A short instructional video by Kenny Keller advising fixed-wing pilots seeking a helicopter add-on checkride that examiners will still test them on basic VFR knowledge and weather. Keller emphasizes not to assume leniency for add-on ratings, recounts an anecdote of a nervous student nearly failing basic questions, and directs viewers to his helicopter ground school resources.
Hello, I'm Kenny Keller, the creator of Helicopter Online Ground School and I want to answer one of our member questions. And he said, I'm already a fixed wing pilot. When I take my helicopter checkride, are the weather questions that he's going to ask me, are they going to be the same as the questions I was asked during my fixed wing checkride? And my answer to him was yes. Whenever you're doing an add on checkride, don't go into that checkride expecting that you're going to get a break and that, okay, well I'm already a pilot so maybe I don't have to know weather like I did for the other rating or maybe I don't have to know AIRSP space as well. I can tell you in over 15 years of teaching and doing checkrides and probably half of those checkrides have been add on pilots. A lot of times add on pilots will go to checkride and they're a little rusty on a lot of the VFR stuff. So just because you're already a rated pilot and you're going for an additional rating, don't think that the examiner is going to give you a break because you're already a pilot. That's not the case. Majority of the time. Majority of time an examiner is going to want to make sure that your knowledge is still good, that you still know weather, you still know airspace, you still know what you can and can't do as a private pilot. They're gonna still ask you the same questions. And I can tell you almost every checker I've ever seen add ons as well. The first thing the examiner does pulls out a VFR chart and starts asking airspace. And I had one student many years ago, still a good friend of mine, and he was a pretty accomplished fixed wing pilot and he was really sharp and we were doing ground school, you know, he kept going, well, I'm already a fixed wing guy, I know that. And I'm like, well, I know you know that, but I just want to go over it with you because he may very well ask these questions. He's like, ah, just keep going. You know, I'm good, I'm good on that one. Well, the checkride day comes, he's really nervous and at one point he was really struggling and the examiner came out and said, what's wrong with your boy in there? And I said, I don't know, I guess he's nervous. And he said, okay, he's really struggling. I'm giving him a minute to calm down. I want to go back in there. So he ended up making it through. And then this gentleman after the fact kind of scolds me and he says, I'm gonna tell you this, I'm gonna tell you one time only and we'll never say it to you again. When you're doing add on, pilots make sure they know their basic weather, their basic VFR stuff. And he kind of went through me, you know, giving me a hard time. And I said, hey, you're the one that argued when we were going through the training. And I kept telling you, you know, he's gonna ask you basic private pilot stuff. Even though it's an add on, do not assume that they're just gonna like, well, he already knows this. So I'm not really gonna go over it. You know, if you get an easy check R, but don't count on it. Make sure that all your basic knowledge for the private pilot rating, when you're doing an add on, make sure that it's all really good. So hope that video helps. Give us a like and a share. You can go to the description box below for a link to our website where you can go check out our helicopter airline ground school. Find more about what we do and who we are. Please give us a like and a share and we'll see you in the next video.
Sam.
