Check Ride Prep/Kings School Example

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wannagofishing

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John D
So, I'm studying for my check ride. I have the PTS, Gleim Private Flight Maneuvers and the ASA Book. I also bought the king school online "course."

What I am wondering: how similar is a check ride oral to the king school demo? It seemed so informal and easy, yet that isnt my understanding of what to expect.

has anyone both seen that and done the oral? is it that simple? seemed like a lot of stuff was not covered.

on training, i lack the instrument time and 3 hrs solo. Planning on flying plenty in the next couple of weeks and studying nightly and the last few days prior to finish by end of Jan, Lord willing.

Any thoughts?
 
The old oral exam books were useful back when the oral was a simple Q&A session with specific objective questions that have clear answers. Unfortunately, the FAA has changed the way orals are supposed to be done to the "situationally-based" test. That is, instead of handing you a weather printout and asking you to read a METAR, the examiner will assign a flight to plan, and then ask you if the flight can be conducted safely -- and how you came to that conclusion. That will require you to identify and pull up all the weather data relevant to the flight, interpret it correctly, and make a sound decision based on your analysis. You'll also have to compute your aircraft's performance from the POH and compare it to airport data for runway length and obstructions to departure, as well as figuring fuel burn and fuel available, W&B, etc. IOW, no spoon-feeding of what to check -- you have to cover all the bases on your own initiative, just like you would in the real world. Likewise, the examiner will ask you if you and your plane are legal for the planned flight, not "What documents must you have with you, how long is an annual inspection good for, etc." The oral exam books often don't help much in this area.


The best way to practice for a properly-administered situationally-based oral exam is for your instructor (and maybe another instructor, just to be sure yours doesn't miss anything) to administer a few practice oral exams over a few days so you get to look at a wider range of environmental conditions. This will take a couple of hours for the first one, and up to an hour for succeeding ones, but you'll be better prepared for the oral exam. It also requires that your instructor be familiar with the way orals are administered these days, which is best learned by sitting in on the orals for some of his/her students.
 
Mine was not nearly so easy. Examiner expected that I had memorized all the VFR chart legends, required instruments for VFR flight, common frequencies, speed limits, oxygen rules, currency requirements, high performance and complex aircraft definitions, right of way, runway markings and airspace visibility rules. And a couple dozen other things.

I actually did better on my checkride than on the oral.
 
wannagofishing said:
So, I'm studying for my check ride. I have the PTS, Gleim Private Flight Maneuvers and the ASA Book. I also bought the king school online "course."

What I am wondering: how similar is a check ride oral to the king school demo? It seemed so informal and easy, yet that isnt my understanding of what to expect.

has anyone both seen that and done the oral? is it that simple? seemed like a lot of stuff was not covered.

on training, i lack the instrument time and 3 hrs solo. Planning on flying plenty in the next couple of weeks and studying nightly and the last few days prior to finish by end of Jan, Lord willing.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

I too used the King Checkride Prep DVD.... but it almost sunk me. My examiner quickly picked up that I had used that for prep and started asking the questions and phrasing the scenarios in ways that quickly revealed the areas I was week on.

This DVD is a decent way to get a sense of how it happens, but do not rely on it. The best thing to do is as follows:

Exam preparation: Get with your CFI for a few hours assistance on preparing for the oral exam. While lots of material exists for written exam self-study, it is helpful if the instructor would provide some review. What I did was negotiate a flat price to do this away from the flight school and I bought him dinner for 3 nights running.

---------------------------------

Next; Grab a copy of the PTS & some index cards. Then go through the ASEL section making up flash cards for each important question: Question on the front, PTS answer on the back. Eventually you will have a small deck of cards that asks each question that will be covered during the exam. As you go about your life for the next few weeks. Have these cards with you and pull them out while you wait in line for starbucks, or are taking a break at work. Hand them to a friend or spouse and ask them to shuffle the cards and ask the questions. Keep going through the cards until you know the information cold, and can explain TOMATO FLAMES and Airspace depiction and visability requirements in your sleep.

But don't just do rote memorization. Be ready to answer the "Why is this important?" questions too.

---------------------------

Next; Also ask the instructor or one of his CFI buddies who is extremely familiar with the examiner conducting the exam to conduct a mock oral exam in the same style as the examiner. In fact, ask to do two or three mock exams

I would aslo ask for this instructor or CFI buddy to also conduct one or two mock practical exams (aka checkrides).

These can be of tremendous help to identify areas that need polish and to help eliminate exam jitters.

NOTE: I didn't do a mock oral exam and really wish I did. While we did have some review sessions, we never did the "put Mike in the spotlight and see if he can perform". Come exam time, I was weak in a few key areas that we got through, but the DPE prefered that I knew those areas cold. Our time went much longer than we both desired.


