Passed Skills Test

[oinkoink]

I passed my skills test on Saturday..YIPPEE, Bit of a struggle as I had to do the circuits again after failing them on Wednesday,I found the GFT very exhausting and started making silly mistakes towards the end, hence the bouncy,bouncy landings and partial pass.Still have my RT oral to do ,had a practice test today and it all seems pretty straight forward. Hopefully pass that next week and then send all my bits and bobs off and wait for my licence..Is the RT as simple as it seems? Or did I have an easy example?
Oink,,

[Aussie Andy]

Congratulations Oink! Well done... I had a similar experience (partial fail and re-did circuits) in June... have been enjoying using the license since :p

The R/T test isn't too hard - just listen out for the "traffic", and be ready to relay the Mayday from third-party if need be!

Again, well done!

Andy

[ 01 August 2001: Message edited by: Aussie Andy ]

[PIC1DAY]

Nice one. Any handy tips? My test is in a week and I'm a little stessed about it. Not entirely sure what the format consists of - as far as I know there are no land aways. Not helped by my regular instructor moving on to pastures new.

Just passed the radio test. Recommend the tapes if you need to get a feel for it. The flight is pure fiction - made up names, map, etc.

[FlyingForFun]

Congrats OinkOink! So much fun stuff to look forward to now, you'll have forgotten all about your bouncy landings soon!

As for the R/T test, I found it very easy. I was fortunate to have an examiner who told me exactly what to expect before I started - don't know if they all do that tho'.

The trick is to take it slowly. (I thought I was taking it slowly, but the examiner told me afterwards that I was the fastest person he's ever examined except for qualified ATCOs, so there was obviously plenty of room to slow down more!) Try to visualise the situation before you open your mouth or press the button.

Also, don't worry if you mess up a bit. It's not at all realistic, and the examiner knows that it's not realistic and will allow for that.

In mine, I completely forgot to request something - I think it may have been a heading change. After a couple of minutes silence, the examiner realised that I wasn't going to request this heading change, and said "G-XXXX, would you like to request to head towards BlobField (or wherever)?" Oops! "Affirm, G-XXXX." He didn't seem to mind. I asked him about it afterwards, and he said that obviously I would have remembered in real life, because I'd have known that I was going the wrong way - it was clearly a problem with the unrealistic situation, and not that I didn't know how to do the R/T. Very sensible.

Anyway, good luck, although you should fly through it (pun intended!)


PIC, try not to get stressed, I'm sure you'll do fine. If you can, have a chat with the examiner - they're all different, and he'll be able to tell you what he's looking for.

My instructor taught me to do steep descending turns throttled fully back. When I met my examiner the week before my exam he went through the whole test, explaining what he wanted to see for each exercise. Got to steep descending turns, and he said he didn't understand why everyone did these with no power, that I should use a bit of power and make sure I keep the ROD below 1000'/min!

As for land-aways: you can ask the examiner to do the test in two parts: do the nav part first, then land, and then do the airwork part. If you do that, you may get a land-away at the end of the nav part. That's what I did (and screwed up a x-wind landing in the process!)

But as far as I know you won't get a land-away if you do it all in one go - maybe there's an examiner here who knows for sure??? Good luck, and let us know how it went!

FFF
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[bcfc]

Nice one Oink. I passed Saturday aswell and my landings were some of the worst I'd done in a long while...and I admitted it to the examiner. However, we had a stiffish sea breeze giving about 7-8kts of crosswind and I think he made allowances as I was pretty much on the centre line, knackered, stressed and generally in need of a cuppa.

For the radio oral, I'd recommend you plog a trip taking you through all the scenarios you're likely to encounter. e.g. from an a/g airfield, through a MATZ, transit a CTR, turn at a waypoint (for position report), radio ahead for weather, (it'll be poor) divert, rejoin to ATC, etc. I had to relay a mayday and also had to make a Pan call. Then keep practicing this using the format stipulated in CAP413.

My examiner was looking for competent, safe radio (i.e. didn't have to be in the precise order but he didn't want extraneous and unnecessary info). If you do this, I'm sure you'll be fine. Just surprised you did your skills test before your radio - my club made me do mine before my QXC. Must be a local thing.

Anyway, well done and best of British for the r/t. :D

[Little Fly Girl]

My instructor has told me to invest in an RT tape to help with my flying/exams. Problem is, nobody I know has got one/heard of them, and I'm not sure where to purchase one.... Any ideas?! Thanks :confused:

[bcfc]

Try here Flyingshop (http://www.flyingshop.com/fly/shop_007.htm) There are plenty other mail order stores but this is one I use. Personally, I didn't find the tapes much use - CAP 413 was the most useful book for me.

[FNG]

The tapes are dire. Get Cap 413. R/T is by far the easiest bit of flying. Do as much of the R/T during your training flights as you can, right from the start. If the flying/nav workload is heavy, your instructor can step in and do the radio for you and a good instructor will know when to do so and when to leave it to you. If your instructor wants to do all the R/T, get another instructor. Have fun.

[Capt PPRuNe]

Topic closed because 'oinkoink' has a duff email address (hotmail :rolleyes: ) and notification of replies are bouncing back to me! :mad: