FAA Instrument Written Exam

Passport and Drivers License in hand I, walked to the FAA testing room that is always locked at DCA except during exam time.  I handed over my passport and D.L for verification of my identification and to make sure my name was correct in the system.  Surprisingly, some people learn for the first time they have a middle name or the correct legal way to spell their name as stated on their birth certificate.  I urge anyone becoming a pilot, make sure the name on your Birth Certificate is identical to any ID documents you may have, such as Passport, and D.L.’s.

Before being assigned a computer station to take the exam rules were laid out for us.  No mobile phones are allowed to be brought in, any calculator that has a removable battery must have the battery removed and put back in to assure if the calculator has a memory it will be erased.  No talking whatsoever, any questions should be asked to the proctor and the FAA certified proctor.

I am given a booklet with diagrams, and charts that will be referenced from the computer testing software.  I click on the start button for the exam.  All the questions I am faced with are word for word from the Gleim.  I knew they would be, but you never REALLY know until you see it for yourself.  I start plugging through, feeling nervous about some question and confident about others.   Then out of a scene from License to Drive my computer froze on me.  The cursor was stuck on question 46.  14 questions to complete and get my test score and the damn computer freezes on me.  Apparently I wasn’t the only one having computer problems, as half the computers in the room froze.  The proctor told us not to worry, rebooted the system, and the tests came back with all inputted answers intact.  That was a relief.  I continued until the last question, and clicked the finished button.  “Are you SURE you are finished?”

Yes, I’m finished.

“Are you SURE you would like to submit your exam now?”

Damnit yes I’m sure!!

My score popped up on the screen with a big bold passing score.  I was so relieved.  The proctor congratulated me… quietly… but congratulated me, and signed me up for the Private written exam in 10 days.  So now I have to go review all the private pilot information that I haven’t looked at in about a month.  Ive divided up the chapters to give myself a day of studying all the chapters together. Wednesday is the big day. 

The Hurdle

My computer and brain are smoking.  Quiz after quiz I’m studying this material, and I’m frustrated.  Over all 950 question spread out among 11 chapters, this instrument test is killing me.  I do an entire chapter at a time only moving on to the next on mastery.  I finally came to the light at the end of the tunnel, but I had just forgotten what I had learned and memorized from the first couple of chapters.  This is really frustrating.  Testing myself over 60 random questions is giving me results anywhere from 68% to 83%.  The scores in the 80’s are few and far between.  I almost feel like my brain is at fault here.  Not wired properly.  Though I’m sure it isn’t and hasn’t been for quite some time.  Sometimes I wonder if this is what people feel like when they realize they are really losing their memory power.  I’ve even considered going herbal.  On breaks between studying the quizzes I have researched such things as Ginkgo Biloba, and DMAE to see what could enhance my memory, and help me toward my goal.  I even came across some studies that show people who take an old pill bottle, and print up a convincing prescription sticker to place on the bottle with directions and what its for, then fill it up with jelly beans have shown improvements in whatever they need.  I’m sure this could work, but not sure I’m going to buy into this type of voodoo… yet.  Though the Ginkgo is looking pretty good right now.

The day came.  Thursday morning I woke up somewhat early to go into DCA and plopped myself in front of a computer to warm my brain up.  As I sat there, drinking a bottle of water and a Starbucks chilled vanilla latte from one of the numerous vending machines in our break room.  The time came, and my ground instructor called for me from the doorway.  I logged out, threw away the two empty bottles, and walked two doors down to face the beast.  I sat and put my calculator down next to my trusty space pen.  The same space pen that had loyally floated beside me on numerous Zero G flights.  I wouldn’t say it’s my lucky pen…  but I have found myself becoming more and more superstitious.  OK FINE… Its my lucky pen.

