Commercial Pilot Helicopter Written Exam Test Preparation

Jul 09, 2018

Commercial Pilot Helicopter Written Exam Test Preparation

When Gary got back from taking the FAA written knowledge test for the Commercial Pilot rating, we did a quick interview. Members are always asking about what to expect. Helicopter Online Ground School now has built in practice tests in each course to help you with the written test. Member testimonials mention how the courses helped them with the written test all the time. 

When Gary took the test, he was not an employee of Helicopter Online Ground School and there was not practice tests within the course. Ironically, Gary went on to get the Certified Flight Instructor rating, and now works at Helicopter Online Ground School as Chief Pilot. One of his first tasks was working on FAA approval and and was instrumental in getting the practice testing added.

Let us help you with all of your ratings! We have four FAA certified courses, Private PilotCommercial PilotInstrument Pilot, and Certified Flight Instructor. We have a bundle pack called, Professional Pilot Lifetime Membership, that includes all this for life.

We blew the dust off this interview from the Helicopter Online Ground School archives, because it is still relevant and of interest to members that are heading to tackle the test.

 Gary: The commercial pilot test was a lot like the private written test I think. Primarily I used the ASA Test Prep which is supposed to give you every combination of question that you maybe faced with on test day.

Kenny: What I want to add is, I used ASA for every single one of my written tests. I like the ASA book better because some other books they put everything in the same book. With ASA, you can open the written test prep book, you can open the book with the diagrams. Am I right?

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Gary: Yes.

Kenny: That way as you're going through it, you can read the question. You can look over here at the figure and the other books, other makes, you're in the front of the book then you're going clear back to the back to look at a figure. You're flipping back and forth. It's sure nice when you're studying because you got to go through all probably six hundred questions you're studying.

Gary: Yes.

Speaker 1: It's nice to have both books open, go through, work through this way and then go over here. That's what I recommend, that's what Gary did. The ASA Test Prep Manual so that's probably your A number one place. You used ASA. What did you use ... I know you were using some software testing yourself?

Gary: When you buy the ASA, they give you I believe it's five free online tests. You can go through there and get a feel for the actual test. It's going to be on a computer and it's going to be counting down from the three hour mark. The answering of the questions and multiple choice, you can flag them. You can change the answer, you can go back and review all of them before you submit the test. The practice test that you get access to with ASA is very similar to what you will see on test day.

Speaker 1: You used the ASA, you used their software. I used Webexams.com. I think it's still around and alive. I haven't looked in a while but last I looked it was still a site you can go to for free. That's what I used for all my ratings was Webexams.com, to test yourself getting ready to go. The next thing I remember getting ready for my written, I remember going through in the beginning of the book where it gives you the test taking tips. Did you sue those?

Gary: Yes, I read through those. They're pretty straightforward for me. I kind of knew what to expect going back for the commercial test. It was the same place I went for the private test so I expected ...

Speaker 1: Did you think that ... you're a cop, I'm ex-cop. The written test I did, for the aviation, I remember back to the test taking tips they gave us at the academy. I don't know if you remember or not but they gave us the same test taking tips, kind of the same as what the ASA Manual laid out. I remember back in the day using those test taking tips to get through the test at the police academy. It was pretty much the same tips in the ASA Manual. Those tips, it's worth your time to read those. Usually if you don't know the answer pick the longest one. Do you agree?

Gary: A lot of times, I noticed that there are sometimes a better answer out of the three. Maybe still not seemingly the right answer.

Commercial Pilot Helicopter Written Exam Test Preparation

Speaker 1: Go ahead and tell them about, we talked about this before we turned the cameras on tonight. He talked about the bad questions. He saw several, how many questions do you think out of ... Number one how many questions is it?

Gary: It's a hundred questions.

Speaker 1: Hundred questions, commercial written. How many do you think were bad questions, in your opinion?

Gary: I think two of the questions did not have a right answer there but I remembered those questions from my studying of the ASA. Highlighting, circling and realizing I may see this on test day and it's not a good question. Then of course, I don't have a photographic memory so I couldn't memorize every one of the possible combinations. It's a good idea to have an understanding of dynamics of the helicopter so you can think through these problems. You can't just memorize all those answers.

