Top Ten Check Ride Tips
Jul 27, 2018Top Ten Check Ride Tips
From 2018 Flight Instructor Of The Year Dan "Taz" Christman and The Creator of Helicopter Online Ground School Kenny Keller.
Top Ten Check Ride Tips
Top Ten Check Ride Tips. Dedicated to all those that suffer from the hype created by others about the dreaded, Helicopter Check ride! If you apply yourself , remember that we learn through repetition, go over the content repeatedly. Use our check ride tips to keep yourself calm, you will do just fine!
In this short read we cover our top ten check ride tips. These tips are very basic, but that’s the key. People screw up on check rides because of very basic things. As we get into our tips for the check ride, we want to add our normal disclaimer. Remember that it is up to you to know the procedures for your aircraft and your environment.
We’re going to provide some tips, some things that I’ve seen in 20 years of instructing, that are very basic. These may be basic, but they are things that I don’t want you to overlook. It doesn’t matter whether it is taking you three months, six months, two years, four years, or more.
The time varies for anybody going for a check ride. You are preparing the whole time you are flying. Your instructor is doing his job working with you. You’re working through the PTS, and you’re doing what you are supposed to be doing.
Top Ten Check Ride Tips
So often, it is the last-minute issues that bite people in the rear. When I say to start three weeks in advance, I mean to start getting the materials ready three weeks in advance of the day of the check ride. I am always amazed that students will show up to a check ride without CURRENT Aeronautical Charts, FAR/AIM, PTS or Chart Supplements (formally A/FD).
There is nothing worse than on the night before the check ride thinking, “I don’t have a chart. I don’t have an E6B. I don’t have this, I don’t have that.” It is the most horrible feeling in the world for you and a horrible feeling for your instructor because you both look unprepared showing up at the check ride trying to sneak through saying, “Well, I couldn’t get this in time,” or “I forgot that.” It just doesn’t look good.
If it is required, you will not be able to take the test. You want to show up at the check ride prepared. I just picked three weeks as a, general rule. I used to say one or two weeks, but I love the number three. You should have everything that you need for the day of the check ride three weeks in advance.
You should have all the tools and things that we talk about three weeks in advance of that check ride. Everything you need is listed in the PTS (page 1-xi) under “Applicant’s Practical Test Checklist”. We will provide a copy of the checklist in the Appendix. Much of these items are now available digitally and can be updated within a few minutes.
The FAA has now approved the use of these digital products for check rides, but I would check with your DPE as to what he expects. There are a few “old hats” out there that might still want you to demonstrate on paper, as a backup. A note on the use of digital products.
Tablets have an uncanny knack for over heating or running out of battery right at the most inopportune time. Have a plan ready should this happen. I had a student, who was using his iPad for his instrument check. Halfway through the first approach, it over heated. He had to land and print out the subsequent approach plates. Lucky for him his examiner was being generous. That might not always be the case.
Top Ten Check Ride Tips
- Start three weeks in advance
- Prepare with the PTS (which will become the ACS)
- Go through the requirements and pilot logbook in detail
- Aircraft Logbooks
- Cement your knowledge through repetition
- Be an hour early
- Lay out all your documents (nice and neat for the examiner)
- Know that the check ride is hype
- Answer like you are in court
- I failed my first helicopter check ride
Top Ten Check Ride Tips
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Kenny Keller has authored 7 books that have been a huge help to the aviation community. Check them out here by clicking these words: Amazon #1 best seller Kenny Keller
