Passed Instrument Checkride!

I passed my instrument checkride last Tuesday. I waited 2 months to
try and do the checkride from when my CFII told me to schedule it.
Problems with my examiner's medical, scheduling with another examiner,
then going back to the first one, and weather delayed it.

Here is how my IFR checkride went from what I can remember.

We went into one of the conference rooms and he asked to see all my
paperwork: pilot certificate, medical, application, picture ID, and
logbook endorsement. He started asking a few questions and my
answers:

What is required to be current for IFR?
Everything for VFR, plus 6 approaches, holding procedures and
intercepting/tracking courses
(He was looking for more...)
I said you have 6 months to meet this then if you don't, you have
another six months. After that you'll need an IPC.
Who can give an IPC?
A CFII, examiners, FAA...
What instruments are required for IFR? (GRABCARD)
How do you check the VOR?
VOT +/- 4 deg., Air checkpoint +/- 6 deg., Ground checkpoint +/- 4
deg. (dual VOR, but I didn't get to that) I started to explain where
to find these (AF/D), but he went on to the next question:
Using a VOT, must you be in a certain location on the airport?
No, as long as you can receive the frequency.
Does it matter which way your airplane is facing?
No (I hope nobody would get that wrong!)
What should the VOR indicate?
360 deg. with a FROM when needle is centered, 180 TO.
If the needle is centered and it reads 356 FROM, is that legal?
Yes
Would you apply this error to navigation?
No, this is a tolerance and you shouldn't adjust your courses because
of the error.
He then explained if your VOR was 4 degrees off and you applied that
to tracking a course outbound, how you could get very far off course
the further you got away from the VOR. He said it may be 4 degrees
off on one radial but not on the other. I related this to flying
different headings with a compass using a compass card, and you
shouldn't do this with the VOR errors.
Was my aircraft certified for known icing?
No
How could I determine freezing levels?
I said a freezing levels chart, winds aloft...
He asked how from the winds aloft? (He sort of acted like I gave a
wrong answer at first)
I said from the temperatures you could determine the freezing
altitude
(He was still looking for something else...)
I said a very crude way would be to use the average lapse rate from
the temperature at the ground...
He confirmed it would be very crude, and said not to overcomplicate
this.
I got it right with just saying call the FSS and get the freezing
levels at the airports on the route.
Could I fly if the freezing level was 4,000, the cloud bases at 3,000,
and an MEA in the clouds, legally?
Legally, yes
He asked what was the major problem with ice?
I said the accumulation of the added weight.
I sort of hesitated on the known icing questions, and he stated that
there is no clear definition of known icing in the regulations. He
said he wanted to ask these questions as there has been those legal
rulings on pilots flying into known icing and whether "conditions
favorable to icing" was "known icing" or not.
The general consensus was (legally) the FAA may question if you fly
your non-icing-certified aircraft in "icing conditions", but it is
legal as long as it is not "known icing" such as an actual PIREP.
He said he flies in an icing certified airplane with his son, which
is equipped with deicing equipment, and it melts it off as fast as it
accumulates. He said the icing area is about 10 degrees either side
of freezing temperatures, and a lot of people don't know that you can
climb above it into below freezing temperatures where it will bounce
off the airplane, which isn't a problem.

He then asked for me to get out my enroute chart to ask a few
questions. What does the V mean on victor airways?
I couldn't figure out what he wanted, I said it was just an airway.
After a while I finally got it, it would be J on a high enroute chart.
How high is this chart good for?
18,000 ft.
What is the change over point (pointing to a straight course, no COP
marked)?
The halfway point.
Is it regulatory that you change it there?
Yes
He then explained how you could still have a centered needle past the
halfway point but be drifting to the side because maybe your VOR was a
few degrees off. Where is the COP on this course (pointing to one
marked with DME)?
The mark.
He then explained how this is because one of the VORs doesn't have as
strong a signal. Then he very thoroughly gave me a scenario of flying
out from KRBL (I think), with a MCA fix a few miles after takeoff. He
asked if I lost radios just before reaching it and I was assigned
3,000, expect 9,000, what should I climb to?
The highest of assigned/expected/minimum altitude, so 9,000.
What if I was 3,000 upon reaching the MCA fix (with a MCA of 5,000)?
Hold at the fix while in a climb to the MCA.
Continuing on, if I arrived at a fix from which an approach begins (he
pointed to an airport near the coast), what would I do if I arrived
early?
Hold at the fix until EFC or ETA expires.
If I arrived late?
Begin approach immediately.
If there are VOR, NDB, GPS, ILS approaches...which one?
Any approach.
He then asked to look at the SMF ILS 16R approach. What are the
minimums?
1800 RVR visibility, 226 decision height.
What is MDA?
Minimum Decent Altitude
When you get to DH, what do you do?
That is when you make the decision to go missed or continue.
What if you are on the ILS and ATC calls you and says, "the RVR just
went to 900, what are your intentions?" Must you go missed
immediately, continue the approach, or?
I knew you couldn't descend from the DH if it's below minimums, but I
didn't know about before that.
He asked me to sort of guess.
I said because I haven't read anything you couldn't continue to the
DH, I said you can.
He said that was correct, he said part 135 and others must go missed
immediately, but part 91 can descend to the DH. If I descend to DH
and it's 900 RVR, can I land?
No, it's below minimums.
He explained how someone had gone below the DH in this scenario and
went off the runway on landing because the visibility was too poor.
They lost their flying job and had their license suspended. Somehow
we got to talking about being cleared to land, as they can't clear you
to land with the Wx below minimums. He said the tower responded with
"Roger" when the pilot contacted him, never clearing him to land.

