How to prepare and pass your checkride – tips from a pilot examiner

the broadcast is now starting all attendees are in listen-only mode ladies and gentlemen good a very good evening to you my name is Eric Radke from Sporty's I'm your facilitator for this evening and we're delighted that you could join us as part of the sporty free webinar series on a topic that is certainly popular we know that by the registration to full classroom tonight and that's how to pass your check ride I should say how to prepare and pass your check ride I have to say I'm so so thankful that my old friend Jayson Blair is on with me tonight and when we first started talking about this concept in this particular topic my mind went immediately to Jayson Blair I just cannot think of a another individual in general aviation that's better suited or more qualified to be talking on the on the topic of tech rides for those of you who don't know Jason Jason's a very active single and multi-engine instructor and of course an FAA designated pilot examiner these numbers are probably old but I know Jason has well over 5,000 hours total time more than 3,000 hours of instruction given and I'm assuming his check around Jason you can jump in here the number I have is over 800 pilot certificates conferred but I know as busy as you are with multiple check rights given this week that number has grown probably substantially Jason well so as of today the numbers eleven hundred and seventy-nine with two fresh fresh issuances today a commercial single-engine add-on and a fresh private pilot to our ranks his Aviation here so glad to be here with you tonight I'm glad they have gotten a couple people their licenses I guess their certificates and ratings here today and looking forward to talking more about how we make sure people get it through these check rides successfully tonight with you fantastic you know the the topic of tech rides stirs up so much emotion and all of us and it's it's nothing as aviators we can get away from and I don't know that anyone could probably say they enjoy being evaluated but that's just a part of the process and I know a lot of the good DPS I know and Jason's in that cat Gouri they understand when you're coming into that check ride that there's a flight instructor behind that endorsement who spent a lot of time with you and has done so much evaluation and mentoring along the way they understand that you've met these qualifications and and they're their job is is not to start you start to it fail and it's your job to convince them that you're there to pass you deserve to pass it's quite the opposite there they're going in with the assumption that you've met all these requirements you've met the standards and go out there and show them what you can do and jason is going to give us a lot of tangible take away some quality insight that you can walk away with and feel very good about your next check ride no matter where you are in the process because you never get away from that from that process in aviation before we kind of get into the the core the content tonight just a few housekeeping items i already offered on behalf of Sporty's pilot shop our thanks for joining us wanted to let everyone know that tonight's presentation on check rides is being recorded so not to worry if you do have to step away for a moment if you happen to miss a point that was made or a slide you will be able to come back in the next day or so and view that in the Sporty's webinar archives at Sporty's comm slash webinars are also on the Sporty's youtube channel and you can view that as much as you'd like we will also periodically be taking questions we'll have a dedicated question and answer session at the very end of the presentation but we may break in from time to time to to field a few from the audience so feel free via the the webinar software that's in front of you to submit the questions at any time throughout the presentation and again we will get through those as the as the presentation goes on talk to you a little bit about Jayson Blair a little about myself I'm I serve as the president and chief instructor at Sporty's Academy that's the education division of Sporty's I'm an airline transport pilot and flight instructor and also an a-c designated master instructor we have a fleet of about 17 aircraft and work with a client base down at Sporty's you can see that in the background there of about 120 to 150 clients really at any given time so I'd be remiss if I didn't mention if there's anything that Sporty's can do for you either from a supply point of view or also a flight training point of view whether it's finishing up you know that course of training that's been ongoing or starting something fresh and new we'd be delighted to have you down to our campus for a few weeks to work with you and whatever that may be from primary all the way up through multi CFI even ATP a few resources if you were not aware that are available from Sporty's anytime to assist you in this process and tonight's presentation is not just that checkride step but also about that entire preparation that entire journey working up to the check ride there's a lot of fantastic resources out there to enhance your overall learning experience and also just help you remain a part of that aviation community it's it's widely accepted that the more involved you are in the local community and the more support that you have and that can come in the form of your personal support network your friends and your family but also that pilot network those other pilots third in the exact same place as you in that flight training process or those who have just been there recently they can offer so much camaraderie and so much support and give you so much you know motivation and key insight as to what their experience and you can help each other out because everyone experiences those those minor learning plateaus at different points along the way but everyone will experience it so you can get a lot of support that way visits forty's comm for any of your educational needs for any of your pilot resources and also again if we can assist in any way from a flight training perspective do visit us at Sporty's Academy comm to learn learn a little bit more about what we can do for you I wanted to mention a few other resources valuable resources and this could be a topic in and of itself but a few key one and and a few industry associations that if you're not familiar with you absolutely should be and be familiar with all those great assets that they have available not only on their website but in print form aircraft owners and Pilots Association largest advocacy group for pilots of course protecting our freedom to fly a OPA org the Air Safety Institute which is part of a OPA a lot of great resources on there including flight training magazine videos articles and you know information on about any particular topic related to aviation you can imagine so a lot of great free resources there even if you're not a member but absolutely everyone should be a number and also Experimental Aircraft Association EAA org if you're looking again to involve yourself in a local quality aviation chapter aviation group Experimental Aircraft Association is a great place to start there are local chapters at airports all across the country and again on their website ei or you can find a lot of great support resources similar to AOPA I mentioned student pilot news as a resource that's also available kind of within the Sporty's domain that's a website maintained and controlled by by Sporty's but that's exclusively both products and information predominantly to assist you in this flight training process flight school directory directory can be and can be found there a lot of great video tips that are refreshed on a regular basis an ongoing flight training blog we have weekly video tips we have weekly fun flying videos because everyone needs to take a step back take a deep breath and just enjoy you know that aviation community around you and you can do part of that at student pilot news.com also iPad pilot news.com and air fax journal com or two other online periodicals and the Sporty's family of online journals that if you haven't taken a look at you absolutely should these are free resources they include a newsletter I at Pilate news is dedicated to anything iPad related which we know has quickly taken over the aviation community I'm sure most of the people online here with us tonight are probably using the iPad as an EFP and you have a lot of other resources available there and also air fax journal comm for the active aviation community out there this is a set of articles videos that are submitted by users this is a this is a user driven group here so you can get some again some great some great feedback you can participate yourself you can kind of explore and see and help share in some of the successes and many of the challenges that other aviators just like you experienced on a day in a day out basis before we turn things over to Jason I wanted to talk just for a moment about some of the preparation that's involved in a successful flight training journey that will inevitably turn into a successful check ride experience and it all starts with having a good foundation from which to build and in this modern day there's so many great resources out there to help you when you're away from the airport and help you learn on your own and and you and use your own style and use different media take advantage of all those great delivery options we have now whether it's online or dedicated app but starting with an online course is definitely a great foundation to start with where you can kind of wrap that ground school component into a very personalized learning experience that you can do on your own time at your convenience at the home at the office on the go whatever the case may be it's certainly you know widely accepted that the more senses you can involve in that learning process the more powerful experience is going to be and the more that information and the better that information is going to be retained you can see some of these flight procedures brought to life so this is good at preparation as you can get outside a full motion simulator with some of the HD quality video that you can get in an online course platform doing so will have you better prepared for each flight lesson each ground lesson and in the end that will absolutely save you time and money there's no doubt about it when you can spend less time in the briefing room and more time doing that that is going to equate to a smoother more enjoyable more efficient flight training process for all involved and you know keep in mind this is just a means to an end we're here not to Flight Train we're here to be pilots we're here for what's on the other end of that pilot certificate and this will help you do it and also that you know the industry is certainly working hard I'm not sure we'll ever fully get there - what I would say fixing the written test written testing function although it's getting much better with the introduction of the airman certification standards but there's still a little bit of a disconnect we have I think everyone understands a procuring written testing and an actual practical flight training and flying and some of these standalone written test preparation modules that you can obtain with an online course can also do wonders and preparing you for that and and kind of getting that segment of the training behind you so you can focus on the task at hand and that is fine in the airplane I will make a quick mention with all of that that we certainly value you giving Sporty's a shot if you're not already using some form of an online ground school or online curriculum the Sporty's learn to fly course available at Sporty's comm slash courses features 13 hours of video content and training and several dedicated modules including written test prep some flight