The tests were handed out, and I plugged away.  I took my time even when I would see a trigger word in an answer that I knew made it correct.  I didn’t want to second guess myself either.  As I worked my way down, I used the same technique I did when I took the end of course for private.  I put a notch next to the answers I wasn’t quite sure about.  When I finished the first column I counted up all notches. I had six.  50 question total, I need an 80% to pass. Wow… that’s not giving me too much room for error.  I started on the second column.  Oh God.  That water and chilled coffee I had finished prior to class was starting to create some pressure, and began knocking on the out door.  The second column of answers produced only one I wasn’t sure about.  By the time I finished the last column I had to pee so bad I could taste it.  I quickly counted up all the questions I wasn’t sure about.  14. Oh  LORD!  I went back through all the questions, making sure I was confident in the answers.  If I recall correctly I only changed two.  I looked up at my instructor with my hand firmly gripping my answer sheet.  Even though I had to pee so bad I stood there frozen like a deer caught in headlights not wanting to hand my test in.  He started to laugh and asked… “You ready?”

I looked at my sheet handed it over and said… “I’ll be right back… I have got to pee.”  I heard him laughing as I bolted out the door to find relief.  Fortunately the men’s room was just across the hall.  I returned to class, where my instructor had a smile on his face and said… “Good job!”  I looked at my paper with a great big 86% in red ink.  I think I grew 86 inches when I saw that.  A wise man once said “WOOHOO!”

That was step one.  Next I found myself marching over to our FAA examiner’s office to ask when I could take the FAA instrument exam.  I’m slated for Monday at 1800Zulu.  Ten days thereafter I will take the FAA Private exam.  We are open Saturday to give us Friday off for a long much needed Thanksgiving break, which means I will probably go flying on Saturday.  And that feels great!

Deferred

Ive been studying all week.  The CD version of the Gleim is in my opinion the only way to study the material.  I go through all the questions for one chapter, and at the end create another quiz, based on the answers I got wrong.  I keep on these questions until I get at least 90% or better, before moving on to the next chapter.  I have gone through all the chapters.  Now I create a study session with 60 questions randomly chosen throughout the book.  I really thought I would be doing better than I am.  On average I am scoring between 68 and 74%, with an occasional 80%.  This isn’t good enough.  Thursday came along and I went into DCA for the test.  My ground school instructor asked me if I was ready.  I gave him a half smile and told him what was going on.  I didn’t feel totally prepared, but I didn’t know what else I could do.  I feel like I know a chapter really well before I move on, but when it came time to doing all the chapters, it was as if my brain had dispensed all the information I had just learned to make room for the new material.  Maybe that’s why I have been feeling a pressure or pushing sensation on the inside of my skull.  My brain is trying to expand but can’t because it’s getting stuck at Checkpoint  Charlie and I am sitting at Café Adler waiting for it to get through.  My instructor then said I should defer the test, and that he would get someone to help me out.  He said he wanted to tutor me, however he has a new ground school class coming in and unfortunately won’t have the time.  He said he would put me in contact with his roommate, who is also an instructor. “He’s really good…  NOT as good as me… but really smart.” This was the description of his qualifications.  Ive met him before.  Hes a really nice guy, and you do get the impression that he is very intelligent.

Until Monday, I am plugging away at the test, the questions I get wrong I go through them again until I reach 95% accuracy or better.  Until I can meet with my new tutor, I’m not quite sure how else to study this stuff.  In the mean time...  I'm still not flying.

Taking this week off

Ground school, and Radio Communication classes are over.  End of course for Radio Communication went really well.  But if you and I go flying, please dont ask me to cover the radios...  yet.  This past week I have been concentrating on the instrument gleim, to prep me for the Ground School end of course exam.  Once this is passed, the following week I will be taking the FAA instrument exam. 7 days after completion the FAA private pilot exam will be up to bat.  So I apologize for the extremely short post this week, but I really need to study.  Thanks for understanding, and I'll let you know the outcome next week.

