#2 Helicopter Check Ride Ground School The Practical Test Standards

Do you need help preparing for your helicopter checkride? Are you overwhelmed by the amount of information there is to know? Most likely you are. That's most likely the reason why you're watching this presentation right now. One major key is the practical test standards. That's what it's going to take to get you through your checkride. Knowing the practical test standards, also known as the pts. Surprised over the years how many people never pull out the PTS and really use it. I, I can HARP and harp, but a majority of the time I cannot get helicopter students to use it and I don't know why it's so important. It's all laid out right there for you. There it is, the practical test standards. This is your checkride laid right out in front of you. And after training a bunch of guys over the years, Jed, Danny, doctor, Nick, Gary, Justin, another Justin, I can tell you guys do not want to use the practical test standards. I don't know why, they just don't want to do it. The practical test standards. So let's talk about your checkride day and your appointment with examiner and what I think is the most important page of all applicants. Practical test checklist for helicopters. When I first started training a long time ago when the company sent me out to fly a little bit with the designated pilot examiner that we were using on the way out to the aircraft, I said, so as a new instructor, give me some tips on, you know, you know, how to prepare people and how to be a good instructor. And he said, I have a lot of problem with people showing up and not having what they need. And that was it. He said, make sure you go through the PTS and everything that's in there. You have, and I can tell you 12, 13 years later and doing a ton of checkrides with the same examiner, I've seen it happen over and over again. I can give you a horror story after horror story. You gotta go through the checklist in the PTS and make sure that you have everything. Don't pull the old well, do I have to have this? Do I have to have that? Well, why do I have to have this if it's in that checklist, make sure it's there and with you and start preparing a couple weeks ahead of time. Don't wait to the night before to be trying to round this stuff up. I can tell you it's major pain. So let's talk about some of the things in the checklist, like acceptable aircraft and what do you have to have in there? Of course, the aircraft documents everything is certificate, registration certificate, operating limitations and, and your weight and balance information. Every single checkride you take in your helicopter career, whether it's a check ride to get your license or a 135 check ride later, when you're flying professionally, the examiners always ask this question. Because you have to have these things in the aircraft. They've got to be valid and in there. Every examiner's gonna ask you, anytime you're on the ramp, if the FAA walks up, they're gonna expect to have these things. And it's easy for some of these things to get misplaced sometimes, like, say somebody goes, grabs the PoH to do a little bit of training and they forget to put it back in the aircraft. Whatever the case may be, you have to make sure you have this stuff with you and ready to go. Another big one. Aircraft maintenance records. Logbook record of airworthiness inspections and AD compliance. I can tell you again, some places you might not have this problem. Other places have a lot of problem with keeping the maintenance logbooks with the aircraft. It's very common. If you're getting your maintenance done somewhere else, you take the maintenance records down for the mechanic to fill out. He says, I'll, I'll finish this up and get it to you tomorrow or next week or whatever the case may be. And then checkride day comes and you're screwing around. You're running around trying to find the aircraft log books and you don't have them. Well, you're not taking the checkride again. It's these simple little things that can trip up a checkride and cost you huge headaches. Pilot's operating handbook. FAA approved. Also known as the helicopter flight manual. This has to be in the aircraft and accessible to the pilot. No. Another favorite checkride thing in Enstrom's, guys would take the POH and put it in the baggage. Well, that's not legal. It has to be in the aircraft and has to be accessible by the pilot during flight. FCC station license only if you're flying out of the country. Personal equipment, current aeronautical charts, computer and plotter, flight plan form, flight logs, current AIM, airport facility directory, inappropriate publications. And as far as I know at this time, you still have to have all this stuff. There's a lot of people asking, well, can I use my iPad or my iPhone or can I use this electronic gadgetry? Unless something's changed I haven't heard about yet, you still have to have the AFD. It's a $6 little book. You gotta have it. Gotta have the FAR a manual, everything on this list. Have the hardback form. And again, make sure a couple weeks ahead of time, you're starting to get this stuff ready to go. Make sure you have it because it's. I've seen it time and time again. The night before, 9 o' clock at night, and you're trying to figure out where to get a chart. There's nothing worse. Getting ready for a checkride