Skills test tomorrow

[Claverley04]

Hello all,
Brand new to this forum, I have probably left it a bit late but any advice on PPL skills test would be much appreciated, I am doing it tomorrow (22nd Sept 11) and am feeling the nerves!
Also does anyone use the Sky Demon GPS, I have just brought one in anticipation of my license and am obviously yet to use it, was wandering how people were finding it?

[Spit161]

Hi,
Just out of interest, are you "based" at Sleap?

[o7i]

Just relax and don't panic is the best advice I think for your test. Everything seemed to go wrong during my test and I was just about to say to the examiner "Could you just tell me i've failed so I can go home" when he told me I had passed! You're not expected to be perfect yet, as long as you can deal with problems if they arise. Good luck for tomorrow

[bingofuel]

Whatever happens, don't give up. You will be expected to make mistakes, deal with them, put them behind you.and move on regardless of how bad you think it was.

[Uniform267]

Same advice here - relax! I sat my skills test fairly recently in two parts due to crap weather making the nav a no-go. Practical side of things went OK, definitely far from perfect and throughout the flight was really unsure whether or not what I was doing was satisfactory. The examiner will be writing A LOT - but as mine told me before departure, he has to write down literally everything that happens during the flight, so its not necessarily criticism! PFL ended up being a bit scrappy to my mind. After this we returned to base for circuits. Had to orbit for a long long time to allow IFR traffic in which caused a bit of worry as the wind blew me a bit too close to cloud. I could sense my examiner was a bit unhappy about this. However we soon got out of the hold and I was happy with my circuits. If you fly to the standard your instructor was happy with, you will do fine.

Had to wait a few agonising days for the weather to clear up until I could do the nav trip. Again, just relax - I found on the way up the start of leg 1 I was fretting about everything and overthinking everything. However by the time I had set up and was happy with the wind correction, I relaxed and just enjoyed it - it was a lovely day so why not? Finished the nav leg and had such a good time looking at the view I'd forgotten all about the diversion. A good technique I have been taught is to fly a race track pattern for a set period of time - and tell the examiner what your plan is! For example - "I am going to fly a racetrack pattern, starting overhead town X, flying away for one minute, turning 180 degrees, and flying back for 1 minute". Dont work in the turns! Alongside endlessly practicing diversion technique on the ground, I found this useful. Diversion went fine, bang on target. Quick bit of Radio nav and then back to base! Very quiet taxi in which had me worrying i'd failed...however as soon as we shut down I was told that i'd passed! Phew!

It is very daunting the few days leading up to it - but really, try to relax. The examiner really isnt there to fail you...its not a driving test! Just fly as you do with your instructor - clearly, they think you will pass. And they probably know better than anyone else including yourself! Good luck tomorrow!

[thing]

Did my skills test earlier this year and wondered what I had been worrying about when I landed. Just fly competently (I assume you can, you wouldn't be doing a skills test otherwise!!:)) and you'll be OK, and don't panic, you don't fail if you make a little slip. The guy who examined me said basically it was a test of whether he would allow me to fly his children, in other words he was looking for safe flying and safe flying mentality, not whether I'd drifted off course by half a degree.

Good luck!

[Genghis the Engineer]

(1) Good luck
(2) Get a good night's sleep
(3) Do everything exactly as you were taught.

G

[SDB73]

Good luck!

24 hours from now it'll Be in the past. I'd bet heavily you'll wonder what you were nervous about. I worried for months but it was way better than I imagined. Just do what you've been trained to do - and you're not expected to be perfect.

Good luck! (skydemon is excellent by the way, especially for a new ppl).

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

You will make mistakes - everyone does. The examiner is looking for a safe pilot who understands what they are doing, not a perfect one.

I was convinced I'd failed mine as the lovely Tom Dougdale walked away from the C150 back in 1979.

"Thank you very much. Very pleasant flight". (Tom is the definative gentleman).

"But did I pass????" (I had serious doubts).

"Oh yes".

:)

[kevmusic]

I definitely made mistakes on mine! :O They were on the first leg, my examiner gave me some rope & instead of hanging meself I got some confidence, settled in, and the rest is history!

