PPL Oral?

hierhier

New Member
Hey I'm currently a private student just finishing up an about to take my checkride within a couple weeks. I have read the ASA oral exam guide book front to back and continue to study it... But I've seen some posts on here about people taking two hours to go over the oral with the examiner? Is it just me... but isn't that a pretty intense oral for a private? Talking to my instructor he made it sound like the oral wouldn't take that long. Possibly an hour if that. So im just curious on how much time the examiner spent with you on the oral an in the air...
 
1.5 - 2hrs if I remember correctly; You'll actually be suprised how little info can really be covered in that amount of time, not to mention that during the first part the examiner will be more occupied looking over your info than asking you questions.
 
Ditto what Ed said - and you also have to remember that during that two hours, you'll be putting your assigned x/c (cross country) together, then going over it with the DE, so that takes some time.

Don't sweat it. It's not like you're sittin' in a dark room with two metal chairs and a spotlight on you as the DE fires off one question after another and answers "WRONG!" whenever you miss one.
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They're usually a lot more laid back than you anticipate. Mine was over before I knew it.
 
My PPL oral didn't last that long; 30-45 minutes. Maybe I just made a good impression and he decided he didn't need to test me anymore, or maybe he was just in a hurry that day. Who knows?

All I can say is know EVERYTHING about your sectional chart. They like to ask you about really obscure things on that chart, and also familiarize yourself with the tables in the margins of the chart that describe all the special use airspace.
 
Mine was close to two hours. We only covered a small fraction of info. and he didn't ask much out of the oral prep. He (my examiner) wants to know if your a pilot, not a parrot.
 
Well I know one thing--mine will probably have a healthy section devoted to airspace. Try training in the Baltimore-Washington area (now Patomac Approach area), out of BWI's class B, and add in an ADIZ for jazz.

Sheesh.
 
Huh, my oral was 5 min. 1 question about the 1st thing you do when you have a wing fire......
 
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Huh, my oral was 5 min. 1 question about the 1st thing you do when you have a wing fire......

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Now I want an oral like that
 
i took the ppl checkride a few weks ago. my oral was only about 15-20 minutes long. i too studied the ppl oral exam guide but only about the first chapter or two. i wouldn't worry too much about knowing everything in that book. my suggestions 1.AIRSPACE,AIRSPACE,AIRSPACE.
2.required docs. onboard. 3.systems. i.e. fuel,oil etc. 4. medical certificate durations 4. metars, taf,fa (what are they, when are they issued, how long are they good for.) of course anything is fair game but these are the areas they really concentrate on. thats all i can remember right now
 
mine was about an hour, the main thing that we went over was the sectional chart, he asked a lot of questions about my planning for the cross country. The most important thing is to sound like you know what you're talking about.
 
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mine was about an hour, the main thing that we went over was the sectional chart, he asked a lot of questions about my planning for the cross country. The most important thing is to sound like you know what you're talking about.

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I really hope you meant to say, "the most important thing is to know what you're talking about."
 
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I really hope you meant to say, "the most important thing is to know what you're talking about."


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of course you have to know it, I just meant that if you are confident in your answers it could possibly shorten things up a bit.
my DE mentioned to me after it was all over that I was one of the shortest oral exams that he's ever given because he could tell that i knew everything front and back.
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my DE mentioned to me after it was all over that I was one of the shortest oral exams that he's ever given because he could tell that i knew everything front and back.
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Were you questioned on any of the 5 Hazardous Attitudes? Macho by any chance?

You're the man Dan.
 
My Dpe was late, and he spent the first solid hour getting paperwork and going over my stuff (logbook, medical, etc) So it was probably a good hour of quesitons. Youll do fine, answer what you know and dont B.S around with what you dont!
 
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Were you questioned on any of the 5 Hazardous Attitudes? Macho by any chance?


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I don't recall him asking about hazardous attitudes during the Oral, but we certainly went over recovery from them during the flight.
I wasn't trying to sound macho, i was just relating what the DPE told me.
 
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