resources including an interactive maneuvers guide a flight syllabus which is a key component of a successful experience so you always have a plan of action you always know where you've been and where you are going and you can also earn your written exam endorsement directly from that course a few last-minute tips I will add is on your flight training experience that's that's my take away for if you don't remember anything else from me tonight you're going to remember a lot from from Jason if you don't remember anything else that I mentioned tonight remember I said this on your own experience take control don't be passive you must be active you must be just as involved in that curriculum and that syllabus as the flight instructor you need to be looking ahead you need to be seeing what's out there that's unknown and go out and take the initiative to learn something about it so again when you get to the airport you can hit the ground running less time briefing more time flying that's a quicker more efficient path to a pilot certificate understand there will be obstacles don't let continuity be one of those you know when you start breaking up lessons that and when you go weeks or even months in some cases without flight training that's just extra time that's going to need to be spent to get you right back to where you just work continuity is key if there are obstacles and challenges find a way around them maybe that's fine and some online resources an article maybe another pilot maybe it's another flight instructor that can add a slightly different voice or some different perspective on a maneuver own the experience find a way around it with that it is indeed my pleasure to welcome again mr. Jayson Blair who's going to take things over here as we make a quick handoff behind the scenes and he's going to talk to us about checkride preparation Jayson it's all yours well thanks much Eric and glad to be here with everybody tonight and you know as I said earlier this is I actually did two check rides today so this is not something that we only do periodically it's what I call check ride season up here in the Upper Midwest for the folks on the call here and listening who are in places where you have better weather our winter months get a little bit a little bit quiet and in this time of the year we get nice and busy and I think Eric you get the same thing down there and since that e area where our weather makes an effect on these check rides so glad to be getting through a bunch of these and glad to talk with everybody tonight as we talk about how you can kind of prepare for and pass your check ride and we'll call it an FAA practical test but refer to as a check ride which is pretty much what we all refer to it as as we go through tonight so looking forward to sharing something that I have seen on check rides and things that I've seen as an instructor and as an examiner that help you be more prepared to be successful on that check ride it really begins with understanding what is the purpose of the practical test in the first place so and when we think about a practical test it's not a way to trick your trap here or find a way to stop you from being a pilot it's really the last in a series of tests that everybody takes along they're training for a pilot certificate or rating and it's just a way to kind of check to make sure the instructor that you've been working with and the studying that you have been doing ensures that you've met the standards for the particular rating or certificate that you are pursuing so in fact we're really there like Eric said earlier to not necessarily um try and test you were there there just to kind of make sure the things that you have been trained on meet the standards and we're a verification that the work the instructor has already done with you meets those standards and you can continue to meet those standards as a pilot as an outside check is really what we're there for all of these tests are done in accordance with a minimum standard that the FAA sets forth it's in this case most of them are now going to be airman certification standard as of June 12th we now have private instrument in commercial airman certification standards there are still a couple of practical test standards that are applicable that will be changing over time primarily the CFI and the ATP and but actually the sport pilot and recreational I think are still out there as pts Eric if I'm not mistaken too so I'm not certain when a sport pilot and recreational are going to be updated but the CFI will be coming soon as well probably next June when it comes out so the examiner is going to use those documents to evaluate the applicant on the test you know we're not here to retest the Airman's knowledge test we're here just to test that practical portion of the check right and make sure that the standards that are set forth in those ACS or pts standards are what you're going to be tested to so that really is your menu for the check ride and that's what we have to follow as examiner as well now everybody gets to a check ride the first thing they think is alright when is he going to start the questioning and the reality is there are four or five in essence major portions of the check right it doesn't start with locking you in a room and asking you a bunch of questions it actually starts with making sure you are qualified to take the test and this is one of the jobs of the examiners to make sure that we have gone through the applicants information to make sure that they have everything completed that meets the FAA standards for the particular rating or certificate and and these are things that we do find errors in sometimes it might be that we're missing 0.2 hours of night time or we got 9 takeoffs and landings at night instead of the 10 that are required for a private pilot certificate so our job is to make sure the applicant is ready for the check ride so when you first get to meet with the examiner they're going to take some time and go through your logbooks make sure you have the proper medical certificates that are required for the rating or certificate make sure the endorsements are all there for that check ride and this is going to take some time and obviously the whole time you're waiting for the examiner to do this you're getting more and more nervous right as you wait to try and see the examiner going to going to get going on this and am I going to pass and this is actually a good time for you just to take a little bit of a breather and relax and work with the examiner to show them the documents that are required to make sure you're eligible for that check ride another part of that is they're also going to make sure they go through your application for that check ride which is typically done on the I Acker website which is a digital application processing site in rare cases we do get stuck to a paper yet but we certainly try to get that done as early as possible in the digital format if everything meets the requirements once that's done the examiner is required to actually give you a briefing about the test they're going to brief you on you know what to expect that we're going to have an oral and a a flight portion of the check ride what to do if you have questions during the check ride approximately how long it generally takes even little things like we have to tell you if you want a bathroom break you can do it so you know these are all things that we're going to brief you about before we even begin the checkride so the reality is once we've done these two things you're probably already about a half-hour or so into the time you're going to spend with that examiner so once that is done we're going to finally get into the oral questioning and depending on the type of test that's being given it's generally going to be between an hour and a half or two hours of time and it's going to be covering the areas that are in the pts or ACS so those are areas are specifically designed to make sure that we have practically applied the information that you previously learn for the knowledge test in relation to what we're going to be doing on the actual practical test that day now a few of these do get shorter you know for example I did a commercial single-engine add-on practical test this week it's a very short round portion many times it's less than an hour because nobody really has a commercial pilot certificate so in a few cases they'll be very very short and that doesn't necessarily mean anything's wrong if you get through things quickly it just means you did your job study once the oral portion of the practical test has been completed successfully you'll proceed into the flight demonstration portion of this and in most check rides this is going to take an hour and a half to two hours it certainly shouldn't be long enough that you're going to need to refuel or anything like that when we do see see if I check rides they obviously take longer but generally if you add these two things up you're going to probably have about a five hour time period that you're spending with the examiner and I like to tell my applicants you know we're not going to lock you in a room with the CIA and waterboard you for five hours it just takes time to go through this stuff so as we go through this this is what somebody can generally expect for the order of the practical test that they're going to take and I get a little note down here the examiner obviously loves to do these check rides we absolutely love to see people get their ratings and certificate completed but we also generally do it for a fee and the examiner is supposed to collect that fee prior to the beginning of the actual testing portion so that would happen after the qualification and briefing has been completed and they'll accept their payment then and move on into the testing portion so if we think about just preparing for the test itself now that we know what we are going to be doing on the practical test let's talk a little bit about some of the things you can do to prepare for it and one of the things that I really like to kind of get people to think about is considering the scheduling and the timing at which they're going to take that test you know if you're somebody that doesn't like to get up early in the morning or perhaps works late maybe an early-morning check rides not a great idea now on the other side of that maybe you are a morning person and you like to wake up at 5 o'clock have that first cup of coffee and meeting the examiner at 7 a.m. is the best thing you can do to get that day started and get it moving so think about your own personal scheduling and how that's going to affect when you want to schedule schedule to checkride certainly there's some coordination that has to happen with the examiner so the two of you can coordinate together but if you do have some choices maybe you don't want to just take the first available time but instead pick a time that's going to best fit your schedule and the examiners that also is the time of the day that works well for you chasing a if I could interject for a second look what would be the advice so you know would you recommend you hitting that head on what the examiner if if clearly there's others a high energy time of day when you're performing best is it best to just let they know that let the examiner know that you know I understand I might have to wait a little bit longer to schedule with you but this is really my peak performance time of day and I really like to you know get it in as best I can you know around this particular time is that the best way to handle it it is absolutely and I can tell you had a gentleman about two weeks ago we did a check write for and it got weathered out and I called him and said hey in last minute I've got two days for now I got an opening can you do the morning and he was very honest with this and you know that's great he said but I work a work line for Delta Airlines their last flight