This week Bobby and Wally reflect on the one check ride they did together, Bobby's Instrument Rating Check Ride.
Bobby started his training to become a pilot in May of 2015. He really only thought he would get his private pilot's license and fly for fun. Like most pilots though, he quickly realized to be a better pilot, and to fly further he would need his instrument rating. On August 24, 2017, Bobby showed up at his flight school - United Flight Systems - www.unitedflight.com to meet his DPE, Wally Mulhearn. Today's show is a reflection of that day, and just a few tips and tricks to make your instrument check ride go smoothly.
Welcome to behind the prop podcast where each week. We will bring you stories lessons and some tips from behind the problem. Please subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts show checklist microphones, check out check complete recording all channels checked and verified pre-show checklist complete power Bravo. Tango papa is holding short ready for departure Bravo Tango Papa, you are clear for takeoff. Have a great show your clear for takeoff and Wilco Bravo Tango. What's up, Wally? Hey Bobby. How are you? I'm good. This is episode 1 first real show on our podcast behind the prop all things for general aviation pilots pilots cheeks airplane. Geeks all of us today. We're going to talk a little bit about a reflection of my check ride with you back in 2017. How Vivid you remember the deadly quite honestly, I I don't remember the day at all. I I did go in and I was able to find my plan of action for that day was April 24th 2017 and may I have it here in front of me? But I've slept over a thousand times since then, so, yep. I don't really remember it and that's a good thing because they, you know, the ones that I remember probably didn't go too. Well probably and I did pass that day so kudos for the examination and I was I was probably prepared. I I think every check right I've had now not done for and passed off for I don't care how prepared I am. I'm still a nervous wreck. I'm sure you see this all the time. How many people do you think are cool, cool and collected when they meet you on that day. Well, first of all, let me go back and say in in my 37-year Aviation career, you know, I've I've taken quite a few check rides myself off and there's still a little anxiety even from my standpoint so I don't walk in there and and I mean, let's face it. You don't want to embarrass yourself and we we have a little bit of self-pride and that's part of it but I would say I would say 80% of my applicants. There's there's a level of anxiety and I I do my best to calm them down. I just spent a little bit of time. Just getting to know each other tell me about yourself and I when I say that I don't know. I don't care about the aviation aspect of things if if you if you like dogs or you you like to play golf or you you like to water ski, just just tell me about that and and maybe at some point I can use that to relate in the check ride to you. But I very few people come in just totally unfazed by the check. Right? It's a big dog, you know does a big deal it's a big deal. It's a it's a big check or or wad of cash Ira see, I mean, it's a something that you don't want as you said to embarrass yourself, but you also don't want to make sure what I would call a simple mistake that $500 button. I mean, I still remember working on my instrument. I think I was thinking about that button before I I got to the airport that day. It was for an instrument check, right? It was the most beautiful weather day ever. The density altitude was probably negative a thousand feet. I mean we probably had dead. The best Lift-Off ever. I had I had the best are in the world and there wasn't any wind to go with it. Not a single cloud in the sky. So probably the easiest instrument ride that some from a month other perspective. But I remember coming with that day thinking what if I not done what have I not prepared for and probably studied every little cheat sheet in the world and probably read every every word in the page. That was probably still a pts back then and was prepared but still I know and I joked with another DP recently, you could probably fail just about anybody else if you wanted to on a check ride just basic mistakes. Yeah. Yeah. The the ACs now is is or the pts back then but the ACs now pretty much. Outlines the standards for everything and just because somebody doesn't meet a standard and it is unsatisfying a checker. I'd certainly doesn't mean dead. There an unsafe pilot they may be a a safe pilot and they they've made a mistake, you know my Airline job. We we stress that there's no such thing as a perfect flight and in fact at the end of every flight, we we debrief the deep breath may not be significant in length, but we do talk about what went well and what didn't go so well and what we could do better next time so you take every flight and and reflect back on it and and see what you can do better and try not to make that mistake again.
