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!
