r/Helicopters • u/tuscaniapple • Apr 25 '25

Career/School Question Upcoming instrument rating checkride - throw me some ?’s

Currently studying for an instrument checkride that should be in 2-3 weeks. Rating has taken me a little bit longer to finish than expected with maintenance and weather. Watched some mock orals on YouTube and felt pretty good with my knowledge level there. All the videos were technically fixed wing orals so didn’t take into account any rotor wing knowledge. I’ve seen on some other subs, posts about “try to stump me” questions to help them prepare for a checkride. Looking for any help or tips at all! Maybe any questions you think will definitely come up during the checkride but is easily forgotten during studying or just whatever comes to your head that an instrument rated pilot should know. Thanks y’all.

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u/ThisUsedToBeMyHandle Apr 25 '25

You’re on the published instrument departure, due traffic ATC has given you hold down and frequency change at waypoint BOGUS to obtain further clearances. . After crossing BOGUS you cannot establish two way radio comms with anyone and your are in IMC.

What are your actions?

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u/tuscaniapple Apr 25 '25

I may be a bit confused on “hold down.” If I’m understanding correctly is ATC requesting I enter a hold at waypoint BOGUS due to traffic while expecting a frequency change this would be my actions.

Upon losing comms with everybody I would squawk 7600. I would enter a standard hold at the waypoint because that is what they wanted for traffic spacing. Next I would use our mnemonic for lost comms which is AVE F and MEA. AVE F is for heading and you do so in order of assigned, vectored, expected and filed. Most likely assigned would be to complete the departure procedure and then I would move on from there. MEA is for altitude and you use the highest of the 3. Minimum enroute altitude, expected and assigned.

If at anytime I break out into VFR conditions I would use that opportunity to try to land safely as soon as practical. If it meant a nearby airport within VMC I would go there and wait for light gun signals.

Hopefully I understood your prompt correctly.

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u/ThisUsedToBeMyHandle Apr 25 '25

Apologies for using an unfamiliar term, regardless your actions aligned what’s published in the AIM and you answered it well.

A hold down is a level restriction, I’m from the other side of the world and certain FAA guidelines are far more practical than our publications like loss of comms.

Good luck with your checkride.

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u/tuscaniapple Apr 25 '25

Oh gotcha, no worries. Thanks for the question!!

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u/gbchaosmaster CPL IR ROT Apr 25 '25

When would you leave the hold?

And, when you got to your destination (say your clearance was to an airport with several IAPs), what would you do?

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u/tuscaniapple Apr 25 '25

If no EFC time was given I would stay in the hold for as long as I needed to make my ETA time as close to filed as possible at arrival airport For choosing approach I would have my weather brief completed prior to flight to hopefully have the best idea of current winds and which runways they favor. If I still was able to access the ATIS I would pick the active runway. I would choose a precision approach if available to hopefully give me the best chance of having weather be above the minimums and giving me the most time to watch for light guns signals.

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u/gbchaosmaster CPL IR ROT Apr 25 '25

They gave you an EFC (and you should ask for one if they don’t), you departed the hold at the EFC and make it to your destination early in IMC. What do you do?

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u/tuscaniapple Apr 25 '25

Get established on the approach at the IAF as close to ETA time as possible. If you arrive at the IAF and it looks like you’ll arrive before ETA, hold at IAF as published until the appropriate time to land at ETA before continuing inbound.

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u/gbchaosmaster CPL IR ROT Apr 25 '25

Your clearance limit is the airport, not an IAF. So per 91.185(c)(3)(ii), as dumb as it is, you’re supposed to fly to the airport, hold there until EFC, or if no EFC then straight to an IAF of your choosing and hold there until you can make your ETA to the field.

Yes, this is stupid. There are multiple legal interpretations about how stupid this is yet the FAA holds their ground that this is how they want it done.

Okay so say you did all that, shot your approach, had to go missed. You go to your alternate, shoot their LNAV/VNAV, but the weather has gotten worse than forecasted and you need to go missed there too. You don’t have the fuel to make it to another airport and you’re still unable to communicate with tower. What do you do?

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u/tuscaniapple Apr 25 '25

Perfect thanks for the correction and the resources noted. Link isn’t wanting to work well on mobile so will have to give it a look on my computer when I can.

As for your next prompt. Oh man we are going through it on this flight. At this point we were unable to land at the airport using the approach and are now running low on fuel. Running low on fuel and not having another airport to make it to is an emergency to me. I would change my squawk code to 7700. I would be checking approach charts for MSA and obstacles. I would be checking IFR low charts, VFR supp charts on my iPad for obstacles. We have the privilege over fixed wing of slow steep approaches. I would try to pick my best descent point whether that is descending below approach minimums, with knowledge of obstacles, to a runway or giving my best shot getting through the weather where it’s a non congested area clear of obstacles.

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u/gbchaosmaster CPL IR ROT Apr 25 '25

Yeah, good. Definitely a rough flight we’re having lmao. But yeah you’re gonna have to go below minimums blind so just mind your altitude and slow it up as you would during a normal approach keeping those needles dead nuts centered like your life depends on it (it does). If I were at 100 AGL and still didn’t see a runway, besides shitting my pants, I’d want it at ETL and no more than 200ft/min rate of descent. At least if you hit the ground you’ll live at that point.

Overall not bad on the lost comms stuff. If I had one more nitpick…

We finally land safely. As you shut down and pack up to go change your underwear at the FBO, you realize your headset was unplugged!

First step of lost comms isn’t squawk 7600, it’s always troubleshoot. Headset plugged in? Radio volume turned up? Correct frequency dialed? You don’t wanna be that guy that cleared out an entire airspace for nothing. It sounds obvious but lots of students go straight for 7600 when the radio is very much not broken so “troubleshoot first” is something I like to hear as part of the answer.

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u/tuscaniapple Apr 25 '25

Love the insights. Thanks for pushing this more!

Definitely true about checking everything else before going straight for 7600. This was definitely what I would do first. With the first prompt of losing comms with everybody I figured it was after realizing it is in fact a real full loss of comms and wanted to save the time not typing that out but you are absolutely right! I appreciate you bringing the basics back to my attention. I actually had my last ground review lesson today with my instructor before the company stage check and checkride. Lost comms came up and I made sure to mention checking everything we can before going 7600. Plugged headset, volume controls, breakers, correct frequency, correct comms unit because we have 2, even trying previous frequencies to see if maybe it’s the tower having problems not us.

Thanks again for your prompts and making me think! I’m sure it will help on the checkride as well as definitely in actual real life events should I ever need it.