last minute, rushing around, trying to put everything together because believe me, I've done it, I've been there and it is not fun. It's stressful on the student, it's stressful on the instructor. It's just plain that. Cool. Personal records, identification photo, signature ID, pilot certificate, current and appropriate medical certificate, your completed FAA Form 8710, Airman certificate and or rating application with instructor's signature. Got a quick story on this one. One of my very first checkrides, sending my first couple students. Both guys were real good. They were in good shape. The one guy was an airplane pilot, just got done doing his airplane proficiency checkride and was all good to go. And a businessman that really had his act together. And then five minutes before the examiner set to show, he said, all I have is just a copy of my medical. And I said, that's not going to work. The examiner's not going to be happy. And he said, well, it's just going to have to do. Well, guess what? No, the examiner was not very happy. Luckily, the other student was ready to go. So the examiner takes him and gets started with him while the other guy takes off and goes back to his office and scurries around trying to find his medical. In the end, everything came out okay. But talk about a bunch of stress right off in the morning, two guys ready to go and the one guy doesn't have his medical. So again, you've got to check these things as yourself, as the student and as the instructor. You got to make people physically take the stuff out of their wallet. Do you have this with you on a daily basis? Pull it out. Let me see it. Here's another good one. Airman written test report. I know a guy who flew from Cleveland to Toledo with his instructor, goes to take his test and he has a. He was going for an instrument checkride and he had a written test report for the written test for an airplane instrument rating, not the helicopter. So a whole day wasted, hours of aircraft time, hundreds of dollars because the guy took the wrong written test. Again, all these little tiny things take a lot of time, weeks in advance, going through the pts. Going through the checklist and making sure you have everything. Pilot logbook with appropriate instructor endorsements. As a new instructor, I was helping a guy do an add on helicopter rating. My first student, he was an airplane CFI and he told me always over endorse and I've always done that and I've never had a problem. It's better to have too many endorsements than not enough. As the instructor, it's his responsibility to make sure it's signed. But you as a student, you need to do the same thing. Look in that, make sure you understand what he's endorsed, where that endorsement is at and make sure it's the right one. Because the examiner is going to check these things right at the very beginning of your test. And just to avoid problems, make sure you have all the right endorsements. Notice of disapproval if applicable. I had that once. I failed my first private pilot checkride. So I went back, I had to have the little pink form that says I failed the first time approved. School graduation certificate if your school has one. Not all of them. Do an examiner's fee. Depending on who you're taking it with, there may or may not be a fee. Make sure you know how much the fee is. And does your examiner, if he's a designated examiner, does he take checks, does he take cash? How does he want to be paid? Alright, let's talk about a little more about the pts and some of the areas in there like emergency operations. Power failure to hover. Doesn't matter what aircraft you're flying, there's a tolerance to how far the nose can be to the right or to the left from the degrees where you started depending on when you're going for private or commercial. There's so many degrees that the helicopter can be from where you start when you enter the auto. When you're on the ground, knowing these things helps you in your training. The pts you should be using from day one all the way up to the day of the checkride, you should be going through this thing over and over and over. It's giving you the tolerances for all this stuff. You can be kind of prepared for what's coming up. Power failure at altitude. It's explaining in there that sometime during the checkride the examiner is going to give you a power failure. You're going to need to know where the wind's at. You're going to need to be looking for a spot. You need to get your auto rotation established. Start turning towards your spot. It's all in there. System and Equipment malfunctions, selling with power. One of my favorites. I love talking about when you're going into confined area and it's high, hot, humid. There's a lot of things to consider to keep yourself out of settling with power. And again, doesn't matter what aircraft you're flying. Selling with power across the board is something that wrecks a lot of helicopters. And you can be sure the examiner is going to be making sure that you know your stuff. Low rotor RPM recovery. Is there anything else more important than rpm? Pretty much. It's priority one, especially flying the smaller aircraft with the lower inertia rotor systems, knowing and understanding the cause and effects of dynamic rollover, how it can happen, how you can avoid it, what to do if you start getting into it. It's all in