Passed my Checkride!!

francisco collazos

francisco collazos

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Jun 11, 2021
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ciscovet
Well after 1.5 yr, three instructors and about 140 hrs I am finally a private pilot. If anyone has questions regarding the test, time, etc feel free to let me know.

Thanks.
 

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Congrats…and good on you to push through to get it done.
 
Perseverance! Good job.
 
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing how you pushed through and got it done. Double points for wearing that T Shirt during your check ride.
 
Congratulations!!!!!

I am envious. I have my check-ride next week. I am nervous even though I've been studying like crazy. I did really well on the written part but the check ride worries me.

Can you share any details of the exam process? Did you find any areas in which you should have prepared more/less? Anything I should focus more on a week out?
 
ahmad said:
Congratulations!!!!!

I am envious. I have my check-ride next week. I am nervous even though I've been studying like crazy. I did really well on the written part but the check ride worries me.

Can you share any details of the exam process? Did you find any areas in which you should have prepared more/less? Anything I should focus more on a week out?
Click to expand...
Sure... I think I came well prepared. I got a 95% on my written but what I did was to create a checkride folder. The folder had different sections which included all my credentials, written test score, iacra applicaton, vfr AOPA min. A performance section with landing distance and aircraft performance charts from the POH, weight and balance section that I did both manually and off of foreflight, x-cross country section where I printed the leidos standard briefing from that morning as well as navlog both manual and foreflight. I also had every airport diagram and possible diversion airports on the route along with direction of travel for each one. I already knew where he was going to divert me so that helped.

I used Jason chapphart audiobook and a book called private pilot checkride off of amazon. Between those two things is all you need. I recommend getting an app called pa28 perf or I think cessna has one as well for android or iphone. Excellent little app that gives you w&b, performance distance, Va, etc.
The DPE used foreflight so I didn't even crack the sectionals. I had about $75 in sectionals because the checkride kept getting pushed back and wanted a current sectional.
I think he saw I was really prepared and tbh skipped through a lot of things I expected him to ask. I did see him following the ACS as he checked stuff off. I knew about 95% of what he asked and at one point he said I was flying through this. One question I did get stumped on was in relation to when inop equipment that is not required as minimum equipment needs to be fixed. At one point he wanted me to calculate a diversion from sarasota airpot to an airpot near by. I can't remember the airport but he was like..ok i'll give you some time to calculate. Well I went to foreflight and used the ruler function to measure from sarasota to the airport. Well it gives you distance and time. He's like..yup good for me.

I am 100% sure that spending all that time sets the tone on how the checkride is going to go.
 
francisco collazos said:
Sure... I think I came well prepared. I got a 95% on my written but what I did was to create a checkride folder. The folder had different sections which included all my credentials, written test score, iacra applicaton, vfr AOPA min. A performance section with landing distance and aircraft performance charts from the POH, weight and balance section that I did both manually and off of foreflight, x-cross country section where I printed the leidos standard briefing from that morning as well as navlog both manual and foreflight. I also had every airport diagram and possible diversion airports on the route along with direction of travel for each one. I already knew where he was going to divert me so that helped.

I used Jason chapphart audiobook and a book called private pilot checkride off of amazon. Between those two things is all you need. I recommend getting an app called pa28 perf or I think cessna has one as well for android or iphone. Excellent little app that gives you w&b, performance distance, Va, etc.
The DPE used foreflight so I didn't even crack the sectionals. I had about $75 in sectionals because the checkride kept getting pushed back and wanted a current sectional.
I think he saw I was really prepared and tbh skipped through a lot of things I expected him to ask. I did see him following the ACS as he checked stuff off. I knew about 95% of what he asked and at one point he said I was flying through this. One question I did get stumped on was in relation to when inop equipment that is not required as minimum equipment needs to be fixed. At one point he wanted me to calculate a diversion from sarasota airpot to an airpot near by. I can't remember the airport but he was like..ok i'll give you some time to calculate. Well I went to foreflight and used the ruler function to measure from sarasota to the airport. Well it gives you distance and time. He's like..yup good for me.

I am 100% sure that spending all that time sets the tone on how the checkride is going to go.
Click to expand...


Thank you sir. I am literally reading the private pilot oral exam guide as I type. ha
I have read like 3 of those types of books and have watched many of Jason's clips on YT. Also interesting that someone else mentioned to me about how ever pilot at all levels struggle with how to deal with inop stuff.

Congrats again and thanks for sharing your experience.
 
Way to go. Showing up in that shirt was way too cool. He shoulda just done the paper work and said congratulations. No oral or flight needed.:D
 
ahmad said:
Thank you sir. I am literally reading the private pilot oral exam guide as I type. ha
I have read like 3 of those types of books and have watched many of Jason's clips on YT. Also interesting that someone else mentioned to me about how ever pilot at all levels struggle with how to deal with inop stuff.

Congrats again and thanks for sharing your experience.
Click to expand...
YW, I got the audiobook so I went out weekly on my bike and listened to the audiobook.
 
It sounds like you did a lot of preparation and it really helped. Nice job!
 
Way to stick with it! Congrats!
 
ahmad said:
Congratulations!!!!!

I am envious. I have my check-ride next week. I am nervous even though I've been studying like crazy. I did really well on the written part but the check ride worries me.

