Your flight test

[Mighty Vulture]

PPL / CPL...

If your memory of it is still fresh -

which items did you complete brilliantly (in your examiner's opinion), and which ones could have gone better to various degrees and why?

[Chris M]

I let my emotions get the best of me. My examiner was a miserable little troll of a man who loved to reach over and physically pull my hand off the yoke to see how the plane was trimmed. He also insisted that I use a booster cushion in the 152, after doing my whole PPL without one (I'm 6'-1"). I was so angry about all of it that I started missing points in my procedures (during the simulated engine failure I didn't try a "restart" for 1000 feet or so) and just generally flying worse than I'd like. I passed, but could have done much better if I'd kept a level head.

Part of flying is handling situations that are less than ideal. There will probably be tasks that you do less well than you like. Maybe even totally bomb. Don't let those things stop your mind from moving ahead to the next thing. Don't get hung up on something that went wrong and then screw up the next thing because of it.

[Rookie50]

I let my emotions get the best of me. My examiner was a miserable little troll of a man who loved to reach over and physically pull my hand off the yoke to see how the plane was trimmed. He also insisted that I use a booster cushion in the 152, after doing my whole PPL without one (I'm 6'-1"). I was so angry about all of it that I started missing points in my procedures (during the simulated engine failure I didn't try a "restart" for 1000 feet or so) and just generally flying worse than I'd like. I passed, but could have done much better if I'd kept a level head.

Part of flying is handling situations that are less than ideal. There will probably be tasks that you do less well than you like. Maybe even totally bomb. Don't let those things stop your mind from moving ahead to the next thing. Don't get hung up on something that went wrong and then screw up the next thing because of it.

Hmmmm. Feeling I'm about to open a can of worms, but here goes. Bluntly.

IMO it's the examiners job to sit there quietly and observe and evaluate to assure standards are met, safety is not compromised, and otherwise they are there to be a pax.

Now with benefit of writing this sitting on my couch, with no pressure, but if an examiner yanked my hands off the controls without a safety reason during a flight test, simply to check trim, I'd be inclined to immediately terminate the flight test, return to the aiport, and not pay. Unacceptable.

Exmainers job is not to introduce pressures absent from a normal flight -- but to follow the flight test guide. It's very specific. And mine clearly said, treat me as a pax. Pax don't grab controls.

Mine were mixed:

PPL, chose to proceed with 30-35 knot upper winds, no pressure to do so, blew the forced approach. Passed partial retest. Examiner was completely fair.

CPL. A breeze passed easily. Paperwork was perfect, examiner was relaxed and said "looks great, let's go flying". So we did.

IFR -- paperwork was again perfect, but a bit of a hard case. Examiner raked me over the coals -- I mean really -- on radio procedure for not responding to his simulated ATC call instead of Towers actual calls and instruction. Uh, ok. Still passed NP.

[Chris M]

Now with benefit of writing this sitting on my couch, with no pressure, but if an examiner yanked my hands off the controls without a safety reason during a flight test, simply to check trim, I'd be inclined to immediately terminate the flight test, return to the aiport, and not pay. Unacceptable.

Were I to go through the same situation again that would be my response as well. I was 17 at the time - young, nervous, etc. Countermanding a flight test examiner was a terrifying idea.

[Tylerjohnston]

PPL - To start this all off, my examiner was a BIG guy. Large enough that I had trouble trimming a 172 from the left seat, same problem with mixture and throttle. Completed all the tasks and passed.

IR - Absolutle breeze, my examiner said maybe at most 5 words to me. Which was nice, just doing my thing. 3 Approaches and a Hold ( ILS, RNAV, and a partial Panel RNAV + VOR hold)

CPL - I heard some nasty rumours about my designated examiner before hand, and how he screams at you and tells you that your the sh*tiest pilot he's ever seen. Then 20 minutes later hands you a CPL or a CFI ticket. Oral was super intimidating, had some tricky questions. Barely squeeked by During the flight the right engine wouldn't feather when shut down, so my flight ended up being about 1.1 I think, and he congratulated me and said I'm glad I got to fly with you. Cheers

[Mighty Vulture]

I remember the Rec ride was a walk in the park, until at the very end of the test I messed up the landing (misunderstood the request and did soft field rather than short field, or vice versa...)

Partial re-test the same afternoon, just one great landing took care of it

[lhalliday]

I was ready. My instructor agreed when he signed the recommendation letter.

I knew I had enough solid 4s that I could afford the occasional nervy 2. Nerves raised hell with my instrument flying but everything else went more-or-less to plan. The examiner was pretty low-key but missed nothing and asked some very perceptive questions.

I passed.

...laura

[PropToFeather]

PPL - Pretty much all the items I had 3s and (two) 2s on were nerves related. I think I brought a 3 from a 1 when, short final, I double checked with the examiner that he wanted a short-field... which he did not.
CPL - Almost gave myself a heart attack by doing my diversion perfectly @ 200 AGL... and then not having the field in sight until a 1/2 mile back from circuit. And to think we spent 20 minutes on paperwork, only for me to get a 4 on it.
MIFR - Easiest ride to date. Apparently, if you know your IFR stuff, it's as easy as flying it?

