Ab-initio EXAM-RELATED INCIDENTS

Summary:

Post here any incidents that have occurred to you during a flight test, and help out fellow pilots with theirs.

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No radio calls up north...

JDPerezgonzalez 23 Oct 2008 03:08

[In behalf of Anonymous user, originally posted on 20 Oct 2008]

It was our first flight exam, S1FE1, just a handling check in one of the training areas. I was already nervous about doing the exam but what made me especially nervous was that I was scheduled with one of our Senior Instructors, usually these flight exams are done with B-Cats! I took off on 07 and was following all of his instructions, did my radio call overhead Bunnythorpe and exited to the Northern Training area. I switched Comm 1 onto Fielding Traffic (124.1) but forgot to make a position report. In fact, I forgot to make any radio calls at all during the flight and only realized when I was switching back to PM Tower. Even though my flight went well, I guess I was just so nervous that I focused so much on following the flight examiners instructors. I was sure I had failed.

Last edited on 23 Oct 2008 03:09 by JDPerezgonzalez Show more

Re: No radio calls up north...

JDPerezgonzalez 23 Oct 2008 03:10

[In behalf of charliemikehotel, originally posted on 21 Oct 2008]

It's funny how the basic things go out the window when you're stressed during a flight test! On my S1FE1 my first mistake was forgetting to turn the boost pump on before start-up!! I swear every other time I'd ever started the plane I turned the boost pump on before start-up….except for S1FE1!! Glad it wasn't a fail point…

Re: No radio calls up north...

Anonymous (60.234.195.x) 10 Nov 2008 05:36

I totally agree wih you… i feel that we should just have tests but they should not be mentioned to the students to make them all worked up and stressed….

i have had two of my flights tests by 2 instructors claiming that they were normal flights or mock flights so it doesn't really get to you as much as a actualy test flight…

descend in controlled airspace without clearance

faddy 23 Oct 2008 11:47

It happened in my CPL NAV check (S2FE??). It was a really long flight from PM-taumarunui-NP-WU-PM, including some more way points in between. Had a short break at NP then off to WU for a standard overhead rejoin, did a touch and go then requested control VFR back to PM. When I was at about 2500ft and 15NM from PM i called ohakea and requested descend into PM, he cleared me to descend unrestricted at rangotea. At that time I was pretty exhausted and relax because It was a really long flight (3.8) and I've done all the procedures required in the test (Situational awareness decrease). The sky was quite clear on that day but suddenly out of no where there is a patch of cloud appears in front of me! My natural reaction is to close the throttle and check forward, plus I was in a flight test and I knew that if I flew into that cloud Im screwed. Straight after I close the throttle and checked forward, the examiner asked me " What are you doing?? You are in controlled airspace!" At that moment i thought i would have failed my test straight away but luckily i was just at the edge of rangotea haha as the examiner told me at the debrief.

Reason:

1.I was really fatigue at the point where this happened as the flight was so long.
2.My situational awareness goes down because Palmy is right in front of my eyes.
3.I knew that the chance of passing the test is quite high.

Advice:

Do not relax, until you have passed the test.

Too relaxed...

onion41 23 Oct 2008 12:17

I too had the same experience. It was during my flight test (S2FE) and at one stage I was told to do a direct diversion to Palmerston North. It had been a long flight and I was quite tired. I did all the procedure for a diversion and it was spot on. Directly to the aircraft’s nose, I could see Palmerston North. So I decided to fly visually back to PM. On track back to PM, I decided to descend so that I don’t bust any airspace. Soon I descended to my desired altitude and the tester said “You just failed your flight test because you busted a military airspace”. I was shocked. I did everything correctly but got too relaxed and didn’t check my diversion track which crossed a small military airspace. If I had been more aware and didn’t get too relaxed, I would have noticed the airspace in the map and avoided it.
I failed that flight but I learnt a very important lesson. Do not relax until you are on the ground and have passed the test.