Speaker 1: Last night, you and I were talking about what is the key to answering all the weather questions? There's a key to this, trust us.

Gary: If you watch all the weather that you have on your Online Ground School-

Speaker 1: There you go, Online Ground School.

Gary: Over and over then you will be able to work through all the weather questions.

Speaker 1: There's another thing though, the one word.

Gary: Heat.

Speaker 1: Heat or heat exchange.

Gary: Heat exchange.

Speaker 1: Gary told me that last night. He said that and I go, "That's right." I remember around my written test, it always goes back to heat. If any one of those questions on a written test, private, commercial, CFI, it's all the same. If I wasn't sure, I really would just break the questions down and go where's the heat in here? Or where is the heat exchange? You can answer dang near every single question if you use the idea of the heat exchange. That is a fact. Next let's ask Gary what did he take with him? What did they allow in the test? I know this is different than back when I took my last written test. Tell us what you took with you to the written test.

Gary: They provide pencils and scratch paper. They provide a clear template with a horizontal and vertical line on the template that you can use to lay over your figures. A lot of times your question will refer to a graph and the print on a graph is very small. You will have to go up and over to get your [density 00:08:35] altitude figure or your weights and balance. What you can take with you is you can take a plotter, you can take your E6B, you can take an electronic E6B.

Speaker 1: Back when I was taking tests, you couldn't use the electronic. You had to use the cardboard E6B.

Gary: Really everything on the old E6B, it's everything that the computer is if you know how to use it. It's all there. This has a calculator in it, they allow you to have a calculator so this doubled as my calculator as well.

Speaker 1: That's cool. How long was the test? How long did they allow you for the test?

Gary: They allowed me three hours and I used half that time.

Speaker 1: That sounds pretty typical to what I remember. All the writtens I did, they were always two or three hours. I can remember going through and in the first half an hour answering 75% of the questions. Then spending the next half hour, hour going back through on the ones that I hadn't answered yet or the ones I maybe wanted to change my mind and change the answer. Still completed and walked out with probably an hour.

Gary: It's a good idea to flag a question that you don't know for sure because later on in a test, some of the other questions may add the answer in the question.

Speaker 1: Exactly, he's right. I remember that too. You get stumped on something, leave it open, flag it, go ahead and finish the rest of the written test because you will come across, later in the test, you will go, "Oh that just answered the question that I was stuck on earlier." You will find the answer to that question.

Gary: Another thing I did, as soon as I got in there, I grabbed that scratch paper and I wrote down a couple of things. Like formulas and I draw a picture of a helicopter with a tail rotor. I draw arrows on the main rotor system and I draw a flow pattern from the tail rotor. When they start asking you questions about gyroscopic procession, it will help you think through them by looking at the helicopter and imagining what it's going do when you ... I think there was probably three questions that helped me on. It talked about a tail rotor failure landing, which way to roll a throttle to get the nose to go which way to head in. There's questions about gyroscopic procession and you're going to have to figure the ninety degrees later effect on the rotor system tilt. That helps me, maybe not everybody has to do something like that. For me just to draw a picture of a helicopter with arrows showing the air flow, it helps me to think through those questions.

Commercial Pilot Helicopter Written Exam Test Preparation

Speaker 1: Next one would be endorsement. I know that I signed Gary off for the commercial written test and I'm sure he took it with him or else he wouldn't have been able to take the test. Tell me, am I right? Did they check for your endorsement?

Gary: Yes, I had to have a photo ID so I took my driver's licence. They wanted the endorsement so I took the paper that you had signed that said that I was ready for the test and competent. They made a photostatic copy of that before I took the test.

Speaker 1: What else are we going to talk about next? What did we just say?

Gary: The fee.

Speaker 1: The fee, yeah. How much does it cost and how do you pay?

Gary: I don't know if all testing sites are the same but the fee where I went was a hundred and sixty five dollars. They took credit cards so we'll pay that off next month.

Speaker 1: Wow. Last one I took was around seventy five or eighty but I guess that means it's been a while since I took a written test. Next thing, scheduling. I remember when I did them, I had to schedule them. You had to call a few days ahead of time and you just mentioned that when you took a little break. You had to have a couple of days in advance notice.

