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The best way to prepare for this checkride is to fly the Lesson 1 Complex aircraft checkout in the commercial pilot section over and over so you learn the procedures with the instructor. This is exactly what you do in the checkride. The only difference is in the lesson you climb at 136 knots. In the checkride, you do both climbs "normal climbs" at 120 knots.
Next, practice Lesson 3 Emergency Procedures with the instructor on the deadstick landings many times so you can figure out where to make your turns to land and to keep your speed at 115 knots. You fly it exactly the same in the checkride segment 4 and land at the same airport Paine Field. If you get past segment 2, that means you completed segments 1 and 2 with less than 2 errors. The last part is easy if you have practiced the deadstick lesson.
Make sure to review the briefing notes. They are also listed inside your kneeboard. You can pause at any time to look at this in flight. They tell you what the examiner is looking for on each part and grading you on. Printing this out helps a lot.
There are 4 segments in the checkride. When you land at the airport is where segment 2 ends. If you have 2 penalties or more when you land, the checkride ends there or sooner possibly depending on how you were doing. If you arrive at the airport with 1 penalty or none, you will be allowed to take off again on runway 32 and fly segments 3 and 4.
1) Take off
While on the ground before takeoff, set your ap to 5500' and climb rate around +700 and set your flaps down 1 stage to approach settings for both takeoffs. I don't know if u get a penalty or not if u don't set flaps but you won't get a penalty if you do. Press Shift Z to display needed info at top of the screen during the exam so you can see your true altitude and speed. Set your trim at 0 to keep it simple.
2) With parking brake on apply full power up to MAP 28-29 and take off.
At 84 kias, pull back on the stick so you takeoff(rotate) right at close to 90 kias(penalty here) and increase pitch up to about 10-15 degress.
Quickly get your speed settled as close as you can to 105 kias.
When you pass 800 feet, you should be at 105 kias or as close as you can or another penalty here.
3) As soon as you pass 800 feet (look at the red numbers on top of your screen for this), raise your gear
and flaps and lower the nose quickly to get the climb speed up to 110 kias. .
When your speed reaches 110 kias, activate your ap which you set previously so your nose will raise up
and hold 5500 vs 700 on your ap.
As soon as you press your ap, drop your MAP to 25 and set your RPM to 2500 for your climb power settings. You have to be in climb configuration before the examiner starts talking again so do this part quickly.
Now your all set for the "Normal Climb". Adjust your climb rate in the autopilot so your speed stays as
close to 120 as possible.
Constanly watch your MAP setting and keep increasing it as you climb so it stays within 24.1 to 25.9. If
it goes outside the tolerances = penalty.
4) Next the examiner will move your heading bug for you and you have to turn to the right to 030 while maintaining your MAP at 25 and your climb rate at 120. This take some practice.
The way I do it is constanly watch your MAP by putting your mouse on the gauge and watch the kias speed at the top in red so you don't fall outside of the tolerances and get a penalty for either. You can put your mouse on the RPM guage the same way to make sure you set them correctly and watch the MAP increasing and decreasing so you know how much to adjust it. If you adjust it outside of the tolerances= penalty. You have to maintain the MAP within +1 and -1 at all times.
Start your turn to the right at 20 degress. After you turn a bit, you can rotate your heading bug to 030 and press your HDG button on the AP as well. Now your all set on full AP.
Watch your MAP and KIAS speed the whole way up to 5,500.
At 5,500', level out with cruise settings.
Next the examiner asks you to perform a geardown descent.
Reduce MAP to 15
As soon as speed drops under 150, gear down.
In your AP, Change Alt and set vsi to -1200 ft/minute. This will give you about a 4 degree pitch
down descent.
Watch your MAP and keep decreasing it so it stays between 14.1 to 15.9
On the climb phase, kick the vsi climb in your ap 1st to about +2000 to slow the speed down quickly, the normal climb speed is 120 kias. While your plane is slowing:
At levels out:
You have 2 gear down descents:
1st drop MAP to 15
Drop gear under 150 kias then descend at -1200 ft/sec to the requested altitude.
