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Checkride

Tips and secrets for passing your checkride

Jason Schappert has created a short six minute video containing his tips and secrets for passing a private pilot checkride. These tips and secrets included the following:

  1. Know Your Cross Country. Jason emphasized that you should be able to explain true course, magnetic heading, magnetic course and course heading as well as how you calculated any numbers you come up with while navigating or calculating a course. He also noted that you should not only know the frequencies from the airport you are flying from and the airport you are flying to, but you should also know the frequencies of any airports in between. Moreover, Jason also noted that your examiner may divert you to an airport you have never been to and hence, you should be familiar with the layout of all airports in your area.
  2. Have a Backup Plan. Jason mentioned that your examiner or even ATC may divert you from a planned course. Hence, you should have a backup plan ready or better yet, more than one backup plan or route plan to use.
  3. Special Emphasis Areas. Jason then listed about 10 topics that are almost guaranteed to be asked on your checkride. Hence, you should probably know these topics and be prepared to be asked about them.
  4. Navigate the FAR/AM. Jason also emphasized that while you are not expected to know everything in the FAR/AM, you will need to at least know how to look things up.

Keeping the above tips and secrets in mind will go a long way towards helping you to pass your private pilot checkride and not be caught off guard by the examiner.

Tips for your next checkride or solo

If you are preparing for your private pilot checkride or for your first solo, Jason Schappert has written a couple of great posts on the Let’s Go Flying blog that are well worth reading. In the first post that he wrote for the Let’s Go Flying blog, Jason makes the important point that you have invested A LOT of time and money into getting a pilot license and the end result should be a private pilot certificate. Hence he reminds soon to be pilots to bring the following on their first checkride:

  1. Your Books (ALL of them!)
  2. Current Charts and Materials
  3. Logbook and Paperwork

In his second post for the Let’s Go Flying blog, Jason asked the question of “how do you prove to your instructor that you are good enough for him to let go of you?” He pointed out that he was able to pass his checkride for the following reasons:

  1. He Was Prepared
  2. He Was Professional
  3. He Had Humility

In other words, he wasn’t a know it all big shot.

Finally and in his last post for the Let’s Go Flying blog, Jason offers some useful tips for preparing for your first solo. These tips included:

  1. Don’t Doubt Yourself
  2. Make Yourself Aware of Some Changes
  3. Stick to the Routine

And although Jason stated that having the jitters on your first solo are normal, they are quite needless as you should instead enjoy your first solo flight rather than fear it. After all, you will have a long flying career ahead of you.