Gary: The only testing center I've ever used is the same one I did for the private. I don't have a whole lot of experience with different places. The airport I went to, it was the same as the private. I had to call them about a week out. They scheduled me to be there.

Speaker 1: What else can we talk about? While we're thinking, did I mention about this aircraft coming and about doing your commercial?

Gary: I'm excited about that.

Speaker 1: We're getting ready to go pick this up next week. This is 8626P, I have twelve years experience with this helicopter. I helped Dr Nick that you see in the picture, I went with him twelve years ago to look at it. Luckily when we went to see it, I saw the mechanic's name in the log book. Made a phone call, the mechanic says, "Oh yeah. I know that aircraft. I took care of it for ten years." In a phone call, I knew ten years of history prior to us going to look at it twelve years ago. He bought the helicopter, he'd owned it for twelve years. It's a cream puff, new engine, new tail rotor, gearbox. New main rotor gearbox and we're going to be doing Gary's commercial. We're going to be doing it in 8626P that we're going to get next week. We are going to be filming the commercial stuff in the helicopter. Gary has also agreed to sit down here with me and do some commercial check ride prep. Which many of you have asked for and I have been hinting that hey I got a guy that's coming, that's going to be ready soon. Here he is, it's Gary.

He's finally ready to do it. I mentioned in the video the other night, we did five hours of ground for his private and that's truly, truly what we did was five hours of ground. When we were prepping for Gary's check ride, you think we did no more than five hours of ground? Do you think?

Gary: No, you just kept telling me to read through your notebook and it's all there. I mean why beat a dead horse, you know?

Speaker 1: Exactly and that's the truth. He had the USB and he's go through them. We would sit down, do some ground school and I'd ask him the questions. He was hammering them out and I'm going, "Dang man, you're doing great. What did you do?" He said, "Go through your presentations man. That was it." That's back in the beginning, that's the original modules one through ten. That's our original training from the notebook, those PowerPoint, that's all he went through. I was there for the commercial, he had no problem, or the private. Oral, it's a piece of cake right?

Gary: Yeah, just as expected.

Speaker 1: No hiccups, he just sailed through it, went out in the aircraft, went to fly, got his rating and came back home. It was that simple.

Gary: I think the only question he asked that we had never thought to talk about was something about flotation devices, flying over water. Of course around here, we don't fly over water that much.

Speaker 1: Probably we didn't even think about it or why I didn't think about it.

Gary: I think that's the only question he caught me on, where I had to reason through it. Obviously if you're at a [glidescope 00:15:41] from the shore, you've got to have flotation devices for everybody in the aircraft.

Speaker 1: Anyway that's the deal. You're going to seeing 8626P come up in the videos. We're going to be doing Gary's commercial flight portions, oral portions and here's the guy who is going to tell you. What he's seen so far, what I've been telling everybody. Private and commercial is the same check ride. I don't care who wants to argue, it's the same check ride. It's studying the same stuff, it's knowing it to a higher level. He told me that last night about the written commercially said, "It's the same as the private."

Gary: The one thing the examiner did tell me, he knew I was coming back one day for the commercial. I thought it would be sooner than what it is. What's taken me so long mostly is coming up with all those PIC hours you know? I'm there, I got my hours but one thing he did say is when you come back, you're going to have to flare lower on those autorotations.

Speaker 1: I saw that. It scared me, I thought he was going to come in.

Gary: I was cautious.

Speaker 1: Oh my God, he [inaudible 00:16:51] it, what's he flaring at like ...

Gary: I flared high. Since then, I've done a couple of real world engine off landings in my own aircraft and I'm not so intimidated with the flaring closer to the ground now.

Speaker 1: Awesome. It's going to be a good check ride. The private, we worked really hard at that and he did a good job. Then we flew together a few months ago, we had an [instrument 00:17:22] here for a while. I hadn't flown with Gary in two or three years, long time. I was worried when I got in there, most people pick up bad habits when you don't fly with them for a while. I was concerned I was going to get with Gary and I was going to find all these things that I didn't like. It was totally opposite. I got in, we went out and flew for an hour. He was smooth as silk and I'm like, "Oh my God. Your commercial's going to be a piece of cake man because there's not much to do. You're already flying nice and smooth." We probably won't have a lot of video but it will be good video because he's going to be pretty easy to train. I'm sure his skill level is going to be there, it's just going to go out and put the finishing touches on everything.

