| Getting ready for the big day? Conduct your planning, preflight, and flying to practical test standards. Get a weather briefing every day and do some practice cross-country flight planning. |
| If you are taking your checkride at an airport that is not your home base, make sure you are endorsed for a solo flight to the airport where you'll take the test, on the day it will take place. |
| When test prep is completed, don't wait too long to take the ride. The regulations give you 60 days, but an interval of a day or two works best. |
Some of the required training entered in that logbook confirms that you've spent time in the test-prep environment. A designated examiner checking for the documentation of this training will page forward to the concluding entries of your training. What he or she wants to find is the flight time that complies with the requirement of Federal Aviation Regulation 61.109 for "three hours of flight training in preparation for the practical test in a single-engine airplane, which must have been performed within 60 days preceding the date of the test."
Commonly referred to as test prep in student pilot training records, think of this flight time as a dress rehearsal for the big event. With most--or preferably all--of your required aeronautical experience in the bag, you and your instructor can put the finishing touches on the test-taking process. Some overlap may be inevitable to nail down loose ends. But the focus should be on the upcoming checkride and how best to prepare you for it. Don't forget about something called the Law of Recency. Your CFI studied this basic law of learning while training to be-come a flight instructor. The law decrees, "The things most recently learned are best remembered." So, although the regulation requiring three hours of test prep allows it to remain valid for 60 days, an interval of a day or two between prep and checkride, or even less, works best. If two months or even two weeks roll by before you can take the checkride, most CFIs would recommend that you practice a bit more to keep the sharp edge. Chances are you'd want to anyway. Not sure? Poll your pilot friends. Ask them how long it takes them to feel rusty when they haven't been flying. They'll probably mention a variety of intervals, almost all shorter than 60 days.
When it comes to test prep, there are general goals that work for everyone, and specific goals you'll set just for you. For general strategies, start here: From now on, all your flight planning, preflight actions, and flying will be to the appropriate practical test standards. Every day, from now until checkride, get a weather briefing--whether you will be flying or not. Become as familiar as you can with weather reports and forecasts, notices to airmen (notams) for your airport and potential destinations, and activity in military airspace nearby. Do some practice cross-country flight planning that will help to burn nav and comm frequencies, runway lengths and bearings, and airspace classes into your memory. Note the prevailing winds of the season, developing expectations about crosswinds and wind speeds at various times of day. Familiarize yourself with maximum elevation figures in any area that contains an airport to which you might be asked to divert during the cross-country phase. If it's a high maximum elevation, why? A hill, or a tower? Know where the obstruction is. Also be able to find any charted visual checkpoints that you could be instructed to overfly or report when inbound to land.
I mentioned that all your flying should be to practical test standards. No nudging from the person in the right seat! Just do it, without being asked. If your CFI was the talkative type early in training, you are going to be amazed at the seeming personality change toward the taciturn. This is to encourage you to make decisions without the crutch of a second opinion. It's also intended to develop your cockpit manner for the designated examiner, who will be operating under the presumption that you are pilot in command unless something unusual--or disqualifying--occurs during the ride.
When your instructor does make his presence felt during test prep, it will be to introduce emergencies, or to attempt to throw you off stride with the occasional "realistic distraction" required on the flight test. He or she may ask you some of the questions an examiner might pose, such as "What radial are we on from the VOR right now?" Or the CFI may request a short-field takeoff or landing or a go-around (probably just before touchdown on your best landing approach of the practice session). If you've botched the landing approach, but your CFI is sitting there silent as a statue, I emphatically recommend that you go around without being asked. That's what he's hoping--praying--you'll decide to do, on your checkride and ever after. Remember that on the flight test, you can make up for a poor approach with a correct and decisive remedy. The examiner will think, When faced with difficulty, Applicant displayed good judgment.
