#296 "1 week to my check ride and I’m freaking out." - Coffee With Kenny

All right, day 296, impromptu. Gonna roll with this. No editing. This is for a ground school member freaking out a week before checkride. And of all people, you know, well, maybe you don't know. I failed my first checkride and I know what it was like the week before my checkride. I was freaking out a week before and I was freaking out right up to the day of and I ended up failing. You have to be prepared for this checkride and go in with confidence. Okay, so I'm going to give you just a little bit of this member's email. Not sit here and read the whole thing to you, but basically, longtime hugs member. I know who he is. Logs into coffee with Kenny, watches our videos. I checked his progress inside the ground school site, which I wanted to talk about today anyway before I got this email. We do have progress tracking for you to see what you've done and for me to see what you've done. And when somebody's having trouble, I'll usually go check on you first before I email you back and talk to you. And this member has been through the videos 90, probably 99%. He skipped over a couple little things here and there, but not much. And it's not the areas that he's worried about. He's worried about weight and balance, and he's worried about flight planning. Okay. First, I got to say those are two essential private pilot skills. And what we have in ground school is pretty darn good. I'm sure there could be some updating in there, but I don't believe the underlying problem here is really your confidence. Okay. And I'm not calling you out. I want you to take a big deep breath and think for a minute. What are the real underlying issues here? And he's basically saying, no, he doesn't want to blame it on the instructor. Well, I have to say I do have to blame it back on your instructor. If you're a week away and your instructor is ready to sign you off and you're telling me in the email that he hasn't covered these things with you in depth and you're not sure about them, he shouldn't be signing you off. The instructor endorses you and says, John Doe is ready to act as a private pilot. That means that instructor has given you the ground training, given you the dual training, checked your home study materials, he's checked your knowledge, and there are so many good flight instructors out there. So cheers to every flight instructor that's out there and doing it right, because there's tons of them. We know as in any profession, flight instructor or any other profession in the world, you have good and you have bad. Right? Now, some of them maybe aren't necessarily bad. They just don't care. They really don't give a rat's ass. Sometimes unfortunate, but that's any. That's not just aviation. That's any job, any career, any profession. So I'm going to back up to me the week before the private pilot. For me, I was just freaking out, just like in this email from this member. And the second time around I aced to checkride. What was the difference? The difference was my confidence. So I know you're saying there's two subject areas you're freaking out over. I get that. Here's my other experience. The thing that stumps you on a test is never what you're worried about. Never. The thing that stumps you on a test is that is that surprise that you didn't know was going to be the problem. And again, these two areas are basic, essential private pilot stuff. Whether you're just going to be a private pilot or you're going to go on in your career to do other things, these two areas are essential. So your confidence needs to be there in general for the whole checkride. And if you've got a couple problems in a couple of those basic private pilot areas, I really think at this point I would delay the checkride. And I really think I would look at either just confronting your instructor and saying, hey man, let's sit down and talk for just a minute. I feel I'm deficient in these two areas. My confidence isn't where it needs to be. Can we talk about this? Can we work harder on these two subjects? And if this instructor or this flight school is not willing to go, yes. Okay, let's delay the checkride a week or two weeks. Let's call it off for now. Let's do some additional ground school and let's get through this. Is there anything going on that's so important that you gotta be done in a week? I know that this member has been working on it for a long time because there's some emails in the past clear back for May even and probably even more so. Is it that detrimental when you're one week away to call it off now? Not saying you have to, Maybe you can pull it together. Maybe you can talk to your instructor and this instructor will have a change of heart and say, okay, let's sit down and let's hammer through these couple things and let's get your confidence where you need to be. If you aren't 100% confident, you're probably going to fail. Because it just. I really wanted to do this video and I was glad to get this email today because I wasn't sure what I want to do this morning. As soon as I read this, it brought