Flight Test, airspace bust

JDPerezgonzalez 23 Oct 2008 22:14

[In behalf of Anonymous user, originally posted on 21 Oct 2008]

All excited that I passed my ground work for my S1FE2 (PPL Nav check) I climbed into the aircraft all ready to go. After doing my ‘before take-off’ checklist, I noticed when lining up that the DI was not aligned. I said that I would do that once airborne. Turning towards Bunnythrope (07 departure) I was asked by the instructor / testing agent, “where are we going?”. I reached into the back of the aircraft, whilst climbing, to get my flight plan. Once that was on my lap I was correcting my DI that as not aligned. Leaning forward to make sure it was correct the instructor closed the throttle and pushed the nose down to descend. I immediately looked at the altitude and I was in OH airspace without a clearance – an instant fail on any flight test.

I should have been following one of the first rules that they tell us – aviate navigate then communicate.

Re: Flight Test, airspace bust

Anonymous (60.234.195.x) 10 Nov 2008 05:43

this is true that it happens at times that we get fixated on something or we leave somethig for later that it catches us of gaurd many a time…
i had this once that i was i a similar situation but i was too fixated on finding an aircraft that was doing circuits and i wanted t be well off their way… that i started climbing into OH airspace and was told of by my instructor to not get fixated….

Arrival Procedures

Anonymous (118.92.112.x) 27 Oct 2008 22:57

This occurred during S1FE1 which is the first flight test we sit. I did not fly for the entire practicum week before the test, so including the lecture weeks that means 3 weeks of not flying. I did fly a dual the day before my test. Whether that is current enough I do not know.

Everything was satisfactory so we headed back to Palmerston. Runway in use the day before my test was 25 and on test day 07 was in use. On my dual we had a university arrival for 25 so I did the briefing for that as part of TOD check. On the test day I had a long burn arrival for 07. Both arrivals pretty much means fly towards the threshold and achieve short finals (good airmanship to not clog up traffic).

On the test day passing Longburn I was recleared city arrival. I replied and started flying towards the city. I did another TOD check with the briefing but obviously it did not stick to my head. Combining with the mindset of 'straight in the runway', lack of flying and yesterdays straight in 25. Overhead the city I wanted to turn right for a left hand downwind for 25 despite 07 being in use. Obviously the examiner took control and stopped me, landed the aircraft too. How nice.

Things I will do differently with the experience I have now:

*Its good to do the checks (TOC/TOD etc), but actually think about what you are saying. (It is better on navs because you're on aerodromes you are unfamiliar with, but when its back in palmy you tend to be more relax.)

*Bug the DI with runway in use, if your arrow is pointing towards the runway you know you are sweet.

The second advice may seem obvious but it saved me from failing CPL. Being real stressed, changed runway and alot of traffic, on city arrival for a second I hesitated at knowing to turn left or right, bugging the DI solved that problem for me.

PPL NAV

Anonymous (118.92.112.x) 27 Oct 2008 23:15

First nav test. Great.

The nav did not turn out too good, weather was primo but I was really nervous. The examiner I had was not known to be particularly relaxed so it did not help. Everything was satisfactory, couple of minor mistake but nothing that meant I failed. I was told to do a lost procedure and it took me a long long time with the help of the examiner himself to find where I was. Anyway after I found myself I was told to head straight back to Palmerston and we will land. I asked if he wanted to go to Rataihe (our next destination) first and he said no.

We would of been west of Rataihe, but on my map I drew a line from Rataihe to Palmy. The terrain there is quite hard to map read so I relied on the time/distance principal quite a lot. In the end it turns out I was constantly around 5 miles south-west to where I think I was. So with that by the time I was planning to descend for airspace I was pretty much on the edge of it. Examiner took control and told me the airspace is here and had we continue we will breach it.

Looking back, things I would do now:

*learn to use Nav equipment such as VOR/DME/NDB. Its a tool and its there for you. I was never taught it but I should have asked. Some instructors taught their students and by the sounds of it it helped.
*Dont stress too much, PPL Nav = make it home without busting airspace, you can do few mistakes and its ok.
*Draw lines on the map correctly. Not hard but under pressure silly mistakes like that happen.

