Things YOU Can do To Make the Checkride Smoother for Your DPE (and you)

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Practical Test (checkride) day is stressful enough. Any number of things can make it easier or make you more prepared, but as you do get ready, there are a few things many FAA Designated Pilot Examiners (DPEs) have noticed that applicants and their instructors could do to make the day easier for your DPE and as a result, you!

Here are a few that are worth sharing to help you get a jump on the day and make it easier.

Clearly Identify All Required Flight Time Experience.

Scrounging through an applicant’s logbook for those missing couple of hours of cross country flight time, trying to see if particular cross country flights meet requirements for a particular rating or certificate, or making sense of how much time an applicant has logged in simulated or actual instrument time can be challenging. In reality, it is up to the applicant and the CFI to make sure that they are sending a “qualified” applicant to the DPE. The DPE must ensure the applicant meets the required aeronautical experience for a particular rating or certificate as the FARs dictate. If a DPE is unable to clearly identify that an applicant meets those requirements, they won’t proceed. I know personally, I have likely sent applicants home without starting a practical test who may have actually been qualified but due to having a disorganized logbook were unable to demonstrate that they met all the requirements. If it helps, create a separate log of the specific experience requirements for the rating or certificate you will be testing. Don’t just hope the examiner can find what you did and that it will meet the requirements, show up ready and able to show exactly why and how you have met all those requirements to ensure you will be moving forward to the actual test on checkride day. Continue reading →

UPDATED Data – How Much Time to Become a “XXX” Pilot…

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Continuing the effort to track “how much time it becomes to get a _______________ pilot certificate/rating”, I have collected some more data from some additional examiners around the country and increased the sample size. It has even allowed some data validity to add the Commercial Single Engine certificate.

With that said, here is the data as it has evolved.

Many of the original data points made in the previous blog post are largely unchanged in their effect. A couple of things that are of interest to note as the data has developed further.

  • Private Pilot Total Time Up, slightly, and averaging closer to equivalent between FAR 61 based and FAR 141 based training, with FAR141 now showing a slightly (2 hours) less average total hours gained at the time of private pilot issuance.
  • Average time at Instrument Rating, up by a few hours, but definitely showing a pattern of lower hours at an instrument rating issuance under FAR 141 training than FAR 61 training.
  • Initial Commercial Single Engine Certificate issuance is showing a significant difference in total time experience at issuance of that certificate, with lesser time being the norm for FAR 141 Commercial Single Engine Certificate applicants; likely taking advantage of the cutdown in hours available under these programs.
  • Initial Commercial Multi-Engine Certificate issuance are showing a significant difference in total time experience at issuance of that certificate, with lesser time being the norm for FAR 141 Commercial Multi-Engine Certificate applicants; likely taking advantage of the cutdown in hours available under these programs.

Note: This blog post may be updated with additional data compilations, but for the moment, I wanted to get this data out. Check back later for updates. I will post an update date on this of a more current date if I have added.

Last Updated: 9-21-2019

The Portal Through….

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Sometimes, you just get that lucky gap.

On a recent flight, we found ourselves trying to go west through a big wall of thunderstorms climbing to altitudes over FL400, definitely higher than we could fly in the Twin Cessna. So, the first plan was to go east and around, adding nearly an hour of flight to the distance. As we flew, we had ADS-B weather being delivered to the panel and our iPads, so it definitely helped the plan, and looked like the following.

Getting closer, we “thought we might have a hole” between some of the cells.

Working with ATC and some leniency to “deviate as necessary”, we found ourselves in VFR-on-top conditions between layers at FL200 looking at one of the coolest passages between weather I have seen and just had to share it.

The tunnel to clear weather ahead was welcoming, and welcome that it stayed open as we headed through!

In the end, this is how it looked on a FlightAware track after the fact. Not my most technical blog post, but I just through it was kind of a cool experience to share and an example of how sometimes with a little work you can make flights happen safely, well, with a little luck also.

How Much Flight Time Does It Take To Make A Pilot? – The truth the numbers tell…

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So how many flight hours DOES it take to get a private pilot certificate? Or an instrument rating? Or even a commercial pilot certificate?

Well, the FAA does gather this data on the application forms that it collects when a practical test is conducted for a certificate or rating, but, to the best of my knowledge, it is not collected, collated, and reported in any way to the public as an aggregate.

But that doesn’t stop us from being curious, so I took the data from the FAA 8710-1 forms from the over 1000 practical tests I have given and collated it into a couple of data points that are now presented in this small, but highly intriguing chart.

The below chart collects data from practical tests I have given (primarily in Michigan) and helps create a general understanding of how many hours of flight and simulator time that applicants had accumulated at the time of granting of various pilot certificates and ratings. Specifically, we compiled the data for the initial private pilot certificate, instrument rating, and initial commercial multi-engine certificate events

With that said, here is what we found.

Continue reading →