there. And here's another one I just started talking about recently, ground resonance. And I'm going to go ahead and show you here a picture from August 5, 2005 and the aircraft incident. Accident, Accident I was involved in. We got into ground residence and I can tell you, years later, after five years of answering questions and going before a room full of attorneys, I can tell you that I'm glad I understood ground residents and I knew exactly what it said in the Rotorcraft flying Handbook about ground residents, causes, effects, how you get into it, how you can prevent it. Really going through the PTS now and going through your flight manual helicopter flying handbook, you want to know this stuff? This is probably a good time to go ahead and just really expand on what I'm trying to tell you about knowing your stuff. When I failed my first private pilot checkride, I struggled through the oral. I didn't get the fly because I didn't pass the oral portion. I took it with an FAA examiner. Guy was tough and I knew he was tough going in it. And in the end he said, after he stopped the test, he said, it's pretty obvious you're struggling. We even took one break where we went outside and talked for a little bit and went back and hit it again. And he said, you're really struggling here and I want you to know your stuff. He said, I don't want to be investigating your accident. When I ask you what ceiling of power is, I want to hear it. Ready to send 300ft per minute or greater using 20 to 100% of power, airspeed less than ETL. You got to know this stuff, he said, because if you're struggling sitting here in the room with me, then how good are you going to be when you're out there in the aircraft under a stressful situation. And I can tell you now, after living through this mess, my law enforcement training came back to me. The will to survive. I was trying everything and anything to stop that aircraft from destroying itself to the point of I bent one of the foot pedals trying to stop the spin. And I find a certain amount of comfort in the fact that I understood ground resonance. I knew causes and effects and I knew corrective action. And in this particular instance, elastomeric damper that failed and that blade was so far out of phase, there was nothing we were going to be able to do. This is another point where I like to talk about the bad judgment chain. I'm a firm believer in the bad judgment chain. When you investigate an accident or read about an accident and there's all these different things that led up to the accident where the pilot probably along the way, should have aborted that flight. It's not usually just one thing. It's usually a series of things that happen that lead up to that accident. When I first started training many years ago, I watched a special on the JFK junior Crash. And there were so many reasons why he probably should have never went that day or at some point he probably just should have said, you know what, we're going to wait and go tomorrow. On the day of our accident, everything was fine, the weather was beautiful. We did a pre flight, two pre flights we did left on time. The weather was beautiful, everything was picture perfect before this happened. So even though I understand the bad judgment chain and believe in it, things can also go bad on the very best day. And knowing your stuff is the a number one thing that's going to keep you alive and keep you out of trouble. Yeah, we're talking about checkride preparation and you want to get the license and you want to go out and be a safe and prudent pilot. But a number one, you want to stay alive and you want to be able to get out of trouble. When you do get into trouble, things just happen. And being very familiar with your aircraft, with helicopter aerodynamics, helicopter emergencies, general helicopter safety knowledge is power. The more you know, the safer you're going to be. And maintaining a clear head or trying to stay calm, I can tell you too, I think is really truly one of the biggest things I know in our, in my five years with EMS flying, we had training, we did every quarter, computerized training, and every time we went to the survival part of it, they made it very clear the biggest way to survive an emergency is by staying calm. And I'm a firm, firm believer in that. So moving on. Low G conditions. Here's a bit right out of the Robinson poh. This is right from our presentation on the Robinson Right roll and low G condition. Gradually apply aft cyclic to restore positive G forces in main rotor thrust. Do not apply lateral cyclic until positive G forces have, have been established. Everybody needs to know this. No matter where you're flying and what you're flying, night operations, physical aspects of night flying, There really is a lot of stuff to night flying and it really is, as you say, the difference between night and day. It's amazing the difference there is in flying at night. And it is definitely one of those skills that you need to exercise to stay proficient at night. That's why we have the different rules and regs that we do as far as night flying. Lighting and equipment for night flying. Lighting is huge. Sorts of little silly things to know. Like if you're flying late in the day and you're going in tonight, don't forget about the dial for the dimmer switch. Sounds kind of silly. I've personally done it. I'm