Hi Paul,
I did my skills test one month ago, and like you was very nervous about the whole thing. The night before my test I did not sleep a wink, and nearly scrubbed it just for that reason alone.
However I went ahead with it at about 1pm on 23rd September.
Whilst I flew my nav section very well, the general handling went (in my opinion) very badly indeed, some of the worst flying I have done in recent months.
I knew I had passed the nav section as my examiner told me this as we commenced general handling, but on landing and shutting down I honestly expected him to tell me I had failed/partialed due to my poor general handling performance.
That was not the case, I had passed.
The best advice I can give you is this:
1. Your examiner does not want you to fail, and will expect you to make mistakes. The key is to move on immediately to the next task and dont worry about it, because it probably wont matter. After all this is a PPL skills test not a 'perfect pilot' skills test!
2. Unlike me, try not to stay awake all night long stressing, get a good nights sleep, you will feel so much better and well prepared on the day.
3. From the moment you meet the FE, carry yourself with confidence as much as you can, this will set a very positive first impression to the examiner of someone who is competent and going to pass.
4. Easier said than done - try to enjoy the flight, I found myself actually enjoying parts of the test during the nav section, which in turn relaxed me, improved my flying and above all boosted my confidence.
5. Finally, dont fear failure, the worst that can happen is you fail and have to re-take the test again, it is not the end of the world (easy for me to say this I know) This is unlikely to happen, so dont worry about it. To be going for Skills test at 47 hours must mean you are a competent pilot who learns quickly or your instructor would not have put you forward yet.
Good luck for Thursday, rest assured you wont need it though!
