Normal Checkride Stories?

SkyChaser

SkyChaser

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SkyChaser
Since I'm (hopefully) taking my checkride in about three weeks, reading about crazy checkrides is about the equivalent of reading ghost stories before a moonlit walk in the cemetary at midnight. :p

Anyone have normal, "boring" checkride stories they care to share? (Those do exist, right?!)
 
Took a checkride.
Had fun. Learned some things. Made the examiner laugh when I (eventually) realized I'd forgotten to retract the flaps after demonstrating slow flight.
Passed.

You'll be fine.
 
My ppl check ride was great. It was over 20 years ago, and I aced it. The examiner (I don’t remember if they were called dpe’s back then or something else) said I aced it, but then gave me a warning to not get cocky just because I didn’t make any mistakes. I was young and definitely cocky, so it was good advice.

My instrument check ride was just a few years ago and it was good, and I did manage one pretty good mistake (I got distracted in a hold and flew my outbound leg for about two minutes, instead of the expected one minute leg), but the DPE just asked something like “you in a hold or are you going somewhere?” I turned back in bound and all was well again.

If you are prepared it’s a piece of cake.
 
Mine was uneventful. The weather was good, so it took place on the first day we had scheduled for it. No surprises, she asked me to do just what I'd been told by my instructor and the PTS to expect her to ask me to do. I did what I was trained to do, and apparently managed to keep everything within acceptable standards, so I was granted my license to learn. Ho-hum.

OK, it was all tremendously exciting to me; the secret is to make it a 'boring', or at least an unremarkable, checkride for the DPE. And that's what you've trained for; you'll do fine.
 
From the other side of the table, most are indeed "normal." One thing that would be truly rare ("crazy" per your terminology) is a perfect performance. That has never happened, nor will it ever happen. Everyone stumbles on something at some point, exceeds tolerances slightly, or gets a bit behind the airplane. That is the definition of normal. The good news is the ACS allows for this to a reasonable point.

Ground portion: know where to look things up if you don't know the answer. Keep your answers simple and to the point. Flight portion: ADM, Risk Management, traffic scanning/collision avoidance, situational awareness and good common "horse sense" are at a premium. A perfect steep turn or a greaser of a soft field landing are certainly nice to behold, but don't move the needle much compared to the other considerations mentioned.

Good luck!
 
I GAVE one... Safe for solo advanced strike, A-4s. One of several options was a stuck throttle. 86-88 percent n1, RTB, figure it out, land successfully.

The students know all our tricks, coming up with ANYTHING new was a challenge. Out of nowhere, I think of one, I surge his motor between 86 and 88 continuously... a small change but I figured it would make him have to troubleshoot a little more... what ev...

He melted down. Completely!! He quit talking, quit navigating and then flying!! I’m just sitting there surging his throttle, pleased with myself but now a little worried I’ve gone too far....

Then it happened. He started flying, applies stuck throttle procedures, starts navigating and eventually talking. BEAUTIFUL!!

RTB, great results, we knock out all one million required landings and go debrief. He’s quiet as a mouse. Before we start he starts apologizing, he thinks he’s let me down. I correct him. Explained how he lost all his mud but managed to fix it all with perfect priorities and with great success, I couldn’t be more proud of him.

I had zero question that when the unexpected happens to him some day, he’ll do great! THAT is the goal of training.

He slowly but surely got it. We had a great relationship throughout the rest of his training.

Tools
 
Surprisingly, my CFI ride was one of the relaxing ones. I went with a DPE and the oral was only like 2.5 hours. I think overall, I was done in 4 hours. My ATP/initial type was also a breeze.
 
SkyChaser said:
Since I'm (hopefully) taking my checkride in about three weeks, reading about crazy checkrides is about the equivalent of reading ghost stories before a moonlit walk in the cemetary at midnight. :p

Anyone have normal, "boring" checkride stories they care to share? (Those do exist, right?!)
Click to expand...

Yes they do. Just ain’t as fun to talk about. I wish you much boredom on yours
 
The only thing that was abnormal about my private checkride was that I was sure I failed it (didn't know you had to be told right away). The end of my ride went something like this:

EXAMINER: You should go up and practice your touch and goes.
ME: They don't let us do touch and goes solo.
EXAMINER: That's for the students, you've got your private now.

