Different Perspectives: The Checkride (part 3 of 5)

Different Perspectives is a series designed to give the varying vantage points of instructors and student pilots going through their flight training

The following is a guest post by Vincent of PlasticPilot.net

Checkrides make me nervous. I never enjoyed to have my skills examined and see any mistake pinpointed. When my PPL training was almost finished, taking the in-flight exam was not exactly something I looked forward to. What if I failed ? I did not wanted to take the checkride after a sleepless night, so I tried to rationalize the whole thing.

Any exam is a question of confidence and trust (note that both translate into the same french word “confiance”). The number of failed PPL exams in Europe is extraordinary low. In eight years I heard of one. My Instructor is also a senior examiner and confirmed that only few examinees do fail the test. Was I so different when compared to the rest of the pilot population ? Probably not. This was for confidence.

Each student pilot makes an implicit decision when starting to take lessons: putting his own life in the hands of the instructor. So that said, it sounds a bit spectcular, but it all boils down to that. As long as the student is able to fly and land by himself, surviving the return on ground depends on the instructor. What does this have to do with checkrides ? Well, if a student trusts his instructor enough to fly with, why not trust him when it comes to deciding that he’s ready for the exam?

Finally, and this applies to any exam, the role of the examiner is to check the pilot’s skills, not to fail the test by any means. It’s good to know the criterions as examinee, but focusing too much on them does not help. The best thing to do is fly as instructed, do not invent new procedures or new techniques, and let the examiner do his job.

Checkrides no longer make me nervous.

To view an instructors perspective on the checkride visit PlasticPilot.Net