flying along, starting to get dark. I turn on the panel lights. No panel lights. I'm getting all paranoid. Pretty shortly I figured out dimmer switch. For some reason, I think in helicopters they like to just vibrate themselves off post flight procedures after landing and securing. I know early on one of the mechanics where I first worked, the guy said, you learn more from post flight than you do pre flight. And, you know, you could almost go along with that because after you get done, you're putting the aircraft away. You're looking. Is the aircraft got any fluids leaking? Has anything changed during that flight? So post flight can be just as important as a pre flight. Okay, now I want to back up a little bit and expand a little more on the pts and a couple things that I've said. I want to back up to the first few pages of the pts because I think there's some stuff in the beginning that's really important. I know from experience that guys, when they do use the pts, they skip over some of the stuff that I think is important in the beginning. So I want to cover a few of the things in the beginning of the pts and I want to interject a couple stories. A lot of you that's followed us on the Internet know Danny Martin and Danny argued with me when I kept saying everything's in the pts. He kept saying, no, it's not. Not everything's in the pts. What I'm getting at is the PTS is a guide that you go through prepping for the test. Yes. You still have to resource other materials. Not every answers in there, but every subject area and all the things you're going to do and all the tasks are in there. So when you're going through the pts, you're going right through the list. If you know something, great. If you come across something and you think, hmm, I'm not so sure about that, I need to look that up, Then you're gonna go resource your other materials, whether it's your POH or the Helicopter Flying Handbook or whatever other source of information you might have to go to to make sure you understand that information. So I understood Danny's point, but he always wanted to argue and say, well, not everything's in the pts. No, not everything, as far as every single word you need to know. But the PTS is your test, and if you go through that, there won't be any surprises on your checkride day. So then I want to go to this guy Jeff, who I rented a room from when I was a new instructor, and we hung out all the time. So he got the benefit of me being around all the time to help him through his ratings. We did his private commercial and cfi. And on his private, the examiner said, in all the years that I've been teaching or doing checkrides, that's one of the top checkrides I've ever given. And Jeff, because we were together all the time, hanging out in the evenings, talking about helicopters, talking about all the different stuff, he listened to what I told him and he understood the importance of the pts, worked through it step by step, and had one of the best checkrides that this examiner had given in 15 years. So the point is, you use the PTS, work through it step by step, and if you know the subject material, great, move on. If you're not so sure about it, then you go to your other resources and use whatever tools you need to make sure you understand that information. So let's move on and talk about use of the Practical Test Standards Book. This is the first, like 10 or 12 pages of the book, and I think this helps with just preparing mentally for the checkride. Private pilots shall be evaluated in all tasks included in the areas of operation of the pts. The examiner shall also emphasize wake turbulence avoidance, low level wind shear in flight, collision avoidance, Runway incursion avoidance, checklist usage, and if you look down through there, it makes complete sense. These are all really important things that get people into trouble. And that's what the examiner is doing. He's not setting out just to purposely fail your checkride. He wants to make sure you're going to be a safe and prudent pilot. And we know through experience over time what gets people into trouble and what gets aircraft direct. So the examiner is evaluating to make sure that you're going to be a safe pilot. Can you make a mistake on a checkride and maybe answer a question and not exactly the way he wanted to hear it? Yes, as long as you understand the concepts of everything. They expect terminology sometimes to get messed up a little bit, but you got to understand the concepts. Some of these other simple steps. Private pilot practical test requisites. Pass appropriate private pilot knowledge test. Obtain the applicable instruction aeronautical experience. Hold at least a third class medical certificate. Be at least 17 years of age and written statement from a certified flight instructor, meaning he signed you off to take the test aircraft and equipment required for the practical test. The private pilot is required to provide an airworthy certificated aircraft for use during the practical test. We talked about this already. You got to make sure everything is good with the aircraft. You have all your maintenance manuals, everything's been done. You got to go through and check the maintenance manuals yourself as the student instructor needs to check. It's very easy to miss one little thing like a transponder check or something along those lines. You got