Ask me your hardest checkride questions

I used to have a copilot who thought you just had to listen to see that Morse code was there. I discovered this when the DME tuned but the VOR didn’t…fortunately we were enroute via GPS at the time. ;)
And good to know what the relative pitches of the DME vs the VOR IDs when you've got them both turned up on the audio panel.
 
My wife was receiving primary instruction and I happened to be along in the back seat for some reason. They are trying to track the EMI VOR and having a difficult time with it. They had the ID turned up and I had to finally point out to them that it was sending TEST. And this was particularly silly because my wife was also an amateur radio operator (Advanced Class back when you had to do morse code to pass the test) and hadn't caught it.

Years ago, an instructor dinged me for not looking at the morse code on the chart to identify the VOR. I pointed out that I possessed both amateur and commercial licenses that required 20WPM code copying and the VOR sends really slow (somewhere around 3WPM) and I had no problem decoding it. After having him tune a half dozen stations and let me decode them blind he decided to believe me.

Lots of the new radios will also decode the Morse for you and put it by the frequency.
 
Ive heard an MIT professor say its still in debate. Pressure or partial vacuum, the acceleration of some of the air or the lower speed air. Just trust that its there, lets move on.
Hows that answer going to fly with an examiner?

Depends on what he knows, you should have the stock FAA answers just in case.
 
Lots of the new radios will also decode the Morse for you and put it by the frequency.
Yep, both of mine do now. But this was a long time ago (I got my private in 1982 and my wife got hers in 1993).
 
I don't know the answer to that. I would assume I could fly but not land but I will have to look that up. Thanks
I'll save you the time. You can fly it. If the owner is confident enough or stupid enough, you can takeoff and land. And if you have a ASEL certificate, you can log it. Why? Because the requirements for logging PIC are different than the requirements for acting as PIC. The same would apply if we were talking about getting some stick time in a complex even though you don't have a complex endorsement or getting some stick time in a HP airplane even though you don't have a HP endorsement. Rated and cat/class and sole manipulator of the controls is pretty much all it takes to be able to log it. It takes a whole lot more (currency, current medical, endorsements etc) to be able to act as PIC for the flight.
 
Over Van Sandt controlled airspace doesn't start until 1722. You only need to be clear of clouds there in the daytime

I missed the ground level and that 1600 MSL is less than 1200 AGL. I'll chalk that up to never flying that low except to enter/in the pattern.

Two tricky variations on this - drop "MSL" from the problem and see if they catch that clouds are normally reported AGL. You'll be 600' below the clouds, not 200. Then fly somewhere else and change the AGL reporting. Second, have them fly SW toward the "GUN BARREL" airport. With you and the clouds at the same level, the ground drops to 385 and the class G drops away below you.
 
BTW, a lot of the questions here are much harder than anything I had on my checkride :)
 
And some of the not-quite-so-new radios decode the DME and not VOR/LOC that most people think they’re seeing decoded.
Really? I don't think that most of the ones smart enough to do that can even receive DME. The GNS480 will display distance to the station like it was doing DME, but it gets that from the GPS. The only things I remember with integral DME was the KNS80 RNAV and the Narcoleptic MK-12D+ integrated nav/com/dme. I don't think either of those did ID decoding. Which one was this?
 
Define/describe CRM. How would you implement it as a private pilot?
I like this. I had to think about what it meant for a second. Crew Resource Management right? Using the people in the plane to help you if and when needed. Basically something you should go over in your passenger briefing. Something I want to put in my flashcards so I don't forget.
 
Any time you have more than one pilot in the plane it behooves you to iron out relative responsibilities. It makes no difference whether it's a cub or a 787. I remember picking up Ron Levy after he dropped his Cheetah at the avionics shop. He offered to be a copilot, instructor, or passenger, but we would decide before engine start.

John and Martha King have a pretty good schtick on husband-wife CRM. I have to tell you though, that they are not the best I've seen. I've got a couple that has a Navion that we flew in the back seat with that has better CRM behavior than most "professional" pilots. On the other hand, I've seen husband-wife pilot teams that have the antithesis of CRM to the point of being scary.
 
Really? I don't think that most of the ones smart enough to do that can even receive DME. The GNS480 will display distance to the station like it was doing DME, but it gets that from the GPS. The only things I remember with integral DME was the KNS80 RNAV and the Narcoleptic MK-12D+ integrated nav/com/dme. I don't think either of those did ID decoding. Which one was this?
Collins Pro Line.
 
Explain the difference between a 3rd class medical and BasicMed. (What are the differences in how you get one? What are the differences in privileges--what you can do with one? How long does each one last?)
 
I like this. I had to think about what it meant for a second. Crew Resource Management right? Using the people in the plane to help you if and when needed. Basically something you should go over in your passenger briefing. Something I want to put in my flashcards so I don't forget.