Time turns have not come up again.  This is a good thing in my head, but I realize my challenge with it isn’t going to go away without practice.  So now I am faced with instrument approaches or navigating to airports by using frequencies and certain rules for landing.    I.L.S., Localizer, M.A.P., D.A., G.P.S.  I’m guessing for you non aviation people reading this you probably don’t know what any of these are with the exception of the GPS.  Here is Wikipedia’s explanation of these terms:

ILS

Localizer

MAP

DA (Decision Altitude)

I have found myself with 4 simulator sessions in a row to learn everything there is to know about instrument approaches.  There is a thick book of airports, and all the types of instrument procedures they have that are called approach plates.  From my understanding, everyone uses these when flying IFR, from people flying a Cirrus SR20 to your pilot when you fly commercially to see friends or family.  So here’s the deal.  You have your GPS units, that you program all the radio frequencies required by the approach plates, then you click your direction button to choose the airport you are going to. Then hit the procedure button to choose what you want to do at that airport.  Once you select this, it programs your instruments on the glass cockpit (video screen) where to go.  You see a little needle pop up on your display telling you which direction is your destination, as well as  a line either to the left or to the right of where you are for the most direct path.  The trick is trying to line up this line with the arrow as to where you want to go.  Which really isn’t too difficult. 

After each session on the sim, I felt quite lost.  I was walking away from these with a “what the hell did I just do and learn?” feeling.  I learned later in the week that I was over thinking the whole thing.  That each type of approach I was putting into the GPS was all I really needed to do.  It was the interpretation of reading the instruments correctly that was the major component.  Which for me was quite simple.

In conjunction with the different types of approaches I am learning holding patterns.  These holding patterns are actually specific places that ATC or your IFR charts will tell you to go to hold until you are ready to try your approach again.  These will come in the form of what is published on the approach plate if you  decide you can’t land safely and go “missed.”  ATC will also give you instruction if they do not want you to do the published hold.  These will sound something like hold North East of the XYZ  VOR  on X radial.  Since I’m just learning this its important for me to draw these out so I know what I’m doing.  This gets a bit complicated as drawing it out help you to identify how you will enter the holding pattern.  There is whats called a tear drop entry, a parallel entry and a direct entry.  Tear drop is when you pass over your radial line, and turn all the way back around until you are going the right way on your holding pattern.  Parallel is flying in on your inbound leg in the opposite direction then turn 180 degrees to recapture your radial and fly the holding pattern.  Direct is the easiest as you only have to find the radial and start flying the pattern.  Its fun to do but can be a nuisance to try and figure out. 

I had three exams this week.  Our last ground school stage check, end of course for radio communications, and the end of course for ground school which is the Instrument Gleim test.  I spent quite some time studying for all three.  The stage check I passed with a 90%, radio passed with 100%.  I however did not feel ready at all for the end of course Gleim exam.  I called my instructor, and explained.  I explained that if I took the exam now I know I wouldn’t pass it, which would go on my school record and I would be grounded until I passed with at least an 80%.  You only get three tries at passing this test.  He suggested to me that if I didn’t show up for the exam, I would still be grounded, however it would not go on my record, and I would still have 3 tries to pass.  Actually he said to consider it an extension of time rather than not showing up.  WoW!  Sounds good to me!  My next step was to talk to my flight instructor to tell him my plan and to see if he would schedule me for ground work to catch me up on the things I felt behind on.  All in all if you had a scale and put the pros and cons of this plan on it, I feel like the pros FAR outweigh the cons.   If I decide to become a CFI (certified flight instructor) with DCA I think it would be easier to explain why I didn’t show up for a test than to explain why it took me two or three times to pass the exam.

So this coming week, I will have my nose in the Gleim,  8 or more hours a day until I feel ready to take the exam.  Once I do and pass, I will take the FAA Instrument exam first, and upon passing that 7 days later will take the FAA Private Exam.   Giving me two bars almost at once, once I have enough hours flying.  Can’t wait!  Bring on the Gleim.  Oh…  Is there a movie on the Gleim?  There is?  King videos you say?  I’m on it!!

One thing I have been trying to do with this blog is to make it understandable to everyone, not just the aviators out there.  If there is anything I talk about that you do not understand, please do not hesitate to contact me or make a comment.  And thank you to all for you who have sent me emails supporting my adventure through Flight School!  It is very appreciated!