The first objective of each task is to confirm that you have adequate knowledge of the elements relating to each task. So be ready to talk with your examiner, answer his questions, and work out scenarios that your examiner creates. Scenarios are not only more efficient than a round of questions having only one correct answer, but they are also more fun for applicants.
The FAA recognizes two distinct methods of instrument use for flight by instrument reference. This is be-cause instrument flying techniques differ somewhat between airplanes, depending on the type, class, performance capabilities, and instrumentation. Your examiner must determine that you demonstrate competency in either the primary and supporting or the control and performance method of instrument flying.
The performance concept views attitude control from this stance: airplane attitude and thrust form a relationship with airplane performance. Finding the power and attitude needed to maintain or change the airplane's performance falls to the attitude indicator, tachometer, and, in appropriate cases, the manifold-pressure gauge. These are control instruments since they relay to the pilot just what pitch, bank, and power combination controls the performance shown by the performance instruments, which include the altimeter, vertical-speed indicator, heading indicator, and turn coordinator. The navigation instruments are extras that guide you with respect to the surface.
Most applicants use the primary and supporting method of flight control. In this system, instrument groups relate to both performance and control through the logic that certain instruments present primary information while others support that primary intelligence. Your examiner has seen countless charts or graphs outlining which instruments are primary in what situation and which are supporting. He has also heard applicants who, when they forget their carefully memorized charts, respond that primary instruments are those that give the best, most direct information for the moment's condition. The upshot is that, while surveying your basic instrument maneuvering, your examiner will pay close attention to your instrument crosscheck or scan, your interpretation of instrument indications, and your control response to what your instruments are saying. Your instructor knows that conducting approaches and executing missed approaches will be easier for you when you have mastered scan, interpretation, and response skills.
Most likely, the skill you first mastered under the hood was straight-and-level flight. Your examiner will quietly note your scan habits to ensure that you don't orphan any of the instruments by ignoring them as you fly straight and level. Surprisingly, many examiners see applicants struggle with straight-and-level flight. This most basic of instrument skills is not only boring to teach and to learn, but it is also among the most complex. The FAA's Advisory Circular 61-27 devotes 16 pages to acquiring this ability to correct minor deviations. Pitch, bank, and power control work smoothly together in the fidgety air to make the airplane preserve a constant heading and altitude. Examiners also see basic instrument skills vanish when poor scanning invites altitude and heading deviations. Few checkrides are endurance marathons, but failure to note and remember a preselected heading claims applicant after applicant - even when the directional gyro boasts a heading bug. Unless you demand of yourself zero heading error, by human nature you will tolerate ever-larger deviations. Soon, personal tolerance exceeds PTS tolerance; if this occurs on a checkride, the examiner must issue a notice of disapproval. A well-developed scan is your best protection.
Most examiners have ways to combine tasks, so the change of airspeed demonstration often accompanies a holding pattern. I have seen many applicants automatically adjust their airspeed before entering holds, and if they have done so properly, they receive credit for that task. Instrument approaches and missed approaches entail airspeed changes, but they also include constant airspeed climbs and descents as well as rate climbs and descents. Rarely do these situations pose problems for applicants. The need for the procedure is usually clear and the time involved short. Distractions normally are few during climbs and descents, and the requirement to maintain either a specified airspeed or a given rate keeps the mind focused.
Depending on the examiner or your geographic location, you may also expect a nonprecision approach to be used to judge your ability to conduct timed turns to magnetic compass headings. The PTS requires one of your nonprecision approaches to exclude both the attitude and directional indicators. Examiners most often seek to be efficient in their testing by not wasting airplane time. If your examiner can combine elements realistically to attain a valid test, then he will do so. Still, your examiner may allocate timed turns to magnetic compass headings to a separate part of the test.
When examiners ask about bank angles used while turning during instrument flight, applicants usually recite that the bank should never exceed a standard-rate turn. And in general it is a true statement. However, as with most things in aviation, one can never say never, and always is not always. In instrument flying, turbulence can turn your gentle banks into something appreciably beyond standard rate. Upon intercepting a radial or bearing, you might discover the need to steepen the bank somewhat for a smooth joining. The bone-chiller of all time, however, is that sleepy morning when you hear your friendly air traffic controller cry your call sign with "Make right one-eighty immediately!" At this impossible moment, something that you cannot see demands your avoidance. Avoidance demands a steep bank. The idea of performing steep turns during the practical test astonishes applicants on a regular basis. The fact is that the PTS calls for you to demonstrate these turns to both the left and the right. Standard tolerances apply, and the task calls for proper instrument crosscheck and interpretation while using the appropriate pitch, bank, power, and trim corrections.
Among the richest grounds for hangar tales and war stories in instrument flight training is recovery from unusual flight attitudes. Your examiner will likely be more conservative than your flight instructor was in how unusual an attitude you receive, and he or she may ask about situations leading to unusual attitudes. Instrument-rating candidates often tell me that turbulence is a source of unusual attitudes, but sometimes forget to mention the role of pilot-induced factors such as failure to properly trim the flight controls, disorganized cockpits, slow scans and instrument fixations, and relying on sensory input for attitude control. Recoveries from unusual flight attitudes are required on your checkride, and two points that you should know involve the attitude indicator and examiner intervention. Any examiner intervention to prevent the aircraft from exceeding any operating limitations or entering unsafe flight conditions is disqualifying. That includes exceeding the tachometer's redline. The other concern involves the requirement that this maneuver be done with the attitude indicator covered. Sometimes flight instructors have discovered this only after sending their applicants to the examiner. At other times, applicants have protested that covering the attitude indicator is unfair. Factually, it is required, so you are now forewarned. However your examiner conducts your test, and just as you should in daily flying, if you detect an instrument indication other than what you consider normal, increase your scan, evaluate your situation, and respond appropriately.
