Odd Changes to IFR Currency Rules

Was reading my AOPA Pilot magazine and found the article on the proposed Part 61 changes. Along with AOPA, I find a couple of the ones relating to IFR currency to be a little odd:

  • Add one hour of simulated cross-country practice to instrument currency – here in SoCal, at least, you are mostly going to get your currency by simulation, either under the hood or on a sim. In either case you probably already get this as there aren’t many places you can do both a precision and a non-precision approach without flying “in the system”.
  • Require pilots to wear a “view-limiting device” while training on a personal computer-based aviation training device (PCATD) – this one really confuses me. What benefit does it give to wear a hood in the sim? In actual IFR I don’t wear foggles and the experience is much much better as my head is free to move around. The weak point with the sim is the lack of turbulence – perhaps a better suggestion is to force the CFI to shake your chair from time to time??

Commercial Written Passed!

Yes, I passed with a 91%!! Many questions I had not seen during my practice runs so I was anticipating a mid-80s score when I walked out, so I’m pretty happy. I had 9 subject codes on the sheet:

  • A20 Part 61 Certification – can only think of a SIC question but surely I got that right?
  • H912 Aerodynamics Forces Acting on a Plane – can only think this was about ground effect
  • H928 Powerplant – possibly to do with the geometric pitch of the prop
  • H948 Performance Charts – ack, what a waste, they should be easy!
  • H989 Radio Navigation – bet that was an HSI question
  • I22 Atmospheric Pressure – probably a density altitude question, I forgot the formula
  • I31 Common IFR Producers – damn advection fog question grrr
  • I32 High Altitude Weather – jet stream question, I knew where it was but not if it was weaker or stronger
  • J29 Potential Flight Hazards

All my pre-reqs are complete save for the most important one – flying to PTS standards.

Commercial Written Update

I’m still doing my near-daily practice tests over lunch, had a couple of 96% scores and most recently settled in the high 80s so I think I am ready. Just need to find the time to get to the test centre. Things that always stump me, no matter how much I try to remember:

  • location and effect of the jet stream in summer
  • glider towing currency requirements
  • fog types and effects

In some good news, some stock options I had in my previous company are being purchased and are enough to pay off my current car loan, thereby opening up the possibility of a few hours of extra flight time each month.

Two Good Blog Postings to Read

If you’re looking for a little reading this afternoon, we highly recommend the following:

  • Head over to Krista’s blog and congratulate her on becoming a pilot.
  • Read this account of how good training overcame a stuck right throttle somewhere over FL.

Not much to report here. I’ve scheduled a couple of bookings, one this week for currency, and then a weekend in April for us to go somewhere (maybe Big Bear). Also talking to Bob about getting checked out in the club’s 210 so I can take it on a trip to Albuquerque.

1.5 Hrs Sim Time

Extended my instrument currency this morning for another few months with an hour and a half ‘mucking about’ in the sim with my CFI. The club is sharing a Frasca 42 with the Anglo American flight school at KSEE so I got to see a different airport than usual. Rather than blaze through the usual route I wanted something a bit different today, loosen up some cobwebs:

  • VOR approach to KSDM usual take off from KMYF, vectors to the approach down to Brown Field. The sim has an HSI so I got my second look at those, I like ’em.
  • DME arc off PGY VOR haven’t done a DME arc since the checkride but, other than forgetting to turn 90 degrees when I reached 6.5 miles, it went very well. Bob had set up a 17kt wind from the west so there was some work to do in keeping close to the 6 mile radius.
  • Holds at RYADH intersection exited the DME arc on a straight shot to the fix. I got there so fast that I hadn’t yet looked at my entry procedure. Fortunately its an obvious parallel entry so I turned in the outbound direction and reminded myself how I needed to turn back in. The HSI seemed to make this much easier than usual. The holds went great excepting a little timer issues thanks to the westerly wind pushing me further out on the outbound leg each time.
  • LOC approach to KSEE partial panel Bob moved me to a position close to the approach and then failed the attitude indicator and DG. A few compass turns (always takes me a moment to remember to fly in the ‘opposite’ direction) and then vectors to the approach. I was doing a pretty lousy job and then it got a lot worse – you really need two navs to identify the timing point for the missed approach but the HSI was inop due to the partial panel so I only had one. This meant I had to keep flip flopping the nav frequency to check my position and in doing so my speed went up, my altitude went crazy and so on. I did manage to do a reasonable track of the localizer but I went past the airport before the timer went off.
  • LOC approach to KSEE back around for another go but full panel, much better this time, timer went off almost exactly over the field. I wasn’t able to maintain 90 kts but adjusted the time based on the ‘average’ 110kts I was actually doing.
  • ILS approach to KMYF partial panel a climbing turn out of KSEE and my panel failed again. I got established on the localizer but was having a lot of trouble losing altitude. 1100 rpm and 100 knots and I was still only getting 400fpm. So I was high most of the way down the slope, weaving in and out chasing the needle. Popped out of the clouds with the runway a little off to the left but thanks to some odd graphics on the screen I actually landed on a taxiway.

All in all a good workout and dusting off of some rusty skills. Now to get some flying in the real thing… time to find a safety pilot for the Archer….

So Much for the Resolutions

My PIC and night currency expire today. I had planned a flight home tonight for Valentine’s night with the wife which would have had the side benefit of giving me the one landing I need to extend another 90 days or so. But the storm system that has been sat over SoCal is taking its time to move out and the winds in the desert are unpleasant. Current METAR at my destination is 18 knots gusting 22 almost perpendicular to the runway, making it a 17 to 22 knot crosswind. I doubt I’d go if I was very current, but at night definitely not.

So thats number 1 resolution gone unless I can go up tomorrow and then no one will notice there was a lag.