Instrument Rating Checkride: Weather Discontinuance & Green Needle Mastery in Ogden

Earning an Instrument Rating is widely considered one of the toughest challenges in flight training, and this checkride certainly made me work for every bit of it.

Part 1: The Oral & Convective Weather

The evaluation began on July 28, 2021. The oral portion felt like a grind, lasting nearly three hours. To top it off, while we were deep in the regulations and ground material, summer convective weather began bubbling up outside. Attempting an instrument checkride in a Piper Archer with thunderstorm activity in the area was out of the question, leading to a weather discontinuation. We agreed to meet early the next morning at Ogden-Hinckley Airport (KOGD) for the flight portion.

Part 2: Green Needles Only

Bright and early on July 29th, I ferried the Archer up to Ogden. During pre-flight runup, we discovered the aircraft’s GPS navigation database was expired. While legal under standard IFR operations (provided waypoints are verified against current charts), the DPE confirmed with standardisation channels that GPS could not be used for the practical test.

That meant one thing: the entire checkride had to be flown strictly on green needles—pure VOR, Localizer, and raw navigation data.

The Approaches:

• ILS RWY 03: Executed the precision approach down to decision height before executing the published missed approach.
• VOR-A via RACGO: Vectored north for a hold on the way to RACGO (the Initial Approach Fix), followed by the full DME arc entry and approach to a missed approach.
• LOC RWY 03 (Partial Panel): Cover slapped over the primary flight display instruments. Right before being cleared for the approach, I caught myself starting a premature descent. The DPE chimed in, “What are you doing?” I instantly corrected, brought the power back up, and got the official approach clearance a moment later. I circled to land safely from the approach.

The Victory Lap

With a brand-new Instrument Rating in hand, the ferry flight back down to South Valley Regional (U42) was pure joy—transitioning straight through the Salt Lake City Class Bravo airspace with total confidence on the radio!