Practice Makes Perfect

What a windy day, today! Yet, for December, having a day of 60 Degrees means flying no matter what. Today, my CFI (Shawn) and I took a "Practice/Mock" Instrument Rating Checkride. 

The 1st "task" on the checkride was to execute a DME Arc, which involves maintaining a certain distance from a navigation fix (in this case the Geneseo VOR), while flying an arc for vectoring or approach positioning purposes. I maintained 5 miles from the Geneseo VOR. Here is a video explaining the DME arc more, for those curious...

After I flew the DME arc, my CFI placed me into some "Unusual Attitudes." This means, he intentionally flew the plane into nose-high, nose-low, turning, slowing, etc. situations. My job as Pilot in Command is to make the proper recovery from these unusual attitudes, whether is be nose-down, wings-level, power-back...or raise-nose, add-power, level-wings. Being able to use the instruments to properly re-position the aircraft for stable, sustainable flight is key to safety.

Next up, we "shot" a VOR-A instrument approach into Canandaigua Airport (D38.) This invoved 1st doing a holding pattern over the Geneseo VOR, and then using said VOR to align/navigate myself towards the airport. Here is the VOR-A approach "plate" for D38...

A "non-precision" approach, the VOR-A does not align me with the final approach course of the Canandaigua Airport runway. This approach simply puts me over the airport and allows me to do a "circling" approach, once I have the runway environment in sight.

Once we went "missed" @ D38, my CFI and I had enough of being abused by the winds aloft, so we headed back to base @ KROC. I executed a final instrument approach into KROC, this time a "precision approach," the GPS-based RNAV for Runway 25...

As you can see on the plate, a precision approach aligns me with the runway, and also has more step-down fixes than the VOR-A. Both of my approaches went well, but getting the Cessna 172 (N904RA) to settle down on the runway was a bit of a chore today. The winds fought me all the way down, and she wanted to fly!

Overall, the "mock" checkride went well, but I have to improve on my cockpit flow/speed. I need to be able to do things without thinking twice. I am close to this, but just need a bit more practice. Thus, my CFI and I will fly once or twice more in the RedBird flight sim to practice this. Things are getting exciting, and I am very optimistic!