That is... that's technically over the line right that's like this bit needs to be
over that line there. We are aren't we? Hope I don't fail just because I can't
park the aircraft.
Hello guys how you going. Back here at Melbourne Airport
just hopped off a flight from Sydney. Just a Qantas 737 a quick hop down from
Sydney to Melbourne today, because tomorrow I have quite a big aviation
thing that I need to do.
See when you have instrument rating what they used to
call the command instrument rating, every 12 months here in Australia you have to
do basically another check ride just to make sure that you know what to do
you're familiar with the procedures you can fly the approaches that you're rated
for. And they call that an IPC - an instrument proficiency check. So what I
thought I would do is just share some of my tips with you for the way that I'm
preparing for this test. Just some of the techniques that I use to get ready
before an instrument proficiency check ride but this can apply to any check
ride that you might be doing as a pilot. Oh and incidentally, the flight coming into
Melbourne from Sydney was just fantastic a little bit of turbulence on the way
out of Sydney but the afternoon sun's going down here in Melbourne and that final
approach from the north to the north south runway here's just..
Whatever flight you're getting ready for let me share with you my tips for how I
prepare for an aviation check ride. Starting with what should you do the
night before your test?
The night before a test there are only three things you
need to do you need to study then you need to do some studying and then study.
Actually I haven't ridden my skateboard for a couple of days so I really just
wanted to put that into the shot. But the point remains that study the night
before I feel is really important. A lot of people think that you shouldn't cram
necessarily before a test but I don't think it's cramming I just take a copy
of whichever a flight book I've been using for the theory for the flight test
I'm doing. I sit there the night before and ask myself questions in my head so I
think what would the examiner be asking me and I find the answers in here.
Now if you have your own flight simulator at home the night before what I really
recommend is fly the flight. Just pretend that you've got your examiner sitting
next you and you're gonna talk yourself through every single step of the process.
And remember all the mistakes that you're going to make when you're doing
it at home in your Sim, you're hopefully not gonna then make the same mistakes
the next day in your actual flight test. And even if you don't have a Sim it
doesn't matter just grab your map or your flight planning stuff and sit in a
chair and chair fly the flight. It's surprising how many mistakes you can
actually get out the way just by simply chair flying the flight the night before
you actually jump in a plane and do it for real.
Actually just out of curiosity let's see if we can do a barrel roll in this 172
Just a tip don't do a barrel roll in your actual flight test that's that's my
best advice. Then think to yourself what other little things can I do which will
just get me ahead of the game before the test tomorrow and I always look at
weather and flight planning. Check the weather for tomorrow in advance if you
know there's a strong likelihood of things not going ahead thunderstorms big
frontal activity you all that messy stuff, call your examiner be proactive
and say look looking a bit iffy tomorrow should we make a contingency plan just
in case we don't go ahead? They'll love that stuff
it shows that you're looking ahead and it shows that you know what to look for.
Make sure you have up-to-date maps IFR flyers make sure you got up-to-date
plates. And finally get your flight plan prepared. You can do so much before the
day of the actual test. I know you don't know the winds and the speeds if but at
least get the flight plan the framework off it into the system and save so all
you need to do the next days go in drop in your speeds do your fuel calcs and
it's far less that you have to do on the actual morning of the test.
Now not only does it get your body in the right frame of mind I mean get those
endorphins going it just makes sure you're nice and limbered up and ready for their
the big flight the next day. But also I find and then if you guys are the same
but when I run I can actually fly flights in my head when I'm running. Now
you might be able to do the same when you're cycling walking whatever you're
doing but when I'm actually on a run I can fly a flight from takeoff I can do
my 500 feet checks pretty much work my way all the way around the flight. So
when it comes to the day itself I've kind of chair flown it, or it's kind of
running flown it or you know what I mean you just been through it before in your
head. Just of course just don't overdo it that's a key thing I mean don't
completely wear yourself out the night before you're gonna need your strength
and your energy for the next day but getting in some sort of exercise maybe
do kind of half of what you normally do the day before I reckon is a really good
way to get your mind and your body prepared for that big day. All right but
we're about halfway around Albert Park we need to end up end up over there.
When all your studies done when your flight plans in where you know you've
done everything you can before the big test tomorrow just get a good night's
sleep. Your mind is probably going to be racing it's gonna be full of thoughts
you'll be a bit nervous but if you can try and get a good night's sleep the
night before it's just gonna do you so many favors for the morning.
Now you might be nervous before your flight test but on the day have a good breakfast the
last thing you want to do is turn up with an empty stomach because your
energy levels are gonna be really low and the worst thing is sitting in that
cockpit with your stomach rumbling which I've had happen to me before. Your mind
just gets distracted so on the day of the flight test make sure you eat
well and drink plenty of fluids is, actually next tip drink plenty of fluids.
In my flight bag I always carry a flask of water as well and I always make sure
I have this full every time I turn up for a flight.
My next tip is a really important one and it is don't be late for your test.
Give yourself plenty of time to get to the airport don't spend your morning
watching steveo kinevo videos when you should actually be making your way to
the airport. Which does remind me we need to make our way to the airport.
So today today we are first of all banging the camera on the top of the
cockpit... Today is the day for the instrument proficiency check. So this is
basically my 12-month review for flying IFR. Similar to if you fly VFR you need
to do that every two years that biannual flight review the BFR. Now you may notice
something up here in fact you may notice a lack of something up here and that's
because there's no GoPros. I'm not actually going to film this flight and
I'm doing that for a couple of reasons. First of all I'm flying with a different
instructor today it's not Mike who I normally fly with. But because this is a
testing flight and because John's actually being an examiner here and I'm
being a student being examined I want to put any unnecessary pressure on him or
even on me just whilst those cameras are rolling whilst the test is going on.
Now there are two main components to this flight test there's the ground component
which will be a series of questions just asking me about some of the rules of
instrument flying the rights and privileges of holding an instrument
rating all that kind of thing, like the legalities of flying under the IFR the
instrument flight rules. And then the second part is going to be the actual
flight test itself so hopping here into Kilo Juliet November we're gonna do a
couple of approaches head out to Avalon do the ILS do some... anyway I've got to
preflight this aircraft before we go.
It's always a nice relief to actually get that handshake at the end and get
that tick in the pass box which means I'm current now for instrument flying for
another year which is great. All right where should we go