subject: Your Private Pilot Checkride [print this page] If you ask every student pilot what makes him anxious the most, you'll find that most of them will tell you that it's the private pilot checkride. There could be some nervousness in takeoffs and landings but once one has gotten the hang of it, it's just something routine that they do. With the private pilot checkride, however, an understandable amount of anxiety is generated. After all, the private pilot checkride is the one standing between a student pilot and his private pilot certificate.
Though the feelings of nervousness towards the private pilot checkride are perfectly normal, they can also be your ticket to doom. If you give in to these feelings, then you heighten the chances that you won't pass your private pilot checkride. You have to get rid of them so that you instead increase your chances of passing the checkride and get that private pilot certificate that you deserve. So how can one take care of these feelings so they won't be that bothersome?
Mix Study With Some R&R
In response to these feelings of anxiety, student pilots tend to study real hard for the written exam and the checkride. While that is a good thing, too much can be counterproductive. When you study more than you could handle, you'd start cramming. Cramming is not what you want to experience, as it will cause you to not assimilate information that you have been studying thus putting your efforts to waste.
So the ideal way to review for the private pilot exam and checkride is to put in some intervals of rest between studying. By doing this, you will avoid over-exerting your brain and maximize the amount of information that you can memorize in preparation for that test.
Start Early on The Day of Your Checkride
All flights require prior planning, and your checkride is not an exception. This means that, on the day of your checkride, you have to get the necessary information ready a few hours before the checkride is to take place. You have to procure the information from the appropriate sources and use it to plan your flight, so you do have to be up early for this.
Preparedness is a big factor in the FAA Examiner's decision to whether or not give you a passing grade. Having a checklist would be a good idea, because you'd have a list to refer to. That way, you can double check your inventory and make sure that nothing has been left behind.