So I remember that day coming in here. I was a student pilot at the flight school that I now own here at David Wayne Hooks airport, and we have a nice check Rack Room in the back where we conduct all of our check rides and the student applicant meets. The designated pilot examiner. Probably wasn't quite as nice of a room back in those days as it is today we've dog Little upgrading but I had the room ready. You know, I had I think had all the logbooks out or had him in there somewhere. I had Everything tabs out. Most everybody listen to this podcast. He's probably preparing for a cried has done a lot of those same things as a guy that's at a flight school every day and seeing people get ready for check rides. I think the mistakes that I see are trusting other pubs tabs, you know. Hey, this is this says hundred hour and it stabbed hundred our some of the trusted and I get a lot of people running down the hall like, oh, I don't see the right sticker. Where's this at? How much how much prep do you think a student should do to get ready for one of those check rides. I think quite a bit. First of all, the first thing that we need an examiner have to do is we have to qualify the applicant we have to qualify the airplane. So the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to ask the applicant for their dead. Required documentation photo ID pilot certificate medical Knowledge Test results a logbook entries or endorsements and entries that sort of stuff. So we're going to spend some time going through that and I would say on a good I don't know. This is just a taken away. I got it but thirty-five to forty percent choice of my check right applicants. There is a an issue with all this now in out of those thirty-five to forty percent in nineteen ninety nine point, you know, ninety-nine percent of them. It's fixable, but you know, I'll have an applicant present me with a log book where none of the pages are signed and I say well that's the equivalent of sending giving me a check that is not signed. It's basically worthless. So we sit there for a few minutes while the applicant goes through and signs every page of their log. I may see an entry where the or a log book maybe a student pilot an applicant for a private pilot certificate. I I see a cross-country trip where they did their night cross-country and I see a log there but there's no time logged in the cross-country column. So there's a lot of lot of minor things like that that are fixable but right off the bat the first impression that I get and and I'll try not to do this but I'm a human and I see that and I think well, okay. This applicant is not paying attention to the detail and I I will tell me that it does not hinder my ability to objectively evaluate them but more so than not it it it puts the applicant wage. Erases there and anxiety level and so right off the bat there thinking. Oh my gosh. I've already I've already messed up and we haven't even officially started to check ride. We I see this a lot with the maintenance records. I will say okay show me that we have an error. We are where the airplane and they'll go look for the the annual inspection on a look over there and they're and they're propeller log book and they give you confidence. They've looked at those books a lot. Yeah. Well, it tells me they haven't looked at it and probably what happened probably the day before their c f I sat down with them and just showed him everything. So what I I think they need to do is they need to go find the books themselves and and then find find the countries after their instructor showed it to him. Basically a dry run, you know, no doubt come out the day before and go through those logbooks find all the required inspections wage. And you know fly that airplane the day before make sure you're in the airplane that you're going to do the check ride in I have been a check rides where we have taxied out and the applicant doesn't know how to work the audio panel and they look over at me and they they discontinued because they can't figure out how to contact the tower.
Wow. Yeah, I think that as a Private Pilot. I probably wasn't comfortable alone going through all the logbooks before my checkered think my my instructors did a pretty good job of teaching me but I would say this day we're reflecting on was really my extra ride. I should have been able to do everything by that point. Right? You're you're upwards of one hundred plus hours at that point. You you probably flying other people's planes. I think I see a lot of people come jump in my own planes that I know are all are worthy and and have dog Maintenance, but I'm not sure I'm going to go jump in somebody's playing that I'm not taking a hard long. Look at those logbooks and made sure that that it's the first flight after a Wings been replaced wage an example. Like I'm going to be I'm going to be letting somebody else go first. So I think you should no matter what stage you're at in your Aviation career. You should feel confident about going through the logbooks understanding what's required understanding the Ingo check those that you have some plan of attack to review the a DS and that the a DS are in compliance and if you don't what what should you do Wally? Yeah, I the you know, I if I'm in an airplane that I am unfamiliar with, you know, I work with several flight schools here and I am um fly in the same airplanes almost weekly. So I'm actually familiar with the airplanes themselves. But if I am in an airplane that that I'm unfamiliar with I definitely me personally for self-preservation. I am digging much more into looking at these inspections and you know just for engine help page of the first thing I'm going to look at is the compressions of the cylinders and just see what kind of airplane I have. I'd like to know, you know, how how how old is this a person or or what's what's the time on the engine? Right? So I'm going to look back at things like that. I I had the opportunity to give a gentleman a check ride just a few months ago in an airplane. And I asked him to see the annual and he he looked at me and he said well, I don't I don't have an annual and my eyes got really big and I thought well, what are we doing here? And then he told me that the airplane was two months old nice and I went wow, I guess I guess we don't have an annual on a two month old airplane. So how bout an hour? Yeah. No it didn't it had airplane had eighty hours. And so that that was kind of a nice surprise. That's the so I'm let's