On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 10:28:50 -0500, Steve Robertson
wrote:

Yep. You might even have to intercept a radial and fly AWAY from the
station.

Best regards,

Steve Robertson
N4732J 1967 Beechcraft A23-24 Musketeer

Koopas Ly wrote:

Howdy ya'll,

Is it expected of a student pilot on his private pilot checkride to
intercept a VOR radial and fly towards the station?

Thanks,
Alex

Yup, been there, did that. I was under the hood at that point, trying
really hard to maintain altitude and course when the examiner said:
"hey, how about you intercept the 180 radial and let's track that."

We were southwest of the radial, heading south at the time, so I knew
that I'd have to turn left to intercept. The needle would deflect
left and tell me that when I dialed it in anyway. So I went through
the routine of dialing up the frequency, listening to identify and
then setting 180 on the OBD. The needle was planted all the way to
the left.

I then commenced a left turn to intercept. And kept turning and
turning. Eventually I straightened out on .090. I was doing this
because I'd flown for a bit on a 45 degree intercept but nothing
happened for a while, I wanted to get there faster.

I was tense and ready to see the needle react, so when it twitched and
began centering, I immediately turned right. As the needle reached
center and stopped, I rolled out of the turn and tracked 180.

During the debrief, the examiner told me I should not intercept a
radial at 90 degrees. 45 degrees was more than enough, but since I
managed to hit it and roll out directly on course without having to
correct at all, he shrugged and said he couldn't really fault me for
it. Haven't used a VOR since, of course. ;-)

Corky Scott