Lesson 24, Checkride

Checkride rehearsal flight

Flight: Checkride

FAA Detroit sectional, 29 OCT 2026 edition. For briefing, not for navigation: fly from the current chart. Tap the chart to open it full size.

Today's flight

The checkride itself, a week or two early. Another club instructor plays the examiner and flies the club's Pre-Check Ride Phase Check with you, on the club's form: an oral first, then the flight, in the order an examiner would run it. The trip is the one you defended in lesson 23, or your own trip from lesson 2.

It covers every area the checkride tests, and it takes about as long as the real one: book half a day, an oral of about an hour, then a full flight. It also counts toward the 3 hours of training in preparation for the practical test that 14 CFR 61.109(a)(4) requires within the 2 calendar months before the month of the test.

Every flight

Before every flight

P
Pilot. Am I fit to fly today? IMSAFE:
- Illness
- Medication
- Stress
- Alcohol
- Fatigue
- Emotion, and eating
Aircraft. Is this airplane ready, and right for today? Documents, inspections and open squawks; fuel and oil on board; weight, balance and performance for today's load.
V
Environment. What will today's flight meet? NWKRAFT, what 14 CFR 91.103 asks you to know before every flight, then the airspace and the route:
- NOTAMs and TFRs
- Weather, against your minimums
- Known ATC delays
- Runway lengths
- Alternates
- Fuel required, with reserve
- Takeoff and landing distances
- Airspace: the Class B limits from the current chart
- The trip: heading, time, landmarks, wind and runway
External pressures. What is pushing me to go today: a passenger, a schedule, a plan I don't want to cancel? Would I go without it?
If it goes wrong. The takeoff emergency brief, out loud: an engine problem on the runway, after liftoff with runway left, and after liftoff without.
Who flies. Who does what today, and how we hand the controls back and forth.

Who runs it today: You, alone and unprompted, briefed to the check instructor exactly as you will brief the examiner.

Deeper today: The whole routine at once, at checkride depth, and Weather as a real go or no-go: if today's weather would cancel the checkride, it cancels the rehearsal too, and that is a good result. The trip is full Stage 3 planning, with the limits block for the departure under the Class B edge from the current chart, and a diversion in flight from the check instructor.

Recall

From earlier lessons

What must be in your logbook before the checkride?
Reveal answer
The 61.109(a) experience, the 61.39(a)(6) endorsement (training within the 2 calendar months before the month of application, ready for the test, knowledge test deficiencies reviewed) and the practical test endorsement under 61.103(f), 61.107(b) and 61.109 (lesson 23).
Name three things the ACS lists as typical unsatisfactory performance.
Reveal answer
Any action that needs the evaluator to step in for safety, not clearing the area, consistently exceeding tolerances, not correcting promptly, and not managing risk (lesson 22).
The haze thickens and the horizon goes away. What are your options?
Reveal answer
Level the wings and hold altitude on the instruments first, then turn back toward where it was clear, climb or descend if that gets you out safely, and ask ATC for help (lesson 16).
How do you start a diversion?
Reveal answer
Pick the alternate, turn toward it first, then estimate the heading, distance, time and fuel and refine them once you are on the way (lesson 18).

Why Its value is seeing how you fly when nobody helps.

A rehearsal, not a lesson

Another instructor, the club's form, and the examiner's order: oral, then flight.
No instruction during the check. Questions and feedback come afterward.
The result is Satisfactory, Retrain or Incomplete.
A real checkride ends with a temporary certificate, a notice of disapproval, or a letter of discontinuance.

Why Knowing how an examiner builds the flight lets you fly it as one trip, not a list.

The plan of action

The examiner's plan covers every required task, built around scenarios.
Expect problems added as it unfolds: a diversion, a simulated failure, a distraction.
The examiner may pause the scenario to see a maneuver, then pick it up again.
If an instruction is unclear, ask. The checkride is not a place for instruction or practice.

Why Everything since lesson 1 was practice for flying with someone who only watches.

You are still the pilot

Brief the check instructor as a passenger, and do the positive exchange of controls every time.
Make each decision out loud, with the reason, as you always have.
Clear the area before every maneuver: your scanning is graded the whole flight.
Use the checklist. Where reading it would be unsafe, do the memory items, then review it.

Why Calling it off for a good reason is the judgment the checkride is there to see.

No-go is a passing answer

You or the examiner can stop a test for weather, airworthiness or any safety concern.
A letter of discontinuance is not a failure, and you keep credit for what you passed.
The pressure is real: the date, the examiner's schedule, the money. Name it before it decides for you.
Not managing risk is itself unsatisfactory.

Why Nerves cost a little performance, and knowing your own pattern lets you manage it.

Flying while nervous

Say things out loud: the standard, the checklist item, the decision.
One maneuver that went badly is one maneuver. Fly the next one.
Fly the airplane first when a distraction comes, then deal with it. Examiners add them on purpose.