Re: Ab-initio EXAM-RELATED INCIDENTS

ALAMAKstress 07 Nov 2008 09:06

this flight exam occured during my first semester flight test which was a navigational flight.it was planned to wellington and we had to fly overhead paraparaumu. i was nervous but tried my very best not to show it. everything was going fine and soon the nerves settled down and i felt very in controlled in my flight test. i knew that i was approaching paraparaumu and at the altitude i was flying 2500 feet if i can remember correctly, was not required to give a radiocall as i was 500ft above the mbz(mandatory broadcast zone). so i did not give any and continued with the flight. i kept a listening watch and made sure i knew exactly where each and every plane which was reporting was. throughout the entire flight i felt it was all going really well and felt really happy for my performance. the instructor did not seem unhappy and kept talking. but during our debrief i was told that i failed as i did not report my positions and even though is was not required it was for safety. so after knowing my result, i made a complain to my primary instructor as i knew what i did and did not find it a failing point. i was then given a chance to redo it again and i passed.!! yeah!

Re: Ab-initio EXAM-RELATED INCIDENTS

ALAMAKstress 07 Nov 2008 09:17

as a newbie, i was unaware of many things that happened and was done in massey. i just knew that you had 2 chances to a test and so i tried my best for it all. but this flight occured on on e of my tests and i think it was very unfair on the part of the instructor. it was a navigation flight and knwoing it was a test made me nrevous but he brought a friend along and said that he ws my passenger and i had to bring him around. we were in the first semester of flying and having a passenger (someone you are not familiar with ) during a flight test made it worst. it was a PPL standard flight test and yet it was treated as a CPL test. i found this entire test a joke and was very unhappy as whatever was planned was not followed and in the end the instructor took control of the aircraft during my test to show me manoeuvres that i will learn in future just to show the passenger(his friend) what he teaches students. he then diverted me from my flight track and made me show him places which i have never been to as well. also with a pssenger on board, we did forced landings and engine failures after take off. when i came back and told my friend about it , he told me to tell my instructor as that was unfauir on his part as we were not taught to fly at that standard and the flight test did not follow the strict and proper procedures. so i did.

my instructor was shocked and told me that it was not a proper behaviour and told me to take that as a gf flight instead. i found the entire test very unprofessional and also unfair.

Flights over Water with Low Cloud Base

Anonymous (60.234.221.x) 08 Nov 2008 01:36

This incident occurred when I was doing my flight exam. I was supposed to fly from Palmerston to Nelson via Kapiti Island. As I arrived to Kapiti, the cloud base dropped to 1200 ft cross the straits. At that point I knew I wasn’t able to track to Nelson given its surrounding high terrain, I was than diverted to Omaka instead. Under pressure from the flight examiner I made the required amendments to my flight plan and tracked to Omaka and 1000ft over water which was the mistake.

Though the diversion procedures where correct and ETAs were all within limits. I had missed out the most important aspect of the flight which was SAFETY. I believe if ever put in the same scenario where a diversion has to be made, never rush as to following the required procedures but evaluate the safety aspect of route. Most importantly, never allow the examiner into pressuring you to divert to a location that you as acting pilot in command feel unsafe because in the end of the day you are the pilot flying the aircraft and safety is the most important aspect in any flight exam.

Overstressed Flaps

CxWx (guest) 29 Nov 2008 04:08

This incident happened many years ago when I was still a student pilot. I was taking my first attempt at the final GH test needless to say of which I failed. Our course had been warned of two possible examiners one of whom was very strict and had a bias against stuents of my primary instructor. I had found out the week before the test that I was assigned to this particular examiner and was exeptionally nervous. I had spent the night before the flight preparing by going through checks, "mental flying" and did not get sufficient rest. I arrived the next day over-prepaed and nervous. The pre-flight and taxi went without incident, however, it was only after takeoff, on a normal circuit that I became nervous and could not focus on flying, and was pre-occupied with my performance instead. As I levelled out on downwind, I failed to retard the throttle, resuting in a downwind IAS of around 140 kts. on my turn to base, the examiner yelled,"WHERE ARE YOUR FLAPS?". I dropped my flaps to 25, however, my IAS was still at 130, beyond the allowable limits. my examiner then turned to me and asked," so what are you going to do now?" I replied "touch and go". at that, he took control and landed.

I had faild by overstressed the flaps and had demonstrated poor airmanship by not deciding to land.

On hindsight, I may have exhausted valuable cognitive resources focusing on my performance. Hence the workload had caused me to loadshed and I had missed cues which otherwise could have resulted in a different outcome.

My suggestion? next time don't worry so much. it's just another routine flight.

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