What is happening, MZeroA Nation?
Jason Schappert here, and welcome into, now,
Mock Checkride May.
This has become a theme every year at MZeroA.com,
as we help you prepare for your checkride.
And, I realize that checkride is a scary thing to a lot of people.
However, I need you to also have the mindset of we're studying
and preparing for beyond a checkride, to be a safe real-world pilot,
to pursue what we call aviation mastery.
And, you know mastery is a quest, not a score on a test.
You are going to knock it out of the park
on your private pilot checkride or any checkride, for that matter.
But, I want you thinking beyond the test as well.
Your first flight with your spouse, your son, your daughter, your co-worker,
your best friend, whatever that may be,
that's what we're really here to prepare you for.
So, how should you prepare for the private pilot checkride?
Let's go through that.
And, let's say we're, I don't know, two weeks out from a checkride, roughly.
And, hopefully, you have a little more time than that.
If not less, well, we can expedite some things here for starters.
You know I am never here to promote things.
I'm going to use it more as a thank you, more than anything.
You all know we produce three amazing audiobooks
on the checkride series.
"Pass Your Private Pilot Checkride" on Audible,
as of this recording, just crossed over 600 five-star reviews.
That is pretty exciting.
It has been the only, the number one bestseller
in the aviation category on Audible for many, many years.
So, thank you so much for that.
You can find that on Audible.com.
And, that leads me into the first point of,
how should we be studying?
How can we be immersing ourselves in that?
Well, a big part of it is listening to the audiobook.
It's a two-and-a-half-hour-long mock checkride.
I ask a question, I pause for a second, I let you think about the correct answer.
Then, I tell you the correct answer and how to answer it on your checkride,
and how to avoid something else called a checkride pitfall.
More on checkride pitfalls here in just a second.
And, I'll give you some examples of that as well,
but I want you listening to that on repeat, three or four times,
while you're at the gym, while you're grocery shopping,
while you're walking the dog, driving to work, whatever that may be,
immersing yourself in it.
Not to the point of rote memorization,
because I need you truly understanding the material.
A big fear of the checkride is, Well, what are they going to ask me?
What about the unknowns?"
When you forget about the other aspects of things,
let me share a few tips with you.
For starters, when I was doing my private pilot at 16, then 17 years old,
my flight instructor, an awesome lady, she only weighed 100 pounds.
So, I wasn't used to,
when my checkride examiner got in the airplane with me
who was a solid, call it, 250 pounds.
Let's just say the airplane performed unexpectedly.
I didn't wrap my brain around that.
So, that's something else you need to be thinking about, is the weight.
Is there going to be a weight differential, because I was used to floating.
Let me tell you something.
When you go from a 100-pound flight instructor
to a 250-pound designated pilot examiner,
that old Cherokee 140 just didn't float the same way that it did.
So, you need to be mindful of that.
And, that's where it would behoove you, it would benefit you,
to get another flight with another instructor.
Not only for a difference of weight,
so you feel the characteristics of the airplane,
and you've felt it from solo to having your instructor,
but if it's a heavier instructor, well, that's something else to think about.
But, it would benefit you to get a mock checkride,
not only from that standpoint, but just a different perspective,
a different set of eyes.
One of the most nerve-wracking parts of the checkride is,
"I'm so used to this person sitting next to me.
Now, there's a new person there.
What if they're not nice?
What if I do something?
What if I say something they don't like?
What if there's awkward silence?"
You need to practice flying with somebody different,
which you probably haven't done yet
if you've kept the same instructor through and through.
If you've swapped instructors a few times, whether for better or for worse,
you may not be as worried about that,
because you might be comfortable with the idea of having different people
sitting next to you,
different voices, different weights, different perspectives.
So, that's something else to think about.
But, doing a mock checkride on the ground as well,
going back-and-forth.
And, the scary part is, well, how does a mock checkride actually work?
And, I always give the advice,
"Hey, a mock checkride, treat it like it's a deposition."
Now, hopefully, you've never been deposed before,
because it's not fun to be deposed, right?
But, if you've been deposed, you know what I'm talking about.
What does your attorney tell you?
"Answer the question, the question they ask, Jason, and zip it."
Now, you all know me.
I'm a bit of a chatterbox, sometimes.
There's some other chatterboxes out there like myself, and you've got to be careful.
You answer the question and you zip it.
For example, let's ask a question here.
