I get asked from applicants all the time "What's going to be on the checkride?" The obvious answer is to look at the FAA's Practical Test Standards (PTS) for the certificate or rating sought. It spells out exactly what we must do and what topics we must cover. Of course, most applicants already know this and are looking for information beyond what's in the PTS. The truth is the PTS is what is going to be on the checkride. Nothing more, and nothing less. The confusion, I think, comes from what we call rote vs. correlation.
More than anything else, we as examiners want to release safe competent pilots into the system. The best way for us to do that is to test applicants at the correlation level. Recently the FAA has placed emphasis on scenario-based checkrides. This means we as examiners have to come up with scenarios within the PTS tasks that will test the applicant’s knowledge, skills, abilities and understanding, and the application and correlation of the applicant’s knowledge. We seek to glean from the applicant whether or not they can make sound decisions and whether they have the aeronautical decision
making processes necessary to make a safe pilot.
Applicants will often spend hours memorizing definitions, acronyms, systems etc. and that's great. It is part of being an aviator. However, when giving a checkride I would rather know if that applicant knows what to do and will make the right decision if he inadvertently flies into a thunderstorm or encounters un-forecast icing. What will she do if she has an alternator failure 100 miles from an airport in a slow moving plane?
One of my favorite questions on an instrument checkride, which is a perfect example of rote vs correlation, is "What is a VDP and what does it mean to you?" Most applicants can regurgitate some version of the FAA's definition, which is ambiguous at best. My next question is "What does the VDP mean to you?" I get all kinds of answers from "Its where I have to go missed" to "That's only for the airlines." I'll give the applicant a scenario. Say you are on the RNAV 32 approach at KHII and you are at LNAV minimums, and you reach the VDP and still can't see the runway. But, two miles past the VDP (which is still before the missed approach point) you break out of the clouds and you can see. What did that VDP mean to you? What should / would you be thinking in your mind on an approach that has a VDP? Of course, in this example, you would be over the top of the runway at 900 feet AGL. So what does that VDP mean? It's your last chance for a straight in landing should
you break out of the clouds. After the VDP and before the missed approach point you must circle to land if you break out and get a visual on the airport.
So what's the moral of rote vs. correlation? When you are undergoing flight training, seek to understand, apply and correlate, and not just memorize. Try to ask yourself questions like "What would I do if...?", "How would I handle it if...?". It's not enough to just memorize a bunch of acronyms and mnemonics. When you find yourself in one of those situations where you wish you were on the ground but aren't, will you be able to handle the situation with sound aeronautical decision making and have a safe outcome, or will you buy the farm spouting acronyms on the way down? Ask your instructor to give you scenarios. Work on them until you can take your knowledge and apply it to achieve a level of judgment and decision making that will keep you and your passengers safe as long as you take to the skies.⌘
Article submitted by Wright Aviation, Accredited Master Flight Instruction
Article Author, Todd Underwood, Master CFII, Todd@wrightaviation.net
