How the instrument oral works

Not as pilot in command under IFR yet. You need six instrument approaches, holding, and intercepting and tracking courses within the preceding 6 calendar months. You're in the second 6 months, so you can still regain currency without an IPC: fly the missing tasks in simulated instrument conditions with a safety pilot, or in an approved FFS, FTD or ATD, or with an instructor. Until you're current you can't act as PIC under IFR or in weather below VFR minimums, and once the second 6 months have passed, only an IPC restores it. Once current: under 91.169 you need an alternate unless the destination has a standard instrument approach and, from 1 hour before to 1 hour after your ETA, the forecast is at least a 2,000-foot ceiling above airport elevation and 3 SM visibility. Either value falling short triggers it, so the 1,200-foot ceiling alone means you need an alternate here, even though the 3 miles meets the rule. At the alternate, published alternate minimums govern (and 'NA' means it can't be used); where none are published, the forecast at your ETA there must be at least 600-2 for a precision approach or 800-2 for a non-precision one. An airport with no instrument approach works only if the forecast allows a descent from the MEA, an approach and a landing under basic VFR. Fuel covers the destination, then the alternate, then 45 minutes at normal cruise.

14 CFR 61.57(c)-(d), 91.167, 91.169

Brings together: Pilot Qualifications · Weather Information · Cross-Country Flight Planning

Airspeed falling toward zero with nothing else changing points to a blocked pitot inlet, likely ice, with the drain hole still open: the pressure in the line bleeds away, so the reading falls. (If the inlet and the drain are both blocked, the indicator acts like an altimeter instead, rising in a climb and falling in a descent.) Pitot heat should already be on in visible moisture near freezing. Turn it on, but don't count on the reading coming back: fly a known attitude and power setting, treat the airspeed as unreliable, tell ATC, and get out of the icing. Diagnose the attitude indicator by its power source. Check the suction gauge: low suction means a vacuum failure, so distrust both vacuum gyros, the attitude and heading indicators in a typical trainer, and cover them. Fly partial panel on the turn coordinator, the magnetic compass, and the altimeter, VSI and airspeed. Which instruments run on vacuum and which on electric power is airplane-specific, so know yours. Tell ATC and request a clearance that gets you out: vectors or a route to VFR conditions or the nearest suitable airport. Declare an emergency under 91.3 only if you need to deviate from a clearance. Both trace back to the instrument flight deck check, done in phases. Before start: instruments set and checked. After start: give the gyros about 5 minutes to spin up, check suction in the normal range (typically 4.5 to 5.5 inches of mercury), and check the pitot heat. While taxiing: set the heading indicator to the compass, and check the turn coordinator deflects in turns and the attitude indicator stays steady.

IFH (FAA-H-8083-15B), Flight Instruments; 14 CFR 91.3

Brings together: Aircraft Systems Related to Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) Operations · Aircraft Flight Instruments and Navigation Equipment · Instrument Flight Deck Check

Read the clearance back. Holding northeast on the 040 radial means the inbound course is 220° to the VOR. Draw the entry sectors from that 220° inbound course and pick direct, parallel or teardrop from your heading as you cross the fix. The maximum holding speed up to 6,000 feet MSL is 200 KIAS, so at 140 knots you already comply; any slowing starts within 3 minutes of the fix. Report the time and altitude when you reach the holding fix, and report leaving it; both reports are required without being asked. Fly the hold: start timing over or abeam the fix, whichever is later. The inbound leg is 1 minute at or below 14,000 feet, so adjust the outbound time to get it, and correct for wind with about triple the inbound drift correction on the outbound leg. Write down the time you reached the fix and the EFC. Then recalculate fuel to the EFC and on through the approach and alternate; if the reserves won't hold, tell ATC now. If comms fail, 91.185 depends on the clearance limit. If it's a fix where an approach begins, start the approach as close as possible to the EFC (or your ETA, if you had no EFC). If it isn't, leave the clearance limit at the EFC (or on arrival, if you had none), go to a fix where an approach begins, and start the approach as close as possible to your ETA. And if you're in VFR conditions when the radio fails, continue VFR and land as soon as practicable.

AIM 5-3-8, 6-4-1; 14 CFR 91.183, 91.185; IPH (FAA-H-8083-16B)

Brings together: Compliance with Air Traffic Control Clearances · Holding Procedures

Cross-check by axis before you react. Pitch: altimeter, airspeed and VSI are steady, so the nose isn't high. Bank: the turn coordinator's miniature airplane shows no turn and the heading isn't changing, so the wings are level. A centered ball alone only says you're coordinated, not that you're level. Together they say the attitude indicator is failing. Check what shares its power source: if it's a vacuum gyro, check the suction and treat the heading indicator as suspect too. Use the heading indicator only if it's independently powered, verified, and agrees with the compass. Cover the failed gyros and fly partial panel: the turn coordinator for bank; the altimeter, airspeed and VSI for pitch; the compass for direction. Report the malfunction to ATC, as 91.187 requires, and ask for help that cuts your workload, such as no-gyro vectors or a simpler routing or approach. If the other instruments confirm a real unusual attitude, recover: nose high, add power, lower the nose, level the wings; nose low, reduce power, level the wings, raise the nose.

