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Taking my Private Pilot Check ride Friday 11-21-14. Any tips or helpful hints?

Asked by: 3769 views General Aviation, Private Pilot, Student Pilot

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2 Answers



  1. Kris Kortokrax on Nov 20, 2014

    Best advice for the ground portion (oral) is:

    Listen to the question asked and answer it. Don’t get too talkative and wander into areas not addressed by the question. If you start digging yourself into a hole, the examiner will most likely hand you a shovel and let you keep talking.

    For the flight portion”

    Be the Pilot in Command. The examiner wants to see how you handle situations as if he were not there. For instance, if he asks you to perform Turns around a point, don’t ask him where he wants you to do it. By now, you should know how to pick a point to turn around, so just do it.

    Voice your thoughts. Don’t make the examiner be a mind reader. If you are picking a point for Turns around a point, tell him what you are doing and why you are choosing the point in question.

    Don’t forget clearing turns.

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  2. Nick landman on Nov 20, 2014

    My best advice on the practical portion based on my experience:

    Take charge, be pilot in command. Before my flight my examiner went over the order of what manuvers we were going to do, etc. At that point I was very nervous and told him that I was sometimes prone to getting sick when nervous and doing stalls and that I wanted to do the stall at the towards the end, instead of the beginning like he was planning. The DPE totally understood this and after I had passed he said that by knowing my limits and not being afraid to take charge of the situation rather than being pushed into something that could create an unsafe flight was a big plus.

    Don’t let the examiner do anything that throws you off. Tell them during the pre-flight that you will need extra concentration on critical phases of flight (taxi, takeoff, landing) and that you would appreciate a quiet/sterile cabin during these phases (I tell my passengers this often times, especially talkative ones). If they try to throw you off, politely stop them and ask them to hold their questions or comments for a few minutes till you get through with what you need to concentrate on.

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