My instrument rating test was never in doubt. It was actually fun even though it was a gusty day. Fly through the oral, burn through the PTS tasks, land, shake hands, get temporary license.

EXAMINER: Wow, this is a really old certificate I'm sorry that we have to take your old license
ME: No problem, that's not my original one. I have my first one clipped to the back of my first logbook. This is a dupe I got when I changed my address.
 
I did my PP-ASEL a little over twenty years ago now, and passed first try. All I can say is don't give up -- keep flying through the test as though you're still in the game, even if you think you've failed. My DPE was severe and ex-military, and barked and yelled and fumed and asked pointed questions, etc. the entire time, to the point I started thinking why the hell am I even bothering with this? I've failed... On the last landing -- a short field landing -- he said something like "If there'd been a real 50' hill where I said there was back there we'd both be dead now!" (his headset didn't seem to work very well and I misheard what he asked for).

Then as we're taxiing in to the FBO with me feeling miserable, he turns to me with a big (and quite genuine) smile and congratulates me on a successful checkride! Jeckyl and Hyde, for sure — back in the FBO he was gracious and thoughtful and even (almost) funny. He said bits of the flight were a bit rough, but I was basically safe and in charge, etc., and he had no hesitation in signing me off. What a lesson...

My instrument checkride was a lot easier and relaxed, and I passed it first time too, despite getting into an argument with the DPE about how to set up the GPS (this was fairly early days for GPS approaches). He took losing the argument well :).
 
I earned my PPL in 1974. Apparently that was sooo long ago the last of the dinosaurs were still grazing between the runways and my trainer was a wood and fabric biplane...at least that's what Mrs GRG55 tells our friends.

I just remember it was completely cloudy and a light rain was falling. I'd never flown in rain. All I could think of going through my head over and over again was something about runway illusions with raindrops on the windshield. Darned if could remember exactly what it was though.

Test was uneventful, but on the final approach I was so paranoid about screwing up the landing because of "the elusive illusion" I was concentrating hard and stopped hearing anything the examiner was saying to me. Even when he apparently told me I had passed, on rollout. He thought it was funny when I didn't show any response at all.
 
Pitot static tube was frozen despite the heat “working”. Had to literally abort the take off at the very beginning of my check so we could go back to the ramp. Went back to the ramp and turned on the pitot heat again which subsequently popped. Thought my day was over but instead went in and asked to have the school’s mechanic diagnose and/or fix. Awesome way to start.

Tube was cleaned out and I started my check again....

The good news: Not only did I pass the checkride soon after but my ADM skills were complimented since I acted like PIC that day- wait, I WAS PIC that day! :)
 
Took mine in 1990. About 1/2 hour checking paperwork. About 1/2 hour oral exam. Flight exam was exactly 1 hour on the hobbs. He took me back to my home drome to do landings. The only thing I messed up bad was I landed hard on the soft field. He let me do it again and I greased it. Taxied up to the FBO a bunch of the local guys were waiting around and finally one of them asked if I passed and he said yes. Said I could drive him back to the class C airport (about a 35 minute drive) to save the money. I was happy to not have more chances to mess up. :D

Sadly the DPE died in a twin crash coming out of maintenance several years later.
 
My PPL checkride was uneventful - the only hitch was the short field landing. DPE asked me to hit the numbers, had only ever practiced hitting the touchdown zone. Had to go around on the first attempt but nailed it on the second attempt. When we were done he said he thought I would have made it on the first attempt.
 
On my private, I thought the DPE said get it STOPPED within 200'. Had a nice headwind, so I did. (152). He asked why I got on the brakes so hard. I said, "you said get it stopped within 200' of the numbers." He laughed and said, "no, touchdown within 200' of the numbers."

We both laughed, I passed.
 
Private - DPE was in his 80's and was a super interesting guy. His wife called halfway through the oral and asked what he wanted her to bring him for lunch. After he said a sandwich, she asked if I wanted a sandwich too. Passed no problem.

Instrument - Getting ready to takeoff out of a non-towered field with good weather. DPE said to act like I was flying an instrument flight out of that field. I took off and he said what about getting an IFR clearance. I said I the weather is nice and radio reception on the ground stinks. I'm getting a pop-up clearance...passed

Commercial - Wore the monkey suit to checkride with same DPE from Instrument ride. Sweated a fair amount in the said monkey suit...passed
 
cmsuav8r said:
Private - DPE was in his 80's and was a super interesting guy. His wife called halfway through the oral and asked what he wanted her to bring him for lunch. After he said a sandwich, she asked if I wanted a sandwich too. Passed no problem.

