#29 FIXED WING To HELICOPTER ADD ON Required Knowledge Questions
Kenny Keller advises fixed-wing pilots pursuing a helicopter add-on to assume any question from the PTS/ACS is fair game during the checkride. He shares two stories of applicants who failed when asked basic VFR or flight-planning questions they hadn't reviewed, and warns against telling the examiner a topic is outside the add-on scope.
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This video is for those of you are fixed wing pilots going for a helicopter add on and the question came in overnight reference the video I did yesterday about the ACS and the pts and taking checkrides and knowing the information of pts. So I'm gonna get to that in a minute. I'm Kenny Keller with Helicopter Line Ground School. I tried going live this morning and it and it was horrible. After it rendered it didn't come out so I'm doing it again. I'll post this later today. It's Coke with Kenny now I guess I do this video daily drinking coffee and coffee's done. Gone. Video didn't work out so I'm shooting it again. Hey electronics. That's what happens. So in this question here's what this guy says. Okay member says he said I'd like to ask you a couple specific questions regarding the topic. Again, back to the pts and acs. If you're a fixed wing pilot and doing a helicopter add on, how do you handle if the examiner asks you questions during the oral portion regarding a topic from the PTS that is not part of the knowledge requirements for the add on, I always say anything's fair game. For example, he says he she asks you questions about hypoxia. I've been told by some instructors that you can reply by pointing out to the examiner that his or her question isn't part of the knowledge required for the add on. I personally wouldn't do that. I've never told a student in 20 years to do that. I guess you could, but I personally I wouldn't recommend it. The last thing I want to do is piss off the examiner early on in the oral portion. Exactly. You know the examiner is there to evaluate your knowledge. I think he can ask you anything that he wants. I think anything's for a game. And I some examiners might not bother, but some it might. So I wouldn't recommend it. And to take it one step further, what if they ask you to describe in detail all of the different items of hypoxia? For example, when the PTS doesn't go into that level of depth or knowledge of hypoxia. Thanks again for the help of this topic and for the great daily videos. Thank you for the question. It's a great question and I want to hear your comments down below. Any of you that have taken a checkride or instructors or even if there's any examiners checking in, tell us downstairs down in the comments below how you would feel if a student asked you this or an applicant asked you this during a checkride. You know, again, these videos, they're my opinion. I'm going off of what I've known and I've done for the last 20 years. I would never recommend a student do that. When I'm prepping people for add ons, I just say, hey, anything's fair game. I know for a fact probably 50% of my people I've sent for checkrides in the last 20 years have been add ons. What I know for a fact is the one examiner I've used for 20 years, first thing he does, pulls out a VFR chart, starts asking VFR stuff questions on a chart for an add on. A lot of guys who say fly a lot of instrument stuff doing an add on, their VFR skills fall behind. Okay? So I always tell people anything's fair game when you're doing an add on. Let's say for the private pilot level. You're a private pilot, so you're expected to have your private pilot knowledge at all times and use an example of hypoxia. You know, could hypoxia get you killed? Sure, if you didn't understand it or you forgot how it happens and the signs of it and how to, you know, what to do in the event you recognize the signs of hypoxia. So I think anything is fair game. That's my opinion. That's what I've always told people. I'm going to give you two examples real quick. I had a CFI fixed wing doing a commercial add on and when I talked to the examiner about meeting for the checkride, he said, hey, have your applicant figure a two legged cross country from where you're leaving to here and then from here to point C. And the student was an awesome student. He didn't complain, he just said, okay, I'll do it. It's not in the PTS that he needed to do a cross country flight plan for that commercial checkride. Did I question the examiner? No, he asked for it, we did it and we delivered it. Another example, that's a really good one. Good friend of mine, I was prepping for a private add on fixed wing to helicopter and he had recently done his flight review in the fixed wing. So when we were doing our preparation for the oral test, he's like, well I already know that. I'm a fixed wing pilot, I'm a private pilot, I already know that. I'm like, well I know but I want to go over these things with you, you know, brush up some of this knowledge. I'm Good at all that stuff. Just ask me the helicopter stuff, you know, the meaty helicopter stuff. So we did that and then he struggled through the oral portion and during that oral the examiner even came out and said, what's wrong with your boy in the other room? And I'm like, what do you mean? And he goes, he's really struggling. And I'm asking him some basic VFR stuff that he's struggling on, you know, And I just kind of shook my head. Well, he made it through the checkride but then after the fact he calls me and he says, Kenny, I'm going to tell you this as your friend one time and I'll never mention again, next time you send somebody for an add on, make sure they know all the VFR stuff. Make sure they know everything a private pilot needs to know. And I'm like, buddy, do you remember that I kind of told you that how you kind of brushed me off when I was talking about brushing up all the private pilot stuff. So there's two examples of things that's went on in checkrides, real life examples of where I think your knowledge needs to be at the private pilot level even in an add on. And I just personally don't think it's a good idea to point it out to the examiner what he can and can't ask you. I just don't recommend it. That's my opinion. Again, I'd like to have your feedback below on what you think about that. You know, do you think it's acceptable? What's your opinion? Hopefully maybe an examiner or two will come across this video and they'll, you know, put a comment down below how they would feel if an applicant stated that to them. I don't think most examiners would probably like it so hopefully that helps with answer that question. I'm Kenny Keller, creator Helicopter Land Ground School. I'm going to put the link down below for helicopterground.com I started this 30 days ago doing videos on a nice day. Last week we had sub zero temperatures. Today I'm like oh my God. 30 days later for the daily video I got to get outside and do this outside. So the link down below for helicopterground.com we have private commercial instruments, CFI. Those you can get as a monthly or a yearly option. Get 24 hour test flight. With those two options, monthly and yearly you can go and check out the training for 24 hours. If you're not 100% happy, remove your credit card information from the site or go to PayPal and remove and end the subscription in PayPal before the 24 hours is up. We part as friends. You're welcome back anytime. Then we have a big professional pilot package. Everything private, commercial, CFI and instrument, all in one package, that's unlimited, doesn't expire. That one doesn't have the test flight, but that does have a 30 day, 100% ironclad, no hassle, money back guarantee. Meaning you have 30 days to check out the training. 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