So Close...

SkyChaser

SkyChaser

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SkyChaser
...and yet so far, too.

I've got my checkride scheduled for next Saturday at 8am, but it's looking more and more likely that I will have to cancel it even if it turns out to be a beautiful VFR day. Besides my night cross country I was able to squeeze in last week during a 1.5 day break from snow and low ceilings, I have not flown since before Christmas, and only flown sporadically, again due to weather, since about October. Of course, this week is looking like exceptionally crappy weather for the most part. That makes both me and my instructor very nervous as the checkride is not a very pleasant place to discover you're a lot rusty than you'd like to be! I'm the first student my instructor will send to a checkride, so she's as much invested in it all going well as I am, maybe even more. ;) I took off work on Monday because there's a chance the weather might work out for some plane time, and my instructor and I decided how I do then will determine whether or not I have to cancel and reschedule my checkride. Besides flying in a simulator, which I do not have access to, does anyone have suggestions for getting my head in the game so if I get to go up on Monday, I will perform well despite the multiple, long gaps between flights for the last couple of months?

Also, I'm pretty sure I haven't ever felt this nervous about a test in my life! I've got butterflies right now just thinking about it. I've only had near this level of dread and nervousness once before and I'm not very fond of it. :p I woke up in a cold sweat last night after dreaming I'd failed after completely blanking and freezing when the DPE asked what I'd do if my engine quit in flight during the oral. Being nervous is very self-defeating, as being so nervous makes it a lot harder to study and retain the material. :rolleyes:
 
SkyChaser said:
...and yet so far, too.

I've got my checkride scheduled for next Saturday at 8am, but it's looking more and more likely that I will have to cancel it even if it turns out to be a beautiful VFR day. Besides my night cross country I was able to squeeze in last week during a 1.5 day break from snow and low ceilings, I have not flown since before Christmas, and only flown sporadically, again due to weather, since about October. Of course, this week is looking like exceptionally crappy weather for the most part. That makes both me and my instructor very nervous as the checkride is not a very pleasant place to discover you're a lot rusty than you'd like to be! I'm the first student my instructor will send to a checkride, so she's as much invested in it all going well as I am, maybe even more. ;) I took off work on Monday because there's a chance the weather might work out for some plane time, and my instructor and I decided how I do then will determine whether or not I have to cancel and reschedule my checkride. Besides flying in a simulator, which I do not have access to, does anyone have suggestions for getting my head in the game so if I get to go up on Monday, I will perform well despite the multiple, long gaps between flights for the last couple of months?

Also, I'm pretty sure I haven't ever felt this nervous about a test in my life! I've got butterflies right now just thinking about it. I've only had near this level of dread and nervousness once before and I'm not very fond of it. :p I woke up in a cold sweat last night after dreaming I'd failed after completely blanking and freezing when the DPE asked what I'd do if my engine quit in flight during the oral. Being nervous is very self-defeating, as being so nervous makes it a lot harder to study and retain the material. :rolleyes:
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Piece of cake, don't quit before you get there. Take it one day at a time. Fly Monday, see how it goes. Nervous, even extremely nervous is normal, I was extremely nervous for my first check ride. I had to fly to the appointment, about 30 miles, it was a windy, gusty day. Turned out to be a great experience. I was nervous but confident. You need to make sure you are confident that you will pass, flying on Monday should give you that confidence, if it doesn't then postpone. Remember, little mistakes are ok if you fix them, even a big mistake if you fix it is probably ok. Stay in the game, the DPE is required to tell you if you busted when it happens. So even if you think you blew it, if the DPE doesn't say anything, then you haven't, move forward, don't get flustered. Oh, and trust your instructor.
 
rk911 said:
have you flown a simulated check-ride with your instructor. might be an idea for monday.
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I haven't in the strictest sense of a full-blown one. I will bring this idea up to her.
 
PaulS said:
Nervous, even extremely nervous is normal, I was extremely nervous for my first check ride. I had to fly to the appointment, about 30 miles, it was a windy, gusty day. Turned out to be a great experience. I was nervous but confident.
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Yulp! I know about nervous. I was making the first departure and thought about just calling the whole thing off. But shortly after departure when I started doing the required maneuvers and doing them quite well my confidence began to quickly rise as I realized I could fly the thing. Shortly afterwards it actually became a very enjoyable experience. The examiner will know you are nervous and they do expect that you won't be perfect but with a little focus you'll be amazed at how well you will do.
 