I take the re-test next week.

(Seriously - I passed! :p) Good luck!! :ok:

[Claverley04]

Thanks very much everyone for the very good advice and support.
Spit161, I am based at Halfpenny Green, its ideal for me I only live 3 miles away.
I have decided that Sleap is going to be one of my first visits along with Welshpool as soon as I am licensed.
Will let you all know how I got on.

Cheers all.

[kevmusic]

Get to bed!!

[6UP]

Good luck!!

[Cumulogranite]

best of luck, not that you will need, your instructor will not put you in for it unless he thinks you can pass.

Take this attitude, when you have stepped in the aircraft you have already passed, it is up to you to fail, not the other way round!! Doing this makes it seem less of a mountain to climb.

The best advice I can give though is this, if you lash something up don't, I say again (good RT) DON'T, hope the examiner didnt see it and keep quiet, tell him what you have got wrong and why it happened. He is not there to fail you or trip you up in any way, he is there to make sure you can fly in a safe manner, can handle a few basic tasks and fly the plane. Safety is the key, my examiner told me all he does is ask himself the question at the end of the flight "would I let my kids fly with the person" if the answer is yes then you have passed.

Also remember it is not like a driving test, what you are being examined on is are you in a good position to have a "licence to learn", they are not looking for airline level flying, just safety.

I lashed up a couple of things really badly (diversion and steep turn) I realsised my diversion was wrong from a ground features check, told him I had got it wrong and what I was going to do about it, and we got to the overhead of the diversion field without any further problems. When I descended nearly 500 feet in a steep turn I told him I knew I had lashed it up and asked if I could do it again, all went well the second time and away we go!!!!! On the ground I had passed first time out, because although I buggered parts of it up, I knew I had and put it right, and therefore operated in a safe manner!!

Above anything else, just enjoy the ride, and we look forwards to you teling us you passed tomorrow!!!!

[felixflyer]

I agree with everything that has been said, I also came away with the feeling of 'what was I worried about'.

I have my MEP test soon then IR & CPL. How do these compare with the PPL test?

[fattony]

Please let us know how it goes today. I won't be doing mine for a good while yet but I'd be really interested to read your account.

Good luck!

[caroberts]

Do as much prep as required in advance, but get as much sleep as you can. I make up to-do lists as then I sleep better, but do whatever helps you. Then relax and enjoy the flight. :ok:

[OgriLee]

Good luck today on your skills test

Spit61 I am based at Sleap and am due to do my skills test very soon :)

Lee

[Markiepickle]

You are probably up there now, so good luck, but just in case you get to read this, a couple of things to watch (and which caught me out) are:

1. Make sure you dial in the correct frequencies. I blame the nerves and sweaty fingers but I made small errors twice which meant listening out for idents which never came. Luckily my examiner pointed these errors out (he was very helpful)!

2. I was asked to climb to an altitude which took me into cloud. I pointed out that I was not allowed to fly into cloud which was the correct answer!

3. On my PFL, I was fixated on a great field on my left side and carried out an acceptable PFL. However, if I'd looked past my instructor out of the right hand window I would have seen an airstrip which would have been the better choice! :ugh:

4. He did not ask me the verbal part of the test until he was about to pass me at the very end. By that time my brain was frazzled and I think he knew that because my answers were all over the place!

So good luck and enjoy it - I actually found that I flew very confidently even though I was bricking it before. Despite the mistakes, my examiner was happy that I was a competent and safe pilot and was happy to pass me.:)

Let us all know how you got on.

[niceday2700classic]

If you can keep a tabs on your nerves to the extent that you're able to fly roughly to the same sort of standard you did in the latter half of your training, then you'll be absolutely fine.

In my test I made more mistakes than I could count, was definitely not happy with my performance, and regard it as probably the worst flight I've ever flown. Apparently though it was good enough for the examiner.

The worst thing that happened was that during my PFL I didn't quite trim for the glide properly, got distracted by choosing a field, and got so slow that the stall warner went off!!! That particular aircraft's stall warner does go off about 10kts above anything you could reasonably define as approaching the stall, but I was still way below the correct glide speed. In the debrief the examiner said that he'd actually turned it into a positive, because it gave him a chance to assess my reaction to a genuine, unexpected 'stall' situation, and it seems I reacted well.

