more bitching about the IFR written - CDI left/right versus north/south/etc

A month or two ago there was a thread about CDI indicating north/south
vs. left/right in particular on front course and back course LOC.
I'm studying for the IFR written and not in a single place
does the FAA use north/south. Again I'm banging my head
wondering does a lowly IFR student like me have to scream
learn the wrong way. Further they have questions about MLS approaches?
Has anyone ever flown one or even seen one? I don't
even know what equipment is required for one. A historical
note about this, the founders of the company I work for
were (partial?) inventers of the MLS back in I think the 1940's
or early 50's. One of the brothers (Sig Varian, I think) was a
pilot for a major but ended up biting it while
landing in Mexico at night. He intended to land on
the beach but ended up putting it in the drink.

The same bitching goes to the lack of reference to technology.
I really can't imagine hand flying in the soup, thunderstorms
around, turbulence, at night, etc. and playing around with
an E6B. Umm, how long does a leg take, ummm, give me
2 seconds and the 430 will take care of that. Of course
double check the 430 but an E6B is a bit out dated. It works
and works without batteries but if things are that bad
all around, the last thing I'm doing. If hells breaks loose
and needed to use one, I think I'd declare an emergency over
121.5.

sorry to vent.....and no need to remind me how the FAA
is screwed up. Overall though I gotta give them a LOT
of credit as it seems like one of the few big government
agencies that has it reasonably together.

Gerald Sylvester

On Thu, 06 Jan 2005 06:56:33 GMT, "G. Sylvester"
wrote:

A month or two ago there was a thread about CDI indicating north/south
vs. left/right in particular on front course and back course LOC.
I'm studying for the IFR written and not in a single place
does the FAA use north/south. Again I'm banging my head
wondering does a lowly IFR student like me have to scream
learn the wrong way. Further they have questions about MLS approaches?
Has anyone ever flown one or even seen one?


OOh you struck a nerve here.

Likewise, you will always get a question on p-t-d entries to holding
patterns, even though you will never have to do one, and questions on
planning x/c's down to the nearest 5 seconds, yet, (amd here's the
criminally negligent part), in spite of the fact that pilots are
killed practically every year because of a lack of understanding of
the rules for obstacle clearance on IFR departures, there is non one
question on the written on this subject (unless things have changed
very recently).

wrote:
Likewise, you will always get a question on p-t-d entries to holding
patterns, even though you will never have to do one...

You've gotta know you're wrong by asserting that ATC will never give a pilot
a hold; maybe in your area, but holds are still used by ATC.

Hilton

"G. Sylvester" wrote in message
...
A month or two ago there was a thread about CDI indicating north/south
vs. left/right in particular on front course and back course LOC.
I'm studying for the IFR written and not in a single place
does the FAA use north/south. Again I'm banging my head
wondering does a lowly IFR student like me have to scream
learn the wrong way. Further they have questions about MLS approaches?
Has anyone ever flown one or even seen one? I don't
even know what equipment is required for one. A historical
note about this, the founders of the company I work for
were (partial?) inventers of the MLS back in I think the 1940's
or early 50's. One of the brothers (Sig Varian, I think) was a
pilot for a major but ended up biting it while
landing in Mexico at night. He intended to land on
the beach but ended up putting it in the drink.


Give the FAA the FAA answer to the FAA question. If given the FAA question
of "where is the sunrise first seen?" you should answer whatever the FAA
wants to hear, "east, west, left, or magenta." The written test isn't about
testing the thoroughness of your preparation, it's about following
directions. The checkride is the test of your preparations.

Don't confuse real life and FAA written tests. It matters not if you are
right or if telling the FAA the wrong answer they want to hear will corrupt
Western Civilization, it's a fool's errand to argue with them about the
question during or just after test prep. If your score is signicantly
affected by the few bogus questions on the test, you have bigger problems.

Cheer up, at least as much of my FAA mechanic tests concerned WWII radial
engines as turbines or modern recips. Hell, they may have even been a
question about Doppler or Omega on some test I took.

Here's my sure fire method for passing any FAA test. Buy the book with only
the Q&A. Read each Q, highlight each FAA desired answer. After you have
read each question and read only the highlighted answer, go take the test.
Depending on your reading speed, attention span, and the endurance of your
butt, you should be ready for the test in a day or two. You won't know a
damn thing about flying airplanes from doing this but you will get a good
score and not waste anymore time on their silly test. Spend the time you
saved actually learning the subjects and practicing the skills.

The single worst way to pass any FAA test, is to prepare for real-life
flying and then walk in and see the questions for the first time when it
counts. We taxpayers have spent much money collecting all the legally
allowable questions, and many hard-working publishers have spent much time
printing the answers to those out of date questions. Why ignore their
effort?

If you go to one of those expensive ground school courses like my previous
employer produces you will learn a couple of tricks to let you breeze
through the long and tedious questions and the rest of the time will be
essentially "here's the question and this is the answer." The vast majority
of customers promptly pass the test and hardly any of them ever confuse the
written test for real life.