back for me. Oh, it's making my heart pound right now. Twenty years ago, I failed, and it's making my freaking heart race. It's over 20 years now. It's making my heart race right now, telling the freaking story. I get it. I understand. That's why I failed. Didn't go back for six months. Created the notebook and went back after studying my ass off and nailed it that second time with a different examiner. And that examiner said, dude, why did you fail the first time? And I said, because I didn't know my stuff. Like, I know it now. And he's like, well, that's apparent because you're batting 100%. You're nailing everything. And he goes, I just can't imagine you failing. And I go, it happened because I was so freaked out and I was nervous. I did study, and my instructors worked with me, and I guess I don't blame them either. You know, back in the day, I was my. The instructor who signed me off when I failed my test. I was his very first student sending to a checkrag. And that's. That's kind of common. You know, a brand new instructor, sometimes their first student will fail. Mine did. First student I sent failed. And he was an airplane cfi and he was freaking smart, and he'd studied hard and he knew his stuff, and he goofed on one thing, and it was figure and pressure altitude by hand. And the examiner even said to him, you're a cfi. You got to be able to figure pressure altitude by hand. Which is another reason in ground school, I push that along with all the things that my examiner tripped me up on. And that's why I do videos on the things that trip people up on checkrides. And that's why Tas Christman and I did top 10 checkride tips and put that out for you. All the things that we see people screw up. So I want to go back to. For this member, you need to take a big, deep breath. This is Saturday. I wouldn't mind talking to you this week. It's Saturday now. I want to get back home to my daughter and have my weekend time. Maybe Monday we could talk. And I wouldn't mind even, you know, we could email or talk on the phone and I could hopefully maybe give you a little confidence or a little more boost. But I'm going to tell you the same thing over the phone. I'm going to tell you right now. If you're a week away and you're that freaked over two basic fundamentals of being a private pilot, I'm saying you need to take a big deep breath, reevaluate and possibly call the check, write off and keep studying and get these two areas handled. And when you work through those two, that alone may be enough to put your confidence where it should be. And maybe. You know, I hate to, I don't want to immediately tell you give up on a flight school and give up on a certain instructor. I say give that instructor the opportunity you need to fess up and tell this instructor, I don't know if it's male or female, it doesn't matter. I don't know who they are, I don't care who they are. I say give that instructor one opportunity and that flight school one opportunity and say, look, I'm just really freaked out and I want to work on some more of these areas and I want to feel good going into the checkride because I'm telling you, if it ain't in your gut and it's not in your heart, the outcome is probably not going to be good on checkride day. Not a week away, A week away, you should be doing last minute flying, last minute ground, maybe getting a few items together. A week away, you should be feeling pretty good. A week away, you shouldn't be this freaked out. Checkride nerves, I mean everybody gets them and being nervous is okay and most people will do well being nervous. So we're not talking just being nervous about a checkride. We're talking about in the words of this member, I'm freaked out. And email. He's like, I'm begging you for help, man. I'm your HOGS member long time, I'm begging for your help. I want to help you, but I just think a week away, if you're this freaked, you need to call it off, take a little bit time, regroup, freaking breathe in and out, cover these couple areas, put a little more focus in it, go through as many ground school videos as you need to again specifically on those areas and work with your instructor. And then if this instructor, let's go to the other side, let's say this instructor gives you attitude, I'd go find somewhere else, man. I would spend the money and I understand money is an issue for most of us, but it's your hard earned money. You've given them your hard earned money up to this point. So giving them the opportunity to make good on what they've done for you so far and help you out and then they, in the end, you could pass a check ride, you could feel good and they feel good and everybody's happy. But again, it's your money and it's that instructor's job and that flight school's job to make sure you're prepared for the examiner. Because an examiner is going to get it. Examiners are, they're professional people. They're sitting on the side of the desk and they're evaluating people all the time. And that examiner is going to know in the first five minutes how that checkride is going to go. He's going to be able to tell by