pvt checkride advice

[joeboez]

Any advice for my pvt pilot check ride? I’m trying to gather as much info as I can.


If you guys haven’t seen me before, it’s because i’m a new member… I just joined tonight

Personal info…
Student pilot – check ride is in 3 weeks.
I’m 17 and live in the bay area
Born exposed to and loving aviation =)

[zerozero]

Yo Joe!

Hey, Good Luck on your checkride. Try to have a good time. Realize that your instructor wouldn't recommend you for the ride if he didn't think you're ready to pass it.

Try to do a "practice checkride" with another instructor before you actually take the real checkride. This is just like a dress rehearsal. And if you've only flown with one instructor than the stress of flying with a stranger will be similar to the checkride.

Try to get a good night's sleep the night before and have a good breakfast the day of the checkride.

Mentally fly the different maneuvers and emergency procedures in your head while you're sitting in a quiet room. Just visualize the entire thing from start to finish. It may sound kinda hokey but I really encourage visualization.

Take your time during the oral. Really listen to the question and just answer what he's asking for. If you go off on some tangent he may follow your digression and start asking questions that you have no idea about. A good examiner won't bust you for this but it's not a good confidence builder to paint yourself into a corner.

On the other hand, you may be offering really concise and accurate answers and the examiner will keep pushing you to find out exactly how much you know even if you have already adequately answered the question--don't let this rattle you--it's just a game. Don't be afraid to admit, "I don't know," if it gets to this point.

The other game a lot of examiners like to play is the "Are you sure?" game. They ask a question, you answer correctly, and they respond with, "Are you sure," just to test your confidence.

During the flight portion, if you don't perform a maneuver satisfactorly tell the examiner, "I didn't like that very much and I'd like to demonstrate it better." Most will appreciate that you realize it wasn't up to snuff and you're willing to do better.

But if you happen to completely blow a maneuver, don't fixate on it, just press on, don't let it affect the rest of the flight. This is critical to continued success in aviation because you will always make mistakes but the mark of a true professional is *how* he reacts to those mistakes. It's bad form to let one mistake ruin the rest of the flight.

I don't know if you're involved with athletics at all but preparing for a checkride is just like preparing for the "big game." It's all about the preparation and hard work it took to get there and then keeping your wits about you when the pressure is on. You have to really develop a "game face" if you're gonna be in this industry for any length of time.

I wish you the best of luck and please let us know how it went. (Be advised: This thread may get moved to another forum because it's not strictly a "rumor"--but I'll be looking for your results!)

P.S. I used to instruct in Concord at Navajo Aviation in '94 and '95. Where are you training?

Welcome to Pprune!:ok:

[PA-28-180]

Hey Joe, Good luck from me as well. I would just add to ZeroZero's comment, in addition to scheduling a stage check/check ride prior with an instructor (NOT your instructor) you might also want to schedule your aircraft a little early. I did this and found I was much calmer after a few circuits solo around the field first!

ZeroZero - I did my PPL training at navajo as well! Did you know Tim Slater?

[joeboez]

I appreciate all of your help guys. I have a "simulated" practical with the head instructor at my flying club and my plane is booked already for the real thing. Your advice makes alot of sense. i think if i keep a postive attitude and stay confident in myself I should do fine (hopefully). Anyway thanks again and I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Thanks

P.S ZeroZero
I fly out of Oakland, and my checkride is with Lou Fields, I'm guessing you've probably heard of him aparently hes some kind of aviation legend.

[Charlie Zulu]

Hi joeboez,

Good luck with the checkride!

If you haven't already, take a look at http://www.whittsflying.com/. The site has been put together by a very experienced instructor (around your area of California I believe) and has excellent information... including checkride reports for every certificate! Tons of links, just scroll down until you find the checkride reports / hints etc etc.

Best wishes,

Charlie Zulu

[EastMids]

Issues surrounding the checkride were put to me like this:

====
You've already proven that you are a competent and safe pilot. No instructor would have let you take an airplane off on a solo trip if you weren't. You're not going to be asked to do anything you've not already done successfully in the past.

The only thing that the checkride really does is remove the need for you to be supervised by an instructor prior to each of your solo flights - its just the final stage in transferring primary decision making from an instructor, to you.
====

As long as you remember your stuff, there's nothing much more to it than that. I won't wish you good luck because you don't need luck - you just need to do it like you've done it many times before.

Best wishes and I hope it goes well.

Andy

[Gertrude the Wombat]

I won't wish you good luck because you don't need luckThat's right. The last thing you need on any flying test is good luck. If you get good luck and pass by accident what's going to happen when you're on your own and get bad luck?

I think it's correct to wish people bad luck for flying tests; if you get the bad luck with an examiner sitting next to you and cope with it well you're much better off for the future.

[zerozero]

Joe--Nope, never heard of Mr. Fields. At the time we used to use a couple different guys. One, an ex-cop, the other, a current Falcon pilot.

Fly safe man.

PA-28-180--I met Mr. Slater a couple of times but I was actually hired just after he left, by the guy who replaced him. Although, now that I think about it, Slater did check me out as a 141 instructor.

Thanks for the memories!