--

Scott

"G. Sylvester" wrote in message
...
A month or two ago there was a thread about CDI indicating north/south
vs. left/right in particular on front course and back course LOC.
I'm studying for the IFR written and not in a single place
does the FAA use north/south.

What in heck are you referring to? The CDI refers only to right or left of
the course indicated by the OBS and the TO/FROM window. You have to know how
to use the CDI when it appears to be reverse sensing.

Again I'm banging my head
wondering does a lowly IFR student like me have to scream
learn the wrong way. Further they have questions about MLS approaches?
Has anyone ever flown one or even seen one?

Yes. They are somewhat more common than rumor has it. Since they exist, and
some airplanes are equipped for them, and your instrument rating says you
are allowed to fly them, then they are on the test. And stop banging your
head before you damage something valuable with it. :-)


The same bitching goes to the lack of reference to technology.
I really can't imagine hand flying in the soup, thunderstorms
around, turbulence, at night, etc. and playing around with
an E6B.

I can. Single pilot IFR? Probably not. But as a crew member on an older
airliner, yes. Besides, the questions do not presume that all IFR flying is
in the soup, thunderstorms around, turbulence, at night, etc. Believe it or
not, most IFR flying is in clear weather. You prioritize your tasks and stay
ahead of the airplane -- something that it appears you are still struggling
with. The FAA knows (or at least hopes) that you have enough judgment not to
fool with the E6B when you are too busy with other stuff.

Be glad the FAA has not finished writing questions about modern technology.
Eventually you are going to have to know things like when the GPS switches
from "ARMED" to "APPROACH" modes and what the channel number is for on WAAS
approaches. I still have not been seeing questions on approaches with
vertical guidance. You should know those things now, though, even if they
are not on the test. At least there are no longer any questions about radio
ranges.

On Thu, 6 Jan 2005 08:02:29 -0800, "C J Campbell"
wrote:

What in heck are you referring to? The CDI refers only to right or left of
the course indicated by the OBS and the TO/FROM window. You have to know how
to use the CDI when it appears to be reverse sensing.


Here we go again.

There ain't no such thing as "reverse sensing".

The receivers sense the same way at all times, regardless of the
position of the receiver.

There is only "reverse thinking".

(A VOR receiver works the same way in a balloon as it does in an
aircrafft. Ask 10 people in a balloon where "left" or "right" is, and
you'll get 10 different answers. Ask them where "north" is, and
they'll all point in tne same direction.)

C J Campbell wrote:

Be glad the FAA has not finished writing questions about modern technology.
Eventually you are going to have to know things like when the GPS switches
from "ARMED" to "APPROACH" modes and what the channel number is for on WAAS
approaches.

What's the channel number for on WAAS approaches? Thanks.

Dave

wrote:
wrote:
Likewise, you will always get a question on p-t-d entries to holding
patterns, even though you will never have to do one...

You've gotta know you're wrong by asserting that ATC will never give a
pilot
a hold; maybe in your area, but holds are still used by ATC.

Hilton

OK, Mr./Mrs./Miss noname at nowhere,


I didn't say you'll never get a hold.

I said you never have to do a p-t-d entry to one.

I'll bite. What is a p-t-d entry? Parallel, Teardrop, Direct??? So it's
now one entry? Or are you saying you can go fly holds and enter any which
way you want? If so, you'll end up doing one of these (or some version
thereof) anyway.

Hilton

On Thu, 06 Jan 2005 16:38:45 GMT, "Hilton"
wrote:

I'll bite. What is a p-t-d entry? Parallel, Teardrop, Direct??? So it's
now one entry? Or are you saying you can go fly holds and enter any which
way you want? If so, you'll end up doing one of these (or some version
thereof) anyway.


I'm saying exactly that. The only requirement is to stay within
holding airspace.

The FAA finally wised up a few years back, and removed the requirement
from the PTS. Nevertheless, it remains a part of the written, while
knowledge of important things like obstaccle departure procedures
remains ignored on both the written and the practical test, and lives
are no doubt lost as a result. It's idiotic.

In a previous article, "Hilton" said:
I'll bite. What is a p-t-d entry? Parallel, Teardrop, Direct??? So it's
now one entry? Or are you saying you can go fly holds and enter any which
way you want? If so, you'll end up doing one of these (or some version
thereof) anyway.

Do the "no **** hold entry". Fly to the fix, then turn to the outbound
heading. After a minute, turn 225 degrees towards the protected side.
Intercept the inbound course and you're in the hold. If you sketch it
out, you'll see that if you're coming from the direction where you're
supposed to do a parallel entry, this essentially is a parallel entry.
Otherwise it's sort-of like doing a direct entry, but guarantees that you
won't overshoot your turn and blunder into the non-protected side.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
UNIX was half a billion (500000000) seconds old on
Tue Nov 5 00:53:20 1985 GMT (measuring since the time(2) epoch).
-- Andy Tannenbaum