Instrument - Getting ready to takeoff out of a non-towered field with good weather. DPE said to act like I was flying an instrument flight out of that field. I took off and he said what about getting an IFR clearance. I said I the weather is nice and radio reception on the ground stinks. I'm getting a pop-up clearance...passed

Commercial - Wore the monkey suit to checkride with same DPE from Instrument ride. Sweated a fair amount in the said monkey suit...passed
Click to expand...

What's the dress code for Commercial?
 
I'd say my beechjet type ride has been my only normal checkride maybe my 135 145 type as well. Everything else has been kinda weird with dpe's just sort of making it up. Combining short/soft field landings in one, skipping maneuvers on my multi, an IFR oral that you will fail unless you have the gouge, a cfi ride that got so far into aerodynamics navier stokes flow turning stagnation point etc got pulled out . (dpe apparently wanted you to know that the FAAs version of lift is totally wrong) (dpe was aeronautical engineer)

I'd say both my type rides have been pretty straightforward with no gotchas or examiner idiosyncrasies. Know limitations, memory items, a bit of system knowledge and dont butcher the flight
 
My commercial asel checkride I was super prepared for. I thought over prepared. Examiner said my eights on pylons were some of the best. And when I did my last landing, the power-off 180, I nailed it, touched down right where x marked the spot. I may have let out an enthusiastic expletive. The examiner told me after that he was sure I was going to be long.
 
1978, near Toronto, I was 18, Cessna 172.
The examiner was a serious, stiff upper lip Brit, with the accent to go with it. A Winston Churchill look-alike.
He had me on edge before we got there because I knew his reputation for being tough.
And, I've always had some stage-fright.
I can't remember most of the checkride but one of the first things he asked for was a short field landing over 50 foot (simulated) trees. I nailed the approach and hit 50' pretty close, had the airspeed exactly where it was needed. However, I was sweating bullets thanks to my performance anxiety.

For some reason I failed to check our descent properly, and viciously slammed the mains onto the runway. The landing gear splayed outwards. The fuselage groaned. Our heads jerked forward with the impact, and I think I recall seeing his jowls flap forward, out of the corner of my eye. I briefly wondered if he would take control.
There we were, 20' above the runway with no airspeed. In the air but not flying.
Perfect, physical proof of my inability to control a flying machine, at the very moment when I was supposed to be demonstrating the opposite. Clocks stopped. Heads turned skyward, wondering what was about to happen. Dogs hid behind trash cans, nervously peaking out at us; the unusual sight of an airplane hovering stationary above the runway. There was time to pull out cameras and snap photos.
Instinctively (It had to be instinctively because I was out of functioning brain cells by this point)......I firewalled it.

The stunned airplane staggered, the wings begging for some air over them. Somehow,... the air came. The 172 very gradually moved out of the state of "1800 lbs of metal and plastic suspended precariously over asphalt" to a moving machine. Ground effect saved me. I stayed in it and we gained a little airspeed. Soon we had enough energy to start climbing. Now I was soaked in sweat, and knew I'd flunked. Winston said nothing. I think he was testing his limbs to see if his neck was broken. We climbed away like nothing happened; the airplane completely forgave this violent indiscretion. I relaxed a little, got the air vent going on me. Winston (his real name was Ken Trone) said, "Nice recovery" and we continued with, and completed the checkride.
 
My Citation 500 type rating/one-week school. At that time you HAD to do your first jet type in the airplane......not a sim.

Except, the first morning 3 airline pilots also showed up. They had no interest in the Citation, the airline JUST wanted a cheap first jet TR so they could get their second in the B-727 simulator.

It turned out that all four of us got the rating that first day. Memorize the RED in the emergency checklist...............jump in the plane. It was over about 3 AM the next morning.

The school was a little embarrassed in the "quick school" and offered at LearJet rating at a discount.............but I went to Flight Safety for that one.
 
FancyG said:
What's the dress code for Commercial?
Click to expand...
This DPE was particular about dressing the part for the "professional" rides. I had a shirt/tie with a sport coat. Definitely just shorts/polo for the other rides though.
 
