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Passing the IFR Checkride Would you like a more extensive ground school like the one seen in Flight Sim 200X? Then read Rod Machado's Private Pilot Handbook to learn more about flying that you ever thought possible in a fun and enjoyable way. If you've been failing the IFR checkride because of a failure to hold correctly on the SEA VOR, read on. A flight sim user, instrument flight instructor and computer programmer named Bob Comyn (Rcomyn@aol.com) was kind enough to share his expertise in solving this problem. The program is looking for some very specific behavior after you make the missed approach at PARKK intersection. The following are Bob's words along with his insights regarding his solution to this problem. Good Morning Rod, I finally passed the FS2004 Instrument Checkride and got my certificate.... I appreciate your input and feel that you deserve to know what I had to do in order to pass the checkride. There is a bug in the program that would only allow a person who is very lucky to unwittingly pass it. Praise the Lord that the source code is delivered with the product as I never would have figured this out without it. I have made a change to my program which is included a little further down in this email. Let me explain: 1. The program is looking for the pilot to hold SE of SEA on the 140 radial (picture of proper holding pattern located at the bottom of this page). This is consistent with the examiner's instructions: "Hold on the 140 radial from SEA.." But it is inconsistent with the "Flight Criteria" supplied with the checkride that says you must "intercept the 140 degree course inbound...." 2. Just before PARKK the examiner says to "turn left to a heading of 160." The program then checks to see when your actual heading gets between 150 and 170. When it does, the examiner tells you to "fly direct to SEA and hold on the 140 degree radial." While the examiner is uttering those words, the computer begins to check whether or not you have crossed the VOR. The way it does that in this case is to look for the TO/FROM flag to be FROM. Because the computer is doing this evaluation while it is telling you to go direct to SEA, you haven't had a chance to reset the OBS to the inbound direct course to SEA (approx 155 or whatever) and so the TO/FROM flag is already (still) FROM (from the missed approach). Therefore, the computer thinks you have crossed the SEA VOR when in fact you are six to eight miles away. Further, it then starts a timer (and this is significant). 3. The next thing the computer checks is that you are crossing the VOR inbound on a 320 course within five minutes of crossing the VOR the first time. It really doesn't matter what kind of entry you do (as far as the program is concerned [parallel is correct]) as long as you cross the VOR inbound on the 320 course within five minutes. The problem is that the computer started the timer long before you actually crossed the VOR (see number 2 above) so you have no chance to fly an entry and get back to the VOR within the five minutes. In my case, almost four minutes have elapsed before I get to the VOR. So I would cross the VOR and try a parallel entry to a hold SE, or try a direct entry to a hold NW and about a minute or so later the timer expires and the computer says, "Sorry, you fail. You didn't enter the hold correctly." In reality, I failed because the five minute timer expired. 4. Now, if you've been flying the checkride for a while so you know what is coming,,,, as soon as the examiner says "turn left to a heading of 160" and before she tells to you "fly direct to SEA" you reset your OBS so that the TO flag shows, the timer will not start until you actually pass the VOR. So, if you anticipate the direct to SEA instruction and reset the OBS early you will not get the message "failed to enter the hold correctly," but if you wait until instructed to fly direct to SEA before turning the OBS you will get the message :"failed to enter the hold correctly." It could drive you nuts. Whether or not you entered the hold correctly (from the computer's perspective) actually has nothing to do with how you entered the hold but rather with whether or not you anticipated a "direct to" instruction and reset your OBS early. I actually feel like I'm a little bit nuts. I have to say that all in all these checkrides are far superior to those in previous versions of Flight Simulator. All the checking and attempts to explain what the pilot is doing wrong are great and, of course, far superior to the old "Checkride Failed" with no further explanation. I hope this information is useful to you.... Regards, Bob
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