Flying IFR - Lesson 59 - A Pre-Checkride With Possibilities

So I pre-flighted N8570F and got ready for today's lesson.  Wind was out of the West gusting at 290-320 around 13-20 knots.

The problem with deciding what we were going to do today is the winds for Friday are forecast to be out of the East.

This means the examiner will not do the route he had originally selected on the day of my oral and discontinued checkride.

The problem is also this:  The VOR at Flint is down for maintenance and will be down until August 12.

The examiner has also not done an instrument checkride with winds out of the East since the VOR dropped on June 21. The upside is this takes out of play the Lapeer VOR-A approach which sucks rocks so that's a good thing.

So it is a bit of an open question as to what he might do for this ride, as he used to use the VOR 18 or 36 with a circle  to land at Flint, do an ILS at Flint and then back to Pontiac for a Partial Panel RNAV or ILS/Localizer approach.

So we tried to prepare for the unexpected by doing the unexpected with the wind out of the west rather than east.

Since the clouds were low around Flint we filed IFR.

Planned a route to 9G2 (Lapeer) to do the RNAV 27 circle to 9 (again there is no actual circle there but the examiner simulates one), then to Flint for the RNAV 18 Circle to 27 and then back to Pontiac for then RNAV 27L and the Localizer Backcourse 27L.

Lapeer comes up pretty quickly after takeoff and we got passed quickly by Detroit Approach to great lakes Approach, but by then we were practically at the initial approach fix.  We got clearance to do the approach and then remain in Flint's Class C and head on 300 degrees to do the Flint approach.

Oh, and we went into IMC conditions as we headed to Lapeer. 

This time I stayed solidly on the instruments, decided the world outside did not exist (in a cloud it really doesn't anyways) and did a good job of controlling the plane.

Did the approach at Lapeer, did a really good circle to 9, and as we had a heckuva tailwind only went lowish on final but had the runway made if I wanted it, and then went missed.

Then went and did the Flint RNAV 18 to 27, into IMC again, then popped out and did another really good circle and went missed.

Then back to Pontiac with an nice tailwind and a bit of bouncing around, with winds swaying from 280-300 and back and forth, and went for the RNAV 27L which went really well, and the Localizer Backcourse which also went really well and did a nice landing to finish it off.

Overall, I'd say it was a very positive flight and I feel ready.

Let's hope for good weather flying conditions, and preferably calm winds from the west on Friday, but I'm confident I can handle whatever he might try to throw at me if winds are from the east as well.

That's 1.8, with .5 actual, 1.0 simulated, 4 approaches, and a very nice landing.