So I meant to update this prior to my Fundamentals Class last weekend, but I had too much going on and never got to it. I had my Instrument Rating oral about two weeks ago. I have to be honest, I despise oral exams because you are truly walking into the unknown. Every DPE is totally different, goes after different things, and considers different things important to them. My instructor had not had anyone take an instrument rating exam with this DPE so we truly were kind of blind. I arranged for the conference room at my FBO and went in as prepared as I could get.
I took some advice from the internet and brought a "checkride binder" with me that had all the important information. I put my license, medical, and ID in front to start. The next section had my IACRA and FTN information for access purposes and my logbook printout. I use the foreflight digital logbook, so it was simple to print out. After this information, I put a spreadsheet which I called my airworthy checklist. This spreadsheet had all the required documents, inspections, and other items needed for me and the airplane to be ready to fly. I wrote in all the important dates and tabbed out the logbooks to make it easier to confirm. The last section had my flight plan and performance data for the requested cross country planning.
The Paperwork
My DPE ran a bit late the day of the exam which made me a wreck waiting. It didn't help my nerves, but I have to admit, the minute he got there he began to small talk and try to make me comfortable. We spent about ten or fifteen minutes just discussing his history, the "ground rules", and required FAA advisories before we began. After this, I honestly was very distracted and felt much better. We took care of the IACRA paperwork, verified the aircraft inspections, and reviewed my logbook. This was my first "hiccup" of the day. The DPE was verifying the required items in the logbook and asked about my long cross country. In my long cross country, I entered it as one big entry, notating the two airports and all approaches in the remarks section. He said that I had to show the airports in the "From/To" field and made me make a pen and ink change to it. Not a big deal and we moved on from there to start the actual exam.
The Oral Exam
The exam started with the basic items of any checkride. We discussed the aircraft inspections, pilot currency, and some basic decision making regarding these items. My DPE was a big believer in what I refer to as "situational decision making". Many of his questions were leading to another topic or built up to the "big question" on each topic.
After we got through the aircraft and currency stuff, we moved into my cross country planning. He had me plan a flight from KFRG to KHFD (Republic to Hartford) and had previously given me his weight for weight and balance. I had done the planning the night before and utilized a published TEC route. This made things easy and we went down the TEC route and Preferred IFR route path for a few minutes. This was an easy discussion and we got into the "situational decision making" next.
We started to discuss a bunch of "what if's" about my cross country. We discussed low ceilings, NORDO procedures, weather, diversion, and navigation a bit. Most of it was pretty straight forward and leaned towards the basic regulations and knowledge you are expected. We went through fuel planning, reserves, and even a situation about diverting with low fuel and the airport you finally land at has no fuel. So we discussed options to make it back to the original destination, it was a fun conversation actually. We also discussed ways to get additional weather and resources available during flight, don't be afraid to ask for help (ATC or FSS).
After we beat my cross country planning up a bit in good fun, we moved onto weather. We discussed general weather terminology, discussed the metar, TAF, Sigmet, Airmet, and other weather concepts briefly. We then went on to a very thorough and long discussion about icing. This was a big conversation and lasted for awhile. It was obvious this was a big item on my DPE's list and we beat it up pretty good. One thing that I was briefly a bit stumped on was a question about performance during unexpected icing. He asked me how ice would affect performance and I discussed the change in airfoil shape, loss of lift, etc as I was expecting. He kept driving on about how to manage performance though during unexpected icing and was trying to get me to acknowledge reducing the visible wing in icing. His big point was that by climbing or descending at high vertical rates would expose a much larger surface of the wing and be a high risk of more icing. So the big item we were getting at was that if you end up in icing, you need to minimize your climb/descents to minimize ice accumulation.
We then went on to airport and approach markings. This was a pretty harmless topic where we discussed various markings, discussed plate and map symbols, and their meanings. It was really a three or four minute conversation as I was able to rattle them off quick and easy. I did make a small slip up about the runway edge lighting colors but we rectified that and moved on. The next question he through at me involved the runway edge lighting. He asked me to imagine I was on approach in low fog conditions and I ended up floating my landing. As I was trying to settle the aircraft down, I noticed the edge lighting change from the white to amber. He then asked if I noticed that what it meant. So I responded I was approaching the runway end and that I should immediately go missed at this point. He was happy with the answer but then he dropped the hammer, "At what distance does that color change occur?" I was not sure and I told him I thought it was three thousand. He asked if I wanted to check, so I said yes (assuming I was wrong) and immediately grabbed my Tabbed FAR/AIM. He took this moment to refill his coffee, but I found the answer in thirty seconds thanks to my tabs. Sure enough, the correct answer was 2,000 feet or half the distance of the runway if less from the runway end.
We then continued on this low visibility question and I just stumbled and confused myself about Special VFR. We discussed what it was, how to use it, and the appropriate requirements. However, when he asked me the visibility requirements, I confused myself and screwed up. I told him there were different requirements at night (I told him the correct answer was daytime) and mentioned the required Instrument rating. He looked at me funny, and I asked to confirm which he obliged. I corrected myself, smacked myself out of my stupor, and we wrapped up the exam. I had successfully completed the oral... thank god that was over!
After The Exam
We took a look out the window and noticed the ceilings were dropping and the windsock was fully erect. I pulled out my Ipad and sure enough, the ceiling was about 3000-3500 feet in the area and the wind was sustained at 30 knots gusting up to 40 knots. I immediately told him that we were not flying and requested the discontinuance. He laughed and joked that I didn't want to have fun in those conditions. We did the paperwork and rescheduled for two weeks later to try again.
Two Weeks Later....
Two weeks has come and my checkride was scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday). Well last night (Tuesday) the DPE called and advised he had an issue come up and asked to do it today (Wednesday) instead. I told him I was available but the weather didn't look promising. We said we would check and go from there. Of course, this morning came and the weather was rainy with ceilings between 2000 feet and 3000 feet once again. As well, the TAF showed lowering ceilings and temperatures were near freezing. ?Between the dropping ceilings and near freezing wet conditions, I had to request another reschedule. He totally agreed and understood and now I am scheduled for next Monday afternoon. Of course, tomorrow (Thursday) is looking to be a gorgeous day, too bad we couldn't do it. So I am hoping everyone will keep their fingers crossed that Monday turns out nice. Maybe the third time really will be the charm.
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