The night before my first checkride it felt like I slept two hours total in 5 minute increments. As I tried to force myself to sleep, I thought of all the acronyms and facts I struggled to remember. I honestly figured I had a 50/50 chance of passing the checkride. Got through the oral ok, (don't get too talkative, just answer the questions kept reminding myself), and then the practical got kicked to another day as the weather had deteriorated. That dragged out the pain, but it actually worked out to my advantage, as later that week I got four hours sleep in 10 minute increments the night before the practical. The DPE was thorough, but not too tough on me, and when he said I passed, I breathed a sigh of relief.

So you probably will pass, but you might fail. But the world won't end if you do. More practice, reschedule, pay the DPE again, and pass it the second time.
 
A couple of things to consider. If you can’t fly the maneuvers and takeoffs/landings to the ACS standard (including distance past the designated touchdown point), then you aren’t going to have the confidence needed to pass the check. Same goes for the oral. You’ll also need to get the mx books and know where to find the specific entries in each logbook to validate the plane is airworthy.

My opinion is that it’s better to pass on your first attempt, then suffer through a discontinuance and the remedial training required, especially considering there is a clock ticking on the discontinuance before you have to redo the whole ride.

I would do a full-blown mock check with a different instructor if at all possible so that any familiarity is removed from the equation.
 
TCABM said:
...
My opinion is that it’s better to pass on your first attempt, then suffer through a discontinuance and the remedial training required, especially considering there is a clock ticking on the discontinuance before you have to redo the whole ride.
...
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I totally agree with you, as does my instructor, which is why if we can't fly or I don't fly well (translated: to ACS standards) on Monday, I'll be rescheduling. I don't want that to happen, but I'd rather reschedule than fail the first try!
 
I made the mistake of continuing with the PPL checkride in a similar situation. Long story short, it was the beginning of fall in the Midwest, and when it wasn't raining the wind was 25G50(ish). I ended up getting signed off, then not flying for two weeks, and wasn't able to hold the short field landings to ACS requirements due to the elapsed time. I ended up having to schedule the retest, take a week off work, and basically decided to fly every possible day that week with my instructor. It made me a better pilot in the end, but simply rescheduling the original checkride and taking a few instruction trips in gusty crosswinds while waiting would have (in my case) saved several thousand dollars and a failed checkride on my record.

I type this in the latter half of instrument training, in a winter where we rarely see the sun, the clouds are so close you can practically touch them, and the temperature is always within a few degrees of freezing. Haven't flown in three weeks now. Being patient is a requirement of GA flying, even though it can be maddening. ;)
 
Preparing for a check ride is like psychological warfare with one's self!
Hang in there, and one step at a time.
 
You have a good opportunity to fly and decide if you’re ready or not. Don’t be too hard on yourself, but do be objective about your preparedness.

 
As stated above, do be objective about your readiness, but don't discount the fact that any CFI worth their cert wouldn't have signed you off unless you demonstrated that you're ready. So try not to sweat it. Take a breather flight or two. Practice and study but don't try to cram and stress yourself out.

I spent a lot of my student pilot time hopping between instructors and ended up logging a bunch more hours than expected to get ready for checkride. Of course I was a nervous wreck on the practical test even after smashing the oral. After a while(being almost certain I had failed) the DPE picked up on my nerves and said, "Do you love flying? Listen, you know your stuff, and you fly safely. So relax, stop overthinking and remember why you love to fly. Now, let's go back and fill out your certificate." My tiny little heart did backflips in my throat. The hour-long sunset flight back to home base will always be one of the most fulfilling moments of my life.

The DPE expects you to be nervous. It's your first checkride after all. Just be sure to slow down and think things through. Don't stress about failing and let that snowball either. They're required to tell you if you've failed, so if he hasn't said anything, you're still good. Be smooth, safe, and confident in all of the maneuvers you've been practicing for months and you'll do just fine.
 
