Full Instrument Checkride Details with DPE Cody Reynolds: Corona, CA (KAJO)

This is the reading of the article I wrote of my checkride with Cody Reynolds DPE in Corona California for my instrument rating.
Transcript:
The instrument checkride is a peculiar ride. You have 3 basic types of approaches to shoot with upset recovery and unusual attitudes to prove to the DPE. My checkride was August 14th, 2020 with Cody Reynolds (DPE) out of his home base Corona Airport (KAJO). I did all of my training out of Fullerton Airport (KFUL) and had to fly to KAJO to meet Cody on his turf. Cody was awesome enough to give a packet which detailed out everything that would make the transition from pre-oral documentation (making sure I have all requirements met) tothe oral part of the checkride super easy. (PDF is attached) I flew over to the checkride with my instructor Matt Fiallos from Fun Outside Aviation. I was super nervous but totally ready for the ride. We arrived at the west side of the field using runway 25. Corona is an uncontrolled field but active in flight training activities. This day however, was blissfully silent on the comms. The 90 degree heat didn’t help! We went into Cody’s office and sat down while we did some small talk and as I was producing the required documents and paperwork for Cody. Once Cody had gotten through all my paperwork and Matt was done asking if everything was set, Matt left and the oral portion of the checkride began.
As per usual on a checkride we began with the pilots bill of rights and the three outcomes of a checkride (discontinuance, fail, or pass) in which I knew which one I was determined to get. Cody opened up with the basic questions on IFR Regulations just to see how much I knew for basic knowledge. The types of questions that are the free ones if you did your studying include: how to stay current- IFR Regs, navigation orientation, the IFR system in context). This went for 30 minutes or so, and after we broke into foreflight for my flight planning. My given flight plan was, “Flight plan to KBFL. The weather at the departure airport is 500OVC 2SM vis, cloud tops along the entire route are to 14,000ft. There is a forecasted freezing level of 10,000 ft. The weather at KBFL at time of arrival is 2SM vis 200BNK, 300OVC. Plan to fly the FASTO 2 arrival. Wherever you choose an alternate the weather will be adequate.” Based off of this information I designed a route which allowed me to stay below the 10,000 FT icing limit which was the main concern. It was “KAJO, PDZ, V186, DARTS, V459, LHS, FASTO.FASTO2” There was one point along this route that I had to go below the MEA in order to stay out of the icing but I was still above the MOCA. However, the main catch which he wanted me to find was that the flight was a no go because a crucial navaid the Lake Hughes VOR (LHS) was out of service and that was my only possible connection point. We spent awhile talking about chart symbology and how best create routes for flight plans.
There was a few things on this section of the oral like total distance box on IFR Low Enroute Chart, stumping myself with alternate minimums, and where in the heck to find the alternate circling minimum sizes. The fun part of these mess ups was the first one. There is a small box on Victor airways that tells you the total length of the Victor Airway. Cody pointed at the box and asked me what the numbers inside it meant. I quickly said “It means theres 54 miles from X VOR to Y VOR. He just paused and stared at me blankly as I went into full break down mode and began over analyzing the hell out of this simple low enroute chart. After 10 minutes of watching me struggle, I decided to go all in with my answer and declared it was a distance declaring box. He just simply said, “Yes” much to my frustration and confusion, I smirked and forgot about it as a aviation applicant should do. Anytime the DPE doesn’t fail you on a question assume you did the right thing and forget about the past. NEVER LOOK BEHIND YOU ON A CHECKRIDE, THE DPE CHECKRIDE FEE IS THERE WANTING TO BE PAID AGAIN. As Dory says, “Just keep swimming.” The next part came up was when he was asking me about alternate minimums. This came from after he asked me what my alternates were and why I selected them. The main point here was that he wanted me to realize that some fields are not available for use as alternates, and in my case because the MDA’s for the VOR approaches were too high. I pointed out the alternate I would go to and why, and he then asked me what the small A in the triangle is on that plate in the top left corner for this VOR approach. I simply said, “It’s the alternate minimums signifier for this plate.”
That's the maximum amount of transcript I can fit on here. Go to JPLAviation.com/checkrides to view the full transcript.

[@jamesspahmer7193]

Congratulations JPL.......Great job and thanks for sharing your journey.

[@JPLAviation]

Anytime :)

[@mynickels]

Bro, I just listened to you for 3 hours on ifr oral. Impressive filibuster.

[@JPLAviation]

Thanks bro! I have the commercial audio coming soon! This one will be divided up into sections to help navigate more specific information :) turn on the notification bell when it comes out!

[@diegofarhad2040]

@@JPLAviation You are the best man! Highly appreciate your videos sir!
I wish u were talking a lil slower on the IR oral video just like this one but either way it was great!

[@abbieamavi]

*btw, great review. thank you so much for uploading, my checkride is next week. thanks for the help!* and congrats, being Instrument rated is a huge accomplishment for sure!!

[@JPLAviation]

You’re gonna absolutely smash it! Where are you taking your ride out of?

[@abbieamavi]

@@JPLAviation KVUO pearson field, Oregon

[@JPLAviation]

Holy crap that field actually has a LDA approach! Do u fly that? Those are basically extinct here in SoCal

[@abbieamavi]

@@JPLAviation just flew it today 😂

[@bruce3392]

hey bro, did cody tested you underhood steep turn? i will have my ifr checkride with him soon.and any other specific question about how he did the ifr checkride. I will really appreciate

[@JPLAviation]

Yes he did. And if you want to go up and fly with me and do a mock checkride I’m totally down! I’m assuming you’re flying out of the SoCal basin. Just let me know

[@bruce3392]

@@JPLAviation cool, this is my number 4242859879.you could text me . my base is kpoc .and we could fly later on .

[@bruce3392]

@@JPLAviation bro , could you tell me which partial panel did he fail .and under what situation? Please

[@JPLAviation]

@@bruce3392 he failed it on the second localizer approach into kpoc

[@HectorWPadilla]

@@JPLAviation is the offer still available 😅? I’m also out of KPOC

[@abbieamavi]

*1:01** sorta like COVID-19 huh* she's uncontrollable huh 😂

[@JPLAviation]

Of course! Thanks for the comment :), are there any other aviation topics you’d like to see?

[@abbieamavi]

@@JPLAviation commercial training would be cool!

[@JPLAviation]

I’m currently making some audio content to prepare for that! I’m at 215 hrs rn and will be training maneuvers when I hit 230. All the requirements are done.
I’m gonna do a three hour long type audio content that I have on the channel as well. Just a streamline of information which I personally love, so I make for others. I think this time tho instead of one video I’m gonna make a bunch of mini audio tapes with labels of each title and category to have easy access to certain subjects u know?

[@abbieamavi]

@@JPLAviation that sounds like an awesome + helpful idea. I’d tune in!