Skill Test!!!!!!!!!!!

[holbrob]

Hiya,

I am taking my Skill Test in a couple of days and I was wondering if anybody had any hints or tips for an uneventfull but successful flight???

I have a tendancy to get very nervous when presented with any sort of test but i am fine when i am on my own or in a lesson.

Hope you can help

Cheers
Bri

:sad: :yuk:

[parris50]

If you concentrate hard throughout the flight, you will probably forget about your nerves. Prepare the nav leg thouroughly and make sure all your info is clear on your plog. It will save you from those minor panics in the air when looking for a frequency etc.

If think you've messed something up, don't let it play on your mind. Think about the next thing you've got to do. Chances are that a mistake may not be as serious as you think and it's just possible the examiner hasn't noticed.

If you go out of tolerance on altitude, heading or speed, it doesn't mean an automatic fail. Make a smooth positive correction and you should be alright.

Remember the examiner is on your side and has been through quite a few test rides him/her self. He will understand how you feel. If you mess up something on the gen handling, you might well be given a chance to do it again. It happened to me on my PPL skills test on one of the stalls.

Good luck:ok:

[BRL]

Hi there.
A quick Search produces this Skills Test Heaven....... (http://www.pprune.org/forums/search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=507345&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending)
Let us know how yours goes and best of luck...... :)

[Maxflyer]

1. Don't rush yourself, take your time.
2. Make your radio calls early, this way you give yourself more time to concentrate on approaches, etc., also if you get a negative response you will be able to plan for an alternate easier.
3. Listen carefully to what your examiner is saying, don't be afraid to ask him / her to repeat their instruction.
4. If you are unhappy with something you are doing, exercise good airmanship and explain what you are doing to resolve the issue.
5. Don't second guess the examiner.
6. Remember, they are not setting out with the intention to fail you. They will make an allowance for nerves, but you wouldn't be doing the test if your FI didn't think you were up to it.
7. Let me know how you get on.

Good luck

[jackyboy]

I think the one thing I learnt from taking mine was it wasn't the big deal that I had built it up to be.

I was a bag of nerves on the day but managed to relax a bit once we got going. I'm sure he took my nerves into account.

Stuffed up the glide approach but got another go.

Best wishes, let us know how it goes.

[nike]

gidday guys,

Could you please explain what a "skill test" is.

Here in NZ we do not have a flight check by that name.

Is it similar to a PPL flight test?

cheers.

[Evo]

The "skills test" is the last thing you need to do to get your PPL. It's a combination of navigation and general handling (stalls, PFLs, circuits etc.) with an examiner, it's typically about 2 hours or so in an aeroplane. After that you send off £150 and a pile of paperwork to the CAA who ignore it for ages and eventually send you a licence :)

[BRL]

After that you send off £150 and a pile of paperwork to the CAA who ignore it for ages and eventually send you a licence (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=101632) :ok:

[madzone]

Hi,
Did mine back in June and was advised on the following before I took it.

1. Take your time
2. Be thorough on all your flightplans/met/notams/W & B etc. then sit the examiner down and take him/her through everything in detail. Let them know that you know your stuff!!
3. Explain what you are doing
4. When (not if, in my case) you make an error (and realise it) tell them.
5. Remember the words your instructor has said to you throughout all the various exercises - let them talk to you in your head
6. Finally, tell yourself to relax and enjoy it

Good luck:ok:

[Evo]

4. When (not if, in my case) you make an error (and realise it) tell them.


Totally agree. I came close to failing mine within 10 minutes of taking off - realized what I had done just in time, told the examiner what I had failed to do and what I was doing about it, fixed it and carried on. Passed too :)

[holbrob]

Peeps,

Thanks for all of your replies. I took my Skill Test yesterday and everything started off well!!!!

The weather according to the met office was good, good viz, calm winds, high cloud.......... The route was picked over to the west towards the lake district.

Performed all of the checks without any problems, taxied (after clearance!!!) to the holding point, performed power checks, got permision to take off and then it hit me!!! The wind that is!!!!

Not entirely sure but i think the Met office just use the lottery numbers when calculating the wind??? Luckily, apart from being thrown all over the sky the Nav section of the test was spot on with my ETA's being around a minute either side. The divert also was good (by this time we had a decent tailwind so it actually felt like we were moving!!!) and we got to the divert point on time.

When we tried to do some of the upper air work things didn't actually go to plan and we decided to put a lid on that part of the test. Hopefully i will be doing the rest today while i can still remember most of it!!!!

Anyway i passed the Nav section and should pass the handling today. As soon as we got up in the air the nerves seemed to fade away, now i don't know if that was due to every muscle in the upper half of my body working like the Hulk??? So i feel a lot calmer about the rest of the test.

Thanks again, and i'll let you know how i get on.

Bri

[G SXTY]

Well done on getting the nav section out of the way!

As for the rest of it, just remember that the examiner isn't expecting a perfect flight. Mistakes won't necessarily fail you, but he will be expecting you to pick up on errors and correct them. I found it helped to talk through every action I made, including instrument scan.

I found it very useful in spotting any deviations from heading / altitude / airspeed and, just as importantly, letting the examiner know I'd spotted them.

Good luck with the rest of it! :ok:

[holbrob]

Fellow Ppruners,

I am now the proud holder of a JAR PPL(A)!!!!!! Or do i have to wait for the licence until i can say that????

Looking back i don't really know why i was so nervous, but i suppose it forced me to keep my head in a book or two to make sure all of my training didn't go to waste.

So now all i have to do do is fight with the CAA to get my licence before Easter!!!!

Thanks again.

Bri

[Circuit Basher]

CONGRATULATIONS!
So, now another one of the class of 2003!!

Stopped talking about it to your mates yet??!! :D

[tmmorris]

The bit about 'if you make a mistake, tell the examiner and say what you are going to do about it' applies to other tests too. I passed my IMC despite several cockups, but as I kept double-checking myself and picked them all up within 30secs or so, nothing disastrous happened, and in fact the examiner commented that as long as I realised what I had done and corrected it I was safe.

Tim

[Penguina]

Congratulations! I'm a new PPL too, took about a month for the licence to come through, but that was in the height of summer - bet it's quicker now.

Just to add to the comments, I think a calm and professional demeanour gets you a long way - obviously it doesn't correct mistakes, but the examiner is looking for the general picture and I also think you can convince yourself as well as the examiner.

[madzone]

Congratulations - it is a good feeling isn't it. You can enjoy a few beers now. Got mine mid june and the licence took 4 weeks 2 days to come through.

Cheers :O

[paulo]

Congratulations indeed. I did my renewal today - not quite the same achievement as GFT, but we can share the joy. :)

I quite enjoy the thinking aloud thing "a little fast, I'm going to..." etc etc.

[This of course implies I spot all my mistakes - today proved that I don't, but hey ho, got the PFL a bit more right the second time :rolleyes: ]