Partial IR retest

[coodem]

I did my innitial IR skills test a few days back, and got a partial pass. Not the end of the world, could have been worse.

Overall I thought I had a good flight, It was a long one 2.3 hours in a DA42, as when I got to y destination East Midlands, there happened to be an aircraft that was lost and was not in contact with EM. So got 25 inutes of radar vectors

All went fine until I got back to Cranfield and I entered the hold, I did a parallel entry instead of a direct, there was only 10 degrees diff, hold and approach were fine.

So y question is how many people have done a partial. I am real nervous now, as been told if I mess that up, I have to do the whole test all over again.

Does it happen? I know people don't like talking about failures, but its just one of those things

[coodem]

Well had a surprise yesterday, There was an IR cancellation, and I was asked if I would like to undergo my partial, to which I agreed

It was a great flight, all went well and I got the IR

Just mae sure I did all the things the examiner mentioned in the partial debrief.

I was so happy to have that out the way now

[CAT3C AUTOLAND]

Well done mate, it's a great feeling isn't it?

Welcome to the world of professional pilots :ok:.

[spinnaker]

Was the join a complete balls, or was he just looking for a bit more flying to be convinced?

Years ago when I did mine, I got nailed for not identing the dme on the airway. I almost challenged the examiner, then he passed comment about my hold, at which point I totally agreed that I did not ident the dme and would be delighted if he would test me on the airway later that day. (diplomacy kicked in before it was too late) :ok:

Still, well done, the initial IR test is no easy task. Congratulations.:D

[saucy jack]

Good for you...now the fun starts.

A few years back I also partialled at Cranfield after a dodgy ILS and then to my horror failed it at the second attempt...the thought of a full re-test was almost too much to contemplate during the flight back to Stapleford.

After the failure I realised that my mental preparation had just not been up to scratch...it was just a 10 minute flight and the Examiner was already in the plane with one engine running when I arrived after a fellow student had just passed his partial. So there was no planning, pre-flighting and briefing as such which would normally help you to focus before the test. There was an element of hurry-up and I was not in "Exam" mode, more "Once quickly round the circuit" mode and this undid me.

For others in this situation I can only say put in the same level of preparation for the partial as you did for the full test and this includes mental preparation, don't let yourself be rushed, and you should be fine.

Re-did the full test and it was one of my best flights....including the memorable debriefing "That was satisfactory, why the heck didn't you do that last week?".

I learned from the experience, maybe others can too. It's never held me back since.

Best of luck to all!

[coodem]

My innitial "sector 4" join was actually very good. I had to extend it by 10 seconds, as I knew I was going to struggle to get the inbound track.

I think the other thing that did not help was that I only landed with approach flaps on my innitial, When I turned final after the circle to land, I felt really low, and being assymetric, I opted not to use the landing flaps.

Examiner said all my landing distances were based on the aircraft being in the landing configeration.

But thats all in the past now, I took all his comments on board, as they all made sense.

Now going to start my CPL and my FI, Going to be doing them at the same time