired speed in combination with the power setting mentioned above. Know what that pitch attitude is. When you want to achieve a certain speed (go-around speed, approach speed, etc.) you just put the nose where you know it belongs, set the power where you know it belongs, and for sure, the plane will co-operate and give you the desired performance. You won't be 'chasing the plane', instead, the plane will be doing what you configure it to do.

The power settings and pitch attitudes I refer to above will change a little bit depending on the weight of the plane. In general, the 'range' is smaller for smaller planes, and larger for bigger planes, simply because in smaller planes, there is less of a percentage difference between MTOW and typical flight weight. So, if you have not done so already, take note of what power setting/pitch attitude combination you need for the phases of flight you will encounter on the ride. In particular, there are some portions of the ride where you are expected to maintain a "declared speed" (you pick the speed), such as the hold and the initial approach speed, prior to transitioning to Vref.

Years ago, I used to teach at FlightSafety. We would often get groups of Scouts and Guides coming through on tours. It was really easy to teach a 12 year old to fly a plane - just stuff them in a full motion simulator and tell them "OK, to take off, put the power levers here, then, put the nose here and hold it there." Likewise, to land, "Just put the nose here, and pull the power levers back to here". The kids always did astonishingly well because they didn't know much about planes, but they sure could hold a pitch attitude and set power OK. Sometimes, we 'real pilots' make our lives too complicated by forgetting these basics.

Michael

[200hr Wonder]

Double check your hours if you are close... don't want to have to re-do a passed flight test... trust me I know.

[Bede]

Double check your hours if you are close... don't want to have to re-do a passed flight test... trust me I know.

I told my instructor when I had my hours, I got to the ride and had 36.x hours instrument + 4 hours sim. The sim flight was the very first entry I had in my log book and was an A320 sim from AC (went with a famil friend after my glider licence). The DFTE (back then) looked through the CAR's, but had no reason to disallow it. My instructor was furious because I "screwed him" out of 4 hours of multi instruction. This is after I shelled out $20K for a CPL/multi IFR.

[rhn4321]

Hey guys i am expecting my Group 1 Instrument Rating flight test in a couple of days time , i would really appreciate if you guys help me by letting me know what to study for the ground. The only reason why i am worried so much is because of "The Big Picture".

Any advice / suggestion are welcome.
Thanks guys
Regards

[lownslow]

Have you read the flight test guide? It's amazing how many people don't when you consider the guide is actually telling you everything you will be asked.

LnS.

[KAG]

When I got students ready for their rides, I would ask questions from every section of the CAP/GEN to make sure you had that down cold, go over a map and ask some general knowledge questions. We'd also pull out the plates and I'd ask some questions about the approaches we were to be doing.

[Widow]

Merged.

The search engine works. Please remember to use it.

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[metal]

Just be prepared for a thorough weather briefing and nav briefing. The examiner is there to determine that you have the skills to interpret and use all of the weather products available for you for planning of a safe flight, and a working knowledge of IFR procedures and how to use the plates / charts / piece of the CAP GEN. Remember that its open book; you can check through the CAP GEN for your answer, and even if you know that you have the right answer, verify it in there. Expect some questions on alternate minima, and cold weather corrections for sure.

[fly-drink-chicks-music]

I had,

Whats the minimum visibility required to taxi at, YVR.

Approach Ban question.

Can we shot the RNAV STAR into Victoria today? No, because we didnt have the Flight director to follow the FMS, moving map, etc. In whatever car that is.

Then we hit the skies