The Private Pilot Checkride: my experience

So excited to have become a newly certificated Private Pilot this past weekend. Posting this here on the off-chance some student pilot out there finds it useful...

Overall: The DPE was very diligent and organized, and it was worth it to try to be equally organized going into the check ride. Even before we met, he sent a bulleted list of all the items and paperwork to bring, and asked for scans of my logbook & endorsements to avoid any silly reasons for discontinuance on the day-of.

I brought a binder with all the necessary docs and a heavily tabbed FAR/AIM.

Oral exam: We covered all the requisite subject areas and spent a good amount of time reviewing my cross-country flight plan.

• He was OK with me having prepared this digitally as opposed to on paper charts, but I had to demonstrate that I understood the math of wind correction, magnetic variation, etc.
  • It helped that I made my own Excel sheet and could explain all the formulas within it. It might not have gone so well had I just used ForeFlight alone.
  • I printed A/FD pages for several airports along our route of flight and was prepared to talk about airspace, obstructions, performance data.
• He wanted to know which weather products I had consulted to plan the flight and also how I would get additional information in flight. Decoded METARs & TAFs.
• Weather theory questions flowed nicely into questions about AIRMETs/SIGMETs and personal minimums for this flight & in general.
• There were some surprisingly specific questions about airspace (DC SFRA) that I didn’t know the exact answers to. When I had doubts about airspace regs my default answers were usually... 1. Brief flights thru complex or unfamiliar airspace with an instructor, 2. File a VFR flight plan and request flight following from ATC.
  • With the DC SFRA in particular I knew that special training was required but did not know exactly where to get it.
• With regards to limitations of the private certificate, such as acting as a safety pilot for a friend flying a complex airplane, I tried to answer with the most conservative possible interpretations of the regs I could think of.
• Know your systems — no trick questions here but fuel & electrical were covered in depth.

Flight test: It was off to a good start when the examiner said “go-arounds are free,” he would rather see me make a good decision rather than be embarrassed to go-around and then make an unsafe landing.

• We departed my home airport and started out on my flight plan — I had to amend cruise altitude just prior to takeoff due to cloud cover.
• Diverted at my first checkpoint (which was an airport to the west) and did engine-out landings + most other required takeoffs/landings there.
• Went over to typical practice area and did performance and ground reference maneuvers, no surprises besides some traffic
• Came back to my home airport and (after one go-around) did a soft-field landing followed by a no-flap landing. The no-flap landing was unexpected, but actually pretty fun to do.
• Debriefed, did paperwork, talked about the WINGS program and continuing to learn.

P.S. I took over 120 hours of total time to become ready for the checkride. The minimum number of hours is 40, and national average is closer to 80. I didn't fly solo until about 30 hours.

If you are training and at all discouraged that it's taking longer than you expected, don't worry. It is better (and safer) to take the checkride when you are truly ready rather than rushing into it.

Foundational to my perspective that building up more total hours is a key component of becoming a safer pilot, I highly recommend the book The Killing Zone: How and Why Pilots Die, by Paul Craig. Despite the grim title, it is a hugely informative look at the statistics of GA accidents and their often avoidable causes.

I take my own safety and that of any passengers very seriously.