And, I'll ask Coach Ray.
Coach Ray can bring up the question right here.
What are the oxygen requirements?
What are the oxygen requirements? Think about it for a second.
What are the oxygen requirements?
How would you answer that?
Now, there's one of two ways.
There's the right way to do it.
The right way to answer such a question would be,
"If we're flying at 12,500 feet and above for more than 30 minutes,
the required crew must be on oxygen.
14,000 feet and above, there's no 30-minute rule,
required crew must be on oxygen at all times.
And, above 15,000 feet, I'm still on oxygen.
I must offer it to my passengers, but they don't have to accept it."
And, then, there's going to be awkward silence.
Don't feel the need to fill the awkward silence.
So, practice sitting in awkward silence,
because the wrong way to do it sounds one of two ways.
We ask the question, what are the oxygen requirements?
You go, "I think it's 91.211.
Maybe, it's 91.213.
I'm not totally sure, but I'm pretty sure but I'm pretty sure--
Anyways, 12,500, 14,000 15,000."
I'm just going through this quickly now for the sake of the video.
"We have that because, at altitude, we could get hypoxic."
What's the next question they're going to ask?
The next question they're going, "Tell me about hypoxia."
Do you see how you led yourself into the next question by mentioning,
"We could get hypoxic?"
The next question is, what's hypoxia?
"It's the lack of oxygen to the brain.
There's four types of it, and yes, lack of oxygen to the brain."
What's the next question they're going to ask?
"Four types of hypoxia, that's interesting.
What are the four types of hypoxia?"
Those are the questions that they're going to ask,
and that's how they're going to work you through everything there.
Answer the question and zip it.
So, if they ask you the question,
what is hypoxia?
And, think about it in your head, what is hypoxia?
And, how would you answer that question?
Hypoxia is a lack of oxygen to the vital organs.
And, zip it.
This is the hard part.
Let's practice.
Hypoxia is the lack of oxygen to the vital organs.
And, there's four types of it.
You can't sit in the awkward silence and be like me,
because you're probably like me, in a way,
that sometimes you don't like sitting in an awkward silence.
You're going to need to get comfortable sitting in awkward silence.
Who's taking a checkride out there?
Put it in the chat, and tell those who haven't taken a checkride yet,
it will be so awkward, because the DPE will just be here,
not on their phone but on their tablet or whatever it is,
looking at their next question.
And, they almost purposely sit there to see if you bring up more.
Just zip it.
Because then they ask you, what are the four types of hypoxia?
And, then, you can list it out, and then we go through
hypoxic hypoxia, hypemic hypoxia, stagnant hypoxia, histotoxic hypoxia.
It's not going to be enough just to name the four.
They're, then, going to want to know, "Well, tell me about each of the four."
And, you brought all of this upon yourself
because you volunteered too much information.
You're going to practice answering your questions and zipping it.
I call it a checkride pitfall when you don't do that.
You are leading yourself into your own questions.
Let me share just one last thing with you,
and then we'll wrap this up.
And, then, by the way, before I share that, this entire month is Mock Checkride May.
So, did you know we produce four podcasts?
One of them being the Private Pilot Podcast on iTunes?
I'm literally just going to do mock checkrides for all my podcasts.
So, we do the private, the instrument, the commercial, the CFI podcast.
You can find all those on iTunes.
Ground school members,
all our member-only webinars are going to be mock checkrides.
If you're not a member, I'd encourage you to hop in there
and become a member and check that out on MZeroA.com,
so you can see all of that.
Inflight Coffees, by the way, Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
Those, also, are going to be related to checkrides.
Maybe not necessarily mock checkrides, but related to checkrides with that.
So, all that being said,
you've got all the resources you need to go ahead and work through
and prepare for your checkride.
The last thing I want to share with you is this.
You don't have to know everything.
You may need to know where to find everything,
grab some props here.
You may need to know where to find everything,
but you don't need to know absolutely everything.
You don't need to know, 91.211, that's oxygen requirements.
91.3, that's pilot-in-command responsibility.
You don't need to rattle all these things off.
You need to know the basics.
You need to know to the ACS, Airmen Certification Standards,
and, of course, I want you to exceed that.
And, remember, one mistake isn't grounds for failure.
Can I tell you a really funny story?
I was 17 years old, doing my private pilot checkride.
I was flying 6-7-1-1-Juliet, a 1962, '67, someone can look it up, Cherokee 140.
