We hate to break it to you, but checkrides are almost always a pain. Unfortunately, they’re a necessary evil in every pilot’s life. How to pass your checkride.
Although you may not look forward to your checkrides, per se, we do believe that following a relatively simple formula can almost guarantee your success. This article presents the steps you can and should take for every checkride in your career. If you follow this formula, you will arrive at your checkride calm and confident.
Pilot Pipeline is committed to helping you enjoy success in your flight training. Our goal is nothing short of a 100% pass rate on all of your checkrides!
Overview
- Know What’s on the Test
- Study What’s on the Test
- Hone Your Flying Skills
- Answer the Question
- Drive it Like You Stole it!
- Recover Gracefully from Mistakes
- Think Like an Examiner
Know What’s on the Test
There is no excuse for ever being surprised by a question on an FAA written or oral exam, or by a required maneuver on a practical exam. The FAA makes all this information available for free on its website.
The basic requirements for any pilot certificate are specified in the Federal Aviation Regulations. Look in either Part 61 or the Appendix to Part 141, depending on what type of program you choose. Before you start training for any rating, you should go over those requirements yourself. A good Flight Instructor will also review these requirements with you, and show how your training program will make sure you accomplish everything.
Your checkride consists of two parts: an oral exam on the ground before you fly, and a practical exam in the aircraft. There are two types of documents that describe exactly what those exams must cover. The older version is called Practical Test Standards (PTS) and the newer version is called Airman Certification Standards (ACS.)
We strongly recommend you download or print out a copy of the PTS or ACS for your next checkride before you even start training for that rating. Throughout your training, use your copy to keep notes and write down references. Every time you go fly, review the parameters for the maneuvers you’ll be flying in the PTS/ACS so that you’re always practicing for the test.
On the day of your checkride, you should bring your highly-annotated copy of the PTS/ACS to your oral exam. Show it to your examiner before you get started and ask if it’s okay for you to keep it out as a reference. There’s a chance he or she will say no (if that’s the answer you get, don’t argue)! However, if your copy of the ACS is covered in notes and references, your examiner will immediately get the impression that you’ve poured your blood, sweat, and tears into preparing for this event. As long as your performance matches that impression, you’ll be off to a great start!
If you feel like you need even more preparation than the PTS/ACS and your Flight Instructor have provided, you can also get an Oral Exam Guide for any type of checkride. Here’s a list.
Study What’s on the Test
We’ve given this one away already, but we’ll restate it here for effect. Use the PTS/ACS as your guide for studying. Go through it line by line and make sure that you can answer every question. If part of the answer includes a reference in the Federal Aviation Regulations, then make sure you have the paragraph and/or page number written down!
Since you have all the test questions, it’s easy for you to practice taking the test. You can ask friends, family, fellow flight training students, and your Flight Instructor to practice for your checkride.
Your non-pilot friends or family members may not be familiar enough with the material to critique your accuracy, but it’s still valuable to practice talking while someone is staring at you from across a table. If you can hone your answers to be understandable even to the average pedestrian, they ought to be good enough for your examiner when the time comes.
Fellow student pilots or your CFI are great resources for making sure your answers are correct on a technical level. You can practice answering questions one at a time. There’s no better way to spend a bad weather day or a lunch break than quizzing each other on oral exam questions.
Before your actual FAA checkride, it’s a great idea to have your CFI give you a full rehearsal of your oral exam. Your Flight Instructor has been through enough of these to be a very realistic simulation of a Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE). By this point, you should feel confident about your knowledge level. However, if you don’t, you’re better off identifying weak areas now while you still have time to go back and do some extra studying.
Hone Your Flying Skills
One of the (few?) nice things about practical (flying) checkrides is that they’re never graded on a curve. If you meet the standards, you pass!
The PTS/ACS specify the exact parameters you have to meet for each maneuver. Manuals like the FAA’s Airplane Flying Handbook may expand on that guidance (See our list of links for those handbooks here). Every time you fly a maneuver, strive to meet the parameters specified in the PTS/ACS. Make sure your CFI debriefs each maneuver based on those standards as well.