Now for some ideas tailored to the individual flight test that awaits you. It's obviously ideal to begin and end the ride at your home airport, but that's not always how it works. My private pilot checkride took place at a tower-controlled airport about 10 miles from my nontowered home base. I'd been to the towered airport during training enough times to be familiar with the radio procedures (monitor ATIS, then contact approach), and I knew the frequencies. In addition to that preparation, be sure you are endorsed for a solo flight to the airport where your test will take place, on the day it will take place--unnecessary, of course, if your CFI will be going along with you for one final practice session en route.
It's possible that the designated examiner will be only the second person to share your cockpit. If you are the type who finds this idea nerve-rattling, a brief flight or two with another CFI during test prep could help. It will serve the dual purpose of providing a second opinion on any test tasks that you're still polishing. Some students confide that, although they were perfectly confident about the flying, having to fly with a stranger for the checkride was disconcerting. This is easily remedied by flying with other instructors, so ask yourself if it is the right tactic for you.
No second CFIs available when you need one? A scouting report on the examiner may do the trick. This could come from the examiner himself, over coffee, or from another pilot who has taken a checkride or two with her. Ideally, you and the examiner can became acquainted before test day. Speaking of stress, there are small things you can do to make life easy on yourself before a checkride. I kept the upcoming checkride date and time to myself, rather than let friends in on my plans. My instructor, fortunately, was equally discreet. It's not that I wasn't confident--I just felt better that way. You may decide on a different level of confidentiality.
Did you get a high score on your knowledge test? That milestone may seem like ancient history now, but it is capable of producing long-lasting echoes. The subject areas in which you answered questions incorrectly are noted on your score sheet, and the examiner has standing orders to probe for weak points during oral testing. Practice fielding some questions on those subjects from your CFI, or working some calculations if indicated. The examiner is also going to give your score sheet a glance to make sure it has not expired.
Similarly, he'll subject your logbook endorsements, medical and student pilot certificate, charts, and the Airport/Facilities Directory to the perishability test. Your training airplane's documents also will be scrutinized. Regarding the aircraft, keep in mind that your examiner may have given other flight tests in this trainer. Therefore, he may know its maintenance history, as well as any quirks such as intermittent instruments or systems malfunctions, or the likelihood of a door popping open at rotation. If you have a choice of aircraft for your test prep and the test, book the one you know best.
As for flying tasks, pay special attention during your three hours of test prep to safety- and precision-oriented tasks such as flight at minimum controllable airspeed, stall entries and recoveries, and flight by reference to instruments. Before all of your maneuvers, reinforce your habit of performing clearing turns (or at least offering to; the examiner may waive them to save time if he has been keeping a lookout). In any prolonged climb, show the examiner that you are looking for traffic (as well as keeping the engine from overheating) by lowering the nose occasionally for better forward visibility. Also check left and right for traffic with slight coordinated banking. Use rudder and aileron together. Simply waggling the ailerons is bad technique; the examiner will sense the adverse yaw before you do.
Some students and their instructors include a full-dress, mock checkride in the test prep curriculum. This can be a confidence builder, or at least help you maintain checkride-level intensity during practice. It's also a good bet that a mock checkride will provide one benefit that simple drills cannot: Like any flight, even the most rigorously structured checkride can stumble into the unknown. A radio could quit for real. An instrument could die, or the weather could change radically. Another aircraft could arrive in distress and leave you without a place to land--now you'll have to divert for real! None of these surprises is reason to discontinue what you're doing. You'll just have to think fast and devise and explain your Plan B--all while still holding your course, altitude, and airspeed within practical test tolerances.
Dealing with the unexpected may be the best thing that can happen to you on a checkride. It gives you a chance to show the extent of your pilot know-how, rather than simply perform the well-practiced aerial dance that you have been rehearsing these past few months.
Readiness, then, is what test prep is designed to give you. Having achieved it, don't let the moment pass. Quick! Round up your local examiner, get him airborne, and show him what you've got.
Dan Namowitz is an aviation writer and flight instructor. A pilot since 1985 and an instructor since 1990, he resides in Maine.
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Links to additional resources about the topics discussed in this article are available at AOPA Flight Training Online.
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