I wasn't very good on the radio either, which is normally my strongest suit. But he said he's not looking for you to be ultra-efficient and word-perfect, he's looking for someone who's safe and asks for clarification if they're not sure what they were told. One ATSU had to give me a squawk FOUR times before I managed to write it down and read it back correctly.

Diversion went well, and it was straight over the top of a VOR so I used that alongside my visual nav and killed two birds with one stone there. However, when we got to the diversion destination (happened to be an airfield that I'd not been to before) he got on the radio to his mate in the tower and asked if we could do a couple of circuits. His mate said fine but be quick, jet traffic inbound in 10 mins! I wasn't expecting circuits away from base, but it was a nice big tarmac runway and I managed to fly some decent laps.

General handling last of all, which was fine - but in my steep turns he asked for a 60 degree angle of bank and then put his chart in front of the instruments while I did it because I was looking at them too much and not outside enough!

[thing]

On my PFL, I was fixated on a great field on my left side and carried out an acceptable PFL. However, if I'd looked past my instructor out of the right hand window I would have seen an airstrip which would have been the better choice!

Did exactly the same thing on mine! Luckily I spotted it and rejigged my approach. Also on my diversion which was to a disused airfield I didn't know I knew we were somewhere close due to the timing but could I hell spot it. He said 'Well, have you spotted it yet?' Which made me cringe a bit and I told him no. He replied 'No, neither have I, it's a bugger this one isn't it.'

[Claverley04]

First off, thanks everyone for all of your advice, and for all of you that said it, you were definately right, dont know what I was worrying about!

Nav went really well Headings, timings all worked and maintained accurate levels throughout.
Diversion was fine, though had to divert around weather on my diversion leg which strained the old grey matter a little. RT was also pretty much spot on.

General handling didnt go as well as planned, I thought the standard of my flying was awful, but my examiner didnt seem to think so.
All in all a fantastic result.
Once again, thanks all!

[thing]

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Whoo hoo, welcome to the club, very well done indeed!!

[SDB73]

Well done Captain!

[I Love Flying]

Congratulations Claverley04!:D:D:D:D:D:D

[6UP]

Well Done!!

[kevmusic]

Blue Skies and happy landings! :D:D:D:ok:

[RyanRs]

Congratulations! :D

Whats next on the agenda for flying then?

[Claverley04]

Not sure whats next athe moment, do a bit of flying and go for a night rating I think. I am quite keen to fly a complex and my club has a couple of arrows so I will probably do that soon.

[thing]

I've found so far with my whole 2 months of having the brown wallet that the best thing to do is go visit places. There's nothing like pulling off a good landing at a strip you haven't been to before. Conversely there's nothing like doing a crap landing at a strip you haven't been to before either, especially when all the squillion hour pilots are sat with their coffees watching....:) Not that it bothers me, I've paid for the crap landing not them so I'm going to enjoy it and savour every little bounce.

[AdamFrisch]

I remember when the ink barely had dried on my PPL, I got this great idea to transition to a Piper Lancer for some reason. It was retractable, c/s prop and high power and I was hot on all that. Man, I was so far behind that plane I was still on the ground when it arrived at the new airport. I can't believe instructor let me solo it even. I was sweating mu n**s off and couldn't enjoy a minute!

That said, I still recommend trying a complex or high performance aircraft sooner rather than later - it's good practice and will tell you a lot about workload.;)

[thing]

Interesting that Adam. Was it the complexity that made it difficult or the speed? I'm OK with a bit faster, I reckon I could cope with 140 knots or so, we have a 172 that cruises at around 110-115 knots and TBH I can't tell the difference between that and our 152 which plods along at about 85, but I'm not sure about all the extra knobs and stuff like cowl flaps, CS props, landing gear etc.

[AdamFrisch]

Everything happens much faster and you need set speeds for everything. It's not the high speed in cruise, that's easy, but entering the circuits at 140kts, trying to lose speed and get below gear/flap retraction speeds, getting the CS prop and manifold right is a lot of work when you haven't done it before. Before you know it you've looked far too little outside the cockpit and just busted your base turn by a mile and you're still too fast and too high. That kind of thing.

