David McVinnie

FAA Designated Pilot Examiner
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Q: Special Emphasis Items

A: Examiners shall place special emphasis upon areas of aircraft operations considered critical to flight safety. Among these are:

1.   Positive aircraft control; (When all else fails, FLY THE AIRPLANE)
2.   Positive exchange of the flight controls procedure (who is flying the aircraft);
3.   Stall/spin awareness;
4.   Collision avoidance;
5.   Wake turbulence avoidance;
6.   LAHSO;
7.   Runway incursion avoidance;
8.   CFIT;
9.   ADM and risk management;
10. Checklist usage

11. Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR)

12. Special Use Airspace (SUA)

13. Aviation Security

You should plan on answering at least one question on each of these areas during the oral portion of the checkride.

Q: What personal documents and equipment do I need to bring?
A: Refer to the checklist in the front of the Practical Test Standards for a complete list of documents and equipment that you will need for the checkride.
Q: How much preflight planning should I do?
A:  For checkrides that require a cross country, you will be given the cross country information when you schedule.  You may complete the planning at any time but you are required to update the plan with current weather/NOTAM information on the day of the checkride.  It can be completed prior to meeting the examiner.  You should complete a weight and balance using current information and caculate performance data for the cross country.
Q: How much does the examiner weigh?
A: My loving wife has me down to 200 lbs, including headset and glasses.
Q: How much does it cost?
A: Checkride prices vary from $350 - $450 depending on which checkride you are taking.

Q: What types of payment do you accept?

A: We accept cash, check or money order.  Sorry, no credit cards.