PPL checkride question

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

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

"Corky Scott" wrote in message
...
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

On my check ride back when dinosaurs still roamed the earth (1980) the DE
said, "Ok, what's the Victor Airway back to ELD that is closest? Intercept
and track it." After that was done he put the hood on me and we did the
unusual attitude stuff then he said, Ok track the same airway FROM the ELD
VOR."

This is the only specific I remember from my PPL check ride. I've been
waiting a while on this newsgroup for it to be on topic.

Gig Giacona
PP SEL R-H

(Corky Scott) wrote in message ...

[snip]


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

corky --

fwiw, i disagree pretty strongly with the examiner. if you don't
know how far you are from a vor, a 45 deg "intercept" can take you
past the vor before you reach the radial. a 90 is the only "sure bet"
(and in the rare case of horrendous winds, it's not even sure.) thought
experiment: you're 4 nm wnw of the vor heading 180, and are told
to intercept the 360 radial. a 45 deg won't cut it in this case.
in fact, even if you were nw instead of wnw, a 45 would put you
_at the vor_ at the instant of intercept.

that being said, if you have the situational awareness (big picture)
to know your position relative to the vor (dme helps :-)) and you
know a 45 will work, (i.e., get you to the radial before crossing
the vor), then the 45 is probably preferrable.

responding to the original thread: i've only had one private pilot
applicant bust the checkride, and he busted 'cuz he forgot how to
intercept a radial (that was about 10 or 12 years ago). so now, i
make _damn sure_ the student can do that consistently. (he did
o.k. the last time i flew with him, but choked on the exam.)

g_a