comes in at 12:30 in the morning and I just don't think I'm going to be awake and ready to perform well at 7:00 in the morning and I think that's an absolutely valid thing to tell the examiner you know if you have a best time of the day that's going to work for you um you know be honest with the examiner and tell them that that shows good pilot decision-making that you're going to make those decisions when you're going to fly on your own as well so you know the same holds true we have the after-work game a lot of people say well I work til 3 o'clock let's it's not dark till 9 o'clock this time of the year maybe I can squeeze it in before the end of the day and boy if you had a full day at work and you're trying to juggle a couple things and get there in the last minute and maybe that flight planning isn't quite done yet you're already kind of putting yourself behind the 8-ball to get that check ride done and be at your best peak performance which is exactly what we want to do on the day of our test so you know can you schedule it on a weekend on a day off you know think about when does it get dark I can tell you from a long time ago I did a check ride and the applicant hasn't thought about when it got dark and he was convinced we were going to do a private pilot check ride and the flight portion put us about 7 o'clock in the evening in December in Michigan boy it was dark and you know we had a conversation before I said you sure you want to do this he said yeah I think I can do it well the first thing we tried was turns around a point so it's pretty hard to see a turn in the dark there point to do a turn around in the dark he chose a moving car light set which was interesting to me but it didn't work out so well so you know thinking about that scheduling can be a big factor in setting yourself up to be successful on that check ride and leaving yourself enough time to get to the airport ahead of the examiner this is one thing I'm very careful of when I do practical tests I try not to show up significantly early on the applicant now if we have a 9:00 a.m. check ride scheduled I might show up at 8:45 but I'm certainly not going to show up at 7:00 a.m. and leave the person who's trying to get their last-minute planning done feeling very pressured so give yourself some time to get to the airport you know get those last-minute things set up maybe get the aircraft logbooks dug out and make sure everything is ready for that Trek ride so if you don't want to do that at 6:00 in the morning might not be a great idea to schedule a 7:00 a.m. check ride or maybe you can prepare some of those things the night before and have them ready to be you know ready to go and I guess here when we think about this also is go back to the last slide we talked about how long it's going to take make sure you set enough time apart to be able to complete the entire check ride in that time period you know a lot of times we have check rides that maybe we'll schedule it at noon and some buses but I got to be at class at 3 p.m. or I've got to be at work at 3 p.m. or pick the kids up from school you know three hours isn't going to do it we're probably going to need five hours and maybe a little extra time would be good to plan so make sure when you schedule your check ride that you have enough time you know to get there early prepare and leave enough time to complete a whole practical test and even if there's any hiccups that happen along the way some of those we can run into relate to whether the aircraft is ready and there's many many times that we find we get to a check ride and we run into hiccups with the aircraft certainly the aircraft in the picture here's probably not the one we want to use for a check read but I can't tell you I have been too far off from seeing airplanes like this brought to check rides sometimes the reality is when we as an examiner conduct a practical test we also have to ensure that we are getting into an aircraft it is air worthy and meets all the FAA standards now we're not at a peace typically or not is we're not going to do a full inspection on the aircraft but we do certainly need to see the basics to make sure that aircraft is ready we're going to need to see the logbooks for the aircraft to make sure that the annual inspection and vor is if they're applicable and all the air worthiness type of inspections are completed and that the aircraft is legal for flight so those inspections are going to have to be demonstrated to us we do need to see if there are airworthiness directives that are applicable that they're complied with and if there are any reoccurring ADEs that they have been kept current you know some real common ones that we run into our seat brackets on the Cessna Aircraft many aircraft out there have heater inspections that have to be done and these have to be done in certain time periods these are also great questions that we ask on the practical test ground portion of the oral portion of the test make sure the applicant can qualify the aircraft and show us that it is appropriately able to be flown that day as well now the general just is we we also can't have things that are broken and certainly on aircraft we know there are some things that can be placard and made disabled if they're not original ated items you know if you've got an old NDB in the aircraft that isn't going to be functional for the checkride that's perfectly fine but we probably can't have the flaps not working on the airplane or an alternator not working something like that um so you know if we find things like this that are missing or broken we are not going to be able to proceed with the test it doesn't mean that you failed it just means we can't do the test that day and it will need to be rescheduled checkride to make sure that an aircraft is ready is something that can make the day of the checker I'd go faster more smooth and make sure you actually get the check ride because invariably today that we hold up a check ride for an aircraft is going to be the most beautiful day to do it and when you reschedule it's probably going to have lousy weather right so kind of how it seems to work so so take the time and we do understand if something does break you know if you're using a an aircraft and somebody flew it the day before and something broke you know give us a call and let us know if there's problem for the check ride that next day and we can work with a reschedule but when we find things that are are missing or if we find hundred hour inspections that are over flown these are things that are going to hold the check right up and make you need to reschedule as we think about personal documents that are going to be needed to have with on the day of the practical test there's actually quite a few things that you need to have completed I mentioned earlier the eye Accra application that's actually an FAA 8710 it's an airman certificate and rating application it's basically the application that the applicant and the instructor complete and send off to the examiner we look at that and then we ship it all off the Oklahoma City when we're done and have passed you and that's what gets the certificate moving through the FAA system so that document must be completed there are times when we cannot use I Accra in some cases if there's a system outage or in cases of seaplane ratings or maybe we're doing it at a local lake and there's just not not access to internet sometimes we use paper it's also a good idea if you have completed this in AI Accra prior to your test go ahead and print a copy and bring it with you if we get there in the day to check write and find that the hacker system happens to be down or there's an internet outage at least we're able to continue with the test because that is an application that's required for us to be able to proceed with the test it's worth noting that we also have to make sure all the requirements are completed we alluded to it earlier you know whether we have all our night takeoffs and landings or maybe all of our cross-country time these are things the examiner has to look through the applicants logbook and make sure that the requirements for that per that particular test are completed in this they're not we again don't get too can you with the test certainly need to have your medical or in this case at this point compliance with met I guess the basic Meadowlark uhrin traumatic medically qualified if applicable for the test we need to see a photo ID it's got to be a government-issued photo ID most commonly as passport or driver's license things like that but certainly military ID and things that like that can work as well we need to see your knowledge test report from many of the practical tests so in some of the add-ons we don't need them but many of them we do need to see that and that is something your instructor would also need to have completed in I Accra when they sign you off for the practical test in some cases we need a graduation certificate this is primarily applicable for part 141 training if there's a graduation certificate and we need endorsements so it's a requirement that we need to see somebody is able to fly the aircraft that they're going to be using for the practical test especially on private pilot test where they have to have been able to solo that it aircraft for commercial tasks things like that we may need a high performance endorsement or a complex endorsement and these are all things that must be there in the log books for the individual taking the test to be able to continue forward with that and then for every practical test is given the instructor will be signing off a series of endorsements that include the test and that they've reviewed there is found deficient on a knowledge test and that they have flown with the applicant at least three hours in preceding two calendar months so all of those things have to be in there for us to be able to even proceed with the test and these are things that can be prepared ahead of time it's a good idea if you have any questions about these or whether you meet any of these requirements to go ahead and take a look through these ahead of time not just the morning of the check ride and if you have questions give the examiner a call and they can certainly help try to make sure you're going to be able to get that check right done on the day of if there's any documentary compliance that needs to be addressed it's worth noting here I also say bring reference materials we'll talk a little bit more about that as we go through it so as we think about all these things that need to be with us really any of these items may be missed with you are really a reason it's going to cause your test to not go and probably the most common one I'm going to mention is something to pay attention to is a name mismatch on any of these documents technically we need to see a photo ID that matches the same first name middle name last name or whichever choice you're going to be using on the knowledge test report and the IEEE accra application and if there are previous pilots to be consider how this does need to match their if they do not match you know for example if your medical has first name last name instead of first name middle name last name and your knowledge test does the other one in your photo ID has a junior at the end of it these are actually paperwork items that are going to stop the check ride from going forward so take the time to go through these things prior to the test and make sure any hiccups are addressed to make sure you're gonna be able to get going forward into the actual portion of the test let's talk about that a little bit must Eric any questions so far you want to add in there all right hearing none we're going to help you out there no I think we're rolling along pretty well Jason all right let's dive into the ground portion here so this is the first part where the examiner is going to lock you in the room tie you down and start