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I was really nervous on my check ride day. Across from my hangar there is a Valero convenience store/gas station where they had a very large American flag flying. On that day not only was it flying, it was popping from the wind as it was gusting to 17 knots. Not entirely a direct cross wind and nothing I hadn't flown in before but enough to make me nervous, especially on check ride day. I had my oral in a room which had a large window which looked out at that flag. My DPE was known for really weird questions and to this day I don't know if he was someone who couldn't ask a question or was a genius in the way he asked them. His questions always left something out for me to ask a question in order to fill in the blanks of his original question. This was very nerve wracking for me and the constant popping of that flag was in the background. The oral seemed to last forever but it was only about an hour. Then we walked to my hangar with the popping flag in the background. Pre-flight went fine and the flight wasn't perfect but I passed everything except for the simulated electrical fire. My instructor had me simulate turning the master off while the DPE expected me to actually turn it off which raised a lot of contention as the next step was to tell ATC what was going on. "fly the airplane first, tell ATC second" Well, it is impossible to tell ATC what was going on without radios so he failed me on that item. I was PO'd at myself first, and the DPE second. It was a very uncomfortable ride back to the airport. As I taxied back to my hangar, my instructor was there waiting on me with a smile on his face. As soon as he saw me, that smile disappeared. He explained to the DPE that we had only simulated the master switch being turned off in training but the DPE wouldn't budge on his call. $100 and 30 minutes later, we were back up in the air and I turned the master switch off on the next emergency and then told him that I couldn't tell ATC what I was doing because the radios were off. He didn't say anything. I passed but it was very bitter sweet.

About a year later, that DPE was doing a multi engine check ride on another applicant with an FAA examiner along for the ride and evaluating the DPE. What happened next wasn't entirely clear but apparently my DPE did enough bonehead things on that ride that he is no longer a DPE.
 
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Timbeck2 said:
I was really nervous on my check ride day. Across from my hangar there is a Valero convenience store/gas station where they had a very large American flag flying. On that day not only was it flying, it was popping from the wind as it was gusting to 17 knots. Not entirely a direct cross wind and nothing I hadn't flown in before but enough to make me nervous, especially on check ride day. I had my oral in a room which had a large window which looked out at that flag. My DPE was known for really weird questions and to this day I don't know if he was someone who couldn't ask a question or was a genius in the way he asked them. His questions always left something out for me to ask a question in order to fill in the blanks of his original question. This was very nerve wracking for me and the constant popping of that flag was in the background. The oral seemed to last forever but it was only about an hour. Then we walked to my hangar with the popping flag in the background. Pre-flight went fine and the flight wasn't perfect but I passed everything except for the simulated electrical fire. My instructor had me simulate turning the master off while the DPE expected me to actually turn it off which raised a lot of contention as the next step was to tell ATC what was going on. "fly the airplane first, tell ATC second" Well, it is impossible to tell ATC what was going on without radios so he failed me on that item. I was PO'd at myself first, and the DPE second. It was a very uncomfortable ride back to the airport. As I taxied back to my hangar, my instructor was there waiting on me with a smile on his face. As soon as he saw me, that smile disappeared. He explained to the DPE that we had only simulated the master switch being turned off in training but the DPE wouldn't budge on his call. $100 and 30 minutes later, we were back up in the air and I turned the master switch off on the next emergency and then told him that I couldn't tell ATC what I was doing because the radios were off. He didn't say anything. I passed but it was very bitter sweet.

About a year later, that DPE was doing a multi engine check ride on another applicant with an FAA examiner along for the ride and evaluating the DPE. What happened next wasn't entirely clear but apparently my DPE did enough bonehead things on that ride that he is no longer a DPE.
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This raises a point... Most conflicts between people come from failure to meet expectations that were not understood to begin with. Talk to the examiner about expectations. My commercial ride was good that way. He made it clear what he expected, such as simulating emergencies. It’s not a bad idea to ask the examiner before the flight, or even be pilot in command and tell him and let him disagree. “If we have a simulated emergency, I will tell you what I would do with the master, magnetos, fuel, and mixture. I will not actually turn things off because doing so could create a real emergency from a simulation.”
 
