Herb put together some good checklists to guide his preparation in the final stages of his private pilot training, as he was getting ready to meet with his examiner. His preparation was memorably excellent - right up there with Julia Singleton's private pilot prep in Summer '09 - and so... although every applicant needs to put together his or her own lists and reminders as they get ready for their own checkride, I want to encourage Herb to post his prep notes here on the blog for the benefit of future almost-private-pilots. I didn't have the blog yet when Julia took her checkride and I don't know if she has postable notes, but if so it would be great to get those posted as well.
Thanks guys!
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Hmmm... I think Patti is a bit confused... I am not in the same league with Julia... but certainly do appreciate the consideration...
ReplyDeleteMy notes are > then the limit for a comment so I am posting it in multiple responses
Comments may not come across formated in this response. I also uploaded to google docs the additional templates mentioned below. Links are listed below but they may not be formated as hyperlinks in this response but if you copy/paste they should work. If not, feel free to email me, hpatten@pacbell.net and I'll email them to you.
Check ride thoughts/check list
Questions to ask the DPE
1. Cross country destination to be used
2. DPE weight
3. DPE seat position
4. Any baggage that should be factored in
5. Examiner fee
6. Examiner contact details, e.g. mobile #, email address
Notes/Observations
ReplyDelete1. To get the airplane log books, submit a request via the online form from this WVFC site: http://www.wvfc.org/mem/services.php. Do this at least 3-5 days in advance. Note you will not get a response from anyone that your log books are ready. If you want, you can call Sarah in MX to make sure she got your log book request. Just call the PAO main number and select the MX option and you will get transferred to her. The MX staff in my opinion is an under utilized “free” resource and I wish I would have taken more advantage of the opportunity to learn more about the planes from them.
2. On the log book make sure that the AD search was pulled on the date of the last annual and that it was pulled and signed off by an IA. In the log book I reviewed there is a date on the AD search that indicates when the AD search was pulled.
3. Even though we have the great Patti form, it is a great idea to use Post-it notes to flag at least the following inspection in the actual log books (airframe and engine)
a. Annual
b. 50 and 100
c. Transponder
d. ELT inspection and battery
4. Be able to do a W&B calculations to determine the impact of adding load to the plane and determine the maximum fuel you can carry on the plane… be able to relate the maximum fuel to how far you can fly “legally” during the conditions of the flight (day/night).
5. Be able to calc TO & landing distances at your origin and destination at the conditions during your oral exam… which means you will need to get current WX conditions at the time
6. Understand how weight impacts the stall speeds
7. It is perfectly OK when you are asked a question to explain the fuel system of the plane to say let me show you the diagram of the fuel system on the plane and pull out the POH and point to the components of the fuel system.
8. What other fuel can your plane use?
9. Ask Patti what happens when you use an alternate fuel
10. Trace you route of flight and know what class air space you are flying through from departure to landing. You may even want to chart that out and identify the airspace requirements in terms of VFR minimums for each segment. Other impacts that occur at specific altitude changes such as 10,000 ft, 12.500 etc.
11. Be aware of the impact of a conservative flight altitude, i.e. if you are at a high elevation make sure you know what it will take to descend and how long….
12. Check the temperature at all your flight levels and know the impact of that on icing
13. You can reserve the class room at PAO if that is where you fly. It is great to do that because I like the privacy and less of the distraction in the back area. You reserve it via CASSi. Just add it as a “goodie” on your schedule. It is listed as “Classroom” in the CASSi Goodies list. Book it for the entire day since you may want to use it before your appointment and/or after… **** Note: Currently the classroom in PAO no longer has the doors attached so it is not as quiet/private as it used to be
Check ride – flight portion
ReplyDelete1. Plan for either departures out of PAO… you never know when they may switch runways… it is extra work and may never be needed but I had a Nav log for both a Dumbarton departure assuming 31 and a Leslie Salt departure in case winds favored 13.
2. Know the antennas on the plane – the link in the flight training blog is a good refresher
3. Think about what airports are on your route of your NAV log since it is likely that you may need to do the take off and landings at an airport along the way.
I’m not the most organized person but it helped me to get ready for the check ride to have things in four folders, to keep all the paper straight, The four folders were:
ReplyDelete1. Pre-requisites
a. DPE Fee in an envelope
b. Original test results
c. Completed and signed 8710 form
d. Blank 8710 form (backup)
e. Summary of the 61.109a required minimal flight hours with date and flight time logged (see attached template)
f. Dan Dyer’s Private Pilot Ground School Endorsement signature
g. Patti’s signed 61.105 & 61.107 summary form
h. Picture of the important people in my life to share with the DPE
2. Plane Information
a. The Logbook and Aircraft Airworthiness Summary (aka Patti’s template). See attached for an Excel version of that.
b. Print out of the FAA registration summary showing the date of the expiration of the aircraft registration (see blog post for where to find)
c. I also had a listing of the AD’s from the FAA site as a backup to what is listed in the actual airplane log books
3. Navigation / Flight plan
a. The Navigation log for the various legs of the planned cross country updated with the current forecasted wind conditions
b. A copy of the Nav log w/o the wind conditions in case I’m asked to use different wind conditions
c. A copy of the file flight plan form – I use the AOPA site to file a flight plan… I put in a departure time well past the time I think I will really depart because as I understand flight plans get deleted if they are not opened within an hour or so of the planned departure time
d. Weight and Balance for the plane (see template)
e. Take off and landing distances calculated – contained in the above for all departure and landing locations
f. Copy or picture of the magnetic compass correction card from the plane – just in case I’m asked to explain the deviation used
g. Any local information about the destination airports such as local noise abatement procedures, standard approaches. I make a note about fuel availability – call the local FBO and ask them about that a day or two ahead of the flight
h. Airport Diagrams
4. Weather Briefing
a. Summary of NOTAMS and key weather information from key sources, attached is the template I use
b. A copy of the surface analysis and weather depiction reports since they are explicitly mentioned in the PTS
c. Copy of the surface and LL prog charts
d. The un-decoded duats report
Dan (DPE) Observations:
1. Be prepared to take a late lunch break.. Appointments always begin at 11:00…. For me, sometimes that is close to when I am having lunch (I am more of an early morning person) so plan to maybe eat at 1:00 or so… For my appointment we ran into the paper 8710 issues and that delayed our start plus we got started late due to traffic problems for the DPE. The last thing you want to have is a headache from not eating and then go fly on your second most stressful flight.
2. Dan is very easy going and is very knowledgeable.
3. I felt at ease with Dan aside from the general anxiety of taking the test
Here are the links:
Plane Log book summary template:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AtplTf-7IKBQdEpZY1NFdDBvaHJUUUpnOFVpUm9aWUE&hl=en&authkey=COa2se4N
Flight Requirements summary
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e3DsbM0lqOY2Ejykofba4HvFaeFf8QScaMYEWcgXn3k/edit?hl=en&authkey=CL351NoH
Weight and Balance - TO & Landing calc template:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AtplTf-7IKBQdExiZ2FzemZpMGl2T3N1RWdfS3kweXc&hl=en&authkey=CMi51OEO
Weather briefing & NOTAM/TFR summary template:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MNrMphQc2K43Cbg9MGfKd-ri4rjDW5u8lbFKhk9HnsI/edit?hl=en&authkey=CK6_2OwE