YouTube video (Kenny Keller) advising how to avoid failing a pilot check ride. Kenny relates an email from a student who froze during an oral exam and argues the primary remedy is thorough study—completing course videos, quizzes, and practice—drawing on his own failure-then-success experience. The message emphasizes knowledge and preparation as the best antidote to nerves.
Live to fly another day. Helicopterground.com Are you recording?
Always. That's what I thought. So we have this email from a member who had some trouble on a check ride. I'm not gonna mention names, it doesn't matter. I'm not shaming the guy, but basically said he was going for his commercial and when the examiner started question asking questions, he just lost it, couldn't think of anything. And as soon as the examiner said, okay, we're gonna stop the test, then everything just came rushing back. And he wouldn't know if I had any tips for passing the checkride or calming down. And I have a CFI applicant here, right here, cfi Add on. I asked him and he said, nobody's shooting at you. You know, enjoy the experience. That's what it's all about is, yeah, it's easy to get nervous on a checkride, but you know, try to look at the big picture. You're, you're getting this so you can go get your rating. And I have to say, in all transparency, and this is how I answered. I went and checked and this gentleman only been through 9% of the commercial videos. Now, I don't know how much study he did on his own. There's no way for me to know that. But the people on the Hogs wall of fame that say they've actually absolutely smoked or aced a check ride, what do they tell us? They tell us that they went through every single video in the course that they're going for. They did the quizzes, they did the written test, practice. They go through the whole course at least once, if not multiple times. And that is cementing that knowledge. So I have to, you know, I just asked him, how much study did you really do? Because you only did 9% of Hogs videos. When the people that excel normally complete everything and knowledge is key. And I mentioned to him, remember, I failed my first checkride. That's why I'm here. I failed my private 20 some years ago when I went back. How did I get through and calm myself down? I studied and studied and studied to the point that I was not gonna fail. So there's all kinds of techniques to use to try to calm yourself down. You know, there's all kinds of things you can think of, but what is the best way to guarantee you're gonna get through it? Study until you're just sick of it. You know, the stuff so well that even when you're nervous and you're freaking, you're still going to be able to recall it. That is my absolute best advice. Again, that's from me after failing one, taking six months off and studying so hard that when I went back, there was no way I was going to fail. And it worked. And on that note, the examiner on my retest said, you brought a pink slip with you today. And I said, yep. And he goes, so tell me what happened on that checkride that you failed? And I said, well, I didn't make it through the oral, and I just kept stumbling around and I was struggling and I was a nervous wreck and I didn't sleep the night before, and it was horrible, and I just, you know, I just wasn't doing well. So after the failure, I created my notebook and I just studied and I studied and I said, I studied so hard that there was no way I was going to fail. And he said, well, that's pretty apparent because, you know, you're batting 100% today. That's how I did it, was through the knowledge and just study like a freaking madman. There you go. So tomorrow, after we get back from our CFI add on, we'll do a short little coffee with Kenny and introduce you to our new Hogs CFI Helicopter Add on. We're gonna go fly now. Autos. Fun stuff. Peace out.
Live to fly another day. Helicopterground.com.
