PPL checkride question

Harry,

I can understand your concern. My question stems from being asked to
tune and ID a VOR, intercept a radial, and fly inbound, during my
checkride almost five months ago.

With three CFI's during my training, and most likely due to the lack
of instruction continuity, the VOR radial interception procedure had
neither been demonstrated nor practiced in flight, ever, let alone
requested by ATC.

Due to the above, and as helpfully pointed out by other members, I
misinterpreted the PTS section on VOR knowledge as only pertaining to
flying to and from a VOR, not intercepting a radial. In addition,
through mostly wishful thinking, I presumed the procedure in question
was reserved for IFR training.

I should have also known better since a few questions on the written
test pertained to locating yourself with respect to a radial. I
digress.

Going back to the checkride, I can remember sweating bullets while
frantically recalling VOR basics, and just going from there (i.e.
winging it). Turn the OBS to the 180 deg. reciprocal of the radial
requested by the DE, and follow the needle until it centered. I did
get yelled at for chasing the CDI needle and supposedly making some
"big turns" to capture the correct radial. The ironic thing is that
this was the first task the DE asked of me during the flight portion.
What a way to start a checkride by flunking within 5 minutes of
takeoff. In fact, I was tempted to tell the DE: "Sir, I don't believe
that's a PTS item!"

Moral of the lesson: Don't trust your CFI to teach you everything you
need to know. You are responsible for your training. And read the
PTS.


Alex