A real accident

On December 31, 2004, a private pilot and his passenger were killed when his Cessna 172 crashed after an uncontrolled descent near Knottsville, Kentucky. He had received his certificate six and a half months earlier, had 125 hours, and held no instrument rating. He set out on a 550 mile trip from Gonzales, Louisiana, to Paoli, Indiana, with no record of a weather briefing and no flight plan. About 4 hours in, after dark, he told approach control he would land at Owensboro, then heard the weather there and decided to continue; minutes later he was in cloud, asking for a way out, while the airplane turned in circles and climbed and descended between 7,000 and 10,200 ft until it went down in a turn. The NTSB found the probable cause was loss of control due to spatial disorientation, with inadequate preflight planning causing his inadvertent flight into night instrument conditions. Landing at Owensboro was the right plan and the last easy way out. The checkride tests whether you will make that call when it costs you something, and this rehearsal is where you practice making it with someone watching. NTSB report IAD05LA028

Your calls

Decision points

Go or no-go on the day, by your own written minimums, with the check instructor watching how you decide.
The diversion the check instructor gives you: where, why, and whether it still works on fuel and daylight.
A simulated failure, unannounced, at a place where a landing is possible.
A maneuver going wrong: correct it promptly, or abandon it safely and say why.

The whole flight

Also on this flight

Part of the flight	Who
Every-flight routine and full trip planning	You, alone
Oral, from the club's form	Check instructor asks; you answer
Passenger briefing	You, to the check instructor
Preflight, start, taxi, runup	You
Departure, limits from the chart, navigation, diversion	You
Maneuvers, in the order the check instructor calls them, each once as on the checkride unless asked to repeat	You; check instructor grades
Simulated emergencies, unannounced	You fly them; check instructor sets them up
Basic instrument maneuvers under the view-limiting device	You; check instructor watches for traffic
Every kind of takeoff and landing, slips, go-arounds	You
Shutdown, securing, squawks	You
Debrief	You first, then the check instructor; your own instructor reviews the form after

The standard

Ready to move on when

The club phase check result is Satisfactory, signed by the check instructor.
Every item on the form is graded OK or better, and anything graded unsatisfactory has been retrained and checked again.
The 3 hours of 61.109(a)(4) checkride preparation are logged within the 2 calendar months before the month of your test.
Your instructor has signed the practical test endorsements (AC 61-65K, appendix A) and your IACRA application.
Your logbook meets every 61.109(a) requirement, item by item.

At home, before the next flight

Chair fly it

Schedule the checkride with the examiner and confirm what they want you to plan and bring.
Re-read the applicant's practical test checklist in the ACS Companion Guide for Pilots (section 7) and pack the bag the night before.
Get the weather the day before and the morning of, as in lesson 17, and decide by your own minimums.
Chair fly the first ten minutes: the preflight with the examiner watching, the passenger briefing, the taxi and the takeoff brief, out loud.
Run the Pilot item, IMSAFE, honestly the night before: sleep, food, and no new medication.

After the flight

Debrief

You go first, then the instructor. Three points at most, and you write down one thing to work on next time.

Your first full checkride, start to finish: which moment told you that you are ready, or not yet?
Where did the check instructor's grade differ from your own, and who was right?
What is the one thing you will do differently on the checkride?

Notes for teaching this lesson

Before the flight

Remind the student of the reason to fly they gave in lesson 2, and how far they have come toward it.
Arrange the check instructor early and give them the student's training record. Schedule the check so it falls within the 2 calendar months before the planned test month, so it counts toward 61.109(a)(4).
Ask the check instructor to fly it as an examiner would: a plan of action built on scenarios, the oral first, problems added as it goes, and no teaching in flight.
Unannounced failures are fair after solo and should be part of the check, in safe conditions only (see Curveballs).
Sources behind the slides: the plan of action, the three outcomes and repeating a task whose outcome is uncertain, ACS Appendix 1; the positive exchange of controls, checklist use and simulated failures only where a landing is possible, ACS Appendix 2; discontinuance and the 60 days of credit, 14 CFR 61.43. The club form grades each item unsatisfactory, OK, excellent or not tested.
Be ready to support a no-go call. If the weather is marginal and the student cancels, that is the right result.

In the air

For the check instructor: grade from the club's form and the ACS, write notes on each item, and take the controls only for safety. A needed intervention goes on the form.
Watch the things examiners notice most: clearing turns and scanning, checklist use, the positive exchange of controls, and decisions said out loud.
Common errors: rushing the preflight under observation; skipping the passenger briefing because "you're an instructor"; poor scanning while under the view-limiting device; freezing after one bad maneuver; accepting a diversion without checking fuel and airspace.

Curveballs

For the check instructor; unannounced ones in safe conditions only, never close to the ground.

Unannounced: a simulated engine failure where a landing is possible.
Unannounced: a simulated electrical or instrument failure while under the view-limiting device.
Briefed as part of the scenario: a diversion with a reason ("your passenger feels sick"), mid-route.
Briefed: a distraction at a busy moment, such as a question on downwind.
On the ground: a planted squawk at preflight, so the go or no-go starts before engine start.

After the flight

Mark the milestone: the first full checkride flown start to finish, and its result.
The student debriefs first, then the check instructor, then the training instructor reviews the form with both.
Retrain anything graded unsatisfactory and have it checked again before signing the endorsements.
Then sign the 61.39(a)(6) and practical test endorsements, complete the instructor part of IACRA, and confirm the 61.109(a) totals in the logbook one last time.
If the student's own trip from lesson 2 hasn't been flown yet, plan it as their first flight after the checkride.