Tag: failure

Overcoming Checkride Anxiety – 14 ways to reduce your fears + GA News


Everyone feels nervous to some extent when they go for a checkride, so we share 14 ways to reduce your anxiety before and during a checkride. Checkride anxiety applies to student pilots in particular because it’s your first checkride. But it also applies to all pilots who think that someday they’ll go for an instrument, or maybe a multiengine, seaplane, glider, Commercial, ATP, or CFI checkride. Professional pilots working for a Part 135 charter company or an airline, also have to periodically be rechecked.

Here’s a brief summary of the 14 ways to reduce your nervousness about a checkride. Note: You’ll hear far more details about each one in the podcast.

  1. If possible, meet the examiner ahead of time.
  2. Clear the deck for at least a week before the checkride.
  3. Do whatever it takes to guarantee that you get a decent amount of sleep the night before the checkride.
  4. Make sure you have all of your paperwork in order.
  5. Become intimately familiar with the ACS oral section,
  6. Use a study guide like the ASA Private Oral Exam guide to help you prepare for the oral.
  7. Do a mock checkride with your instructor or another flight instructor.
  8. If there’s a gouge available, a report that someone has written about their checkride with your examiner, see if you can find it and read it ahead of time.
  9. Don’t get upset if you make some mistakes on your last flight before the checkride.
  10. Prepare for a long day; bring some food!
  11. When you walk in for your checkride, exhibit confidence, but not cockiness.
  12. Know that it’s OK to tell the DPE a joke.
  13. If you start getting nervous, and feel you’re not doing well, ask for a timeout.
  14. Go into the checkride with just the tiniest bit of indifference or apathy, so you won’t be too upset if you don’t pass.

Click here for the listener survey. Tell us what flight planning tools you use when planning a longer flight.

Please visit my new Patreon page and make a contribution to help me with my goal of improving the AviationNewsTalk.com website.

You can Dictate a listener question from your phone and I’ll try to answer it on a future show, or send an email.

News Stories

The CAA has launched a survey for GA pilots flying in U.K. airspace in an effort to encourage ADS-B usage by the flying community. The survey seeks information on the types of devices already used by private pilots and the devices they would prefer to use.

Unstable Approach Definition and Private Pilot Tips for How to Fly a Stable Approach + GA News


You’ve undoubtedly heard of a stabilized approach and know it’s helpful to have one prior to landing. But many pilots don’t know all of the elements of a stabilized approach, or the potential expense of an unstable approach. Last year, two pilots I know dug deep into their wallets to pay for damage resulting from landings that followed unstable approaches. Both considered going around, but didn’t. The pilots of an IFR charter fight into Akron, Ohio in November 2015 weren’t so lucky; everyone died after their unstable approach.

So what is a stabilized approach, and why does it matter? Cirrus Aircraft’s Flight Operations Manual gives a good description. It says: “A stabilized approach is characterized by a constant angle and constant rate of descent approach profile ending near the touch-down point. Stabilized approach criteria apply to all approaches including practice power-off approaches.“ It goes on to say that for VFR landings, an “approach is considered stabilized when all of the following criteria are achieved by 500′ AGL:

  • Proper airspeed,
  • Correct flight path,
  • Correct aircraft configuration for phase of flight,
  • Appropriate power setting for aircraft configuration,
  • Normal angle and rate of descent,
  • Only minor corrections are required to correct deviations.

A go-around must be executed if the above conditions are not met, and the aircraft is not stabilized by 500′ AGL.” This episode contains lots of tips to help you consistently fly stable approaches every time you fly the traffic pattern, including tips for long, straight-in approaches, which often lead to unstable approaches.

Click here for the listener survey. Tell us what flight planning tools you use when planning a longer flight.

Please visit my new Patreon page and make a contribution to help me with my goal of improving the AviationNewsTalk.com website.

You can Dictate a listener question from your phone and I’ll try to answer it on a future show, or send an email.

News Stories