Love partials? you s!!!ting me?
So, you practice the IR test route a few times, always arriving at 2000' to take up the hold, and the day of the test, you arrive then at the beacon, told to climb to 3000'! Uh OH!! Hadn't practiced that eventuality and it's those little kinds of things that throw you, in a helicopter! (it did me anyway)
Ok, so this is what failed me. You're on an NDB approach at Southend, the needle swinging freely in the breeze(x-wind then)
and you fly down to minima, ie something like 390' (or whatever it was), upon reaching which, you say nothing seen, going around! Spot the (un) deliberate mistake?
yes, I could have quite happily flown to the MaPt (doh!!) at said 390' but unfortunately was about 1/4 mile from it I guess!
My retest was a departure, back to the beacon, outbound, got radar vectors this time from London, no problem, for non precision app, turned inbound, airspeed 90kts, gs 40kts. x-wind 40 degrees off and avoiding a thunderstorm passing nearby.
Flew to minima, (told myself i'd stab myself in the leg if I got it wrong (costing £1000/hr remember )) and flew level to the MaPt whereupon I said to the examiner, nothing seen going around. immediately he took control and said "wasn't that hard was it?" 15 bl**dy minutes!!!
The retest only cost me an extra £6k with repositioning and test fee etc!
It doesn't take much to ruin your day really.
have fun! I hated every second of it.