Timbeck2 said:
I was really nervous on my check ride day. Across from my hangar there is a Valero convenience store/gas station where they had a very large American flag flying. On that day not only was it flying, it was popping from the wind as it was gusting to 17 knots. Not entirely a direct cross wind and nothing I hadn't flown in before but enough to make me nervous, especially on check ride day. I had my oral in a room which had a large window which looked out at that flag. My DPE was known for really weird questions and to this day I don't know if he was someone who couldn't ask a question or was a genius in the way he asked them. His questions always left something out for me to ask a question in order to fill in the blanks of his original question. This was very nerve wracking for me and the constant popping of that flag was in the background. The oral seemed to last forever but it was only about an hour. Then we walked to my hangar with the popping flag in the background. Pre-flight went fine and the flight wasn't perfect but I passed everything except for the simulated electrical fire. My instructor had me simulate turning the master off while the DPE expected me to actually turn it off which raised a lot of contention as the next step was to tell ATC what was going on. "fly the airplane first, tell ATC second" Well, it is impossible to tell ATC what was going on without radios so he failed me on that item. I was PO'd at myself first, and the DPE second. It was a very uncomfortable ride back to the airport. As I taxied back to my hangar, my instructor was there waiting on me with a smile on his face. As soon as he saw me, that smile disappeared. He explained to the DPE that we had only simulated the master switch being turned off in training but the DPE wouldn't budge on his call. $100 and 30 minutes later, we were back up in the air and I turned the master switch off on the next emergency and then told him that I couldn't tell ATC what I was doing because the radios were off. He didn't say anything. I passed but it was very bitter sweet.

About a year later, that DPE was doing a multi engine check ride on another applicant with an FAA examiner along for the ride and evaluating the DPE. What happened next wasn't entirely clear but apparently my DPE did enough bonehead things on that ride that he is no longer a DPE.
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Did he want the mixture pulled and the fuel shut off on a simulated engine out too?
 
iamtheari said:
This raises a point... Most conflicts between people come from failure to meet expectations that were not understood to begin with. Talk to the examiner about expectations. My commercial ride was good that way. He made it clear what he expected, such as simulating emergencies. It’s not a bad idea to ask the examiner before the flight, or even be pilot in command and tell him and let him disagree. “If we have a simulated emergency, I will tell you what I would do with the master, magnetos, fuel, and mixture. I will not actually turn things off because doing so could create a real emergency from a simulation.”
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Experience is what you get right after you needed it.
 
PaulS said:
Did he want the mixture pulled and the fuel shut off on a simulated engine out too?
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We didn't do that emergency. He started out with, "Smell that?" "I don't smell anything, what does it smell like?" I asked. "My feet are getting hot." he replied. Then it dawned on me that he was simulating an electrical fire in the cockpit.

Edit: That was his method of letting me know I had an issue. Which was kind of like his oral evaluation went. I had to figure out that we had an electrical fire just by him asking, "smell that?" I assume most DPE say something along the lines of, "Okay, next (because there's always something next) it looks like we have fumes and smoke in the cockpit. What could that be? React as necessary."
 
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I’ll quote one of PoA’s founders, Ron Levy (no longer active, but a helluva guy):

Captain Ron's Checkride Advice:

1. Relax and enjoy it. Nationwide, about 90% of applicants pass on the first try, so look around and see if you think you’re as good as 9 out of 10 other students. Also, your instructor must maintain a pass rate of at least 80% to get his ticket renewed, so he’s not going to send you up unless he’s pretty darn sure you’ll pass – otherwise, he has to find four other people to pass to make up for you, and that’s not always easy.

2. Go over with your instructor the logbooks of the aircraft you're going to use the day BEFORE the checkride to make sure it's all in order (annual, transponder checks, ELT ops and battery, 100-hour if rented, etc.). If the airplane's paper busts, so do you. Run a sample W&B, too – get the examiner’s weight when you make the appointment. If you weigh 200, and so does the examiner, don’t show up with a C-152 with full tanks and a 350 lb available cabin load – examiners can’t waive max gross weight limits.

3. Relax.

4. Rest up and get a good night's sleep the night before. Don't stay up "cramming."

5. Relax.

6. Read carefully the ENTIRE PTS including all the introductory material. Use the checklist in the front to make sure you take all the stuff you need -- papers and equipment. And the examiner’s fee UP FRONT (too much chance a disgruntled applicant will refuse to pay afterward) in the form demanded by the examiner is a “required document” from a practical, if not FAA, standpoint.

