Richie

well mnewbery, you seem to have very good understanding of your aircraft and seem to be able to manage the aspects of a flight without any problems. Your original post was a year ago are you still on GFPT? must be hard dealing with very tight fuel management issues - what aircraft are you flying? still disagree with you of the PFL/ PSL thing although there will always be grey crossover areas. A complete engine failure at 5000 ft is still a forced landing, a complete engine failure at 30,000 ft is still a forced landing ie you are forced to land and it is an emergency were those GFPT questions one or two seperate questons? bit confused, how can you have variable SSW? - it is either coming from a certain direction or it is variable, thing to watch out for for that type of question is the G25 (is that supposed to be enroute or AD f/cast) which is likely over your Xwind limit for your aircraft if coming across the runway (1 or 2 runways on alt). fuel not a problem if started full. As for the closed strip land somewhere nearby if no one is able to tell when strip will be open Not an unreasonable question for GFPT, not an instructer and not familiar with syllabus but everything like that if applicable for a test question they should have covered with you at some point prior to test (no point testing someone on subject matter that has not been taught) Again GFPT is just a general progress flying test. Can you fly the aeroplane, do understand flight rules, can you manage a basic flight, are you able to demonstrate an understanding of the procedures should an emergency or an unplanned flight condition occur, was there any doubt of a safe outcome of the flight. Seem like you have no problem doing any of that hope you are enjoying your flying (at least the non test stuff) :)

wow, jsut noticed his post was a year and a few weeks ago haha, well I guess it is all really old news now

hello mnewberry just joined up here and strolling through some threads and saw this one. Bad luck on your test, your post was a few weeks ago so hopefully you have passed it now. There seems to be some confusion on some things (which maybe you also understand better by now). But if not, some parts of your post got me scratching my head which I would like to raise In regard to the fuel, not sure what aircraft you were flying but sounds like you have your hands full if it finds it hard to climb with full fuel and 2 people. It is perfectly reasonable of you to ask how long you should plan the flight for, and unreasonable of them if they are unwilling to tell you. After all as a pilot in command it would be foolhardy (not to mention illegal) to take off with out knowing the planned flight time so you can ensure sufficient fuel and reserves not sure what you mean by a re-stall, do you mean stalling a second time after recovering from the first stall - if so this sounds pretty scary and shouldnt happen, so I'm guessing you mean something else bit rough of your school not to be able to give you a solid test time, tests put you under enough stress as it is unfortunately for you it is pretty important to be able to hold straight and level - again not sure of your aircraft but it sounds very light and seems like you had a big job on your hands - this is actual quite simple in something a bit heavier. what really concerned me with you post is there seems to be some serious confusion in regard to the difference between precautionary search and landings, and forced landings. What you have described seems to be some sort of mix of the two - A forced landing is an emergency situation, one where you would be giving a mayday call. Classic example is a complete engine failure. This is where you land where you can as you have no choice, as you seemed to describe - identifying wind, picking a field long enough and flat enough (with no bulls hehe). The only objective here is for you and your passengers to be able to walk away from the aircraft (you most certainly would no be worrying about whether you can take off again). - a precautionary search and landing is not an emergency (it may be to prevent an upcoming emergency - low fuel, bad weather etc). It would generally be an airstrip that you are not sure about and needs to be checked out. eg you plan to fly to a strip you havnt been to in a while and you cant get strip information from anyone )as legally required to do if not certified or registered in ERSA, then it would make sense to do a prec search and landing (you would also need enough fuel to an alternate BTW), This would be your fly down the strip at 500ft and 200ft to ensure approach and go around is ok, strip distance is timed to make sure it is long enough and that no one has dug a hole in the runway or no cows on runway etc. In other words to make sure it is safe and legal to land. Other reasons to do them might be low on fuel or bad weather etc and an unfamiliar strip is near by. If you have to land in a field that doesnt meet the requirements of a aeroplane landing area as described in CAAP 92-1 then it probably needs to be considered either illegal or an emergency (mayday call). Gets tricky when you start talking about fields that are clearly not meant to be a landing areas but you can be satisfied of safely landing as per CAAP 92-1 (which is just advisory and doesnt legally have to be followed BTW). But I guess if it is unplanned and is not an airstrip I would be inclined to call it in as an emergency (you dont want to be stuck somewhere, injured with a busted radio and no one looking for you) in my training/tests a PFL was generally done by the instructor suddenly pulling throttle to idle and calling out "engine failure". Prec searches would normally be done by being told a scenario .eg "there is some really bad weather we are flying into and you dont have enough fuel to return to your point of departure" Again hope you have got it all passed by now, still extremely young so lots of time up your sleeve, I have not long got my CPL which I quit my job at 38 and spent the last couple of years getting it. As a side note a GFPT really should just be a test of your basic flying skills and knowledge, seems they may have been a bit harsh with some aspects (although S&L flight is a must). BTW I never did my GFPT, there is no legal requirement for it, you can just keep going on to PPL (you just cant enjoy the privileges of the GFPT - passengers mainly) another side not -dont be too disheartened at failing you test, took me a couple of cracks at the PPL and CPL