role-play for saying I'm an instrument student. I don't feel comfortable. I mean obviously I should ask for some help right? I should go find a CFI go find a chief pilot or instructor somewhere and say look, I want you to help me feel comfortable reading these books. They're not that complicated. Right? They they've this is not new stuff. This has been around forever. Yeah. It's it's it's pretty once you're used to looking at it. It's it's a club. Pretty simple, you know a lot of the these airplanes we have at the flight schools have been around a while and they'll have multiple books. So obviously the the the if you have took two engine logs, you want to find the most recent one and really start from the back don't don't start at the front the front may have been four years ago. So so found the latest entry see what that is and and go backwards and you know, you can usually find everything that you need to do from from that standpoint. But again, when we are to the point where we are looking at log books, I mean, we haven't even started the checkride yet. As I said, the first process is to qualify the applicant the second is to qualify the airplane. So at this point, you know in a sense you're not under the gun you are under the gun from the standpoint if if you can't show that the airplane is airworthy we're not going to we're not going to fly off. But this is still in the qualification phase so I had all those books all those things flagged all those things taken care of. We've got some nice checkride checklists off the school here. If you don't have one. I'm sure you can find something online that will help you get through everything to make sure you're prepared as you said on the dry run the day before and then I think I tried to take steps to make the room feel comfortable for both you and me right whether I took water back there. I don't remember what I did on that day, but I would have I've done some crazy things I think on my multi-engine checkride. I had a bunch of breakfast and stuff. I'm sorry. You didn't get that on my instrument ride, but I wanted to make sure that the DP felt very comfortable and was well-fed that day for for what we were about to go through but what what I guess from that prep perspective, I've heard no books people should make note books and binders.
We recommend that around here anything to consolidate the information. I'm assuming helps the DPE and you you also kind of God. Mindset that this person is pretty prepared. Yeah, you do a lot of people come in with binders and they have everything there. I'll tell you one thing. That is that that I like a lot is often. Someone has taken the time to go out to the airplane and they snap a picture of the airworthiness certificate and the registration and then print it and then show it to me now. I'm going to look at it again when we get to the airplane, but one thing that I I cringe at is when I I'm in the room and and the applicant presents me with the airworthiness certificate and the registration back is my first my first thought is oh my gosh, we're not going to go fly for another 2 and 1/2 hours. I hope somebody is not renting the airplane and about to take off right now. So that would be bad. I'll usually how the app leave the room right now right then and say take these documents back to the airplane because we all know it could be easy to overlook that in a you know in a month. flight and and maybe not even have it on board the airplane so that that says a lot when the applicant does that and it's it's just the little things its first impressions and usually usually somebody that's that's well-organized in in that kind of thing is well organized in their thoughts and the checkered usually goes pretty well. I I've never done a a formal poll, but I would think the the pass rate of people who are organized life that is probably higher than people who don't yes, no doubt and for me that day, I recall I really recall once we kind of started the conversation that we had thought. You asked me in a very positive but challenging way. What are you going to do with this and we had a good conversation about what I why I was getting instrument-rated. I have family in 2017. My daughter would have been in April of 2017. My daughter would have been graduating in May or June there and going to college so dead. She's a junior now, so she should have been graduating then and that was the plan was to be able to go to Austin watch UT football games it participate in some fun activities and not get stuck. I mean at the most rudimentary level for a guy who still at that point didn't see much Beyond getting my instrument rating. I just didn't want to get stuck in Austin with a hundred foot long layer. That was 3,000, you know, 2,500 feet in the air right to prevent me from flying home. So that was it and you weren't discouraging of that. You didn't you didn't you didn't seem will think bigger Bobby. It was just a calm cool conversation about kind of what I wanted to do and we talked a little bit about my work and you shared Pilots for patients cuz I told you I did want to give back even back then and we we talked and I think I know, you know this, but that definitely gave me a few minutes to settle in most like we just talked in these mics to settle ourselves in for our first episode that does a life mate some anxiety for people and it put me at rest or it calmed my nerves for sure, right? Yeah, I definitely I want to know what the applicants objective is dead. You know. Do you want to be a professional pilot? Do you aspire to fly for an airline? Do you want to fly corporate office? Do you want to be a crop duster? Or are you getting this instrument rating because like you, you know, maybe your grandkids live in Alabama and you want to make it more conducive to being able to get over there to to see the grandkids and and I definitely Taylor the ground portion of the check ride to your situation. I'm probably going to walk. I don't know there's there's just things that I might talk to someone who might be an aspiring airline pilot that I I wouldn't talk to a somebody like yourself about again, I think from there we did at some point you probably well. I remember but I remember what it was but you probably ask me a question. Like why would you find one alternate like we we kind of got into the questions right of the check ride and again remembering that I was prepared that day. I don't think there was too much there was not I remember my private checkride.