Commercial Pilot Helicopter Written Exam Test Preparation

Go through all the maneuvers, like I said we'll be recording them for you. Which is fun, three years later, that now Gary is getting to do the commercial stuff. What's cool is a lot of these commercial things can be put in the private section or the private PTS because the maneuvers again are the same. You guys and girls are going to benefit a lot from what we have coming up. We'll probably cut this video short here just because we've been standing here rattling. Nobody likes to sit in the chair more than about twenty minutes to watch a video. Give just your last tip for anyone or your overall opinion of the written. Whether it's commercial written, just anything you want to tell them. Tips or tricks or anything you want to say.

Gary: I guess just memorize the questions as much as you can. Have a good idea about how to figure weights and balance and what makes weather happen just in case you don't remember the question from your studies. Get the darn written test out of the way because a lot of the stuff in there is stuff that in the real world we're not going to need. There are some very good weather reports out there on the internet now without [interpolating 00:19:21] as you have to do on the written test.

Speaker 1: Which made me think of one more thing that we talked about and I just lost it.

Gary: The VOR?

Speaker 1: VOR. He kept struggling with VOR, studying, getting very-

Gary: I still struggle.

Speaker 1: I still struggle with them because we don't fly with them anymore. Gary's making it apparent that there's still a lot of VOR questions even though people don't use them. I mean some people use them but the majority of us are using GPS, not many people are using VORs anymore. Those questions didn't go away and there was one other thing I was trying to think about, that we talked about, that I wanted to say. The other thing I was thinking about, was what? What was it that I just said? Oh I know, the FA supposedly mixed up the written test and changed it because people were memorizing answers. They were trying to break that habit and I'm going to tell you what I did on my writtens. Good or bad, I'm going to be honest. It's so overwhelming, there's so much stuff to go over. What I did was I highlighted the correct answers and I only studied the correct answers. That's what I did to get through them. Then when you go to the written test, when those questions pop up, your eyes almost immediately go to the right question.

Right or wrong, that's what I did and that's what a lot of people do because there's so much stuff. A lot of stuff that you know you're never going to use again but the FA want you to answer it correctly on a written test. My honest deal on that is that's what I did. Gary's kind of hinting that's what he-

Gary: It still helps you to learn you know? I did that too, I highlighted the right answer. As I prepared, I read through the question, I read the right answer and then below the question is a little synopsis that explains why the answer is the right answer so you're still learning.

Speaker 1: You just mentioned that a minute ago when we took a break. Here I have is his computer test report and here's what I got to tell you that I saw happen when I was working at another place. I didn't do this, another instructor did it. I'm going to blame the instructor, it doesn't matter who did it. A student had a written test that he took, took the airplane instrument written test. Showed up to see the examiner, didn't realize that he was there to take a helicopter instrument rating. He had airplane instrument rating so the instructor should have caught it. The student should have caught it, he flew like an hour and a half to get there. Think of the time, the money, spent a whole day of messing around. Examiner had to send him back home so make sure you take the proper written test. I saw that happen.

Was there something else you were thinking you want to add? We're getting ready to wrap it up.

Gary: When you leave there obviously they send you with a notarized report of your test to bring back to your instructor. There's a place on there for you to sign off that you went over the topics that I struggled with. I didn't get 100%, mostly because of the VOR questions.

Speaker 1: I could never hit a hundred, I could never do it. I tried so hard to get on a hundred, I got close but could never do it. I think that answers a bunch of questions. I'm going to wrap this up where Gary's got to go home and got stuff to do. Hope you guys like the video, please comment below. Members go ahead, do the upgrade and remember it's for twenty four hours. Then I'll close it back up a little bit, again just to give me some time. It's not a marketing gimmick, I do get a lot of calls and emails. I want to make sure everybody gets in, they're set up and everything's in good working order. Comment below, upgrade if you like and we'll see you in the next video.

Commercial Pilot Helicopter Written Exam Test Preparation

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