And, I remember I got through the oral exam by the skin of my teeth,
the ground portion of it.
But, thankfully, the gentleman was so, so nice.
And, unfortunately, I went into it with the mindset of,
"If I can just get to that airplane."
Where I could fly the heck out of that airplane.
The knowledge wasn't really up here just yet.
And, that was a challenging part.
And, karma is full circle.
Look what I do for a living now.
I encourage you all to get the ground stuff done and solid,
and then we can work on the flying stuff as well to make sure it's all cohesive.
But, I wasn't the best student back in the day.
I remember walking, I got through the oral exam just barely.
I'm walking to the airplane with the DPE, Designated Pilot Examiner,
because he wanted to watch me pre-flight.
And, that's typical to watch you pre-flight and ask you some questions.
And, the oral exam is always going throughout.
Just because you made it out of the room,
it's still going to happen in the airplane, around the airplane.
So, we're walking out to the airplane.
We're, I don't know, 20 yards from the airplane.
And, he goes,
"Jason, so, how much horsepower does this airplane have?"
I thought for a second, going,
"I really don't know how much horsepower this thing has."
I said, "Well, sir, it's a Cherokee 140, so it must have 140 horsepower."
And, he said, "Okay, so that 172 over there across the ramp, that has 172 horsepower?"
And, I said, "Yes, sir, it does."
I can laugh about it now.
And, again, I passed my checkride.
I said stupid things.
I made dumb little mistakes.
I probably goofed up a landing or two.
It was within, at that time, was practical test standards,
now Airmen Certification Standards.
You are going to make a mistake or two.
You cannot allow that mistake to define you.
You know how people fail checkrides?
They goof up a steep turn by 50, 100 feet.
And, that's not grounds for an immediate checkride failure.
The failure comes when you're still thinking about
that really crummy steep turn when you left it 2 miles that way,
and you're still thinking about how you goofed up your steep turn
during your slow flight and during your stalls
and during your time under the hood and everything else.
And, because you can't get your mind off that failure,
everything else goes down.
Maybe, you're like that, or maybe you know someone like that.
They make one mistake and things just start to compound
until they snap themselves out of it and say, "Wake up, Jason.
We're still hurtling through the sky at 90 knots.
Let's slow this thing down.
Let's clear our mind.
That steep turn forgot about me,
so I'm going to forget about that steep turn, too.
It's behind me.
There's no chance in going back to get it.
Let's just make everything from this point forward that much better."
Your checkride will not be perfect.
You will make mistakes,
but the mistakes don't have to follow you.
You can leave them behind you and continue to fly that airplane
to the best of your ability, obviously, exceeding Airmen Certification Standards.
Sorry, I rambled so long.
I love talking about checkrides.
If you enjoyed this, if you need more information,
please, hop on your phone right now and go find the Private Pilot Podcast.
There's also the Instrument Pilot Podcast.
Go on Audible and download "Pass Your Private Pilot Checkride."
You either search my name, "Jason Schappert,"
or you can just type in "Pass Your Private Pilot Checkride."
It'll come up.
We also have them for instrument and commercial.
Maybe, you're watching this video because the knowledge here
transcends which checkride you're taking.
The advice here applies to instrument,
commercial, CFI, ATP checkrides, everything.
Because, this advice that's
going to follow you throughout your flight training.
Hey, if you've already taken your checkride,
can you just drop some words of encouragement and wisdom
to those watching this right now who are two weeks out from their checkride
or feeling a little nervous, a little discouraged?
Could you just drop some wisdom down in there
for them to have that level of encouragement,
as we work through that?
I'll be sharing with you more on that two-week timeline
of what you should be doing each day.
I'll be sharing more of that in the podcasts,
on Inflight Coffees, and just more throughout this week.
So, listen, I cannot wait to read your comments below this video
on Facebook, on YouTube, on MZeroA.com.
Have a blessed, amazing, outstanding rest of your day.
Best of luck on your checkride.
I expect to see a picture of you
holding up your temporary airman certificate
on Facebook in the MZeroA Nation group.
You just search "MZeroA Nation."
You can go ahead and find that in there and join.
And, just a great community of like-minded individuals.
So, check that out as well.
Have an outstanding rest of your day.
And most importantly, remember,
that a good pilot is always learning.
Have a great day, everyone. We'll see you.