Timing counts: Plan your training
Working toward your instrument, commercial, or CFI? Take a look at your schedule and finances, talk to your flight instructor, and gauge how long it should take you to complete training. Then, pick a time to take the written test that is appropriate to your training pace. As you know from earning your sport, recreational, or private pilot certificate, written tests expire after 24 calendar months. If you wait to take the written until you are ready for the checkride, you run the risk of having a bad day and failing the test or running into scheduling conflicts that prevent you from taking the test for a number of weeks. If your checkride is pushed back more than 60 days after your last flight with your instructor, you'll need to go up again before rescheduling it.
June 13, 2006