Good luck to you!
 
I used the King DVDs, ASA Private Oral Exam Guide, "POH" for my plane, all of the notes I made during my training, my CFI for mock oral/checkride prep, forums, and whatever else I could to glean info and prepare myself.

My checkride was similar in intensity to the King DVD. It was just two guys who enjoy flying sitting around talking......flying. He gave me a flight to plan (which my destination actually had a TFR that day), I planned it, took in my NAVLOG with my sectionals and notes from my weatherbrief. Yes, I called and got a weather briefing for a flight I knew I would only fly to the first or 2nd checkpoint.

Anyway, the entire oral....and checkride itself, was relaxed and conversational. Don't get me wrong, I was nervous as all get out, and only slept and hour, maybe two the night before......but at the end of the day, it was very conversational.

I recommend using all the tools that you can for prep. Watch the King DVD, pick up bits of info that you might not have known, and do that with whatever materials you can. I also recommend the mock oral/checkride. My DE was real big on systems....and wanted to be sure I knew how they worked (not only externally, but also internally).

At the end of the day your CFI wouldn't send you if he/she didn't feel you were ready.....also the DE is not "out to fail" you. They want to see you succeed.
 
Old Geek said:
Mine was not nearly so easy. Examiner expected that I had memorized all the VFR chart legends, required instruments for VFR flight, common frequencies, speed limits, oxygen rules, currency requirements, high performance and complex aircraft definitions, right of way, runway markings and airspace visibility rules. And a couple dozen other things.
Click to expand...
Most of those are things you really do have to memorize, but not all -- including the HP/complex definitions, currency requirements, and required instruments. Those are things you have time to look up if the questoin ever arises. Of course, there are a few examiners who still want them memorized, but fortunately, those are few and far between.
 
cool. thanks everyone for the very thorough answers. this was my first post here and, man, what a better message board than the other one i was visiting, where no one ever responded!

I got a 95% on my written and know where my weak areas are (and am making a list of those as I read through the Gleim book). I'll probably memorize more than I have and be very thorough in my study.. its not only about passing the checkride, either. if im going to fly, i owe it to my family to know everything i can. still, when it comes to the checkride and oral.. well, i dont like to fail! thanks again for the advise.
 
wannagofishing said:
I'll probably memorize more than I have
Click to expand...
If you're young and still have lots of empty brain cells, that works. For us older folks, limiting memorization to only what really has to be known from memory at the time the information is needed becomes necessary, so we have to sort the wheat from the chaff.
 
you might call me young, but i certainly dont feel like i have those empty brain cells. im pretty sure other stuff is falling out as i learn this.
 
wannagofishing said:
So, I'm studying for my check ride. I have the PTS, Gleim Private Flight Maneuvers and the ASA Book. I also bought the king school online "course."

What I am wondering: how similar is a check ride oral to the king school demo? It seemed so informal and easy, yet that isnt my understanding of what to expect.

has anyone both seen that and done the oral? is it that simple? seemed like a lot of stuff was not covered.

on training, i lack the instrument time and 3 hrs solo. Planning on flying plenty in the next couple of weeks and studying nightly and the last few days prior to finish by end of Jan, Lord willing.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...


If you have made a good grade on your written and have been studying the material since that time, I don't think you'll have trouble with the oral. I listened to an ASA DVD set that was good. Listened to it every day to and from work (25 minute drive) and there was hardly anything he asked me that I heard on the DVD.

For me, I didn't know the minimums for different airspace types and he went ballistic over it. I had been planning on memorizing them the night before and ran out of time.

Just read as much as you can and be ready to fly. In all the checkride write ups I've read on hear and another site for the last 9 months or so, I've only heard of one time when someone was sent home because of a lack of performance on the oral, and there was some DPE/CFI politics that seemed to be in the center of it.

The main goal of the checkride is to make sure that you are safe to carry passengers. Practice as much stuff as you can in the air.

My $0.02,
 
Back to the OP's original point -

I also used the King check ride prep, but for my IR ride. It is out of date. It is no longer a Q&A session, but instead the DPE had me plan a flight and then, based on current weather (and a weather scenario he concocted) asked questions along the line that Ron suggested. We even had a disagreement about whether the flight should be made or not. He thought it was OK, I was primed to scrub due to ceilings/wind at the destination. Below minimums for the approachs available for the favored runway due to winds. He didn't think landing with a tail wind was such a big deal. Oh well, I didn't fail due to that difference of opinion.

What was particularly useful was talking to others who had used the same DPE for their ride. Find out what he/she looks for and be prepared. Did that for my Private ride back in 2001, as well. That really helps.

Best of luck to you. Remember Capt Ron's check ride advice, especially the repeated "relax" instruction. The rule of Italian Driving, kept in the back of your head during the ride, is especially comforting.
 
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