questioning you right it's actually not that bad fortunately but I will tell you you do have to have a good location for you know the picture here and this is probably not the best place and actually would get us in trouble as an examiner and we try not to do a check ride in the middle of the FBO with the main table with people going by really we're giving guidance as examiner's we're supposed to have an undisturbed location that's you know basically four walls in a closed door it's a good idea in my recommendation to have a nice large work surface for any charting a computer available if you're going to be doing any of the Acker work a white board or a chalk board something you can draw on I'll tell you a lot of people when I do checker I draw out things like aircraft systems maybe write down some lists the mnemonics that we use for memorize things I always tell people I don't judge the drawing abilities because my artistic talent certainly doesn't doesn't come up to par but whatever it takes to help you be more prepared and easily able to have a good undisturbed location with the resources you need is something you should plan ahead for and make sure it's available for your check this is going to keep it from being you know disturbed in the middle as somebody walks into the FBO and starts asking questions and it's going to make sure you have a good clear communication process between you and the examiner it's worth knowing what is actually going to be tested I mentioned it earlier the airman certification standards or the practical test standards are really the menu for the tests that the examiner is going to be using this is actually what we have to test on we're not going to test you on more than sin there we're not going to make up new stuff but we do have to at least cover the minimum items that the ACS or pts require us to cover for that particular practical test it is amazing how many times people come to checker IDEs and they have no copy of this with them and in some cases you know we look at the instrument rating ACS down here that instrument rating ACS is also a resource that could be used to determine what needs to be completed on an instrument proficiency check so if we're asking an instrument pilot candidate or ACF double-eye candidate what must be completed on a instrument proficiency check that's a good reference document that they should have with them to be able to refer to and come up with the answers of what needs to be on a type EC so certainly worth having these documents with you and obviously very very much worth going through them with your instructor and on your own prior to the test to know exactly what's going to be tested on the practical test it's also worth knowing that you should have the owner's manual or operating handbook or poh for the aircraft as well sometimes the owner's manuals are P OHS for those aircraft do offer different interpretations or more restrictive standards on how you will perform a maneuver than the PPS for example the pts and a multi-engine check ride will recommend that we stay at least 3,000 feet above ground level for any multi engine simulated failures if we still get some aircraft many piper aircraft and particularly the piper twin Comanche recommend 4000 or 5000 ATL so the examiner should be making sure they not only adhere to the pts or ACS but also if there are any more restrictive limitations of the aircraft manufacturer has put on the aircraft for performance of some of those maneuvers so it's worth making sure you look through the poh or airplane flight handbook whatever it happens to be to make sure that you're adhering to any additional standards that are beyond the pts we think about the reference materials you know this is something that many people think point we can't look anything up on a check ride right um well you certainly can the examiner may give you an opportunity to look up some information we certainly don't expect you to memorize everything um I I can't tell you that I've memorized everything either and as part of being a good pilot is continuing to learn and also knowing where to find reference materials if we need them always good to have a current copy of the fa RS with you image in the ACS and pts but also give your chill self a chance to bring what other reference materials you may use with you for that test and if there is an opportunity where maybe you're not entirely certain on something but you think you know where to find it tell the examiner look I'm not really clear on this one I think I know exactly where to find it and show them that you would be able to find that information a great example of this today many times ask on practical tests is what the owner/operator maintenance allowances are and this is something that's in the part 43 Appendix A there's a big list of things that we can do and I might ask somebody geez you know if the landing light burns out on your airplane can you change it as a pilot and I don't expect the pilot to memorize that whole list this is certainly something that you would identify on the ground and if they had a question they could go refer to their fa RS and determine if the landing light is something they can change fortunately for us it is numb but there are certainly things we also cannot do and this would give us an opportunity of the pilot to determine what that's going to be as a pilot you're going to do that in real life this is a practical test I expect nothing different on the test itself so if there's something you would normally be looking up on the ground as a pilot you have the opportunity to do the same thing on a practical test but it gets really hard to do it if you don't have the materials with with you so as we go through the ground portion um you know I think one of the biggest things they tell people think of it like a conversation imagine the ground portion of the check ride is really just a conversation about flying you know imagine you're with a friend who knows nothing about aviation they're very curious and you know it's going to take some time to explain things if you imagine you sat down over dinner with a friend and they said gee what do flaps do um it would take you some time to explain that this is why the ground portion takes an hour and a half for two hours to get through the examiner is not looking to trap you they're not looking to trick you they're just looking to see do you have the basic knowledge that's required to understand how things like systems work how the regulations apply to your flight things like airspace and flight planning and it's going to take some time to go through that so if you treat the ground portion of the test like a conversation and just kind of have a conversation with the examiner when they ask questions it's really going to be a lot more comfortable for you instead of just a rote question-and-answer session so that's probably the best advice I have for the ground portion of the test in terms of how you're going to approach the test itself a couple general tips on the ground portion it's always a good idea to draw explain or write things down if you can and this is where having the whiteboard um can help you many times as we we draw things out or explain them or write them down it helps clarify your own thoughts and as we do it we take the time to really collect our thoughts before we just spit out an answer one of the things that we do encounter as examiner's it's an attempt to slow people down on the check rise when we ask a question there's a natural reaction to want to answer that immediately and there's nothing wrong with taking a little time to write down to collect your thoughts or work through that answer a little bit before you give us a final answer on it so take your time as you go through it don't just spit out that first answer and if you need to don't be afraid to take a break either so you know we certainly don't expect you to be locked to the chair um while we're questioning for a couple hours if you want to break for some water or bathroom break um you know feel free to tell the examiner let's take a five-minute break and we use the restroom quick and come on back and there's a good chance of the examiners like me and drink a couple cups of coffee on the way to the practical tests are going to they're going to welcome their break as well so um back to the reference materials make sure you got those Poh diagrams with you as well this is something I actually see sometimes not with unpractical tests so it is kind of important to make sure you have that resource with you we are going to be using that as a reference portion for the performance sections of the ground portion of the check ride so let's imagine we get all the way through the ground portion we've gotten through the testing everything that's in that ACS or pts is completed and we're going to move on to the flight portion of the test at this point so I want to kind of highlight the role of the examiner on the practical test we're really there as a as an examiner not as an instructor we're not another pilot that's on board unless we happen to be doing a practical test in an aircraft that requires two crew if we get into the jet environment there are some examiners doing those types of operations but the majority of practical tests the pilot in command is the person who's taking the test so you know it's fair to say you can use the examiner as a knowledgeable passenger but we do expect you to brief us like you would a normal passenger who wasn't completely familiar with the aircraft well you know you can have us look for some traffic a little bit you can have us hold the charts a little bit maybe you know in the summer we'll hold our door open for a little bit of cooler air you can expect us to act as a normal passenger might but not as a crew member for your aircraft I think that's an important thing that makes a big difference on practical tests and that's a part of what we're testing is to make sure you are the P IC on that flight we're testing to make sure that you're going to make good decisions from the start of that flight to the very end of it and show us that you could go out and do this on your own with family and friends or by yourself as if there was not an examiner or an instructor with you and I guess to highlight that point you know Eric mentioned um I think I'm a little over 52 or 53 hundred hours of log flight time right now but I'm a little over 2,000 hours of riding in an airplane as an examiner and we do not log any of the flight time as an examiner unless we happen to become a PSE moment in the aircraft which is typically if we have to do an actual instrument check right in conditions otherwise we really are just passengers along the way and we're looking for you as the applicant on that check ride to show us you can be the picu that airplane and conduct the maneuvers that you're testing for so that's a really important part of the check ride and it's kind of hard as the applicant to not think of the guy in the right seat or gal in the right seat as somebody who's knowledgeable and experienced they're there to test you right and you think of them as somebody that you should refer to in that role but they're really not there to do that that day so being at PSC and that's going to be a big part of your check ride so on the ground portion it's pretty important to conduct a thorough pre-flight inspection and this is a little awkward sometimes the examiner is going to watch you conduct that pre-flight we're not going to just that they're silent we may ask you some questions about the aircraft and certainly if it's an aircraft that we're not familiar with in terms of the particular make and make it model with a particular end number many times the examiners we show up to do a checker I'd at an airport for somebody in an airplane we've never seen before um so we'll ask some questions about the airplane and how its maintained you know