7. Relax.

8. You’re going to make a big mistake somewhere. The examiner knows this will happen, and it doesn’t have to end the ride. What’s important is not whether you make a mistake, but how you deal with it – whether you recover and move on without letting it destroy your flying. Figure out where you are now, how to get to where you want to be, and then do what it takes to get there. That will save your checkride today and your butt later on.

9. Relax.

10. You're going to make some minor mistakes. Correct them yourself in a timely manner "so the outcome of the maneuver is never seriously in doubt" and you'll be OK. If you start to go high on your first steep turn and start a correction as you approach 100 feet high but top out at 110 high while making a smooth correction back to the requested altitude, don't sweat -- nail the next one and you'll pass with "flying colors" (a naval term, actually). If you see the maneuver will exceed parameters and not be smoothly recoverable, tell the examiner and knock it off before you go outside those parameters, and then re-initiate. That shows great sense, if not great skill, and judgement is the most critical item on the checkride.

11. Relax.

12. During the oral, you don’t have to answer from memory anything you’d have time to look up in reality. You never need to memorize and know everything. Categorize material as:

a. Things you must memorize (i.e. emergency procedures, radio calls, airspace, etc).
b. Things you must know or have reasonable understanding of (i.e. interpreting weather codes, non-critical regs).
c. Things you know about but can look up and will have time to look up on the ground.

(Thanks to Mark Bourdeaux for this categorization.) So if the examiner asks you about currency, it’s OK to open the FAR book to 61.56 and 61.57 and explain them to him. But make sure you know where the answer is without reading the whole FAR/AIM cover-to-cover. On the other hand, for stuff you’d have to know RIGHT NOW (e.g., best glide speed for engine failure, etc.), you’d best not stumble or stutter – know that stuff cold. Also, remember that the examiner will use the areas your knowledge test report says you missed as focus points in the oral, so study them extra thoroughly.

13. Relax.

14. Avoid this conversation:
Examiner - Q: Do you have a pencil?
Applicant - A: I have a #2, a mechanical, a red one...
Examiner - Q: Do you have a pencil?
Applicant - A: I also have an assortment of pens, and some highlighters...
Examiner - Q: Do you have a pencil?
Applicant - A: Yes.
Examiner - Thank you.
One of the hardest things to do when you’re nervous and pumped up is to shut up and answer the question. I've watched people talk themselves into a corner by incorrectly answering a question that was never asked, or by adding an incorrect appendix to the correct answer to the question that was. If the examiner wants more, he'll tell you.

15. Relax

16. Some questions are meant simply to test your knowledge, not your skill, even if they sound otherwise. If the examiner asks how far below the cloud deck you are, he is checking to see if you know the answer is “at least 500 feet,” not how good your depth perception is. He can’t tell any better than you can, and the only way to be sure is to climb up and see when you hit the bases, which for sure he won’t let you do.

17. Relax

18. Remember the first rule of Italian driving: "What's behind me is not important." Don't worry about how you did the last maneuver or question. If you didn't do it well enough, the examiner must notify you and terminate the checkride. If you are on the next one, forget the last one because it was good enough to pass. Focus on doing that next maneuver or answering the next question the best you can, because while it can still determine whether you pass or fail, the last one can’t anymore. If you get back to the office and he hasn't said you failed, smile to your friends as you walk in because you just passed.

19. Relax and enjoy your new license.


Ron Levy, ATP, CFI, Veteran of 11 license/rating checkrides, including 4 with FAA inspectors
 
SCCutler said:
Remember the first rule of Italian driving: "What's behind me is not important." Don't worry about how you did the last maneuver or question. If you didn't do it well enough, the examiner must notify you and terminate the checkride. If you are on the next one, forget the last one because it was good enough to pass. Focus on doing that next maneuver or answering the next question the best you can, because while it can still determine whether you pass or fail, the last one can’t anymore. If you get back to the office and he hasn't said you failed, smile to your friends as you walk in because you just passed.
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:yeahthat:
 
The back page of the lastest AOPA Pilot had a pretty good quote:
"...the checkride is only a second opinion. Your instructor wouldn't have recommended you if they didn't think you were ready."
 
SkyChaser said:
...and yet so far, too.