After the 1st time, she asks you to level and maintain 140 kias.
After the 2nd gear down descent, she may not ask you to maintain 140 knots. If she doesn't, you probably
will not pass this time and already made at least 2 mistakes.
When you hear this a 2nd time when approaching the end of the 2nd gear down descent, "Maintain
140 knots..., you are passing the checkride so far.
She will let you fly and land at the airport and fail you &%$+^!
I was never was asked to maintain 140 kias after the 2nd gear down descent until the 1st time I was
allowed to fly segment 3 and pass the checkride.
Here is another trick that the examiner doesn't tell you.
After your 2nd gear down descent, she says to proceed to Harvey(S43). At that moment, raise the gear,
and set cruise settings of 22 MAP and 2300 RPM. Then set GPS to fly direct to Harvey S43 and go gps
nav. This is where many get the MAP and RPM penalties after failing.
She doesn't remind you to set cruise settings here or remind you to raise the gear. You have to remember
that the gear down phase has ended and you have been instructed to proceed to Harvey.(Sneaky)
If all is well up to this point, she will tell you when you are 15 miles from Harvey, start a high
speed descent instead of telling you to do this immediately after instructing you to fly to Harvey.
(Another clue you are passing the exam so far.)
Here, just cruise along and watch your gps. When you hit 15 miles out, drop MAP to 15 again and decend
to 1500 feet at -1200 ft/min or so.
Make sure not to exceed 22 MAP or 200 kias here. To keep it simple, just keep your MAP below 21 and
you'll be okay. Remember to adjust your MAP between the ranges on descents within the tolerances as well.
When level, (assuming you have been on gps nav), set your heading bug to 320 because she will have you fly a pattern for runway 14 next for the downwind leg.
As soon as she tells you to prepare for the pattern, you can hit your heading hold in the ap to turn
when your ready for heading 320 and fly the downwind leg.
After the turn, drop MAP to 15 and descend to 1000'
Do 'GUMP' procedure in the pattern.
Fly a typical pattern, I did a right pattern but I don't think it matters if you do a right or a left
pattern here and she doesn't specify either.
Give yourself plenty of room to land here and take your time by extending your downwind leg a little
longer. The airport you'll be landing at is just over a hill and it 30 feet wide.(watch those trees)
The examiner is looking to see if you maintain 1000 feet in the pattern so keep 1000 feet while you are
decreasing your MAP, setting approach flaps and gear until you are on the final leg.
Once on final, turn the ap off, flaps down full and land the plane on the asphalt runway (not the grass one parallel to it) and come to a complete stop.
Now is the moment of truth to see if you passed segments 1 and 2.
If you passed, she'll tell you to set up for a 'normal takeoff' on runway 32.
Roll down to runway 32 and set up for take off again.
You have 1 mistake left, possibly 2 if need it and you can pass easy now if you have practiced the
Emergency procedures in lesson 3. You don't have to go thru that checklist like in the lesson, you
just have to fly and land just like in the lesson and you will pass.
In Segemnt 3, you have to do the take off correctly like before but this time it's a normal takeoff, not a shortfield takeoff. I set flaps 1 stage here again there was no problem for takeoff.
When she kills the engines at 6500, you have to pitch the plane up to slow down to 115 kias. Paine Field is just to your left a bit, head there towards the middle of the airport.
Keep your speed close to 115 on this whole segment until your about to land. Make the circles to the left around the airport at 20 degress until you drop below 2,600 feet just like in the lesson.
You're allowed to land on any runway. Make your final turn a lot sooner than you think because you have to maintain 115 kias the whole descent until your close to landing so you may have to make a 30 degree turn at the end and use your flaps below 120 if needed to slow down more.
Last but not least, don't forget to lower your gear on your final !! hehe
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Things to remember to avoid penalties:
Pass this checkride and you will have mastered the Beechcraft Baron 58 and you'll your Commercial Pilot Certificate.
Good Luck !! DrBackJack