Once you get a hang of it, it's easy. Won't take long. Do tight circuits and all the stuff will happen quickly, which is good practice. Before the gear is up, it's already time to turn crosswind, reduce rpm and manifold and do all your other checks. And as soon as you've turned downwind/midfield it's time to configure again.

I now fly my own "high performance" (I say that as she prefers to be in the shop, mostly;)) aircraft and it's dead simple once you get the hang of it. But it was only when I got her that I started to do properly planned descents. You have to - you can't arrive willy nilly like you can with a Cessna and just drop down like a brick. If I'm at 9000ft and plan to go to zero, then I plan on a cruise descent 35-40nm out, which roughly gives me 500ft/m descent. If I need to get to a circuit height, I reduce that from the altitude to lose. I never reduce the manifold (throttle), I just take the speed. Sometimes I even go below circuit height just before the airport so I can climb last feet to shed some speed and configure. Gear normally comes down on downwind as it helps me slow down, and from there on it's just like your regular Cessna. I even come over the threshold at roughly the same speed as a 172.

[benppl]

Well done mate. Got mine in a few weeks!

[JessA2]

Not sure whats next athe moment, do a bit of flying and go for a night rating I think. I am quite keen to fly a complex and my club has a couple of arrows so I will probably do that soon


well done !

can you do the night and complex right away after you pass or do you need some hours first ?

[thing]

I don't think there's any official reason you can't do a complex and a night conversion straight away. In fact as far as I know you can learn on a complex, and I've known someone do a night rating while waiting for their brown wallet to come. Why I don't know as you only have to send it off again...

[Grob Queen]

Hi, From one new PPRuner to another, Hope you passed the Skills Test...mine is still a long way off, but I am told its easier than the driving test!

[mrmum]

can you do the night and complex right away after you pass or do you need some hours first ?
You can if you wish do complex differences training and a NQ during the course of a PPL.

[qr001]

well done,happy flying!!:):)

[Claverley04]

Good luck with yours benppl and Grob Queen.
On reflection I found my skills test to be much more demanding than my driving test (which was about 17 yrs ago now), however I definately agree with what a lot of people say on this forum in as much as a flight examiner ultimately does want you to pass. You cant say this about a driving examiner (in my humble opinion).

Therefore unless you drop a big clanger or forget something very important you will get 'prompts' from your flight examiner during the skills test if you mess a few things up and a chance to rectify them.

My examiner was a thoroughly decent guy, who I am sure would have failed me if he found I could not fly, navigate and communicate safely.
I suppose the other comfort you should take into your skills test is that your instructer does know your abilities (or lack of!) better than you do, so if he has put you forward then you are almost certainly good enough to pass.

So if you are about to do your skills test, remember your examiner wants you to pass and your instructer already knows your good enough, so so should you.

On a slighty different note, is it me being tight or do the CAA seem to want to extort money out of us at every turn? £180.00 just to issue a PPL, I cant imagine the cost of admin plus printing the license plus reasonable profit would be a fraction of that in reality.

[Genghis the Engineer]

On a slighty different note, is it me being tight or do the CAA seem to want to extort money out of us at every turn? £180.00 just to issue a PPL, I cant imagine the cost of admin plus printing the license plus reasonable profit would be a fraction of that in reality.

Try doing a commercial licence!

G

[niceday2700classic]

Unfortunately the CAA gets no government funding. So it has to cover all costs from the fees it charges. If the DVLA didn't get a budget from the taxpayer, imagine how much your driving license would cost.

The costs it 'has' to cover from our fees would be a lot lower if it slimmed itself down, simplified various processes and basically stopped acting as an employment agency for ex-RAF personnel.

[Grob Queen]

Thanks for that Claverley. Always good to know that examiners are really quite helpful...hints sound good! One of our examiners is quite a scary seeming chap. But there again, my instructor is also an examiner for the club and hes really nice (although I know I wont have him!!)

Still, much to do before I reach that level.:hmm:

Congrats on getting yours; and Benppl...good luck with yours!

GQ