I stumbled a little bit higher wage. Had to give myself calmed down take a minute check something in the fa books gather myself, and then tell the story or give the answer right instrument day. I don't remember too much of that on my on our dialogue and the oral kind of came and went so assuming in your history that probably meant I was prepared pretty good oral. I guess I I like to trick my applicants into doing the check ride. And and I I used that phrase because I tell them after it's done. I say look when if I do this, right, you're just going to feel like you just talked about a flight with a guy for a couple of hours and especially maybe more so on the the Private Pilot or the commercial we're going to cover every aspect everything that we need to cover as per the ACs is going to be covered within the context of a flight in other words. We're not going to sit here and say, okay. Well we're done with weather. Now, let's move on to systems. We're not going to do that. We may hit a weather element bulb and then a systems element and then another weather element then an air talk about air space and then talk about physiological things off and at the end we're going to talk about at all, but we're going to talk about it within the context of a flight and I tell my applicants that I may ask you questions that Don't have black and white answers. I'm not going to I'm not going to say how many wings does the airplane have I'm not even going to say how many you know. How many propellers does it have? I'm just going to add I'm going to ask you questions. Okay, if we happen to be located right here in this position at 5500 feet and walk you have this indication in the cockpit. What are you going to do? And there are hundreds of right answers. Maybe the right answer is I'm going to continue on to my destination am going to divert over here or I'm going to divert over there and and they're all right, and it might not be what I do what I would do but and that's okay. That's okay. You can convince me off and if we differ I'll will talk about in the the debrief. Yeah, I remember the oral part being pretty calm cool and collected a good dialogue and again prepared but it was I think it was just explaining my flight my thoughts the the challenging questions that are going to derive an answer to something that I said. Learned like when should I file an alternate? What rules am I bound to fly that file that alternate? What would that alternate? What would be my decision? And I think I remember that somebody taught me to always have an alternate short of my destination and we talked about that. Why and you probably learning to your probably asking to learn if I really know why I'm doing it or if I'm just doing it out of his office or someone told me to do it. And yeah, all those things probably make better pilots and then I I don't recall the the dialogue or the interaction. I discontinued my private because of winds it was fifteen gusting 28 or something. That was not good. So I did discontinue that but we went right out to the aircraft and I'm sure I prefe lighted like normal and she can probably hundreds so hundred twenty hours at that time and we took off and flew in a plane that I was very comfortable and at that time I had flown it significantly and it's a good plane and good GP. Some good HSI and we went out and flu and I the flight I think I was more worried cuz I knew it was going to be I guess packed with two dues, right? There's a lot of tasks that saturate a young man or young pilot on a tech writer for the instrument and we are if you're listening to this outside of Houston, their space is pretty crazy. This might be the worst you probably more experience than I do but Houston for a ga pilot David Wayne hooks. We're right underneath the Bravo. We have another big airport just north of Conroe and then we have InterContinental. We're inside the 20 mile Loop here, right? So we're real close to big jets just a few few hundred. Sometimes hundred feet above us back and we went that day. We we had to go East so we were going like right towards that airport. I remember and then did some things around a VOR track some radials all pretty basic wage. Stuff but I told you right for the recording you you did have me do something for the first time and I I played it off pretty well. My partial panel was not the standard GPS guidance that I was used to doing you covered something up and I did a partial panel VOR approach and if you're if you're listening to this and you've never done some of these things you should really ask your see if I had a challenge you on more than one thing that you do over and over and over again on the same heading at the same airport because that might not be what happens on your check credit very Wily.
