MICHAEL FORD DPE Checkride Gouges

Mike Ford does instrument checkrides at KHKS, and one applicant shared a detailed look at the oral. Plan to cover instrument privileges and limitations right away. The examiner asks about first class medical time, BasicMed limitations, and instrument currency. You should also know what an IPC includes before you sit down.

Bring a real cross country plan, because the examiner has you brief the STAR and the approach you chose. Expect to explain the parts of an ILS using GLAM, then draw and explain the localizer and glide slope. The examiner wants you to understand how a back course works, how marker beacons function, and how DME measures distance through slant range and timing. NDBs come up too, so be ready to say whether you have ADF, and this pilot noted they did not.

The airway and altitude questions run long. Be solid on MEA, MOCA, OROCA, MCA, T airways versus V airways, and compulsory reporting points. The examiner asks what you report when crossing one and points to AIM 5-3-2. You also cover fuel requirements and a full ForeFlight weather briefing, reading each section out loud, including PIREPs, TAFs, METARs, and the surface analysis chart.

Alternate planning gets attention. The examiner asks when you need an alternate and what weather must be present at it. On icing, the examiner looks for under 3 degrees as the worry point but notes under negative 10 is too cold to form. Expect questions on where to check for icing, your anti-ice and deice gear, and blocked pitot or static ports.

Systems and regs round it out: airspeed indicator, altimeter, attitude indicator gyros, the inoperative equipment flow, 91.175, GPS and WAAS, timed approaches, and clearance void times. The examiner gives a simple clearance to fly. As of this writing, only one report sits on file for Mike Ford.