Private Pilot Oral Exam

M

Michael_F

Well-Known Member
Hi. I'm a long-time lurker, first time poster. I am a student pilot with about 45 hrs. in C-152. I have a question about my upcoming PPL practical test that I hope someone can answer.

I heard that the Private Pilot oral exam (USA) is open-book. Is this true, and if so, what "books" are allowed to be "open"?

My exam is on Thursday, BTW.

Thank you!
 
It's open book, and you can use any book you see fit... probably the best books to open, however, are the FAAbooks. Also, have a copy of the FAR/AIM with you for reference.

That being said... although the test is open book, don't open up books to answer every question. You really should know 80-90% of the questions being asked without you having to reference a book or the legend on sectional charts. If you're unsure by all means look it up, if you know it... don't look it up just to verify.

Good luck on the oral!
 
[ QUOTE ]
Hi. I'm a long-time lurker, first time poster. I am a student pilot with about 45 hrs. in C-152. I have a question about my upcoming PPL practical test that I hope someone can answer.

I heard that the Private Pilot oral exam (USA) is open-book. Is this true, and if so, what "books" are allowed to be "open"?

My exam is on Thursday, BTW.

Thank you!

[/ QUOTE ]


Really since when......?

When I took my PPL oral exam nothing was open book? My examiner was on one side of the desk I was on the other. He spit out questions I had to answer.
The only time a book was opened was when the examiner opened the book and asked me what airport/runway symbols were.

-Matthew
 
The only books I was allowed to use were ones I was likely to have in the plane with me during a standard flight: the AF/D and the FAR/AIM. Bascially, like was said above: know most of what the examiner asks without rifling though pages. Or at least, know where to find it. If you constantly go to the books, you'll find yourself taking another PPL oral sometime in the near future.
 
The key is to know where to look. If you don't know the answer to a question, but you know what FAR it's under or where to look it up in the AIM, etc., that might impress the examiner more than actually knowing the answer. If, however, you have to look up every answer, or you just open up the FARs to Part 91 and start flipping pages, that is a problem.
 
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The key is to know where to look. If you don't know the answer to a question, but you know what FAR it's under or where to look it up in the AIM, etc., that might impress the examiner more than actually knowing the answer. If, however, you have to look up every answer, or you just open up the FARs to Part 91 and start flipping pages, that is a problem.

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yeahthat.gif



That goes for every rating.

Nobody knows it all, but you should have the general idea, and know where to look up the specifics.
 
Thanks guys... very useful information here. A friend of mine who took the PPL practical a couple weeks ago with the same guy I'm using said he allows "open-book". He said that the DPE will tell me before we begin that it is open book. I guess it just depends on the which examiner you get.
 
Yea if you are not sure of a FAR or something don't just guess blindly, make sure your examiner can tell you know where to look. For example if he asks you what makes up the Minimum Equipment List on your a/c, say what you know, and then be like "Well, thats 91.205" (I think), would you like me to open up the AIM and double check my answers and see if there are any I missed?"

I remember my guy asked me to draw a picture of the cabin heating system. I kinda knew the basic components and suggested I'd rather consult Section 7 of the PIM for a more accurate discription.

Nobody has a perfect oral but as long as you know how to find the stuff you don't know (which hopefully isn't too much
tongue.gif
), you should do fine.
 
Get the oral exam guide. If you can answer all the questions in there your oral will be a piece of cake.
 
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Nobody has a perfect oral...

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I don't mean to brag but I did not miss a single question on my instrument oral.
 
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Get the oral exam guide. If you can answer all the questions in there your oral will be a piece of cake.

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Very good review tool.

but,

Don't be a Parrot

A parrot is the guy who just memorizes the answers and repeat them back to the examiner without understanding them. They can see right through these guys.
 
I guess what I meant was, if you have studied the material enough that you can answer pretty much any question in the oral exam guide you are set. It would be a tremendous amount of work to memorize the thing. I usually don't even read it all the way through, but sample a few questions from each topic to see If I can answer at least 90% of what I pick, then decide if I need to study more. And this is what I do to prepare for Sierra's orals which are much, much, much harder than the FAA orals.
 
Sporty's, Marv Golden, local pilot shops, direct from ASA's website. It's a little blue book (unless they changed the color).
 
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