Ryan Nathanson
New Member
Before I go into my experience i wanted to point out that I find these types of threads VERY useful when prepping for a check ride. It's almost like cheating - the more check ride posts you read the more things it gives you to think about and lessons learned from others. It also helps to calm the nerves because there are commonalities between all posts - this helps to take the fear of the "unknown" out of the equation.
Now onto my experiance. I am not a career pilot. I fly because i've always had an infatuation with aviation and airplanes. It's a hobby and a life challenge for me.
My check ride started in April when I was signed off by my instructor to take the check ride. There is only one designated examiner around and he is always backed up. My check ride was rescheduled due to weather or a DE personal reason over 4 times before Tuesday July 19th which is when it finally all came together and happened. It was a VERY frustrating few months waiting to hear from the DE for a new date. He doesn't do a great job with calling people back to say the least (as if he is uninterested in doing the job).
The day started out hazy so I called the DE to push back an hour to wait for the haze to clear up. It did just enough to allow me to depart my home airport and arrive at his (literally one airport away..about a 10min flight). It was hot and humid in the cockpit so I knew the check ride itself was going to be brutal. Sweating ontop of the pressures of the actual test. I was flying a C172 G1000 for the test.
The oral portion was actually very delightful. This DE is notorious for his technique during his orals. He makes you feel at home and the oral is more of a discussion of IFR operations sprinkled in with questions here and there versus a straight up question answer structure. I have to hand it to him - he had a story for everything and I learned a LOT just listening to his tangents. I knew the oral was going well because I felt right at home and was able to fluidly talk "IFR" with him. He didnt ask any stupid non practical questions. The one item I got snagged on was the very last question he asked "When doing a circeling approach, how far away from the airport can you get?". I knew the answer but I froze he then said "C'mon kid, you get this right and we go fly". For the first time during the oral if elt the pressure. He got up and said "Im going to go take a smoke while you look up the answer". DING DING! I forgot I had my FAR/AIM with me. I flipped through the pages, found the answer and we went flying! I am just as shocked as you are when I went blank on the answer. It's a pretty basic IFR piece of info to know.
The flight portion of the test was a completely different beast. To sum it up, I battled the muggy hot cockpit, the DE's nicotine addiction kicking in (Bi-polar...nice one second yelling another second for no real reason), and the obvious pressures of the test itself and it's maneuvers. The test included 3 approaches, unusual attitudes, timed turns, partial panel etc. The problem I had to deal with was a very crowded airspace AND the two airports we did approaches at were only 10 miles apart so I had very unrealistic time to transition from one missed approach to another approach itself. I had practiced this with my CFII so I was somewhat prepared for the flurry of activity needed to ditch one approach, load another and shoot it all the while maintaining proper flight and communications.
Nothing really stood out for me for the flight portion of the test. I had to do one GPS approach using the autopilot AND between approaches the DE let me use the auto-pilot to shed some workload. The only issue we had was that I'm used to talking to myself during approaches and he consistently thought I was talking to him so every time I called out altitudes or procedures he would yell "WHAAT"? By the end of the test I was laughing to myself about it but it did create a large distraction for me. The DE had only ONE piece of feedback (which he YELLED at me for during the flight). he said I talk to fast on the radio. I found this feedback odd only because this was the first time ANYONE has pointed that out. My CFII or CFI never told me this. He yelled at me for it but I attribute that to the fact that we were towards the end of the flight and he was itching for a cigarette.
Once we landed and turned the plane off he said "That was really good. You did a great job". I new I passed all along because A) he didn't tell me I failed at any time during the flight and B) I did not catch myself doing anything wrong - I felt no reason for him to fail me. At that point we were both drenched with sweat, he was grumpy because it was hot and I was on cloud 9 because I had finally gotten my rating and had gotten it with the best flight I could have possibly put together.
For those wondering, the flight took place on Long Island - one of the more busier places in the north east (right next to the NY Class B). I learned to fly in the same airspace so the workload to me was relative (the heavy comms and lots of traffic is all I am accustom to. Infact when I flew out west once I was scared less that I wasnt hearing anyone on the radio! I had to radio check every 30min or so just for piece of mind).