In a way, it should be very obvious to you when you’re ready for your checkride because you’ll be able to consistently perform all of your maneuvers to the required standards. There isn’t anything subjective about that.
It’s not uncommon to feel like you’re not ready for a checkride, even if you can reliably meet standards. Sometimes, your Flight Instructor will have to give you a little bit of an extra push and tell you you really are ready. In that case, it’s okay to trust his or her judgement. Don’t be too hard on yourself. If you can fly the maneuvers within the specified parameters, you should be good to go!
Answer the Question
Expect your oral exam to last at least a couple hours for an early rating like Private Pilot, and up to several hours for an advanced rating like CFI or a combined ATP/Type Rating. You should be confident in your knowledge because you’ve been using the PTS/ACS to practice, right?
When the examiner asks a question, answer it to the best of your ability. Next, and this is very easy to screw up, as soon as you’ve given your answer you need to SHUT UP!
Your examiner will ask a few questions from each section of the PTS/ACS. If your answers are quick and correct, the examiner will move on to the next section. However, if you seem unsure about your answer or your answer is wrong, the examiner will dig deeper into that particular area and ask more questions. If you got it wrong because you are weak in this area, the examiner will be digging deep into your weak spot!
Sometimes, we have the tendency to correctly answer the basic question, and then try to show off our knowledge by adding a bunch of related (but extra) information. The more extra information you throw out, the more likely you are to accidentally slip up on something. Let’s try an example:
Examiner: “How long can you fly above 12,500’ without supplemental oxygen in an unpressurized aircraft.”
You: “30 minutes.”
As you study the rules, you’ll learn that there’s a lot more to it than this. If you dip below 12,500 feet, it resets your 30 minute clock. Related facts are that above 14,000 feet all crew members must use supplemental oxygen, and above 15,000 everyone onboard has to have it available.
You could try to spit all that out at once, but what are the chances of slipping up on one of those many facts? Make the examiner do the work of asking for extra facts if he or she wants them. Our theoretical oral exam could continue like this:
Examiner: “Correct. What do I have to do to reset that 30 minute clock?”
You: “Descend below 12,500 feet.”
Examiner: “For how long?”
You: “There’s no length of time specified.”
Examiner: “Okay, above what altitude do you as the pilot have to use supplemental oxygen?”
You: “14,000 feet.”
Examiner: “And your passengers?”
You: “15,000 feet.”
Examiner: Wow, this kid really knows his/her stuff!
The other nice part of this strategy is that in our example the examiner feels like he or she has asked you five questions even though you and I both know that it really only amounts to one set of related facts. However, if you followed this formula of quick, concise, correct answers, the examiner may feel that he or she has done due diligence on this section and will move on to the next one.
Drive it Like You Stole it!
Ultimately, the purpose of any checkride is to prove that you’re capable of safely acting as Pilot in Command of an aircraft. So, whenever you get the chance during your checkride, exercise that command authority. Another way of saying this is: “Drive it like you stole it!”
Your examiner will specify what maneuvers he or she wants you to accomplish on your practical exam. You may also be given some guidance on the sequence for accomplishing those maneuvers. However, you are in charge of this flight, and it’s up to you to make it happen.
Murphy’s law states: “Anything that can go wrong (on a checkride) will go wrong (on a checkride).” You’re going to have to adapt to real world weather, air traffic control, other aircraft in the traffic pattern, etc. If at any point you think it makes sense to do one event instead of another, even if the examiner specified a specific sequence of event, state that you’re changing things around.
You don’t have to go into great detail about why…your examiner can probably see what’s driving your decision. However, if you can spare another second of attention, it’s okay to mention why you’re changing the plan.
Even if you aren’t dealing with a bunch of unexpected changes, don’t wait for your examiner to tell you what to do. You know what needs to get done. Plan your flight and then go execute it.