Yeah, exactly. And that's unfortunately the VOR approaches are going away. We have two very close to this airport. The one that you did on your Checker. I was the VOR Alpha two-six Romeo 3 Cleveland Texas that off each doesn't exist anymore and the VOR approach into Navasota. If I'm not mistaken is it's on the list. I think it's on the list. It's still it's still here, but it's dead. It's going to go away at some point. So it's we're going to get to the point where it's going to be harder and harder to find the the those view our approaches and that's okay. We just will just adapt to it and and do some other things but you're right a an instrument checkride depending on the Wind here in in Houston. If we're landing South a lot of times we end up doing an approach up in Conroe and then coming down and doing an approach to David Wayne Hooks and I think the airports are about fourteen miles apart. So the things happen in Iraq, they happen in very very very quickly. Yeah. I think you're like maybe maybe eight miles off the final course meaning Connor of offset a miles. So you might be fifteen Miles from hooks but you're only eight miles offsets you turn right out of Conroe again southbound your your inner set your needless probably start moving fairly quickly and you have to be really ready. Yeah song And I do recall that being part of the check, right? So we went I think we went we went Cleveland Conroe back to hear and things can't happen quick and wage. I remember probably in the debrief something being mentioned about not turning right when I was told to turn writing some stuff down trying to set up the plane and then I hear something I just met but as a professional pilot, you know, they're expecting you to turn in the debrief and I had never thought about that, but I can tell you every time I'm giving a heading I do turn first now and I'll get back to that debrief on that check ride to think the guy sitting there watching a screen is telling me to turn for a reason and he's not wanting me to spend 30 seconds even writing it down and contemplating it off if I'm able I should probably start turning first. Yeah, and I I will say two applicants in a debrief. I'll say why do you think the push-to-talk switch is located on the job? Look, it's so that you can push that button and maneuver the airplane right the same time. So yeah, and he is expecting that and and then as you get more experience need to learn to hear urgency in the guy's voice because there are some times when there's a little bit more urgency and a little bit more urgency means let's let's turn this airplane to let's let's turn it now and if it's five degrees or ten degrees that's a big difference than 30 or 40, maybe sixty degrees. There's a reason while you're trying to point that thing in another direction, right? So I approached land come inside. I think every applicant that I see walking inside some things have changed. Sometimes they know in the whole plane, but they're still not sure if they've passed when they're coming in the building right? And I remember that day thinking I don't think I missed anything, but I don't know if I've made it and everybody kind of winking at me and thumbs down. Thumbs-down. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, I I try to tell the applicant in the airplane and and it's usually a handshake with a commercial applicant. I present them with a dollar bill and they they usually look at me like what is this and I say, well you tell me what it is now go your your give me a dollar and I said, yeah, it's the your your first dollar that you earned as a professional pilot and and a lot of people ask me to sign it and they tell me they're going to frame that dollar bill and and and that's kind of cool. So it's just a a small gesture you I don't know you give me a few hundred dollars. You'd think I could give you more than a $1 bill, but I actually had one applicant that I found. I looked at my wall and I didn't I didn't have any cash. So I I had to ask the applicant if I could have some money and and he reached in this wallet. He had a five and so yep. He gave it to me and then I gave it back to him so nice. I'm sorry about that, but I didn't have any cash with me that day. So the the owner of the flight school before met Bob Watts. Hopefully you're out there listening to the show somewhere.
He has always given a new CFI their first dollar when they teach and I've carried that tradition on and I share those pictures on social media around here. I think it's a big deal. I think all those milestones in that what this is all about. I mean even a guy who's been flying for a major airline for 30 years is still achieving something as you as you fly those planes around the world whether it's one more hour in your log book or one more destination. We're all looking for that accomplishment. Monday was a great day a past my instrument checkride. I remember it vividly on a clear day thinking okay. I'm not going to get stuck anymore and as a private who was working on it I had been dead. Prevented from going places. It did hold me back. And not only I never had to go anywhere. But what I really reflected on once I was an instrument-rated pilot was now I am so much safer than I was out for ya. You think well, I'm A Private Pilot. I'm a really good Private Pilot, but you learn so much when you work through your instrument then I got my commercial and I thought wow, I didn't really know that much either when I got done with my issue then I got my multi and I thought wow all this stuff is really coming together and I'm up in this 250 our range and I'm just cuz I like to keep getting better. I'm working on my CFI stuff today and I can't lie. I don't know that much at all. Really when you start diving into teaching the concepts and we got a lot to share in a lot more to pass along. But today we thought for the first episode it would be cool. If we reflected on my check ride with Wally and some of the things we've done together as a related to that day anything as we wrap up today, Wyoming mountains sounds good, buddy. All right everybody. Thanks for laughing. Into the the podcast behind the prop until next week do cool things be safe as you sit behind the problem. Thanks rubber Tango Papa. We are clear the active Runway and would like to thank you to park Bravo Tango Papa back to the park great. She'll have a nice day. Thanks to the park. Thanks. You, too, Thank you Papa. Thanks for listening to behind the prop. Please follow us on social media at behind the problem or visit our website www.apple.com until next week. Fly safe everyone.