Checkride Questions?

[shyampatel94]

So I have been preparing for the checkride and I had some questions about it. Lets say that the weather is not at the level I would like to preform at, will I be able to reschedule? Or what if I already completed the oral part of the checkride and the weather is not at me personal minimums, will we reschedule the flight portion?

 

[MikeELP]

So I have been preparing for the checkride and I had some questions about it. Lets say that the weather is not at the level I would like to preform at, will I be able to reschedule? Or what if I already completed the oral part of the checkride and the weather is not at me personal minimums, will we reschedule the flight portion?

Yes, you will. If the weather for the flight portion is outside of what you are comfortable flying in (ie; strong crosswinds), you tell the examiner. You will be issued a discontinuance and then reschedule the flight portion.

It actually shows good decision making.

Mike

 

[Henning]

So I have been preparing for the checkride and I had some questions about it. Lets say that the weather is not at the level I would like to preform at, will I be able to reschedule? Or what if I already completed the oral part of the checkride and the weather is not at me personal minimums, will we reschedule the flight portion?

Yep, you'll end up with a discontinuance. DE would rather see you call off a flight than push your limits. That said however, if the conditions are pushing limits and you decide to go, you'll typically be given a fair bit of latitude in the performance of maneuvers.

 

[Brad Z]

Yes, you will. If the weather for the flight portion is outside of what you are comfortable flying in (ie; strong crosswinds), you tell the examiner. You will be issued a discontinuance and then reschedule the flight portion.

Ideally you'd discuss that at some point before the appointment...ie if it appears the day before that the weather will be unflyable, it may be worth scrubbing then and rescheduling. If it's forecasted to be doable, it might be that morning that you'd make the no-go call. Some examiners may wish to get the oral done regardless, so that's up to you and the examiner.

Regardless of what happens to the weather, be able to explain why you made your go or no-go decision.

 

[MAKG1]

Yes, but there is a qualification. If your personal minimums are excessive for a private pilot, that may not go so well. For instance, if you want to discontinue for a 5 knot crosswind, that's not a competent go/no-go decision and it's essentially admitting you can't handle crosswinds, in conditions fairly likely to develop in flight.

And student solo minimums are often excessive for a private pilot.

 

[saracelica]

The DPE may suggest you two go and get the take off and landings out of the way and therefore seeing how the weather really is like 1k up. My DPE requested at least doing the first part out of the way. Turns out the weather was good enough to do the whole ride (PPL) It's good to be firm but realize the DPE does have some more experience.

 

[Dr. O]

The world won't put the weather on hold once you are signed off.
Unless the DPE calls it off, go fly - or else you are not really ready and your CFI needs swift kick.

 

[MAKG1]

The world won't put the weather on hold once you are signed off.
Unless the DPE calls it off, go fly - or else you are not really ready and your CFI needs swift kick.

No, that's excessive. One of the tasks is to make a competent go/no-go decision. You'll get first crack, and if you want to launch into an 1100 foot ceiling with 4 miles vis to do stalls recovering above 1500 AGL, that's not competent.

 

[kujo806]

I would say do what you are comfortable with. I went ahead with my check ride with gusty winds over 20knots (60-70 degrees x-wind to the main runway). My landings were poor in those conditions, so I was given a disapproval, but the examiner let me complete the rest of the test so that I just had to make up the landings later. He actually gave me quite a bit of leeway on the landings too, but they were probably my worst landings to date, and I didn't deserve to pass. It is nerve racking enough to add in being uncomfortable with the weather. If the wind is pretty strong crossed in relation to the runway, I would ask for rescheduling.

 

[Ghery]

My PP ride (years ago) resulted in the oral on day 1 and the flying on day 2 because of weather. The DPE wanted to know if flying on day 1 was good. I re-checked the weather and the clouds were too low. My CFI and I filed IFR for the return to my home field. Went back on a nice day and flew. No problem.

 

[poadeleted20]

The world won't put the weather on hold once you are signed off.

...which is why the DPE is looking for good judgment as to whether or not to fly.

Unless the DPE calls it off, go fly - or else you are not really ready and your CFI needs swift kick.

That's a good way to eat a bust on Judgment before you even get the engine started. I've known DPE's to tell applicants after the applicant called it off for weather, "Good thing you did that, because if you hadn't, I'd have failed you as soon as you started the engine." And I've even heard of a case or two where the DPE actually did make the "knock it off" call, which counts as examiner intervention for safety and mandates a disapproval.

Remember -- you are the PIC for this test, not the examiner, which means you have to make the right decisions on your own. If you don't like the weather, don't fly in it, and the examiner will be pleased you made that decision. Don't wait for the examiner to make the decision for you, because that means the examiner has to make another decision, too, and you won't like that one at all.

 

[Henning]

My PPME about a month after my PPSE was on a foggy day in Long Beach. Fog in Long Beach usually burns off by 9 or 10 so we did the oral figuring the fog would burn off. When we went out, it was still there but the vis was good enough to see the other side of the field and you could tell it was not even 100' thick. Betty asked me what I wanted to do. I said, "How about we get out SVFR and do the air work, by the time that's done it looks like we should be rid of the fog." She agreed so that's what we did. When we got back to do the landings, though the visibility was reasonable with the end of the runway visible from the threshold, the beacon was still on designating IFR conditions in which you can't do a check ride (although I found there is exception to that on my IR ride which we completed with an approach through actual). So we came back in SVFR, she gave me a discontinuance and we did the landings the next day.