Can you share any details of the exam process? Did you find any areas in which you should have prepared more/less? Anything I should focus more on a week out?
Click to expand...
Have you read through the ACS? There are NO surprises on a checkride. Everything that you will be evaluated on is in the ACS. I just passed my instrument ride and was super nervous. It had been 7 years between my private and instrument. The whole thing went exactly according to the ACS. No surprises.
 
azpilot said:
Have you read through the ACS? There are NO surprises on a checkride. Everything that you will be evaluated on is in the ACS. I just passed my instrument ride and was super nervous. It had been 7 years between my private and instrument. The whole thing went exactly according to the ACS. No surprises.
Click to expand...


Yes. Have read it twice so far. I know the test is no surprise but I still need to remember a lot of info. Weather is my weakest link.
 
Congratulations !! Good job sticking it out !!
 
"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense."

Churchill
 
BTW - where did you get that T shirt??
 
Got to ask - did the DPE say anything?
 
Good deal ... welcome to the skies. Now the real learning begins ... :)
 
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WDD said:
Got to ask - did the DPE say anything?
Click to expand...
I came extremely prepared. I created a checkride folder with my credential, vfr min (APOA) test scores(95%) with answers to the ones I missed. Weight and balance both hand calculated and foreflight. Performance section with landing/takeoffs, and cross country with printed morning briefing along with taxi diagrams and info from the airport supplement of all airports on the route with arrows showing relative direction to flight.
He went down the ACS because I literally saw him checking off every section. I am 100% sure that set the stage for his questions and how deep he would delve in. In retrospect I knew about 95% of what he asked. He did stump me with a question regarding how long you could fly with an inop equipment that wasn't a required equipment. He asked a lot about weather but I pretty much answered all his questions.

Ironically, I had spent about $80 on charts because the checkride was pushed back. I ended up not using any but Foreflight. At one point he told me to take my time and figure out time,distance and fuel burn with a diversion from Sarasota to nearby airport. I just pinch measured on foreflight and of course it has the time and distance. told him that and he was fine with it. He told me I was flying through the oral and was just asking questions to see if he could stump me. He did stump me with some stuff regarding high/low pressure stuff. Later he told my CFI I impressed him with the oral and the fact that I was one of the very few that knew that CO poisoning causes red lips . Total time was probably about 45-hr. Never asked me about metars either.

As the flight portion started I taxied to do my run up. The day prior there was a cirrus broken down between taxiways and I had to do an intersection takeoff. Well on the way to the run up there was another plane at the right side of the runway pointed my direction. In my mind I thought the plane was broken down. I taxied to the left side and did my runup. After the checkride was complete he mentioned that I did not give that guy enough space to get by. It never crossed my mind that the guy was doing a runup into the wind.

I had flown with my cfi the prior three days to my checkride and I glad I did because it was pretty windy. That day did not disappoint and as soon as I departed there was no way to get to 2500ft because the clouds were about 1700-1900 tops. I thought he might cancel the ride but he said lets fly 1000. Ok NP and I already knew where my first checkpoint was. I made note to let him know visually were it was. After the exam he mentioned he was happy I used pilotage and that most people used the GPS. I thanked my CFI for that because he made sure I pointed that out. As the diversion happened I already knew we would be going to a particular airport but the winds were favoring an overfly of the field. I was worried because the cloud tops were too close for comfort but as I made the initial call some there stated the winds favored the left pattern entry.

The initial entry into the pattern was royally bad and I didn't compensate for the tailwind on the turn to base which caused me to overshoot final by a lot. I made the decision to go around all the while thinking this guy is going to fail me. Did a standard landing which was ok then followed up by a soft field take off and landing. I took about half of the 3500 ft runway to land and at that point he said lets use the other runway because it looks like you had a tailwind. Of course in my mind i'm thinking..more like I came in too fast but I digress. He wanted me to do a short field takeoff and landing and this was really worrying me because I was batting .500 on those. As soon as we departed he said just do the short field at the home airport and I was relieved because BKV is like 7000x150. I recommended we head off to the west over the water to get better weather for the maneuvers.

The maneuvers went fine and I did get a tad too slow on one of the steep turns but happened to just make it around. ( he mentioned that in the debrief). No issues with stalls or turns around a point. The unusual attitudes were a little rough due to the bumpiness but after those we went back to the airport. The short field was great and after I hit the point I expressed a THANK GOD and he laughed. Went back up and did a slip to land. I knew I passed because that was the last maneuver and he didn't say I failed.

Couple of things he mentioned. One was the changing of the fuel tanks in the 180. My cfi taught me to change fuel tanks every 15 min along with scanning the instruments and gauges. I would usually do the runup, change the tank and reset the timer. He told me I was setting myself up for problems. He liked my discipline but said that changing to the other tank and taking off was a bad Idea and in retrospect he was right. He said I was task saturating myself.

I was taught to aim for the numbers and flare to the 1000 foot markers for the short field but he said I got lucky and real world experience said that most likely I wouldn't be flying into a runway shorter than 2000 ft so no need to flare so early. All in all he was a great guy and very fair. I saw him making notes and checking off boxes. TBH that was probably the windiest day I flew and normally would not be flying but I happened to do it and it gave me a lot more confidence. The winds after landing were gusting 17-19kt. I'm happy I got to fly that day.
 
Did he like the shirt?
 
Which one was your regular shirt ? :D
 
francisco collazos said:
Well after 1.5 yr, three instructors and about 140 hrs I am finally a private pilot. If anyone has questions regarding the test, time, etc feel free to let me know.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
CONGRATS!!!
Go have fun punching hole in the clouds:)
 
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