Preparing for the Check Ride: The Airplane
ARROW
This series of blog posts is meant to provide you, the student pilot, with basic background information you will be required to know for your check ride according to the PTS (Practical Test Standards). This advice, along with the Aviator’s Practical Organizer (APO), is intended to get you into the essential go-to guides: the PTS, FAR/AIM, and airplane POH.
Your instructor is necessary, and it is not my intent to replace him or her! Rather, having a basic understanding of, and knowing where to go for, the information will enhance your relationship with your instructor because it will make your time together more productive and enable you to dig deeper into the information!
Please feel free to offer any tips you have found during your training that might help out fellow students. I’d love for this blog to become a catalyst for sharing information and insight in order to see more students successfully completing their training!
A Collaborative Effort!
Now, back to business. Last blog, we talked about the certificates and documents you need for your check ride; this week, we will focus on the airplane.
Task A: Certificates and Documents
2. Locating and explaining
- a. airworthiness and registration certificates
- b. operating limitations, placards, instrument markings, and POH/AFM
- c. weight and balance data and equipment list
Documents
So, what are these documents exactly? A popular acronym or mnemonic is:
A irworthiness Certificate
R egistration Certificate
R adio License (not required in U.S.)
O wner’s manual or operating limitations (POH for the airplane)
W eight and Balance data
Make sure you understand what’s required here before the day of the check ride! You will also need to know where these documents/manuals are in case of a ramp check.
These documents should all be found in the airplane, and that is where they are to stay. I do recommend making copies of them so that you can use the copies to write down notes or study questions.
If you are renting the airplane, make sure you ask for permission to remove and make copies, as these documents are not meant to leave the airplane!
Owner’s Manual
The Owner’s Manual of the airplane, often referred to as the POH, is a key reference. You should have a copy of the airplane’s POH; the original POH stays in the airplane. The POH includes weight and balance information and operating limitations, which you are required to know. You will work with your instructor to familiarize yourself with the performance charts. As you work through these, keep the copies in your APO and use them as reference when it comes time to calculate the limitations and performance charts for your check ride.
Additionally, make a copy of the official weight and keep it in your APO. With the weight information in hand, you will need to calculate the weight and balance information for your check ride cross country. Making copies of the performance charts found in the POH will enable you to plot your information for the examiner and make it easier for him or her to assess your knowledge and ability to practically apply this information. (And remember, it’s in your best interest to make your examiner happy!)
Throughout your training, you will have worked through practice problems and done this plotting for your practice cross country flights with your instructor. Keeping these examples in your APO will enable you to reference them the day of your check ride and refresh your memory about how to complete them.
In reference to this section of the PTS, here are the FARs to tab and highlight:
FAR 91.203 Civil aircraft: Certifications
FAR 91.103 Preflight action
Next post, we will break down what you need to know in regard to aircraft limitations and required equipment, and what to do in case of inoperative instruments.
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