Good thread, it sent me back to the early part of the log book.
The first part of the GFT commenced after hanging around all day waiting for aircraft and examiner to be available and all the Trial Lessons to get out of the way. After one hour twenty we ran out of daylight and airfield opening, so had to call it a day without doing the circuits.
I came back next day and made a complete hash of the circuits, including not recovering from bounces and trying to control the engine with the mixture instead of the throttle. There was obviously something wrong with the way I was flying. A few days later I had another session and went through all the types of circuit and landing without a problem, finally completing a CAA PPL GFT staggered over three days and 3.5 hours of flying time.
I’d echo what’s been said before, don’t fail yourself. Ideally you’ll have a good oral part of the GFT and that will give the examiner some confidence in your understanding, if not your actual hands-on flying.
On the FAA IR flight test I thought I was still supposed to be following the examiner’s vectors, rather than own navigation towards an intersection. Eventually there was a ‘Come left or you ain’t never gonna find that radial’ from the right seat.
Later on I’d completed an approach to MAP and was waiting to inform the Tower and start on the missed approach and vectors for the next ILS. Unfortunately someone had landed and blocked the Tower frequency with extensive questions about taxi instructions. At the examiner’s prodding, I started on the missed approach. This earned a major rollicking from the Tower for starting the Missed Approach without a clearance. There had been a fatal mid-air in the circuit the week before and they were understandably twitchy.
Finally on the ILS I must have been getting a bit flagrant with the odd peek under the Hood (based on the theory that one Peek is worth a thousand Scans). ‘It’s supposed to be a goddamn Instrument approach’ rumbled from the Right Seat. In the end it all went well, The examiner flew us back on completion of the test, which he enjoyed, as he didn’t get much hands on time. All my flying around there had been under the hood, so there was no chance I could find my way home visually, although I didn’t tell him that!
Good luck with the Flight Test.
Safe Flying