I've got my checkride scheduled for next Saturday at 8am, but it's looking more and more likely that I will have to cancel it even if it turns out to be a beautiful VFR day. Besides my night cross country I was able to squeeze in last week during a 1.5 day break from snow and low ceilings, I have not flown since before Christmas, and only flown sporadically, again due to weather, since about October. Of course, this week is looking like exceptionally crappy weather for the most part. That makes both me and my instructor very nervous as the checkride is not a very pleasant place to discover you're a lot rusty than you'd like to be! I'm the first student my instructor will send to a checkride, so she's as much invested in it all going well as I am, maybe even more. ;) I took off work on Monday because there's a chance the weather might work out for some plane time, and my instructor and I decided how I do then will determine whether or not I have to cancel and reschedule my checkride. Besides flying in a simulator, which I do not have access to, does anyone have suggestions for getting my head in the game so if I get to go up on Monday, I will perform well despite the multiple, long gaps between flights for the last couple of months?

Also, I'm pretty sure I haven't ever felt this nervous about a test in my life! I've got butterflies right now just thinking about it. I've only had near this level of dread and nervousness once before and I'm not very fond of it. :p I woke up in a cold sweat last night after dreaming I'd failed after completely blanking and freezing when the DPE asked what I'd do if my engine quit in flight during the oral. Being nervous is very self-defeating, as being so nervous makes it a lot harder to study and retain the material. :rolleyes:
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The dpe will be expecting you to be nervous, so don't be nervous... about being nervous. I've been told ppl is the hardest one because you don't know what to expect. I found that to be true wrt my instrument exam, I was pretty relaxed for that one, while I was physically shaking during my private ride. The reality is that the dpe trusts the cfi's judgement and isn't trying to trap or trick you... just verifying. The worst case scenario is you have to go back up and repeat a maneuver. There's nothing to be nervous about.

As far as getting your mind in the game, read the acs and chair fly the maneuvers. Maybe even sitting in the airplane if you have access to it.

Read through the oral prep book a couple times, covering the answers. Be familiar with 91.3, 91.205, and 91.213.

Definitely fly a mock checkride with your cfi if you can. At the very least do stalls, steep turns, and landings... that's where rusty accumulates the fastest...for me anyway.

You got this.
 
kath said:
Preparing for a check ride is like psychological warfare with one's self!
Hang in there, and one step at a time.
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^^^^This
My checkride was postponed 2X it was a rollercoaster of emotion getting psyched up for the checkride and then cancelling because of WX. In the meantime I was still flying and doing mock orals with my instructor, at one point she asked me what I was most worried about and my response was "what day is it". So she had me do another mock oral with a different instructor which calmed me down a bit but it's hard to be calm or at least it was for me. You got this!!!
 
Chair flight. Work through the different maneuvers in your head (flash cards worked for me). Even if you haven't been up, the bulk of the checkride is just knowing what configuration to be in for the maneuver. If you have that down 100%,then the rest will just fall into place. Flying the plane is easy; remembering all the little things is not.

So chair fly. A lot. If you've gotten to this point, you're ready; just nerves are scaring you.
 
I am a DPE and do Sport Pilot Checkrides. Biggest problem I see with most applicants is Checkrideitus: being so nervous you fail to perform or can not get the info out. If you know the material have fun. If you do not know the material learn it before you take a checkride. It is up to your CFIO to be able to have you prepared so it is easy.
 
A dozen shots of tequila will take the edge off the nerves.











My free advice, usually is not worth what you paid for it.
 
Paul Hamilton CFI said:
I am a DPE and do Sport Pilot Checkrides. Biggest problem I see with most applicants is Checkrideitus: being so nervous you fail to perform or can not get the info out. If you know the material have fun. If you do not know the material learn it before you take a checkride. It is up to your CFIO to be able to have you prepared so it is easy.
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Hey Paul, looking forward to seeing/meeting you in April. :)

Sky.....remember, the checkride is open book. If you need to make yourself some notes for reference, that's ok, you can use them. Tab your FAR/AIM manual, you don't have to memorize it, just know where/how to reference it.
 
