Flight Training - January/February 2025 - 22

PREFLIGHT CHECKRIDE 101
BY NATALIE BINGHAM HOOVER
ARE THEY CHECKRIDE READY?
SET YOUR STUDENTS UP FOR SUCCESS
HERE'S A QUESTION I GET ASKED ALL THE
time: " How do I know if my student is
ready to pass their checkride? " As a flight
instructor, you invest all your time and
energy into this dear student for months
on end, and on checkride day, you want
them to do well. Most of us would rather
just take the practical exam for our students
if we could. Unfortunately, there's
no failsafe way to know for sure that your
students will be successful on their first
attempt. But here are some things you can
do to get pretty darn close.
Review the airman certification standards
with every one of your students.
(I'm not talking about what they call
teaching the test. Students who only learn
what they think will be on the checkride
will not be prepared for real-world
flying.) I am advising going through the
standards, task by task, and making sure
YOU CAN CERTAINLY HELP
MITIGATE STRESS-RELATED
PERFORMANCE ISSUES
BY MAKING SURE YOUR
STUDENT EXPERIENCES THAT
NERVOUS FEELING BEFORE
CHECKRIDE DAY.
your students understand exactly what is
expected on checkride day.
A student may be very skilled and
knowledgeable and still be unsuccessful
because something fell through the cracks
during the training process. For example,
I've had several applicants balk when I
ask them to perform a turning stall. " A
turning stall? " they ask. " I've never done
one of those before. " I've also had applicants
land thousands of feet long on the
normal landing task. Did you know the
ACS calls for a landing within 400 feet of
the specified point? A simple review of the
ACS would have prevented these types of
checkride day surprises.
Do multiple mock checkrides with your
students. Once you believe your student
to be ready, go on two or three separate
flights and play the role of examiner. You
are not allowed to teach on these flights.
It will be difficult, I know, because even
as an examiner, I still have a hard time
avoiding teaching. Whenever something
comes up during the flight that you want
to address, write it down and discuss it
in the debrief. Obviously, if something is
unsafe, then you should speak up. This
probably means your student needs more
training.
Your notes will consist of things
such as, forgot clearing turns, did not
do an after-landing checklist, landed
off the center line for the short field.
Hopefully each time you fly, your list
gets shorter and shorter until you
eventually know your student is ready
for the big day. He or she will not be
perfect during these flights just as they
will not be perfect on checkride day.
But they should absolutely be able to
catch their own mistakes and make
corrections accordingly.
Send them with someone else. Once
you've reviewed the ACS and done the
mock checkrides yourself, it's time
to send your student up with another
instructor. You can have the strongest
applicant in the world who still chokes
on checkride day because they just don't
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FLIGHT TRAINING JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2025
handle pressure well. Anxiety is a powerful
foe. As an examiner, I understand
that most of the people I meet aren't
flying their absolute best because they're
too nervous to think straight. I once had
another examiner explain it this way to
me. " You may cut your grass every day.
You're so good at it that you can make
those Yankee stadium diagonal lines in
your yard and never miss a single blade
of grass. But put an examiner next to you
on that riding lawnmower, and you're
going to miss a whole foot-tall row of
grass. " The FAA knows this and does not
demand perfection in the standards. But
you can certainly help mitigate stress-related
performance issues by making sure
your student experiences that nervous
feeling before checkride day.
Performing under pressure is absolutely
something that people can learn
to do if they practice it enough. It's also
a required skill for pilots. Just ask any
aviator if they've experienced distracting
levels of stress when the crosswind
picks up in flight, or the engine runs
rough, or, or, or.... Sending your students
up with another instructor does something
else helpful: it gives you a second
set of eyes. Maybe that instructor will
catch an error you've been missing. Or if
the flight goes great, then your student
will have an extra bit of confidence
going into checkride day knowing that
not one, but two instructors thought
they were ready.
I hope you're seeing here that checkride
day is not something that can be
rushed. One good training flight right
before the appointment with the examiner
does not mean your student is ready. Doing
all these things takes time, but it will help
ensure the best possible outcome: a student
who is both confident and prepared
on checkride day. That's as close as you're
going to get to guaranteeing success.
NATALIE BINGHAM HOOVER began flying in
2004. After corporate and airline work, she
now serves as an FAA designated examiner
and chief instructor of a flight school in
Mississippi.
Flight Training - January/February 2025

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