Singing The Instructor Blues Again
I'm going on the 3rd instructor in one month. My current instructor left for greener pastures at Sabena Flight Academy. Apparently, they are moving their operations from Scottsdale Airport (very smart move) to Falcon Field in Mesa. In addition, they have a brand new Part 141 program that is commencing in January. They have ordered a new fleet consisting entirely of Diamonds. DA20's for primary training, DA40's and DA42 Twin Stars. He's pretty excited about flying the new equipment, the benefits and the enviornment, so I can't blame him for the move.
On the plus side, I haven't been assigned a new instructor yet so it looks like I'll be off through Christmas. On the minus side, I haven't been assigned a new instructor yet so it looks like I'll be off through Christmas. Huh?
I should utilize the time to study and prepare for the checkride. I'm only a few hours away from being there. With Christmas and 3 children out of school for a few weeks, I doubt there will be sufficient time to study. I'm going to have to make the time.
Strong Areas: cross country flight planning, systems, maps, runway markings, emergency procedures
Mediocre Areas: Regs & weather (fog types always slip my mind)
Weak Areas: aerodynamics (I get it, just not good at explaining it), re-learning forgotten acronyms
If anyone has any tricks or helpful study methods for the Commercial Practical Test other than studying the oral exam guide and PTS, I would really appreciate it.
One other thing that concerns me: There is one DE out here that actually makes pilots compute the pivotal altitude while flying prior to performing Eights On Pylons. I know the formula is airspeed squared x 11.3 for knots or 15 for mph, but how the hell do you do it when you're flying ahead of time? I know in advance where I'll be doing it, the elevation is 1200 and I'll be in an Arrow I(MPH). The maneuver speed is 120 MPH, so I know that 120x120/15=960' which would make the pivotal altitude roughly 2,200'.
I just wonder if the DE will expect me to explain how I derived that number or if he'll want to see me calculate it in the plane. I would think it could be a bit dangerous distracting yourself that much for a simple maneuver, but I've heard that he really makes candidates do it.
2 comments:
It's unfortunate that the DPE you plan to use asks candidates to do pivotal altitude calculations while flying. Does he ask candidates to do this close to the ground? If so, that seems like an unnecessarily dangerous distraction and doesn't prove the candidate has an application level of knowledge or a correlative level of knowledge.
Remember that during the check ride, you are pilot in command. Anytime an examiner asks you to do something you think is unsafe or against the regs, use your 14 CFR 91.3 authority and tell him or her "Unable." Also tell them why.
Another idea would be to make up a table containing a range of airspeeds and pivotal altitudes ahead of time. When he asks you to calculate it, you can pull out the table and say you did that as part of your pre-flight planning and then ask "At what speed would you like me to fly the maneuver, sir?"
John,
This particular DPE would be my last choice, but sometimes circumstances prevail. From what I understand, he tends to be very nitpicky and loves to impress everyone by stumping over useless facts.
I would never let anyone compromise the safety of myself or my passengers. It is my opinion that unecessarily performing useless calculations such as pivotal altitude during flight in inappropriate and unsafe. I also think that eights on pylons is pretty close to the most uselss maneuver ever created. The DPE I am hoping to get doesn't even require them, according to the gouges.
I really like the idea of a making a quick reference chart. I could do that with Excel in 5 minutes.
Thanks,
Mike
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