I was able to schedule my checkride today! Here's hoping I only have to reschedule it a max of six or seven times before it actually works...
I've got a little over a month to finish preparing, which is very scary and very exciting. I've got the ASA guide, the PHAK/AFH, FAR/AIM, the POH for the Archer I fly, and the ACS (parts that are pertinent to ASEL) that I'm attempting to synthesize into a schedule of sorts so I don't forget about a subject area or run out of time to study. Anyone have tips or tricks for studying/prepping for the checkride?
I did my PPL check ride in early March (upper Midwest, where March comes in like a lion, then gets drunk and eats all the lambs) and didn't have to reschedule it due to weather, so you just never know. It could actually happen as scheduled.
Did the examiner give you a cross-country flight to plan already? Talk to others who have taken check rides with the same examiner and you may get some tips on specific things he will focus on more than others. There could be a tiny little restricted area that he wants to see if you catch or not, and if you don't often fly in the area or direction of the cross-country flight plan you could miss it. Ask how I know.
Regardless of getting tips from others who have gone before you, be sure you can explain every decision you make in your flight plan. Did you plan to follow airways or go direct? Why did you make that choice? Examiners know there's more than one way to skin a cat, they just want to be sure you can articulate why you chose the way you did and what alternatives you considered.
Every conversation you have about flying is a mock oral exam on some level. For example, I was at an airport in Iowa waiting out some weather, doing some hangar flying with another pilot who happened to wander through the FBO, and we disagreed on whether you have to wear parachutes when you are receiving dual instruction and performing spins at a time when you are not specifically training for the flight instructor certificate. The oral portion of the check ride is basically just a long conversation between you and a very experienced pilot, about flying. What's not to like about that?
Make sure that you, your logbook, the plane, and the plane's logbooks are all ready for the check ride. The annual and, if needed, 100-hour signoffs on the plane need to address ADs and the ELT. You can use the AVIATES mnemonic if you want, but I personally hate it since it would have to be in l33tspeak to work out: AV1AATES. Do you have every required signature from your instructor for solo flight, solo cross country flight, etc.? Do you have an endorsement to fly solo cross-country home from the check ride if it is not at your home airport, as a Plan B in case you do not possess a temporary airman certificate at the end of the check ride? (Better to have it and not need it...) Again, ask how I know.
Every time you fly from now to the check ride, use a written check list for everything. I mean it, everything. After engine start, run-up, tooth-brushing. Don't tolerate any sloppiness in your procedures. And try doing your preflight inspection check list with distractions, like an inquisitive friend that you have to explain everything to. The examiner will catch things you miss, even if the only reason you missed them was because you got caught up in explaining something else to the examiner.
Do not give in to any examiner-related pressure to skip a step. "You did a preflight before you came inside for the oral, right? Let's just fly already!" at the beginning of the check ride can turn into a for-real dead-stick landing at the end of it, in the hands of a particularly cruel examiner. (The war story I base this on is from ~30 years ago and not likely to happen in the modern era, but that doesn't make the point any less valid.)
Do not assume you have passed or failed until the plane is secured at the end of the flight. The ACS talks about post-flight procedures, so "good work, taxi over to the office and set the parking brake!" at the end of the check ride could be a trap to see if you let excitement about finishing the ride get in the way of tying the plane down and making sure it came back in one piece. Maybe it inconveniences the examiner or feels awkward, but take your time on this to do it right all the way to the end. Don't walk away from the airplane in any condition other than how you'd trust it to ride out a thunderstorm overnight.
And, no matter what happens, fly the airplane. Maybe your steep turns sucked today. Maybe you forgot to set the DG before takeoff. Maybe you tripped on the tie-down rope and broke your nose at the beginning of the check ride. Everything that has already happened is in the past, which you cannot change, so put it out of your mind and fly the airplane. You can beat yourself up all you want after the test, but don't even think about it during the test. I don't know how much discretion examiners have, but I suspect that an applicant who flies the airplane all the way to the tiedown without letting a past mistake compound itself can earn 5 knots here and 20 feet there outside the ACS standards. And even if I'm wrong, would you rather have to go back to fly a few steep turns and nothing else, or go back and do the entire check ride again because you let your steep turn mistake also ruin your emergency landing site selection, short-field landing, check list use in the pattern, etc.?
