RT Oral exam

[roll_over]

Got this coming up pretty soon and I am pretty unsure about the whole thing. Aside from it feeling a bit odd, what am I to expect?

So far I am revising:

Matz penetration
Relaying Mayday
Mayday/Pan/cancelling
SVFR

Anyone got any input?

Many thanks!

[gasman123]

Did mine about a month or two ago- was given a map with a route going from major airport across island, then past danger area, through MATZ, then having to divert at the end. looked very intimidating at first, but really wasn't that bad after studying it. Lots of unnecessary info on chart.

All instructions were pretty clear.

"radio" had seven channels (1 to 7) each one given a different frequency.

Needed to know how to

Do all read backs - started off with ground, need to hand over to tower & then approach
Talk to approach at appropriate time
Change frequencies as usual
Do a practice pan, then cancel it
Get DAAIS
Request MATZ penetration

An alarm went at a random point meaning engine failure, had to do Mayday then cancel it.

Had to divert to alternate aerodrome.

Nothing was too difficult, but it was surprisingly stressful! Know your TPAIR/ TRPACER & NAAN IPPA & its OK

I had preparation time beforehand to write down everything I would say at the relevant points.

Hope that helps! Good luck

GM

[Whirlygig]

I had preparation time beforehand to write down everything I would say at the relevant points.
That is the most important! You are given quite a decent length of time (I can't remember now but it was around 15-20 mins). So plan your trip and write down verbatim (if you want) all your calls.

Remember the 5 Ps

Perfect Planning Prevents Pathetic Performance!

There is a version with 6 Ps but modesty prevents .... :O

Cheers

Whirls

[IO540]

The RT practical is an imaginary flight where they give you scenarios and you have to make the right calls. E.g. you are flying along and (the man tells you) you see a life raft down below, so you are supposed to make a Pan call and report its position (or a Mayday??). Later (the man tells you) you get a fuel leak, so you are supposed to tell ATC you are diverting to some other place.

The bit I found hard was knowing when to make calls because the exam is much faster than the flight could possibly be, so by the time you finished one call you have travelled 100 miles and they are after the next one :)

It's pretty easy if you know the call formats.

[DX Wombat]

Perfect Planning Prevents Pathetic Performance!
There is a version with 6 Ps but modesty prevents .... Whirls, the six letter version is: Proper Planning Prevents Pathetically Poor Performance. ;)
Gasman, TPAIR/ TRPACER & NAAN IPPA What on earth is all that lot about? Thank goodness I didn't have someone teaching me that sort of stuff, it would have driven me nuts!
Keep it simple, learn the order in which the information should be given and it will stand you in good stead - after all, you must have been making the calls during most of your training so far. If you can't remember it all in one go at the moment start by reciting the first couple of items, then, as you feel more confident, add in the others one at a time. There's a lot to be said for the return to having to learn some things by rote.

[jaycee58]

I took my practical a couple of weeks ago and found the examiner very helpful. He explained the entire procedure before we started, gave plenty of time to prepare etc.

As you probably know, you *must* get the mayday and pan calls (and cancellations) exactly right.

I never had to do a divert but did MATZ, SVFR, QDM, RIS, A/G station, AFIS station and full ATC as well as reporting points and the mayday, pan and mayday relay calls. Any cock-ups got a response along the lines of "was that meant to be a reporting call?" followed by me trying again!

You may find Safety Sense Leaflet 22 very handy as it gives an example of what to expect. You can find it here...

http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=33&pagetype=65&appid=11&mode=detail&id=1176

[Whirlygig]

G-EMMA, wash your mouth out with soap and water! :} :E DX Womby is obviously a lady and would never use such language as us!!! :p

From what I can remember, I had a MATZ crossing, a Pan call (drifting boat off the Blakeney coast!), a weather diversion and it all ended with an engine failure (at which point I knew the test was over not knowing whether I survived or not!).

Cheers

Whirls

[Mad Girl]

I had 2 airfields in Class A....

Called the main one to get SVFR... got ALL the way to the other which was the destination...around the circuit, making all the calls.... called final to land, number 2 and the one in front had a "simulated" accident on landing.. :ugh::ugh:

The examiner was in the next room and I could hear her splitting her sides laughing with the stream of :mad: I let off (without the PTT pressed)...

Then I calmed down... :O and called going around... checked how long the airfield would be closed... diverted to the first airfield etc etc etc.. and passed...

[BackPacker]

As soon as I was given the prep materials I took an empty plog and wrote down the headings, ETAs, frequencies and everything on the plog as if it were a real flight. That way I did not have to worry about looking at unfamiliar map formats and briefing papers to search for information, and it mentally prepared me for the flight.

As others have said, there are a few calls you absolutely have to get right: mayday, pan, "pass your message" and "report position". I also got a QDM and a mayday relay.

The other things is to mentally give yourself time. If flown in real life, the flight would last over an hour giving you ample time to plan your next ATC encounter (maydays excepted). When doing the R/T practical, after finishing an ATC conversation (a MATZ penetration, say), take a few deep breaths, look through the briefing papers for all the info you need, check you've got the right frequency selected, count to ten and then call the new frequency. I am convinced that you can rush through the whole R/T practical in five minutes or less, but it's not a race!