Can you go below DH?
Yes, by 50 ft.
He then explained how a jet is unable to go from a descent in the
landing configuration, start retracting the flaps, gear, and starting
a climb without going below the DH. What about MDA?
You can't descend below MDA at all, and you are level so there's no
reason to go below it.

He then said he had one more question he forgot to ask, he went to a
white board and drew a runway, was very clear on the altitude I was at
(circling altitude) and where the airplane he was drawing was circling
around to land on the opposite end. As he drew the line he said to
tell him when I could descend to land from circling minimums. I told
him when he just started to turn in on final. He said this was a
little late, but was fine. He said many people thought they could
descend on downwind or base, etc.


Flying portion:

He gave me a clearance while still on the ground. Cleared to
Stockton, SAC V585 ECA Direct, 4,500, 1200. I asked him if he could
tell me in advance before I request the approaches (so I'll know what
to ask for when they ask for what's next). He said we'll do the SAC
ILS with vectors, VOR own nav, then LOC own nav. He told me ahead of
time to be sure to make all reports (entering hold, etc.) if ATC loses
radar, which he'll be simulating. He played ATC for the cross country
portion.

I setup all the radios, etc and did the instrument check, departed MHR
and identified the SAC VOR. As we're getting fairly close to it, he
says ATC has lost radar and report reaching 4,500 and the SAC VOR. I
report both fine, and track onto V585.

He says he has holding instructions when I'm ready to copy. He says
hold at WAGER as published, maintain 4,500 (and says normally you'd
get an EFC). I was correcting to the right and the entry was on the
borderline of being parallel, but I didn't want to do a parallel...I
said I'd be doing a teardrop and he says that's what he'd do as it's
the least maneuvering, etc.

I was finishing the first lap in the hold when he asked how I'd
determine the leg timing. I reached 1 minute right then and said it's
right on so I wouldn't need to adjust the outbound leg. He then said
he has an amended clearance when I'm ready to copy. I was in the turn
to go outbound in the hold so I told him to standby (I wanted to get
setup on the outbound heading). I got a clearance to Linden VOR,
V113, Manteca, direct. I started heading towards Linden and
identified it when he said we're done with this and he'll give me
vectors now.

He gave me a vector and told me to just hold this for a minute. He
then pulled the power to idle and said I was in full IMC, what would I
do? I said I'd troubleshoot the failure, announce it on the radio,
squawk 7700... He said Ok, you've already done that. (Meanwhile I've
got it trimmed at 65 knots, best glide). I said I should know my
approximate location and the terrain around me for the safest
landing. He said he's looking for something simple... I then said as I
started getting lower, I'd slow down and lower the flaps all the way
for the slowest landing speed. He then suggested to be as close to
stall as reasonably possible.

I held another heading and he said to slow down to 80 kts maintaining
altitude. Then turn to another heading. Then speed back up, then
descend at 80 kts 200 ft and level off at 80 kts. Then two unusual
attitudes then off to do the 3 approaches at SAC.

I contact NorCal approach and tell him I'm 15 miles SE of SAC VOR and
the approaches. My examiner wanted to tell ATC it's for a checkride
(to do full approaches at busy SAC), but his mic was garbled and the
controller said I was clear but my examiner wasn't. I got vectors for
the ILS and it went fine, but the examiner kept placing my enroute
chart on the windshield to make sure I wouldn't look out. One time
getting close to DH the chart fell on the controls...does this count as
one of the distractions?

I was getting setup for the VOR approach when the examiner wanted to
ask ATC what altitude we were reporting (I had mentioned it was
slightly off during preflight)... ATC couldn't understand him good
enough, so I said I'd ask. (Does this count also for
distractions? Luckily I decided what holding entry I'd do before
we took off to use at the IAF if I was coming from the west side of
the airport, as I only had a few seconds left now to get it figured
out.

We went around again for the LOC approach. When we got on the ground
back at Mather, he said I flew the airplane very smoothly (even though
I was nervous, it actually wasn't my best!). He said my first two
approaches were perfect. I think the second one I was starting to get
tired and got off on the LOC close to the limits right before the
missed approach. I think because I did very well on the rest he was
more lenient on the last approach. He also said my DG was getting off
very quickly (I was resetting it every 5 minutes or so). So no
partial panel, and a total of 1.6 flying time.