IFH (FAA-H-8083-15B), Attitude Instrument Flying, Unusual Attitudes; 14 CFR 91.187

Brings together: Instrument Flight · Recovery from Unusual Flight Attitudes

Feet per minute = gradient × groundspeed ÷ 60, so 300 × 100 ÷ 60 = 500 fpm, and you have to sustain it all the way to 3,000 feet MSL, not just after liftoff. Check the POH climb performance at your actual weight and that day's density altitude for the whole climb. If the airplane can't sustain 500 fpm with margin, don't depart on that procedure: take a different departure, wait for cooler air, or lighten the airplane. Joining the arc: lead the turn, about 0.5 NM at 150 knots or less, turn about 90° onto the arc, and watch the DME for an overshoot or undershoot. Flying it with an RMI: keep the bearing pointer on the wingtip reference; let it drift 5° to 10° behind, then turn about 10° toward the station until it's back on the wingtip. If you're off the arc, correct 10° to 20° for every half mile. Without an RMI, use the CDI: re-center the needle with the OBS in steps ahead of you, turning to keep it centered (twist and turn). Leaving the arc, always lead the turn onto the radial: use the charted lead radial if there is one, or make your own, typically less than 5° for GA airplanes at 150 knots or less.

IPH (FAA-H-8083-16B), Departures; IFH (FAA-H-8083-15B), Navigation Systems

Brings together: Intercepting and Tracking Navigational Systems and DME Arcs · Departure, En Route, and Arrival Operations

Under 91.175(c) you may leave MDA only when the airplane is continuously in a position from which a descent to a landing on the intended runway can be made at a normal rate of descent using normal maneuvers, the flight visibility is at least the published minimum, and at least one of the listed visual references for that runway is distinctly visible and identifiable. The approach light system counts, but it lets you descend only to 100 feet above the touchdown zone elevation. That's a floor for the descent, not a target to level off at. Below it you need the red terminating bars or red side row bars, which only ALSF-1 and ALSF-2 systems have, or another 91.175(c)(3) reference: the threshold, its markings or lights, the REIL, the VASI or PAPI, the touchdown zone, or the runway, its markings or lights, distinctly visible and identifiable. Reach 100 feet without one and go missed immediately. Go missed at the MAP if you don't have the references. If you lose them below MDA, go missed at once too. Obstacle clearance on the missed approach assumes it starts at or above MDA at the MAP, so climb, re-intercept the published missed approach as safely as you can, and contact ATC as soon as possible.

14 CFR 91.175(c)-(e); AIM 5-4-21

Brings together: Non-precision Approach · Missed Approach · Landing from an Instrument Approach

Squawk 7600 and try to get communications back: the previous frequency, a NAVAID's voice frequency, Flight Service or ARINC to relay, or 121.5. If you reach VFR conditions, continue VFR and land as soon as practicable. If not, follow 91.185. Route, as conditional rules, not a priority list: the route assigned in your last clearance; if you were being radar vectored, direct from the point of the failure to the fix, route or airway in the vector clearance; with no assigned route, the route ATC told you to expect; otherwise the filed route. You were assigned direct to the fix, so fly direct. Altitude, segment by segment: the highest of the altitude last assigned, the minimum altitude for IFR operations on the route segment you're flying, and the altitude ATC told you to expect. 'Expect 6,000 in 10 minutes' is an expected altitude with a time, not an EFC: the 6,000 counts only from that time, and only when it's the highest of the three; an expected altitude never takes you lower. Re-check the highest at each new segment. The approach: if your clearance limit is a fix where an approach begins, start it as close as possible to the EFC, or your ETA if you have no EFC. If it isn't, leave the clearance limit at the EFC (or on arrival, without one), proceed to a fix where an approach begins, and start as close as possible to your ETA. The most straightforward approach means the one at your destination you can fly on the instruments you have left, ideally straight-in, with the least maneuvering. You don't get a free choice of airport or approach unless you declare an emergency and use your 91.3(b) authority. With the attitude indicator out, cover it and fly partial panel: the turn coordinator for bank; the altimeter, airspeed and VSI for pitch; the heading indicator, if it's good, and the compass for direction; known power settings and small corrections.

14 CFR 91.3, 91.185; AIM 6-4-1; IFH (FAA-H-8083-15B), Partial Panel

Brings together: Loss of Communications · Approach with Loss of Primary Flight Instrument Indicators