if we see anything that piques our interest that looks like it's wrong we're certainly going to ask some questions about that too so make sure the aircraft is ready and we want to make sure that little things like the oil caps back on tight um you know I've seen that on a checker ID where we we didn't get that all the way back on and it certainly creates a heck of a mess so you know missing little things can make a big difference on that checker i-day when you're preflighting it's easy to get nervous and want to just get moving um and things like chocks and extension cords and tie-downs um do get left sometimes and I got to tell you it's a little entertaining for me as the examiner when we do hop into the airplane and I've noticed the chocks are still in there and we get all started up and and then we don't move very well and I kind of get that moment of asking the applicant so what do you think happen in it usually almost always the applicant remembers what it was and they shut down and go out and fix it and that's that's one way to handle it in one case I can kind of the African decided to jump the chocks so instead purposefully knowing it was there and we stopped the check read immediately at that point so you know think about these little things and make sure that aircraft thoroughly preflighted and a good thing to do is just before you get in the airplane take a 15 or 20 foot step back and just give it a good look over and make sure there's not one big last thing that you happen to be missing to do a good thorough pre-flight you do have to know the airplane a little bit you know study those aircraft systems know how they work this is a common portion on the ground and flight portion that we do run into troubles with I can tell a story from a fellow examiner who had an applicant come up for the check ride it was a commercial check ride and when he got there um he talked to the examiner and said Jesus you know how the gear goes down and up and down on this I've never flown this airplane before he was actually jumping into an airplane that he had never flown before on the day of his check ride that's certainly about the worst thing you can probably do in terms of knowing the airplane so make sure that you do know the aircraft systems but also know where to find things in the aircraft you know be organized and as we jump between airplanes sometimes we might be doing our training in a piper warrior a Cessna 172 but switching particular airplanes and unless the fleet is completely standardized where we're training things may be slightly different there might be a different radio there might be a different GPS maybe a couple of the switches are in a different spot and if you're going to do a practical test in an aircraft you're really good idea to make sure you identify the particulars of that aircraft prior to the test and know where everything is so you're not searching for it on the day of the test you know so know that instrument panel know the avionics work know how to turn the radio on and the intercom it can tell you there's been a number of check rides I've gotten into and the intercom was turned off and an applicant thought the radios weren't working so you know take the time to know these little details it's going to make the examiner be a lot more comfortable if you seem to know the aircraft itself and you know where everything is in it it's not the not the day where you should have to be asking the examiner how something works on the aircraft itself so as we continue make sure you know the standards for the maneuvers and what you will be required to demonstrate I mentioned earlier review that poh if there are any limitations on the maneuvers the airplane flying handbook has descriptions of all of the maneuvers that you're going to do and they are referred to from the ACS and pts standards so the ACS and PPS do have maneuver standards but then the descriptions for those maneuvers are in the airplane flying handbook and if you if you don't have a copy of it certainly you can pick one up from Sporty's but they are also downloadable in PDF format from the FAA website these are FAA publications and I think you'll see a trend here when we do practical tests everything is very much based on FAA standards and the same holds true for the maneuvers that we're going to be asking you to demonstrate on the day of a practical test so take the time well ahead of the check ride to know those maneuvers know the standards have read through them and understand what you are going to be required to demonstrate on the practical test it's not a good time to start experimenting on the test you know if you have done your training and something was missed in your training um you know it's not a good time to just try it an experiment the last summer right I want to do a practical test it was a private pilot test and the applicant was unclear of the fact that we had to demonstrate an emergency descent on the private pilot test you know ask him what do you want to do is that I'll try it anyway well he was trying to do a maneuver that he wasn't trained to do was unfamiliar with and it really didn't get done in the way that the poh in that case and the airplane flying handbook described so you know making sure that you understand all the maneuvers is important but if there is something you don't know don't try and just make it up on the check ride it's better to tell the examiner I'm not familiar with that and don't just try anyway with that being said there are some maneuvers that can be modified slightly or changed a little bit depending on how you're trained and still neat pts or a couple maneuvers it can be done multiple ways so if you have heard an examiner likes it a certain way don't change that on the day of your test do the maneuvers how you've been trained to do them no matter what you think the examiner might want or prefer if they do meet the practical test standards it's going to be an item that you pass on during the flight portion is also important too take your time and certainly we can't fly all day eventually we'll run out of gas but if we fuel the aircraft appropriately you know take the time to set those maneuvers up and if it takes 1.3 that's great if you take C 1.8 on the flight time that's fine - there's no rush on this many times I find students do fail because they rush a manoeuvre they miss clearing turns they don't set up the manoeuvre to have a gear down or a flaps down as appropriate and they just forget to do stuff so taking the time to set that maneuver up and not rushing is an important thing and this is also true on instrument practical test a really good savvy student remembers the words delay vectors and takes the time if they feel like they're getting jammed into an approach to set themselves up and give themselves the time to appropriately do the maneuver that they're going to do and I think this one is a simple one don't scare the exam you know seems really logical but the more predictable things are the more you communicate with the examiner where the examiner is going to know that you understand what's happening on that test and it keeps them pretty comfortable with notes going on so you know a general word is don't fear the examiner I think that's pretty important but a big part of how you make sure you don't scare them is to be communicative along the way on that flight portion as well so as we think about this we've got some general track ride tips that I do want to pass along as well and then also I'll pass along a few things that are common failure items when we think about a practical test that I do like to mention it's not a spectator sport this is not the day when you want to bring your family and friends out to the airport it's not the day that you want to plan on immediately after passing your private pilot test ride at 12:59 p.m. that at 1:05 p.m. you're going to get near plane and fly that first family trip all the way across the country you know set your day up as something you're going to do at the airport undisturbed and you can go ahead and give your family and friends to call after when things have been completed successfully and tell them how things go well it just adds a lot of extra pressure to you on the day of the test to have those other individuals there while you're trying to get the check ride completed it's worth noting you're going to make mistakes on a practical test we expect this as examiner's we don't expect you to be perfect generally we're looking for solid all-around performance not not perfection you know we're looking to make sure that you generally know what's happening on this test and if there are any errors you know perhaps we're off by 50 feet in a steep turn but you're making good corrections you understand how to fix that and get yourself back on track for your altitude and sometimes this shows us just as much as examiner's is as if we're going to do the maneuver perfectly I mean I don't fly perfectly as a pilot either so being able to identify and correct your own examiner's is an important thing to show the examiner that you're going to do this when you go out and do flying on your own you know if you do make a mistake go ahead and explain it to the examiner tell them what you're doing to fix it you know a good explanation of a fix is really going to show you how to manage those issues if they do come up in your own flying now I will admit as an examiner as things are going along perfectly well we do get distracted look out the window sometimes and as the manoeuvres are going on some key words like oops uh-oh and oh darn are good cues to bring us right back into that airplane so if you do see something going on um you know maybe maybe you avoid the oops oh oh no darn and just tell us what you're doing to fix it instead so you know keep us keep us feeling happy as we go through that flight do strive for your best performance as we think about those FAA ACS and pts standards they are minimums that's exactly what they are this is basically I got a d-minus and I'm passing you know we want to get an A on this check ride if we can so strive to do the absolute best you can to exceed the minimum standards of those ACS and pts documents and show us that the majority of the time you're going to be better than the absolute basic minimum in some cases this shows us you know if we have one maneuver that's a little bit rusty but the rest room are really good long as everything's within the pts we're certainly going to feel pretty pretty happy about passing if everything looked good we get a little bit nervous when everything is starting to be right on the ragged edge of that ACS or pts standards so strive for your best performance all the way through that test as you do it worth noting and this kind of comes back to the times scheduling be rested you know a good night's sleep before the checkride is an important thing and that means don't spend the whole night before trying to cram information into your brain the reality is when we think about how our brains work cramming information doesn't give us a good retention ability for memory anyway you're actually better off to go ahead and get a good night's sleep and that way the information you have learned over the weeks and months of your study ahead it's going to be accessed when your brain is going to be functioning at peak performance and you'll be well rested and able to perform on the day of that test so generally being tired is something that will reduce your performance on that and especially on the oral portion of the test can make it harder to retain and get that information out to the examiner coherently I think Eric mentioned a little bit earlier about you know using our electronic flight bags and this is an interesting piece it has changed over the time when I have been an examiner we've changed from having piles of charts with us to perhaps just an electronic flight bag as we think about