Correct, CRM = Crew Resource Management. It originally meant Cockpit Resource Management until both industry and the FAA decided that limiting yourself to just the folks in the cockpit or even the plane was not the best practice. So your crew as a private pilot can include you, the guy in the right seat, ATC, your CFI or mechanic on the cell phone, another pilot on CTAF, or whomever you think is best suited to help you get your butt back on the ground in one piece in whatever circumstance you find yourself in. That is how I define it for me as a private pilot. It will be a bit different for the 121 guys.
 
I saw this on reddit and thought it was pretty decent. Testing beyond rote.

Look up KTRL Terrell Municipal Airport on SkyVector. Directly to the East is 76F Van Zandt County Regional Airport.

Imagine the clouds are at 1800 ft MSL. You are flying at 1600 ft MSL.

Would you be legal over KTRL? What about over 76F?

View attachment 101898

Could you explain because I'm not getting it and I'm not buying the answers I've seen given. On the side of caution I would say no and not even try it. If I were just plying the pattern there could be a maybe that's leagal based on elevation of the ground... Truthfully I'm a little lost. Highest obstacle is 1100 +100 in the area so I thought it might have something to do with staying safe by flying over that? But I thought you needed to be 1000 over obstacles not 500 so I'm lost.
 
It has nothing to do with obstacles. This is a straight VFR cloud clearance/visibility issue. First you must note the ground elevation and the fact that the clouds are given in MSL. Then ask yourself what airspace you are in. Over 76F, you're under a 1200 AGL floor and the field elevation is 522'. At 1600 MSL you're in class G (i.e., uncontrolled) airspace and you only need to be clear of clouds in the daytime.

By the way, there's no requirement to be 1000' over obstacles unless you are in a congested area. Otherwise, you just need to be 500' from (not over) any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure. I can fly along frying chickens in the barnyard as long as I'm 500' from Farmer John, his truck, or barn.
 
I like this. I had to think about what it meant for a second. Crew Resource Management right? Using the people in the plane to help you if and when needed. Basically something you should go over in your passenger briefing. Something I want to put in my flashcards so I don't forget.

It also includes telling the DPE to honor the sanitary cockpit during the ride. :D Safety of flight only, no questions.
 
It has nothing to do with obstacles. This is a straight VFR cloud clearance/visibility issue. First you must note the ground elevation and the fact that the clouds are given in MSL. Then ask yourself what airspace you are in. Over 76F, you're under a 1200 AGL floor and the field elevation is 522'. At 1600 MSL you're in class G (i.e., uncontrolled) airspace and you only need to be clear of clouds in the daytime.

By the way, there's no requirement to be 1000' over obstacles unless you are in a congested area. Otherwise, you just need to be 500' from (not over) any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure. I can fly along frying chickens in the barnyard as long as I'm 500' from Farmer John, his truck, or barn.

So class G you just need to be clear of clouds am I reading that correctly? Doesn't matter how far? I just looked it up in the FAR/AIM
 
310 pilot on youtube shows great CRM. Jamie is better on the radio than I am.
So class G you just need to be clear of clouds am I reading that correctly? Doesn't matter how far? I just looked it up in the FAR/AIM

Yes, daytime...airspace and clearance requirements are very basic. you can count on them to come up.
 
It has nothing to do with obstacles. This is a straight VFR cloud clearance/visibility issue. First you must note the ground elevation and the fact that the clouds are given in MSL. Then ask yourself what airspace you are in. Over 76F, you're under a 1200 AGL floor and the field elevation is 522'. At 1600 MSL you're in class G (i.e., uncontrolled) airspace and you only need to be clear of clouds in the daytime.

By the way, there's no requirement to be 1000' over obstacles unless you are in a congested area. Otherwise, you just need to be 500' from (not over) any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure. I can fly along frying chickens in the barnyard as long as I'm 500' from Farmer John, his truck, or barn.

Clouds are given in MSL?
 
What happens if you don't order the chicken?
 
Area Forecasts ??????

These:
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This is a good one. Fortunately we had this question in jeopardy last night and everyone got it wrong. We all assume lift, weight, drag, thrust instead of coefficient x density x speed x wing area.. defenitly one that is going on my flash cards
By definition, lift is the vertical force that counters weight, and leave it at that. If the examiner wants to hear about equations or how to quantify or what are the variables that influence lift, make him ask. Don't volunteer to go down that rabbit hole; as someone else pointed out, engineers are still debating it. That's why we invented wind tunnels, because we don't know how to calculate it.
 
What would cause a stall and a spin in the aircraft we are flying today?
 
Seeing that you have a metal landing calculator sticking of your flight bag, can you please demonstrate how to use it?
 
Like the title says, ask me your hardest checkride questions. Weather and availability through the holidays has me on a long approach to checkride. Trying to stay sharp and prep for things I haven't thought of or heard before.

Which checkride? PP, Instrument, Commercial, ATP?
 
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