It’s easy to lose track of what you have and haven’t done on a busy checkride. When in doubt, accomplish everything you can remember, and then offer something like, “Sir/Ma’am, I think we’re about done, but I may have accidentally missed something. Are there any more maneuvers you’d like to see?”
If the answer is, “No,” then move on to the next part of the checkride, or make the next landing a full-stop. Once the airplane is shut down, your checklists are complete, and the airplane is chocked or tied down, shake the examiner’s hand. Thank him or her for the flight and say, “If you don’t mind I’d like to stop by the restroom on my way inside. Can I meet you back in the [oral exam area] in about 5 minutes?”
This shows that you are continuing to drive the pace of the event, just like the Pilot in Command should be. It gives the examiner time to prepare for your debrief, and you a second to catch your breath and calm your nerves.
Recover Gracefully from Mistakes
Few pilots have ever flown a perfect checkride. Thankfully, perfection is not required to pass!
We guarantee that you will make mistakes on your checkride. When you do, it’ll be terrifying and frustrating. Your examiner will be taking notes on a clipboard and you’ll know he or she saw what you screwed up.
Having exhaustively studied the PTS/ACS, you should already know that the FAA allows for variation on the performance of your maneuvers. Being off a little on your altitude, airspeed, course, etc. is probably not the end of the world.
If you make a slightly bigger mistake, own up to it. If you’re just setting up for a maneuver, it may be okay to reset and start the whole thing again. If it’s too late for that you may even try saying something like, “I’m not entirely satisfied with that maneuver. Do you mind if I show you a better one?”
Officially, the FAA’s rules don’t allow re-dos. However, if there were outside factors involved, the examiner may have some discretion. He or she may even ask you to repeat a maneuver without you saying anything.
Don’t worry if your request to repeat a maneuver is denied. The FAA hired your examiner because they trust his or her judgement. It may be that you flew the maneuver better than you thought and you’re just being too hard on yourself. It may be that the examiner saw some extenuating circumstances and deemed your maneuver acceptable in light of those circumstances. It’s not your job to ask whether that’s the fact, or ask the examiner to explain what’s going on. Your job is to move on to the next maneuver and keep the flight going as planned.
Do your best to forget about your mistake, and make sure your next maneuver is great. If you’re doing two or three different types of stalls on your checkride, maybe the first one wasn’t great but the second one was amazing. That could be enough to redeem you.
The main thing here is not to dwell on anything you messed up (or think that you messed up)! You can not afford to focus on what the examiner thinks! The bottom line is that you don’t know. Don’t let thinking that you failed actually make you fail! Like we stated above, your examiner may not want you to demonstrate maneuver again because your first attempt was acceptable, even if you exceeded certain altitude or airspeed thresholds.
Think Like an Examiner
Throughout your checkride, remember that your examiner is a human being. He or she isn’t perfect, and examiners are subject to the same distractions and motivations we are.
We promise that your examiner wants you to pass! Becoming a DPE isn’t the easiest thing, and the people willing to put in that effort are generally interested in getting as many people involved in aviation as possible. Also, there’s a whole lot more paperwork involved for your examiner if you fail your checkride than if you pass. Nobody likes extra paperwork.
Your examiner will try to appear professional, and may even seem slightly sturn when asking oral exam questions or specifying a maneuver to repeat while you’re flying. Don’t let that get to you. They’re trying to play a role and provide a consistent experience to everyone.
The examiner isn’t your enemy, so it’s okay to smile and be enthusiastic about your checkride. They probably won’t want to chit chat a lot, but some friendly small talk between events is okay.
You’re being judged on your ability to safely perform a set of flying maneuvers that you’ve literally spent dozens of hours practicing. You’ve prepared well by studying the PTS/ACS, practicing for your oral exam, and making sure you can consistently fly your maneuvers to standards. Relax and just do the things you’ve been working on, and you almost can’t help but be successful.
Congrats on being ready for your checkride. Have fun and fly safe!
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