doing practical tests with digital charting and planning it is something that's perfectly fine and acceptable on the test it is worth talking to the examiner ahead of time some examiner's are more comfortable or less comfortable with digital flight planning but it is something the FAA has instructed examiner's that we are to accept so if you if you want to show up at the check ride with just digital planning that's perfectly fine and is acceptable as long as you can demonstrate that the pro landing information you're going to be using on that device um is such that it will them you know meet all the ACS and pts standards so now we're really there to test how you're going to fly I say here not how your grandpa did and we want to see how you're actually going to fly in real life and the reality is when I give practical tests I certainly know that if somebody shows up with an electronic flight bag they're going to be using that in the real life to have them show up with a pile of paper charts but I can see the iPad on the desk next to them is not really validly testing how they are practically going to fly so I'd rather see them use the digital charting it is worth noting have backups a charger second device potentially you know even an iPhone which is typically what I carry as my backup for my at I have the multiple little apps on there and if one of them dies I've got to back up so as long as you have some sort of a backup option for the inevitable question the examiner may ask you well what if your battery dies it gives you an option to work with it and have something else that you could rely upon if your primary device did fail it could have a backup you know paper plan as well a couple things I do like to ask about when we are using electronic flight bags is that individuals know how to replan a flight so we may modify the flight a little bit especially for instrument check rides maybe if ATC gave somebody a new routing the reality is it's actually a lot easier on digital flight bags now that ever used to be on the old paper form them so we can really do some great in flight planning that we never were able to easily do historically some information is worth noting is more difficult to get on the electronic flight bag devices in the apps then it maybe have been maybe was in previous ways that we got it a good example of that is the airport facilities directory or the chart supplements I guess we'll call them now um that do need to be downloaded separately in most applications to make sure you have that data so it's worth having a little bit of forethought to make sure you have all the charts that you're going to need and potentially any supplemental information that does need to be downloaded so you have access to that when historically maybe it just carried the green book with you as a separate option so so make sure you have all that stuff with and don't be afraid of digital charting as well one thing I do want to mention here about weather is that you know the weather can really make a big difference on whether you're going to pass that check right and it's worth noting that I like to tell people look if you're not normally thinking you would go flying on that day you probably shouldn't be taking your check ride on that day now it doesn't mean that they has to be clear blue in a million but it certainly has to be whether that would not adversely affect your ability to perform within those ACS or pts standards and it's much like to get there right as we get to get done itis on a check ride that's scheduled that's we get out there and say man it's 2,500 foot overcast today and I just don't think I've got the right altitude to get that slow flight in but I really want to get that checker I'd done um well that's a good time to start thinking about maybe I shouldn't do this today if the weather isn't right to do that test go ahead and reschedule it there's nothing wrong with rescheduling for weather it actually shows that you are making a good pilot decision about the weather and understanding what the limitations of all the maneuvers you need to complete are determining whether or not the weather on that day is good enough to get that done in some practical test this does require a fairly high ceiling to get this done if we think about multi-engine check rides where we have to have a high altitude so we can do simulated engine failures we think about steep spiraling descents on a single-engine commercial check ride we do need fairly high ceilings to make these manoeuvres be done in compliance with the ACS or pts standards so you might need a 5000 foot ceiling to really get that check ride done and in some portions of the country that might mean multiple reschedules to get it done so I can tell you one from this year that I had we started in December and we finally got the right weather to complete it in February I think some of it was a little bit of bad luck for the poor guy who just kept scheduling the bad days but sometimes that happens and don't let yourself get too frustrated over that means you're making good decisions about the weather to make sure that you are going to complete that practical test in a way that doesn't cause you to bust altitudes for weather compliance or leave you at too low of an elevation to complete some of those maneuvers I can tell you it's an automatic failure on anything other than instrument check ride if you happen to fly yourself into a cloud um it's pretty simple thing but I can tell you it's also happen on a number of practical tests where the applicant gets distracted they're trying to force the check right in with marginal weather and low and behold we're into a cloud and that's an automatic failure at that point so now don't let the weather determine whether you're going to pass you need to determine whether the weather is going to be the proper type of conditions that you want to complete that practical test in so once we begin a check right I'm going to add there are three possible outcomes and I add this kind of towards the end here because hopefully the end is what the good one is going to be for you but we do have other possibilities once the check ride has actually begun an examiner has to issue one of three things either a disapproval if something does not meet the practical test standards we can also issue a discontinuance if something stops us from finishing the practical test along the way or if all goes well we issue a new temporary airman certificate so we're going to talk a little bit more about the disapproval but the discontinuance is one that not as many people pay attention to this is if something stops the chequered from being able to be completed and that can be any number of things perhaps we go out we do the flight portion or we do the ground portion and we come out and find that you know there's a thunderstorm in the area well we're certainly not going to go flying into that and we are going to stop the check right at that point doesn't mean you have to redo the areas that have already been completed it just means you're going to finish it another time most commonly this happens for aircraft maintenance issues that are found or if there's a weather issue you know certainly could happen if you had an impromptu visit from the president and you got stuck under a TFR or something like that as well but if something stops you from finishing the practical test you're going to be issued a discontinuance and basically that just means you're not quite done yet and you're going to pick it up and finish it off another day it is worth noting that the applicant can discontinue a practical test at any time during the test and I've had this happen on a couple of occasions most the most frequent leads happen for unusual attitude recoveries if somebody was a little under the weather that day and they started feeling that so great so if there is something along the way on the test that causes you to not feel comfortable completing the test you do have the option tell the examiner hey I'm going to go ahead and stop at this point let's finish this up another day testing will not continue at that point and you're basically stopping with whatever maneuvers have been completed it's worth noting you can't use the discontinued to save you from a disapproval so the examiner has said boy that the state turn you just did I see a lost 500 feet on it we're going to go ahead and do a disapproval um it's too late to go ahead and say I'm going to like a discontinuance now so it doesn't work for that but if something is not going the way you want it to um are uncomfortable to flight maybe you're feeling a little under the weather there's nothing wrong with this continuing or and I've had this on a couple of occasions if the weather is changing during the flight and you determine that you wouldn't want to continue doing the maneuvers um and you want to pick it up another day there's nothing wrong with asking for a discontinuance at that point so as we think about the disapprovals I want to know there is no failure quota we don't have to fail anybody it doesn't mean that people don't fail you know certainly we have issues that when things are not meeting the ACS or PTA standards we do have to uphold that minimum and we have two issues the disapproval doesn't mean anything's really bad just means we've got something that needs to be practiced or studied a little bit more we'll come back and fix it another day um but but the reality is if we have a hundred people in a row do a great job we're going to pass 100 people in a row as well but the same holds true the other side if we have a hundred people in a row that are doing a bad job we're not going to pass anybody on that either so you know we don't necessarily have any failure quota and you can go out and find there are national averages for passing you know the private pilot test seems to run somewhere around the 80% mark nationally for initial passing um so that's kind of what we're looking at when we think about if somebody is going to end up with a disapproval what's going to happen but it doesn't mean the examiner ever has to issue any so if you've been at the local flight school and hear that where the last 10 people have passed that doesn't mean if you're number 11 that you're automatically going to fail so if by some chance you did not pass on the first try you know if you do have a disapproval it does need to be issued doesn't mean things are over doesn't mean you're bad pilot doesn't mean you can't do this just means we have something that needs to be practiced or studied a little bit more to make sure that they're not deficient on that particular ACS or pts point um there is no time limit on how soon you can come back although there are certainly some recommendations you know if we have a large number of things on the ground portion that are not quite going going very well I wouldn't recommend trying to come back the same day it certainly would take some time to study that material and and brush up on it a little bit but if you just had a kind of a brain fart moment and maybe add a short field landing go bad you know a little bit of time with instructor and coming back the next day could be perfectly viable to go ahead and fix that so it does typically require you're going to spend some time with your instructor again get resend off and you do have 60 days to retest within if you have a disapproval issued and all that's going to be retested is the areas that were found deficient so if you had you know everything else went good and you had a soft landing that just wasn't quite right that's really all that's going to be retested on the practical test so that's kind of an important part to note that we don't have to retest everything we just do the stuff that was found deficient so you know if you do have a disapproval go fix that come on back and we'll be happy to issue the temporary airman certificate on the next time