A YouTube video (creator: Kenny Keller) discussing helicopter checkride preparation with emphasis on managing nerves and why applicants should keep their checkride date confidential. Key advice: arrive early, organize paperwork, relax (music, small talk), don’t announce your checkride date publicly, perfection is not required on the oral, and it is acceptable to consult notes or books rather than bluffing.
£27,000? No, not 27,000, like 2700 maybe somewhere in there, give or take the density, altitude, maybe somewhere near. What do you think? I mean, what would you suggest?
What do I think?
Yeah.
Well, I'll tell you what I think.
Rotor temps brought to you by helicopter online ground school's no go decision button. When you feel the pressure to fly, but know the right decision is to stay on the ground, hit the hogs no go and live to fly another day.
Helicopterground.com Our next rotor tip is talking about nerves. Everybody's nervous when they come to checkrides. And as examiners we understand that undoubtedly the biggest obstacle is to overcome those nerves on checkride day. Here are just a couple of ideas that have really been successful for me. Arrive early and get everything organized on the table in front of you. If this is an unfamiliar place, take time to walk around and know your surroundings and then go back to the meeting room, sit down and relax. This is not the time for last minute studying. This is the time that you need to do whatever helps you relax. Now, some people have earbuds with soft music playing before the examiner arrives. Okay, so the examiner is there now. Maybe do some small talk with him before the test begins. You can talk about your families, you can talk about aviation. Everybody likes to talk about aviation, right? So maybe do that. This is also big that I have found that works is don't tell the world of the day of your checkride. In fact, maybe keep it a secret. That way if things don't work out exactly like you had hoped it would, you don't have to go back and tell anybody about it.
I saw the, I saw the instrument sitting out there and man, what a great looking helicopter. So, yeah, let's just figure out what, you know, in reference to the aircraft itself. You brought the 280 FX. Can you tell me what the maximum gross weight of the aircraft is?
That includes like fuel, right? And luggage and all that together?
Normally, yes.
I want to say it's like, man, I want to say it's like 27, 000 pounds. No, not 27, 000. Like 2700. Maybe somewhere in there, give or take the density, altitude. Maybe somewhere in there.
Yeah, let's.
What, what do you think? I mean, what would you suggest?
What do I think?
Yeah, well, I'll tell you what I think, but I guess right now.
I'll tell you what, Mr, just so nervous.
You look, you look nervous. So what's.
I told my friends and my family, I told everybody about this checkride today. And so I just really have to, you know, do well and pass. And I, you know, I told my girlfriend, like, after I pass, we'll fly down and we'll go get dinner somewhere. And so I'm just really. I feel like I, you know, I just got all this pressure, and I just, you know, maybe I'm just not part.
Part of passing a checkride is being able to control your own nerves. And you got off to a rough start just because you were about 20 minutes late.
So keep it a secret. Also, part of the briefing is to let the applicant know that perfection is not the standard. It's what we will tell the applicant. And what does that mean? It means that you aren't expected to know every answer that is asked of you. I had an applicant, oh, I think it was this past month that said to me, oh, man, I can't. I'm drawing a total blank. Can I call a friend? Well, I can't exactly let you call a friend. But what I can do is have you take time and look at your notes or go to your book and look it up. And that's okay. You know, we expect that there are times that it's perfectly fine to go to your notes or go to the book. What I would encourage you to do is don't try to bluff the examiner because he's going to figure that out pretty quick. So be honest. Just let him know that you forgot that one. You've talked about it, but you just can't think of it. And I'm pretty confident, as long as you're not doing it every couple of minutes, that he'll let you do that. I have found that those applicants that have gotten off to a good, solid start are those applicants that have showed up on time that are organized and competent in their knowledge of their aircraft, those ones that are prepped hard the day before the checkride, that has always worked out well by following those rules, I believe also will help calm those nerves.