to make sure the aircraft's ready to go, have fully functioning dual controls. Examiner is going to want to maybe show you something during the checkride. Maybe he'll say, hey, that's pretty good, but let me show you something else. And also he needs to have controls there in case things get ugly and he has to take the controls, which we'll talk about that again a little bit. That's where we get to that point of maybe not passing the checkride. Be capable of performing all appropriate tasks for the private pilot certificate. So again, he's evaluating you on everything that you're doing the whole entire flight. The test actually starts in the morning. When you get there. Here's when I want to throw in another point. If Your checkride's at 8am get there at 7, get there an hour before. Have all your stuff laid out nice, neat, organized. Get everything done. Be prepared. Showing up, being on time and having everything you need is half the battle. If you can start the checkride out on a good note, you're probably going to have a good checkride, just like setting up for a normal approach. What's the key to A good, normal approach, a good setup key to get through your checkride, be early, have all your stuff be there and ready to go when the examiner walks in. Positive exchange of flight controls. During the practical test, there must always be clear understanding of who has control of the aircraft. Most likely your instructor is teaching you this. It's very easy, though, when you get flying with somebody. In the beginning as instructors, we're real careful and worried about somebody trying to kill us. And you get more comfortable with somebody with time and you start to trust them. And as instructors, sometimes we, you know, have to back up and go, hey, you know, this is still important to make sure we understand who has the control. So you have to use the positive exchange control, flight controls, the whole test. Hopefully you're already doing it. If you started slacking off, polish those skills up, and make sure that you're using good exchange of controls. There should never be any doubt as to who is flying the aircraft. Use of distractions during the practical test, is he going to give you a distraction? Most likely, yes, he is. Many accidents have occurred when the pilot has been distracted during critical phases of flight. The examiner will cause a realistic distraction during the flight portion to evaluate the applicant's ability to maintaining a safe flight. Again, the guy's not out trying to fail you. The guy is just evaluating to make sure you're going to be a safe pilot. Don't get freaked out over a distraction. Another story. I failed my first check, right, as I keep saying. Then when I went back to take the second one, I did great on the oral. And then on the flight, I screwed up and I got lost. I could tell the examiner knew that I was lost. He. He didn't say anything. He sat there. I turned around when I got my bearings straight, and he said, kind of screwed up, didn't you? And I said, yeah, I wasn't sure where I was at. And he goes, what are you going to do now? I said, I'm going back to the airport and I'm starting over. Went back to the airport, turned, got on my correct course and got on my way. And he said, okay, there, I'm buying on that one, but don't screw up again the rest of the flight. So the pressure is on. Then we go through the test, he gives me my distraction. I handle that, okay? We go back, I get my license, we go to have supper next door, and we're discussing everything after the fact. And he said, you know, I almost failed you when you got a little bit off track. He said, but I Just sat back and watched. What is this guy going to do? I kept calm, I turned around, I went back, got started on my trip again, and then did everything within the standards. And he said, at least I know that you can have an issue and you can think through it. And he said, that is huge. When a guy smokes the whole entire checkride, he goes sometimes as an examiner, you wonder, well, the guy did great, but how would he, how's he going to do under pressure? So again, staying calm, being prepared, knowing your stuff is truly key. Applicant's Use of Prescribed Checklist the applicant is evaluated on the use of the prescribed checklist. While accomplishing the elements of the objective would be either unsafe or impractical, especially in a single pilot operation. Again, we harp checklists all the time. Hopefully you're already using it. Use it on pre flight startup, cruise flight, pre landing shutdown, securing the aircraft. It's very easy for some people to get sloppy and think, I don't need the checklist for that. Use the checklist. You should be using it on a daily basis for all phases of flight and for your checkride. If you get through the oral portion, when you go out to pre flight the helicopter, have that checklist in your hand the whole time you're pre flighting that aircraft. Checklist usage is huge. Flight Instructor Responsibility an appropriately rated flight instructor is responsible for training the private pilot in all subject matter areas, procedures and maneuvers included in the task within the appropriate private pilot. Practical test. Standard instructor should exhibit a high level of knowledge. Applicant must be able to perform safely as a private pilot should be competent to pass the