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Advice on the EnRoute Performance Verification (PV)
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Posted: 09-27-2008
The biggest thing with the PV is to recognize exactly what it is about. I wish someone would have told me this so that it would not have hit me at the last minute. It is going to be tough, you are going to be nervous. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you can start to deal with it. I was told the whole time that it was "no big deal." I was fine up to about 20 minutes before it started. Guess what, when I hit the bottom of those stairs, I thought I was gonna pi** myself. At least if you know what is coming, you will be nervous all day and ready to get it over with. It is all about seeing if you can overcome it. Do whatever it is that you do to make it work. It is only 40 minutes. You can deal with anything for 40 minutes. My trick was to start talking out loud. I would just start going through my thoughts and reading my routes outloud. If, in the middle of the problem, you start to get overwhelmed, answer the phone and give a departure clearance. It will pump you up a little.
USE THE RADAR. Do your traffic search with the strips but then watch the radar. This is probably the single, most important, thing I could tell you. Work out a scan, I use an O pattern. Look around the whole screen and read EVERY altitude. Read them outloud if you must. Read: 230, 190, 080, 110, 210, 230...Whoa, I said 230 twice, Okay, he is going to IGB and the other guy is south of him going to HEZ, they are OK. Then do it again. Also read the Limited data blocks with this scan. You can read an altitude of an LDB for an aircraft 50 miles outside of your airspace. If it is 210, look at your scope and find the other 210. If there is one, use the route key to determine their route.
The route key is wonderful. They will teach you how to use it but they wont tell you that you can use it with increments of time. If you push RTE 12, this gives you a 12 minute route line. Dont be afraid of using the vector lines either. Learn how to use EFFICIENTLY, every tool at your disposal. Spend alot of time learning when you HAVE to do a 6,7,10 ammendment or when you can RTE the aircraft. Be quick on the keyboard.
Learn your tools, responsibilities, and equipment the best you can. Learn what your trick to dealing with the nervousness is and practice it. If you are starting radar, it is NOW crunch time.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me. You can email me or put a note on here. I am more than willing to help any of you. I lost two very good friends to the PV and I really hate to see it happen to you.
Advice on the EnRoute Performance Verification (PV)