My checkride was so boring...
That I fell asleep...
Luckily I had engaged the ILS-coupled autopilot before nodding off...
I came back into awareness on short final...
And made a squeaker of a landing...
On the wrong runway...
The Examiner never noticed.:cheers:...
YMMV.

(as told by the author of "Absolute Truths and Other Lies)
 
I have two. First was my multi commerical checkride. Sat down to do the oral, the first question is a basic one about weight and balance. My brain completely locked up. The examiner said he was going to leave me alone with the far/aim while he got a cup of coffee. Managed to get my brain back in gear and the rest of the checkride was uneventful.

Taking my Challenger 605 type rating checkride, I was informed the morning of that there would be an faa guy riding along. Stress level max, but I'm glad they didn't tell me earlier, I'd have been worrying about it way too much. Turns out the faa guy and the check airman were friends who hadn't seen each other in a while. They chatted for a while, and the FAA guy fell asleep during my oral. Once we got in the sim, the check airman and the FAA continued their conversation as I did my manuouvers. Was a complete non event.
 
Private check ride with FAA dude. The school I was flying at was getting checked to retain their Examining authority so they sent me. The guy spent as much, maybe more time checking the plane out then he did on the oral with me. The ride was easy. Just did things like I had been doing all along during training. He threw in a curve with unusual attitude recovery. Was under the hood, said my plane, put your head down. He maneuvers up down left right for awhile then says your plane. I don’t remember what it was I felt like but when I looked up I was straight and level. I said something, he said you’d be surprised how many react to what they feel. Next came engine failure, he pulls the throttle. I done good. Pitched to VG, trimmed, got the checklist out and checklisted. I dazzled him with all my checking for clues which way the wind was blowin down there, checking for power lines and fences and stuff. Picked a spot and said I’m landing there. He says ok, put the power back in and let’s go home. He then says I think I would have landed at that airport there and points. Yup I was in easy gliding distance to a 5000 foot runway. After landing I said I can’t believe I missed that. He just chuckled and said “I’m batting over 500 on that one.”
 
How can there be a normal checkride story when there are no normal pilots? Anyway, here's mine.....

So there I was, flat on my back and only a few feet off the ground. Then the alarm went off and I had to roll out of bed. Checkride day! We had completed the oral more than a month before but couldn't fly due to high winds, so today would be flying only. I got to the airport a bit early, re-checked the weather, and updated my flight plan.

When the DPE arrived, he asked me if we were okay to fly. I told him that if we were planning to actually make the planned flight, no we weren't, due to convective weather near the destination. But if we were just going to the first or second checkpoint, given that this was a checkride, we should be fine. He agreed and we went out to preflight the plane.

During the preflight he asked me quite a few questions about the plane, a Tecnam P92. He wanted to know why I had to hand-turn the prop to "burp" the engine, and then I had to explain about a dry sump oiling system. I also had to explain about a gear-driven prop, and several other Rotax and LSA peculiarities.

Before starting the flight, he briefed me on what we would do. He told me, "Sometime during the flight you'll have an emergency. I expect you to run your emergency checklist, pick a landing site, and set up for a landing. I'll have you break off the landing once we're below 500'."

For our first take-off at X04 he asked me to do a short field. We then turned on course for the XC. We didn't quite make it all the way to my first checkpoint. When it was in sight, I told him, "Looks like we're pretty much on course. There's our first checkpoint a few minutes ahead." He asked how I was certain about the time, I pointed to the the timer on the panel that I had started, and he said "Fine. Looks like there's some bad weather up ahead, so divert to KLAL." I got us onto the new course, and then he said, "Well, you've gotten into some clouds. My controls. Put on your foggles." We then did some instrument maneuvers and a couple of unusual attitudes.

After that, we did some airwork (stalls, steep turns, etc.), and then as we were cruising back toward X04 he suddenly shouted, "FIRE! FIRE! Your engine is on fire!" I went through the procedure while putting us into a steep spiral, noting that the Orlando North airport was close by. I came out of the spiral on the downwind for the airport, a little bit high but in pretty good shape. As I turned us onto base, I asked, "Do you still want me to break off, or should I just go ahead and land it since we have an airport handy?" He replied, "Go ahead and land if you can," and then he chuckled. Okay, challenge accepted! I was high on final, dropped in my last bit of flaps, and then put the plane into a hard slip. I came out of the slip with us heading for a spot on the runway a few hundred feet past the numbers, continued down, flared, and greased her on as sweet as can be. The DPE said, "Great job! Very well done! I'll give you credit for a slip to a landing on that one, as well."