you go through some of the questions we always get there you know where are some of the common failure points on practical tests that we encounter maybe kind of a couple lists here getting lost is actually something that does happen on a check read and it sounds kind of funny to think somebody's gonna get lost on a check ride this is more commonly something that happens when the pilot gets distracted or we get you to fly outside of an area that you are really familiar with this can certainly happen even at your home Airport but sometimes it happens when you fly to another location for a test if you're not very familiar with the area the best advice I can give you I'm getting lost and is get a chart out take a look outside start matching things up and really get an idea of where you're at and brush up on those lost procedures before the test itself so if you are trying to figure out exactly where you're at you've got some resources available um we think about following the magenta line here this is a reference to our GPS dependency that many of us have gotten into and as we work with more advanced aircraft it becomes critical that we program those systems properly so if we have incorrectly programmed something it's going to take us exactly where we wanted or I guess where we planned out and go going in the system but not necessarily where we wanted to go in the first place this can happen on you know VFR tract rides but it can also happen more commonly on instrument check rides work we have something programmed incorrectly for an approach sequence that if we're following the magenta line but things are programmed incorrectly it is probably going to lead us to a disapproval for that check ride so related to this is getting bogged down in those systems you know something's not quite going right we get bogged down in the systems as we're trying to do it and sometimes forget to fly the airplane itself and I've seen people get bogged down in the systems and lose 2 3 4 or 500 feet of altitude before they even notice that it's happening and many times that will take us outside of those ACS or PC or pts standards so on many of the check rides the short field landings are a common failure point and interestingly enough this comes down to pilot-in-command decision-making in many cases you know maybe if we have set a touchdown point that we're aiming for that the wheels are going to contact the ground that's a 500,000 footers an applicant will verbalize that he'll be their goal and a thousand footers and then land 500 feet short of it and do so without any change to the behavior trying to fix the problem and really as an examiner I I can't allow that to be passed but I certainly can allow you to pass if you're going to be a little bit short and you say hey I'm going to add some power here or I'm going to go around and try this again and we can't let you go around all day long but a go around or two on your check ride when you're making good decisions especially if there's some wind you're working with it is something that's perfectly allowable and within the pts or ACS standards and shows good pilot decision-making so you know if you find you're going to be short on a short field landing make a good pilot decision and either add some power or correct it or go around and try to get so busting minimums is a common one on instrument checker eyes that we do run into it kind of speaks for itself but if there are minimums you definitely don't want to go below so making sure that you are going to stay within the minimums that we have to hold if something is going to make that instrument check right go a lot more smoothly airspace knowledge is something that is a weak point and I say this both on the ground portion but also on the flight portion and we're certainly going to test on many of the practical tests and knowledge of airspace requirements and communication requirements but we also do this in in essence in the flight portion and many many times we've had occasions where somebody has been flying manoeuvres and not paying attention to the situational awareness of where they are physically located at that time and an examiner has needed to stop the applicant from breaking airspace and this is doesn't just mean super busy airspace in class B's it could be that you're you're flying in a nearby class Delta and you go outside and you're starting to do more maneuvers you're looking for a good turn around the point um item to use to make that circle and as you do it you come close to break in that class Delta airspace so as you think about the airspace that you're going to be flying around for the test it is important to maintain that situational awareness while the examiner is asking you to conduct maneuvers to make sure that you are aware of the airspace you're in and you're not going to be in any way shape or form breaching airspace on that check ride and I kind of tell most of my checkride applicants if I need to jump in to stop you from breaking you me the airplane or an SAR we're kind of at an immediate stopping point and that's a very valid point we're not allowed on the practical test to allow you to break an SAR so we do need to jump in if you're going to break airspace or any other fa RS as well um the aircraft system is another piece of this and in many aircraft we do have to simulate systems failures on practical tests and knowing how those systems are going to work and how to remedy potential failures is an important part of making sure you're going to pass that check ride most common failure items in saccharides that we're going to be looking for is potentially alternator or battery failures certainly gear failures in aircraft that have retractable gear systems and a multi-engine aircraft the the multi engine simulated and actual demonstrated failures are critical portions of that check ride so make sure you know how those systems operate and how you remedy any potential problems with them with the systems on the aircraft there are a few kind of insidious and overlooked failure items and actually we we had a conversation at a board meeting this morning were a flight school that the FAA was in for and they some of the things that we identified that are common things that are showing up that are less commonly addressed on the actual pts but they're in there in the ACS and pts items as sub items so emergency procedures is something that's showing up as a very commonly failed item and it relates primarily to choosing an appropriate off field landing site if you are going to have a simulated engine failure or something wrong that is going to cause you on your practical test to simulate I need to land off field make sure that you have chosen an appropriate landing zone whether it's a into the wind or downwind there depending on what situation you're in whether you could be using a parachute system if the aircraft is equipped but making sure you're going to do that in a way that will be the safest potential landing you could make and adhering to the procedures for the aircraft we certainly don't want to be flying on downwind making a low elevation turn at the end of it flying into a wet field with power lines you know so what we're looking for the best decision-making can have at that time to make sure that you're going to have a safe off field emergency landing in that simulation one that does get some very very minimal coverage although it does get missed in a lot of cases a partial power engine emergency you know so if we think of an engine that might be starting to fail we have a lost cylinder or Magneto failure potentially you know what's an applicant going to do if we simulate a partial power engineer agency and I actually did this on the practical tests I did today where we were flying a an archer and I simulated a partial power loss instead of having full power you know throw the power back so it was running about 1800 rpm and what we're looking for is the applicant to identify and what's my best glide or can I maintain altitude at the power setting and then make a decision of do I need to land off field or can I make it to an appropriate airport and this kind of critically teaches and then tests the ability of the applicant to make a decision about what resources they have to available to them and whether or not this is a full failure or if it's something that they can work with and get themselves safely to another location so don't just think about the engine out is the only emergency it could be a power-law s it could be a gear failure it could be an alternator failure there's a number of things that we are able to simulate on practical tasks beyond just pulling the power and saying hey you lost an engine and these other emergencies are something that do get overlooked in the training a little bit many cases that are perfectly viable for testing as we look at some of the non-towered Airport familiarity and comfort with entrance of traffic patterns and management of traffic is something that is a weak point especially for candidates who have trained solely at tower airports so if you're an applicant who's working entirely at a towered Airport maybe it's a good idea prior to your check ride to jump out to a couple outlying airports and work with some traffic patterns while you're there the forward slip to a landing is still something that is required on a check ride in many cases and it does kind of get forgotten in the training a lot of times so for many people it's an uncomfortable maneuver to do just something that doesn't feel quite as normal as our stable everyday flight but it is something that should be practiced and the last one is vor navigation and while we are changing our dynamics of how we we navigate in the airspace system and vor s are becoming less commonly used for much of our flying they are still an item that must be tested and it is a good idea to understand how to use in vor navigation systems even if you're in a TAA aircraft on this technologically advanced that is primarily focused on GPS navigation the examiner still may ask you to tune to a vor and see if you can navigate to or from that facility on your practical test these are kind of some of the tips have got for you and I guess the best advice I can give you along the way is try not to be too scared I know it's it's natural to be nervous on a practice I try to tell people you know nervous is okay scares bad um it is a very important day in your pilot career and obviously everybody wants to be successful um but in try not to be too scared I mean as you go through this um even your track ride can be a fun flying day plane we're still slidin do too much maneuvers and it's always pretty enjoyable and we get to go flying so even though the check ride has a little bit more pressure on that day you know take some time and enjoy it along the way if you can meet the examiner prior to the check right I've done this many many times with applicants and just to understand we're human too we're promise we're not too scary um I had an occasion not too terribly long ago to encounter a gal I gave a check ride to and we were chatting after and she had done a private pilot check ride with me you know we were talking about some other stuff and she said man she's your kind of a real person too she's like and here I thought you'd just say it small children's dreams for breakfast oh and I got to take me back and I understand it's very easy to be a little nervous and scared of the examiner but we're pilots too we've been there to get to be examiner's we had to go through all of the same practical tests that you're going through as you pursue these ratings and certificates we were instructors and we train students to do this so we know exactly what you're going through and we're going to do everything we can to try and make it so you're not too nervous we do have to do our job but you can enjoy that day as well so I guess at this point Eric we can go