Member Question: During My Helicopter Add On To Fixed Wing Check Ride...

Sep 05, 2018

Member Question: During My Helicopter Add On To Fixed Wing Check Ride...

Hello, I'm Kenny Keller, the creator of Helicopter Online Ground School, and I want to answer one of our member questions.

He asked, "I'm already a fixed-wing pilot. When I take my helicopter check ride, are the weather questions that he's going to ask me, are they going to be the same as the questions I was asked during my fixed wing check ride?" My answer to him was, "Yes."

 
Whenever you're doing an add on check ride, don't go into that check ride expecting that you're going to get a break. Well, I'm already a pilot so maybe I don't have to know weather like I did for the other rating, or maybe I don't have to know air space as well. I can tell you, in over 15 years of teaching and doing check rides -and probably 1/2 of those check rides have been add on pilots- a lot of times add on pilots go into a check ride and they're a little rusty on a lot of the VFR stuff.

 
Just because you're already a rated pilot, and you're going for an additional rating, don't think that the examiner is going to give you a break because you're already a pilot. That's not the case the majority of the time. The majority of the time, an examiner is going to want to make sure that you're knowledge is still good. That you still know weather, that you still know air space, you still know what you can and can't do as a private pilot. They're going to still ask you the same questions. I can tell you, almost every check ride I've ever seen, add ons as well, the first thing the examiner does is pull out a VFR chart, and starts asking air space.

 
I had one student many years ago, still a good friend of mine, and he was a pretty accomplished fixed wing pilot. He was really sharp. We were doing ground school, and he kept going, "Well, I'm already a fixed wing guy, I know that." I'm like, "Well, I know you know that, but I just want to go over it with you because he may very well ask these questions." He's like, "Ah, just keep going. I'm good. I'm good on that one." Well, the check ride day comes. He's really nervous, and at one point he was really struggling. The examiner came out and said, "What's wrong with your boy in there?" I said, "I don't know. I guess he's nervous." He said, "Okay, he's really struggling. I'm giving him a minute to calm down. I'm going to go back in there." He ended up making it through.

Member Question: During My Helicopter Add On To Fixed Wing Check Ride...

 
Then this gentleman, after the fact, kind of scolds me. He says, "I'm going to tell you this, and I'm going to tell you one time only. I won't ever say it to you again. When you're doing add on pilots, make sure they know their basic weather, their basic VFR stuff." He kind of went through me, giving me a hard time. I said, "Hey, you're the one that argued when we were going through the training, and I kept telling you, 'He's going to ask you basic private pilot stuff.'"

 
Even though it's an add on, do not assume that they're just going to like, "Well, he already knows this, so I'm not really going to go over it." If you get an easy check ride, good for you; but don't count on it. Make sure that all your basic knowledge for the private pilot rating, when you're doing an add on, make sure that it's all really good.

 
I hope that video helps. Give us a like and a share. You can go to the description box below for a link to our website, where you can go check out our Helicopter Online Ground School, find more about what we do and who we are. Please give us a like and a share, and we'll see you in the next video.

 Member Question: During My Helicopter Add On To Fixed Wing Check Ride... 

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