Thanks for reading and good luck with your check ride. Best piece of advice is that the check ride is just another flight. Fly the crap out of it like your life depends on it because, in reality, your life WILL depend on it once you have your rating and use it's privileges.
Now onto my experiance. I am not a career pilot. I fly because i've always had an infatuation with aviation and airplanes. It's a hobby and a life challenge for me.
My check ride started in April when I was signed off by my instructor to take the check ride. There is only one designated examiner around and he is always backed up. My check ride was rescheduled due to weather or a DE personal reason over 4 times before Tuesday July 19th which is when it finally all came together and happened. It was a VERY frustrating few months waiting to hear from the DE for a new date. He doesn't do a great job with calling people back to say the least (as if he is uninterested in doing the job).
The day started out hazy so I called the DE to push back an hour to wait for the haze to clear up. It did just enough to allow me to depart my home airport and arrive at his (literally one airport away..about a 10min flight). It was hot and humid in the cockpit so I knew the check ride itself was going to be brutal. Sweating ontop of the pressures of the actual test. I was flying a C172 G1000 for the test.
The oral portion was actually very delightful. This DE is notorious for his technique during his orals. He makes you feel at home and the oral is more of a discussion of IFR operations sprinkled in with questions here and there versus a straight up question answer structure. I have to hand it to him - he had a story for everything and I learned a LOT just listening to his tangents. I knew the oral was going well because I felt right at home and was able to fluidly talk "IFR" with him. He didnt ask any stupid non practical questions. The one item I got snagged on was the very last question he asked "When doing a circeling approach, how far away from the airport can you get?". I knew the answer but I froze he then said "C'mon kid, you get this right and we go fly". For the first time during the oral if elt the pressure. He got up and said "Im going to go take a smoke while you look up the answer". DING DING! I forgot I had my FAR/AIM with me. I flipped through the pages, found the answer and we went flying! I am just as shocked as you are when I went blank on the answer. It's a pretty basic IFR piece of info to know.
The flight portion of the test was a completely different beast. To sum it up, I battled the muggy hot cockpit, the DE's nicotine addiction kicking in (Bi-polar...nice one second yelling another second for no real reason), and the obvious pressures of the test itself and it's maneuvers. The test included 3 approaches, unusual attitudes, timed turns, partial panel etc. The problem I had to deal with was a very crowded airspace AND the two airports we did approaches at were only 10 miles apart so I had very unrealistic time to transition from one missed approach to another approach itself. I had practiced this with my CFII so I was somewhat prepared for the flurry of activity needed to ditch one approach, load another and shoot it all the while maintaining proper flight and communications.
Nothing really stood out for me for the flight portion of the test. I had to do one GPS approach using the autopilot AND between approaches the DE let me use the auto-pilot to shed some workload. The only issue we had was that I'm used to talking to myself during approaches and he consistently thought I was talking to him so every time I called out altitudes or procedures he would yell "WHAAT"? By the end of the test I was laughing to myself about it but it did create a large distraction for me. The DE had only ONE piece of feedback (which he YELLED at me for during the flight). he said I talk to fast on the radio. I found this feedback odd only because this was the first time ANYONE has pointed that out. My CFII or CFI never told me this. He yelled at me for it but I attribute that to the fact that we were towards the end of the flight and he was itching for a cigarette.
Once we landed and turned the plane off he said "That was really good. You did a great job". I new I passed all along because A) he didn't tell me I failed at any time during the flight and B) I did not catch myself doing anything wrong - I felt no reason for him to fail me. At that point we were both drenched with sweat, he was grumpy because it was hot and I was on cloud 9 because I had finally gotten my rating and had gotten it with the best flight I could have possibly put together.
For those wondering, the flight took place on Long Island - one of the more busier places in the north east (right next to the NY Class B). I learned to fly in the same airspace so the workload to me was relative (the heavy comms and lots of traffic is all I am accustom to. Infact when I flew out west once I was scared less that I wasnt hearing anyone on the radio! I had to radio check every 30min or so just for piece of mind).
Thanks for reading and good luck with your check ride. Best piece of advice is that the check ride is just another flight. Fly the crap out of it like your life depends on it because, in reality, your life WILL depend on it once you have your rating and use it's privileges.
