Your four steps to checkride success
Preparation, though, is one of those all-encompassing terms that, like airmanship or a parent telling a child to "be good," is sometimes very hard to assess for those new to the game at hand. Not so hard to understand is why preparation is so vital. It is also costly, in time and money. In aviation only air is inexpensive. Certainly aircraft, materials, fuel, instruction, and checkrides are not. Preparation, therefore, becomes an economic issue for you and your flight instructor as you prepare for the day. You have read the texts your instructor has assigned, but these merely walk you through the technical and legal aspects of your training. The best strategy is to be truly prepared. Is there a difference between being prepared and truly prepared? Yes.
Being truly prepared is the key to passing any practical test. Therein lies the problem that so many students and flight instructors face: What one examiner considers "prepared," another may not. Still, for those of you who do not have one specific examiner for whose test you especially train, there is hope! Because your DPE is human, he shares with you certain human qualities. Those qualities include basic evaluation criteria that the practical test standards (PTS) may not specifically state. The FAA calls it "discretion." In a nutshell, the way to an examiner's heart is through what I personally call the SLSS concept: Safe, Legal, Smooth, and Standard.
Your pilot examiner's primary guide is supposed to be the PTS governing your test. For private pilot applicants, examiners must base every aspect of their test on the contents of the current Private Pilot PTS. In the past, each examiner seemed to have a personal repertoire of areas that said examiner especially noted, but today's PTS specifies Special Emphasis Areas to which DPEs should render particular emphasis. Some even do. When flight instructors, the student community, and the DPEs in a given state compare notes, it becomes evident that rogue examiners still have their personal emphasis areas. So, if either you or your flight instructor does not know the examiner, how do you overcome this? SLSS.
Once you finish the ground portion of your practical test, you have demonstrated that you know what you are talking about. You have presumably talked the talk--now you must walk the walk. Go fly! Since you are pilot in command during your checkride, safety is always your first concern. You must bear that in mind with every move you make. Your examiner notes to what degree you see the big picture; how you set your altitude, airspeed, aircraft configuration, power setting, wind correction, collision avoidance. Rest assured that every moment in flight, your examiner will be asking oh so silently, "Are we safe at this moment?" Never do you want the examiner's conclusion to be in the negative.
Another essential aspect of airmanship that your DPE is there to evaluate is the issue of operating legally. Surprisingly, it is a subject about which some flight instructors and fixed-base operators (FBOs) occasionally voice pointed disagreement with DPEs. It should be obvious that while in flight, applicants must operate within Part 91 of the federal aviation regulations. When it is part of a broad-view discussion, rarely is that a point of disagreement. On the other hand, if the issue is the amount of corner missing from an airworthiness certificate or registration certificate, things change.
Most pilot examiners respect the fact that details matter simply because when a pilot attends to small things, that trend continues into the large ones. A pilot may, upon examining a registration or airworthiness certificate, discover that it is not so complete that the pilot can determine that it was in fact issued to the aircraft in use. Pilots who take shortcuts will reason, "We've always flown with it this way. It doesn't hurt the aerodynamics!" thereby demonstrating the core of their aeronautical decision-making philosophy. So too will that pilot who reasons, "It may not affect the aerodynamics, but I won't be legal if I fly." Who do you want flying above your home?
In flight, legality assumes a different hue. Pilot decisions must frequently be tempered by the airspace in which one operates. While most pilot applicants are thoroughly familiar with and accustomed to the basic requirements of Class E airspace, many examiners find their applicants' knowledge of transition areas between Class E and Class G airspace dangerously incomplete. Particularly this comes to light when DPEs use the scenario-type testing that the FAA asks us all to use. At times, applicants make what they believe to be subtle errors in judgment that may momentarily lead to an illegality. When this occurs, it is common for applicants and their instructors alike to declare that the infraction was so momentary that the legality was a mere technicality. Most examiners hold that there is no minor regulation. Each exists for a reason. Too often those reasons are punctuated with headstones.
Some of the minor infractions include applicants' altitude selection. For example, flying over forested or hilly areas that would disallow a safe landing should the engine fail just then, when a feasible higher altitude or a slightly altered heading would allow that forced landing. Approaching an airport at such an altitude that the applicant descends into the traffic pattern is another heart-pumping question of legality. Traffic patterns in particular often raise questions of legality versus airmanship and good aeronautical decision making. Over the years, most DPEs encounter traffic pattern situations in which their applicants have not operated in accordance with the Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM) when there was no other overriding authority to modify the AIM's requirements.
Disagreements with DPE decisions have ensued because of the half-truth that the AIM is nonregulatory in nature. Most pilot examiners agree with the core of that statement, yet they will correctly point out that following its provisions is mandatory (unless overridden by an air traffic control requirement or a similar safety issue). Perhaps the AIM's vitality would be more evident if pilots and flight instructors realized the percentage of pilots who were found in violation of FAR 91.13, Careless and Reckless Operation, based on AIM contents. The violation letter would not quote the AIM as the precept being violated. In short, DPEs must constantly remind the flying public that simply because it is not regulatory in nature, this does not mean the AIM shall be ignored.
Another aspect of pilot applicant skill is their smooth aircraft operation. One of the most common compliments pilot examiners pay to their applicants when discussing checkrides with other examiners is applicant smoothness. In my years of interaction with other DPEs, only rare conversations said, "My applicant had the regulations down cold!" or "I've never seen an applicant know systems so well!" Not that these aren't important. The flight portion of a practical test is dynamic, and dynamic smoothness is what people notice.
Smoothness (and all that entails) leads to the last S of our little unpronounceable SLSS mnemonic: standard. Some pilot applicants understand that a correction begun when the aircraft is but slightly away from perfect is a smaller correction than that initiated just as the aircraft excursions through the standards. Thus it is a smoother correction. Considering that landings still seem to comprise a hefty portion of the reasons for examiners to issue a notice of disapproval, you may consider this little secret. If your approach is stable and your landing safe, smooth, and legal, your DPE will probably not notice that it was perhaps slightly outside the PTS limitation. Most DPEs would rather see that particular scenario than the poor tortured soul who heaves the airplane throughout the sky, flaps deployed and engine alternately screaming and backfiring from flailing throttle applications as another pilot candidate so concentrates on planting the main wheels on the touchdown point that every other safety concern is abandoned. Giving your examiner an exciting flight is counterproductive!
Your pilot examiner is probably no longer at a point in life where excitement is a major drive. DPEs simply want to get home that day without visiting a hospital. Train yourself (and instructor, your students) to be safe, first and foremost; legal as a matter of course; and smooth as a mark of professionalism. Standards will take care of themselves.
Dave Wilkerson is a designated pilot examiner, writer/photographer, and historian. He has been a certificated flight instructor since 1981 with approximately 2,000 hours of dual instruction, and is a single- and multiengine commercial-rated pilot.
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