THIS VIDEO just came out. not sure if it'll help you but it's timely, if nothing else. now quit yer whining, go out and practice, then take your checkride so afterwards you can be like everybody else and say "oh, that wasn't so bad"
 
Thanks for all the tips, guys. I really appreciate them! My instructor and I decided to postpone my checkride another couple of weeks, ironically after I was not dreading it quite so much. :rolleyes: I think most of my fear is connected with the oral portion, and after my instructor spent 3 hours intensively grilling me yesterday and I wasn't completely bombing the questions, I'm feeling a lot more confident about it. At about hour 2, I was even starting to enjoy myself. LOL

So, hoping for some good weather days to go up and beat the heck out of the maneuvers until I'm proficient again and then, on to the checkride. It's kinda weird to realize that the checkride is the last thing before I have the certificate...it's almost disorienting in a way. :p

Edited to add: postponed because of lack of good weather/clear runway to go practice anything. For some reason, despite the okay weather window we had for an hour or two this weekend, we didn't want to fly off a runway with 80-100% ice coverage... ;) The last time I flew beside the night flight was December 20th so didn't want to risk not going up before. Proficiency vs. currency right there! LOL
 
I've taken medical board tests and never had an issue. For PPL, I was nervous only because my CFI made the mistake of saying, "I've never had anyone fail in my 15 years of instructing" ... gee, thanks for that:( Can you pile on anything else?

I did fine, but like others, didn't really sleep and again I NEVER have had that happen.

Edit: Didn't help any that the applicant scheduled directly before me failed in the first 30 minutes during the oral:eek::confused:
 
Make it a priority to do a mock checkride with your CFI prior to the real thing.

Also, see if you can contact a person or two who recently used your DPE for a PPL ride. Learn what the DPE’s hot buttons are, how he conducts the ride, any favorite questions for the oral, etc.
 
Any recommendations for a DPE in Missouri? I should be done with my training in a few weeks. Thanks
 
Half Fast said:
Make it a priority to do a mock checkride with your CFI prior to the real thing..
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that’s great advice. But I’ll take it a step further. See if your CFI can have another CFI take you for a mock checkride. Hopefully someone you don’t know and haven’t flown with before. That’s a much closer to the real thing “test ride”.
 
AlphaMike said:
that’s great advice. But I’ll take it a step further. See if your CFI can have another CFI take you for a mock checkride. Hopefully someone you don’t know and haven’t flown with before. That’s a much closer to the real thing “test ride”.
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^^^^This and I'll add that if it's another CFI that has sent students to the DPE your taking the checkride with.
 
iamtheari said:
This raises a point... Most conflicts between people come from failure to meet expectations that were not understood to begin with. Talk to the examiner about expectations. My commercial ride was good that way. He made it clear what he expected, such as simulating emergencies. It’s not a bad idea to ask the examiner before the flight, or even be pilot in command and tell him and let him disagree. “If we have a simulated emergency, I will tell you what I would do with the master, magnetos, fuel, and mixture. I will not actually turn things off because doing so could create a real emergency from a simulation.”
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Ain’t this the truth. My ppl checkride went well-ish. He commented that the short field landing was within commercial standards. One final thing was slip to land and he asked if I wanted to do it at the training field or fly back to the base field KSLC. I told him let’s just do that back at Salt Lake. I’m holding the slip down to maybe 50-100 feet and came out of it. And for some reason he kicked the plane back into a slip. That kinda pizzed me off. He manipulated the controls in a critical phase of flight without communicating with me. Needless to say I thought I failed and there was zero talk until just prior to parking and he told me I passed.

Lesson? Try to make sure expectations are met prior to executing them.
 
Half Fast said:
So, @SkyChaser , how about an update? Got your ride scheduled?
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Unfortunately, the lack of update is due to lack of progress. :( I haven't even been able to go flying since the one night in January when I did my night xc. Weekends have been absolutely terrible for flying - there's been only one weekend with high enough ceilings, and the temps were -25. I'm on the "call if anyone cancels" list for rescheduling, but there's a huge backlog at this point, I'm sure, due to the awful weather. I'm beginning to worry my instructor won't remember me by my next lesson if this keeps up...

I wish I could have said I took it and passed it already, I just didn't tell y'all. ;) If I had not been otherwise occupied the last couple months, I think I would be crazy by now. :p
 
Well you could have said that and you would have had a headstart on what it really takes to be a pilot, or an angler: Lying.
 
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