required practical test. The instructor is responsible for emphasizing the performance of effective visual scanning, collision avoidance and Runway incursion avoidance procedures. Again, still falls back to being aware of your surroundings, paying attention to what you're doing, taking your time, clearing your tail, pre takeoff checks, good visual scanning, all this stuff is very, very important. Examiner Responsibility the examiner is responsible for determining that the applicant meets the acceptable standards of knowledge and skill of each task. To avoid unnecessary distractions, oral questions should be used judiciously at all times. The examiner shall test to the greatest extent practicable of the applicant's correlative abilities rather than mere rote enumeration of facts. Throughout the practical test, throughout the flight portion of the test, the examiner will evaluate the applicant's use of visual scanning and collision avoidance procedures. Are you seeing a theme here? Again, all about being aware looking around you, I've always liked pointing out the correlative abilities rather than mere rote enumeration of facts throughout the practical test. Meaning do you have to know everything word for word by the book? The way the book says it? Understand the concept. He wants to make sure that you're not just spouting off the three things that get you into ceiling with power with not understanding how it really applies to you in fact flight. So the examiner is checking to make sure you understand the concepts and how these things that you've learned in the book, how they apply to you when you're flying the aircraft. Satisfactory performance. Satisfactory performance to meet the requirements for certification is based on the applicant's ability to safely perform the tasks specified in the areas of operation for the certificate or rating sought within the approved standards. Demonstrate mastery of the aircraft with successful outcome of each task performed. Never seriously in doubt. Demonstrate satisfactory proficiency and competency within the proof standards. Demonstrate sound judgment in ADM and demonstrate single pilot competence if the aircraft is type certified for single pilot operations. Unsatisfactory performance. If by the judgment of the examiner, the applicant does not meet the standards of performance of any task performed, the associated area of operation is failed and therefore the practical test is failed. This goes back to years ago. I think the story that I was told was an examiner went out and they were given a checkride and a guy didn't perform a maneuver correctly and the examiner gave the guy a chance to try the maneuver again and the aircraft ended up crashing and I believe killed the occupants. So they're very serious on this. You have to perform the maneuver right the first time. You don't get a second chance. When you're out there performing the maneuvers, does it have to be by the book? Exactly. On every single right to a tee, on the airspeed on the limit, this and that? No, but it needs to be close. If you're starting to get a little bit out of a tolerance. As long as you're catching it and getting it back where it should be in a reasonable amount of time, it's not going to be a problem. If you keep making the same mistake, then that's going to be a problem. Just don't freak yourself out over the fear of failure. The good news is during the checkride you get through the oral portion, you go out and fly and let's say you're having a pretty decent checkride and you do mess up a maneuver and he has to failure for that maneuver. You go get some additional training on that particular maneuver and when you come back you get credit for the things that you accomplished cred correctly the first time. So not all is lost. You want to get through the checkride. The first time some of us fell, in my case, it was the best thing I think that ever happened to me right off in the beginning, which is what made me really sit down and really learn and study and working to just get the knowledge where it needed to be. In my mind. You do get credit for what you perform correctly. Perform all the maneuvers within standard during the test. He can't let you retry something because you messed it up the first time. Areas of unsatisfactory performance. Any action or lack of action by the applicant that requires corrective intervention by the examiner to maintain safe flight. Failure to use proper and effective visual scanning techniques to clear the area before and while performing maneuvers. So if things get scary and he has to take the controls away from you, that is a failure. Some more things that can get you into trouble. Consistently exceeding tolerances stated in the objectives, which I just mentioned that a minute ago. Small issues, as long as they get corrected aren't a big deal. If you keep making the same mistake over and over again, then that's a problem. Failure to take prompt corrective action when tolerances are exceeded. If disapproval notice is issued, examiner will record the applicants unsatisfactory performance and tasks not completed in terms of area of operations. Spend a little bit when you first start using the book to read these things in the beginning because I think it just helps a little bit with kind of getting in the proper mindset of how the check ride is going to go.