your mannerisms, the way you're sitting in the chair, whether you're making the eye contact. He's going to be able to tell if you're confident or not. And if you're that freaked out, it's his job to dig and see how well you're going to do. And it's like, when I failed, you know, I took it with the faa and after he failed me, we had a nice little chat and he even stopped the oral test for a minute when I was struggling, man. And he's like, let's go outside for a minute. And we did, and we went outside and just, you know, bullshitted for a little bit. And he was, you know, being nice and he's just like, hey, I just want you to calm down, man. You know, you're really struggling here. So I just wanted to give you a chance to just breathe and chill out. So he even gave me that opportunity, right? So FAA guys can be tougher than a designated guy. And years later, it's still the best thing that happened to me, right? We go back in, we try to continue on. At a certain point, he just has to stop the test. And I guess I have to thank him. There's years later, right? And I've told you all this many times in the videos, he said, kenny, when I ask you about selling with power, I need to hear 30, 20, 10, Bam, Bam, Bam. When I ask you about which way the nose is going to go in a hover and the engine quits or any of these things I asked you about, there can't be hesitation. I don't want to come to your helicopter accident. He goes, because he worked in Indianapolis and that's where I was training. And he's like, I'm the guy that's going to come out and investigate your accident. I'm not going to pass you if you're not 100% confident and you can give me the answers I need, especially on emergency stuff and things that are going to kill you. That makes complete sense. I get it from an examiner's point. So remember, it's the instructor's job number one and your flight school's job number one to present you as a confident private pilot ready to go out and be pilot in command. Because the day of the examiner is going to say, today, this is your first flight as pilot in command. I'm your passenger. Now, if something ugly happens, I may have to take over. And if I do, then you're not going to pass the test. So your first day that you're going to act as pilot in command on your own is with that examiner flying around because your flight school and your instructors brought you to the checkride, have endorsed you and signed you off to become a private pilot. So hands down, if you know you're not ready, they know you're not ready. You're going to see an examiner when you're not ready. That's recipe for failure. So I hope that helps. And yeah, I got a little passionate about that. But it does make my heart race because reading that this morning, I swear to God, it just took me back and brought all that emotion out and all that feeling out. I flew with several different instructors and several different aircraft, and I'm thankful for those opportunities. And the instructor, the one that signed me off when I failed, he's still one of my best friends to this day. He was from Germany and he actually got married and stayed here. And he's still here 20 years later flying EMS. And he's still one of my best friends. I wasn't mad at him. He did a great job. I failed because of my own confidence. I failed because I was so freaked out. So you have to be able to control your nerves. So take a big deep breath, talk to your flight school, talk to your instructor. Give them the opportunity to work through your issues, get you signed up, get you ready to go, get you confident, go take the checkride. And if that course doesn't work again, it's your money. If you have to, you call up another flight school. And I understand you're gonna have to travel probably, and you're probably gonna spend some money on motels. But you know what, damn it, it's probably worth it. And I would flat out be honest. If you have to go to another flight school, I would just try to find one somewhere that has a good reputation and say call them up and say, hey, I'm very close to private pilot and this other instructor in school is gonna sign me off. I just wasn't ready and they weren't willing to do what it would take. And if they lose you, that's their fault. So give them the opportunity. I'd give them a shot at it. If they don't want to help you, screw them. Go somewhere else. It's your money. Spend it wisely. All right. Subscribe to the channel. Click the bell. Day 296. Glad I had a really good topic to hit today. I'm usually deciding and this is coffee number three and I was just glad to see that email come in because I just immediately reading through it again. I feel for you man. Long term, long time hogs member. I appreciate your emails and your feedback on YouTube over the years. I know you're a great member. I know you're very active. So I know you've tried. Guess what? You need to try just a little bit harder. Just a little bit harder. So take a big deep breath. Leave us a comment down below. Subscribe to the channel. Click the little bell when you do and we'll see you in day 297. Peace out.