ahead and open it up to some questions if you like and I'll be happy to answer anything anything we can along the way here a lot sounds great Jason a lot of great feedback we're getting a lot of great information a lot to digest a lot of things you've cleared up certainly let's begin with this kind of a little inside the examiners mind here and preparing for a check ride from your perspective but as one of our listeners this evening pointed out you know looking through that will use the Private Pilot ACS as an example you know it can seem a little bit overwhelming day before the checker a few days before the check ride you're paging through and you're just there's all this information and all these facts and figures you know running through your mind tell us a little bit about what how you prepare well how you establish a game plan is he each of your oral exams a little bit different you know how do you start those conversation and and what kind of dictates where those oral conversations go to so that's a great question and the reality is you know I said that the ACS or PC at pts our menu for the checker but it does not necessarily dictate the exact questions we're going to ask now it does obviously box us into a certain subject area um you know and I would say the best thing you can do is make sure the day before the test is not the first time as an applicant that you're looking at that ACS or pts and trying to decipher all of the things that are going to be asked on that that test day so if you've done that ahead of time the examiner is probably going to know if we think about a private pilot test probably going to have given you a cross-country to plan out you know it's one of the scenarios that we work with I might say hey you know for your check ride today imagine that we're flying from Cincinnati to oh I don't know maybe Cleveland for the day and I'll give you an airport outside of Cleveland maybe a Thacker and maybe it's a um I guess one of my my favorites there Burke Lakefront and what you're going to find is the the process that we have picked for that is going to force you into giving us some descriptions on that flight portion of airspace along the way maybe deciphering what the weather's going to be for that flight maybe doing some performance calculations maybe I gave you a small airport so you're going to have to think about you know what's my weight and balance going to be how much fuel can I take and so if you start thinking about how the examiner is going to approach the checkride we're going to build a scenario even from that first phone call that says all right well here's your flight we're going to fly from Batavia there ATS 40s and we're going to fly up to Burke Lakefront I want you to tell me how long it's going to be and I'm taking uncle George with me and you know I weigh you know 270 pounds and he weighs 140 pounds um with your weight how much fuel can we take and can we make this flight so that's going to give the examiners background of alright what are you going to be asking you about on that check ride to try and describe you know whether you understand how to make that flight successful so we're going to build a scenario going and we're going to have a number of things incorporated into that that are part of that ACS standard for that private pilot you know we have to ask you about airspace we have to ask you about performance planning we have to ask you about fuel requirements all of these things kind of can be built into a scenario like that if I say here's what we want to do for the day so if you start looking at what the examiner is going to give you ahead of time and if they haven't given you something at its I'm asking for that um you know what's your weight going to be for the day do I have a passenger with me on this you know simulated flight we're going to do and where do you want me to go those are things they're going to help you understand the scenario that the examiner is gonna be starting to work with for you on the day of that check right a quick follow-on to that it has the ACS changed your game plan in terms of how you would approach an oral exam so and I'm going to tell you I'm a little bit biased on this I did work at much of the period of the ACS development I work for the number of the folks on it and the FAA so I was probably a little more familiar with the ACS and some of the other examiner's when it first came out it has changed my game plan in minor senses but the reality is when the ACS was developed the exact same practical test standards that were in there were brought into the ACS it was a reformatting of the information with some minor tweaks and an ability to make sure that ACS standard also brought in the knowledge testing information for that testing standard so the practical test itself has changed very very little you know I will tell you from a personal sense we as an examiner have to develop what's called a plan of action for the checkride so we take the ACS we develop a plan which are the things that we're going to cover on that test it has changed my formatting for that for a little bit you know a couple of the briefing items that we give have changed but that's really about it the content of the test itself has remained very much the same and with a new focus on making sure we are doing the test in a scenario perspective so you know instead of just saying what's the what's the stall speed of the airplane and you spitting back at 56 we're going to contextualize that and say look we're on short final you know and we determine the winds are a little strong and we you know we keep flaps at half flaps 20% stead of 40% what's that going to do to your landing characteristics you need more runway last runway does it change your touchdown speed and also will build that into scenarios be very practical with it instead of rote which is part of the intent of that ACS as well but the content itself of the test and what we're testing has in no way shape or form changed in large part for that how about a written test result well will that have a strong influence on how the check ride might be administered based on a you know say a hundred percent performance versus a seventy percent performance on a written test that's a good question and it depends a little bit on the type of test I do know some tests and they have lower average scores than others and I in some cases if somebody comes in with a ninety-eight or the hundred percent my natural reaction is oh they must have used a test prep software and memorize the questions because I don't know if I went out and took a test right now if I would score 100 percent either um so you know memorization is not obviously what we're looking for on the test but you know somebody's at a 72 versus an 85 I can't tell you that changes what I'm going to think of them for the test in any way shape or form on the practical test itself now we do have to as examiner's look up the areas of the knowledge test that there were you know errors on so we do look those up and maybe our questioning gets modified slightly based on that if we found there were two or three notes that performance section of the knowledge test was a little bit amiss that maybe we'll ask a couple more questions on that instead but that's really about the only way it seems to change my practical test approaches I will make sure I address the areas that were found deficient on the knowledge test in my portion of the practical test and that's something that the applicant can look at ahead of time as well those tests code the learning statement codes are public and your instructor and the applicant should be looking at that prior to sign off for the practical test so those should be areas that are well covered prior to coming for the practical test thank you for that Jason one final question I know it's been a long day for you as well so we're kind of in over time here as it is but to close out the question from the audience is how the applicant perspective would they handle a scenario by which a designated pilot examiner is asking for something to be performed that they deem outside the ACS or something they determine is just not safe and something they're not comfortable doing you know that's a fantastic question and I can tell you a real world example we worked with a an applicant who contacted us about a practical test the examiner asked the applicant to demonstrate a power on stall on departure as in during takeoff at 400 feet above the ground from the airport and this is certainly well outside safety well outside pts standards in this case and the applicant did the exact right thing they should have they said no I'm not going to do that that's not in accordance with the pts standards not according to safety and if you at this point um ask the well just tell the examiner I'm going to discontinue testing and we can discuss this on the ground that is the appropriate thing to do if there is something that's being asked to be demonstrated it's inappropriate outside the pts or ACS um you know the time in the airplane is not the time to go ahead and sort that out that's a good time to take the opportunity to say let's go and discontinue let's come back to the airport and we'll discuss it on the ground um you know that and that is not something that should cause an applicant to get a disapproval and if you do ever encounter that where it does it's a great time to contact your local Fisto and discuss that with them and they will help get to the bottom of whether it was appropriately being asked or not nobody should ever be asked to do something that is unsafe or outside those pts or ACS standards on a practical test appreciate that Jason with that we are going to wrap things up I wanted to another quick reminder something I mentioned at the beginning the arm presentation was recorded this evening and just a reminder that should be available to everyone by tomorrow afternoon be available komm slash webinars also on the Sporty's youtube channel be sure and visit jason Blair's website Jason Blair net I believe it was posted up there on the screen you can follow along and and and I know Jason posts blogs from time to time and other information about what he's up to and you can certainly catch jason nice his works are published in a variety of industry publications as well jason any any closing thoughts from your own you know I think just enjoy it out there have fun with your tests have fun with your training if you ever have questions you know you can find my website there and you can always get in contact with me I'm an easily accessible guy we'll play sometimes I don't answer immediately because I'm in the air which is probably the favorite place of both Eric and I to fee but if I don't get back to you right away you know I will do it as quickly as possible and feel free to ask any questions you ever have so we're all out there as examiner's in this industry and we enjoy seeing people successfully complete those ratings and certificates and um you know it's part of our job to is to help you get through it so I guess when we're not in the actual testing mode we can help you in any way shape or form and that goes prior to check rides you have questions for us the most examiner's are instructors actively as well and feel free to use us as resources - and that goes for me too so if I can ever do anything to help feel free to contact me Jason thanks so much to the audience thanks so much for joining us on this Sporty's webinar presentation do check up our upcoming options at Sporty's comm slash webinars hope to see you again very soon for Jason Blair I'm Eric Radke wishing everyone a great night

Channel: Sporty's Pilot Shop

Views: 101,312

Rating: 4.8485522 out of 5

Keywords: aviation, flying, airplane, pilot, flight training, flight instructor, faa checkride

Id: xOnAX9pZTo8

Length: 90min 37sec (5437 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 07 2017