[awitzke]

PPL, I forced my precautionary too much. Didn't take my time... remember that everything is on your pace. Don't feel rushed. Also the diversion, felt a bit rushed again but that was also like I said before because of my own inexperience and trying to get it done too quickly.

CPL, aced everything except some hood work. I dialed the wrong VOR when using two VOR's to find myself on a map. I caught it though after a few minutes and the examiner let me have another go at it. Second time around, aced it. Came back to the same thing as PPL... rushed the IDENT and it went downhill from there.

The big thing I tell friends who were going for rides is take your time, and recently during an IFR PPC ride for my job I remembered back to my PPL/CPL tests and forced myself to take my time and not rush things. You are allowed to take time to get configured for your airwork, steep turns for example. Don't start them until you are at the airspeed and power setting YOU want and the ALT you want to hold.

[Mighty Vulture]

You are allowed to take time to get configured for your airwork, steep turns for example. Don't start them until you are at the airspeed and power setting YOU want and the ALT you want to hold.

So, these aren't assigned to you by the examiner, you get to pick them?

[CreatingLift]

You are allowed to take time to get configured for your airwork, steep turns for example. Don't start them until you are at the airspeed and power setting YOU want and the ALT you want to hold.

So, these aren't assigned to you by the examiner, you get to pick them?

An examiner will commonly say "please (when you are ready) show me a steep turn, at this altitude"

So if you think your slow/fast, high/low, fix it and say your doing so -- say he/she requested 3500 and you are 3580 simply say "okay descending to 3500" repeatedly showing you attention to the flight test limitations and staying within them is a good thing.

Same would go for slow/fast, just configure the airplane and when you are ready to start the maneuver let them know. Before you change the configuration ask if it is okay to do so, since they may have a reason for not wanting the change.

[CreatingLift]

Reading this may also help..

http://www.langleyflyingschool.com/Page ... tml#PPLCPL

[I_Drive_Planes]

My memory isn't that fresh, but I still have my flight test report 12 years later. My PPL flight test went quite well over all. I wound up scoring a 128 of the required 75 to pass (15x5, 9x4, 3x3, 2x2). Going through the report, the only twos I got were for the normal takeoff (forgot to retract flaps until the takeoff roll had commenced) and the power on stall (slow to retract flaps and one other comment I can't quite make out). Apparently I really didn't like raising the flaps back then

One thing that stuck out during my test (that's not mentioned in the report) was my overshoot. I was coming in for the first landing of the test and I ran into the rotor vortices from a Bell 412 that was practicing autorotations nearby, you can imagine what this did to the stabilized approach of a Cessna 150 with an apprehensive wannabe pilot at the controls. I pushed the power up and went around. I wasn't sure how that would look and all the DFTE said was "I guess we'll count that as your overshoot". When we got on the ground he congratulated me on passing my test and told me that going around was the right choice. He said "If it was anyone but you they probably would have tried to stick the landing and it wouldn't have gone well." I've always been proud of that. Interestingly enough (with the exception of avoiding slow clearing traffic on the runway) I've never, ever had to go around since.

[xysn]

I bounced once on the soft field landing which I was sure was gonna fail me.

[Mighty Vulture]

I bounced once on the soft field landing which I was sure was gonna fail me.

Did it?

[photofly]

On its own, it shouldn't have: the soft field landing is a landing in a soft field, not a soft landing in a field. None of the criteria are specifically "no bounces". Minimizing the speed at touchdown, and holding the nose gear up under control, are. As long as you do those two, within reason land as hard as you like, and bounce away.

[Av8r7]

Ppl I aced for the most part. Cpl I was nervous and forgot flaps on takeoff. Realized this when I went to retract them and there was nothing to retract. (A mistake I've never made before or since) For my precautionary I chose a long nice field but with a bad crosswind and crabbed my way to a 2/4. Timed turn was a complete guess and managed to get it quite close. Aced the hood time because I took my time with it and didn't do anything rash or sudden. Aced VOR...again because I took my sweet time. The diversion was rough. Always found diversions hard for some reason.

[xysn]

On its own, it shouldn't have: the soft field landing is a landing in a soft field, not a soft landing in a field. None of the criteria are specifically "no bounces". Minimizing the speed at touchdown, and holding the nose gear up under control, are. As long as you do those two, within reason land as hard as you like, and bounce away.

It was a long time ago but I don't remember coming in fast or letting the nose slam the ground, so I guess the examiner did his job; I did pass.

[CenterOfGravity]

Honestly, your instructor(s) should have you ready and gone over everything they think you need work on before sending you on your flight test. I was most nervous about slow flight and emergency procedures, never knew what he was gonna ask me or when he was gonna simulate a situation. The best thing to do is master your weakest spots the best you can so when your flight test is coming you'll be ready to ace it!

I'm not bragging or anything but I didn't get any 1's or 2's on my flight test. My instructors did a great job at getting me ready and I think that's what got me the good marks.

Best of luck!

[JasonE]

DTFE I flew with was great! Very pleasant and fair. I really enjoyed my flight with him, didn't make me nervous at all. You could tell he really loved flying.