We taxied back, did a soft field takeoff, then a soft field landing, took off and did a short field landing, then headed back to X04. Gusting crosswinds are typical at X04 and this day was no exception, but I set it down okay and the plane was reusable.

Done. Total flight time according to my log was only 1 hour.

I suspect he might have wanted to see me fly more of the XC route, and the diversion route, if I hadn't already been a SP and flying for a while. I don't think he was too worried about my ability to follow a route.

I took SWMBO out that evening for a nice steak dinner to celebrate. Then on the following Monday I drove out to the flight school, gave my CFI a coupon for dinner for two at a steak place, and dropped off two cases of good beer for the rest of the flight school crew.
 
Last edited:
Let'sgoflying! said:
1978, near Toronto, I was 18, Cessna 172.
The examiner was a serious, stiff upper lip Brit, with the accent to go with it. A Winston Churchill look-alike.
He had me on edge before we got there because I knew his reputation for being tough.
And, I've always had some stage-fright.
I can't remember most of the checkride but one of the first things he asked for was a short field landing over 50 foot (simulated) trees. I nailed the approach and hit 50' pretty close, had the airspeed exactly where it was needed. However, I was sweating bullets thanks to my performance anxiety.

For some reason I failed to check our descent properly, and viciously slammed the mains onto the runway. The landing gear splayed outwards. The fuselage groaned. Our heads jerked forward with the impact, and I think I recall seeing his jowls flap forward, out of the corner of my eye. I briefly wondered if he would take control.
There we were, 20' above the runway with no airspeed. In the air but not flying.
Perfect, physical proof of my inability to control a flying machine, at the very moment when I was supposed to be demonstrating the opposite. Clocks stopped. Heads turned skyward, wondering what was about to happen. Dogs hid behind trash cans, nervously peaking out at us; the unusual sight of an airplane hovering stationary above the runway. There was time to pull out cameras and snap photos.
Instinctively (It had to be instinctively because I was out of functioning brain cells by this point)......I firewalled it.

The stunned airplane staggered, the wings begging for some air over them. Somehow,... the air came. The 172 very gradually moved out of the state of "1800 lbs of metal and plastic suspended precariously over asphalt" to a moving machine. Ground effect saved me. I stayed in it and we gained a little airspeed. Soon we had enough energy to start climbing. Now I was soaked in sweat, and knew I'd flunked. Winston said nothing. I think he was testing his limbs to see if his neck was broken. We climbed away like nothing happened; the airplane completely forgave this violent indiscretion. I relaxed a little, got the air vent going on me. Winston (his real name was Ken Trone) said, "Nice recovery" and we continued with, and completed the checkride.
Click to expand...

I have been laughing at this for two days straight now, thanks. :D
 
Thinking back to my checkride and other than the Baron calling "downwind" from 3 miles on the other side of the airport, I can't think of anything unusual.

We talked a lot about flying, weather, sectionals, airspace, etc. It was good and I learned some things.

We took off and started a cross country, complete ego air. I picked out my first two way points visually, then got a divert to a nearby class C. Indicated the general direction and then looked up and saw it about 15 miles away, distance verified using my quick rule of thumb (my thumb is about 5 miles on a sectional).

We moved into maneuvers, I did left and right 45 degree turns and lost about 20'. Slow flight and stalls came next, back then we did full stalls. I demonstrated the power on stall at about 80% power since it's unlikely the 160 hp PA-28 would have stalled with 35 gallons and a light DPE. Unusual attitude recovery and simulated IFR was demonstrated. The throttle was pulled and I glided to a field and at about 500', we bugged out and went back to the airport.

Said Baron got me a little off on entering the pattern since I couldn't find him, DPE said he was giving Baron drivers a bad name and asked if knew how to slip. I described it but didn't think anything more about it. Apparently though it was already obvious that I was out of position because I wound up high on final, but slipped in and touched down on the 1000' marker. We did a couple more special T/O and landings and ended at 1.01 hours.

See, boring. I'd be surprised if you actually read through all that.

Big piece of advice I can think to offer is to remember that you aren't performing for the DPE, you're just flying. Ignore that it's a checkride (yeah, right) and just fly.
 
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