What's happening, MZeroA Nation?
Jason Schappert here, continuing with this theme of Mock Checkride May.
I hope you're checking out all the amazing resources we have,
not just these videos, but our podcasts as well.
Inflight Coffees, Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time
on the MZeroA Facebook.
And, I hope you've already grabbed our audiobooks on Audible.
Speaking of that, I'm reading from
"Pass Your Instrument Pilot Checkride" today.
It's like storytime with Jason today.
So, we're going to be diving into that.
Last week, although the video was titled on the theme of
"How to prepare for your private pilot checkride."
If you have an instrument pilot checkride coming up,
could you go back and watch that video as well?
Because, it will only serve you that much greater
because the advice really transcends what checkride you're preparing for.
And, I want to pick up on a theme before we dive into
some story time with Jason here.
The theme of that last week's video was,
"Jason, I'm two weeks out for my checkride, what do I do?"
And, we talked about checkride pitfalls.
We talked about immersing yourself in the content,
avoiding rote memorization.
We covered all these things, but leading up to that,
how often should I be flying?
How often should I be studying?
Well, let me answer it for you.
We're two weeks out.
Week one,
I want you flying at least twice.
In a perfect world, three times.
Schedule three, knowing that one's going to get canceled
because of weather or maintenance.
If you get all three in, that much better.
It's awesome.
This is also the week it would benefit you to go out and do a mock checkride
with another instructor.
I shared that in last week's video as well.
This is a good week to do it.
I like it two weeks out because sometimes
a mock checkride with another instructor can be a huge confidence booster.
It could also be a confidence killer as well.
If it's a confidence booster, that's awesome.
Let's ride that confidence all the way in.
However, it can also be a confidence killer,
in the sense that,
"Whoa, they were really tough on me.
I was really nervous.
I flew like garbage.
Thankfully, I have two weeks now to fly back with my normal instructor
and just fine-tune those last few little things, or say,
'Can we push my checkride back two more weeks?
Give me a month to work on this?
Because, that mock checkride was terrible on my part.
You don't know what you don't know.
They asked me questions I had never heard of before," maybe.
So, it could be a confidence booster or a confidence killer.
You don't want to do it days out from your checkride.
You want to have ample time to make those decisions.
Ride the confidence in or create the plan to build the confidence from there.
So, two, three flights.
Studying every single day.
When I say every day,
I'm not talking like college days of cramming,
because cramming and rote memorization just doesn't work.
I mean diving into the audiobook, diving into the books,
diving into the online ground school, whatever that may be for you,
and just chipping away 30 minutes a night.
That's the mode I want you in.
And, not just diving on the subjects of,
"Gosh, I really need to brush up on IFR regulations,
but I'm strong on weather."
Still, go back and watch the weather stuff, too.
Because, if you get discouraged trying to study regulations,
"This is so hard,"
go give yourself a confidence boost by studying something you know quite well.
It's psychology, and it's learning science as well.
There's a lot to back that up with some space repetition
and everything else going through there.
Now, we're a week out.
Same kind of game plan here.
Two, preferably, three flights; studying every single day.
Let's say the checkride is on a Saturday morning.
On Friday, I don't want you to think about airplanes.
In fact, when an airplane flies over,
I need you to go like this and don't even look at it.
Don't listen to it.
"That sounds like 172."
Don't even look at it.
That's hard for us, because we're all aviation geeks,
in one way or another.
Don't even look at the airplane.
I don't want you studying.
I want you focusing on you, focusing on your family.
I want no alcohol, just no junk, no sugary foods.
I want just clean eating, plenty of hydration all day.
Great, healthy dinner,
to bed early.
Minimizing caffeine, these sort of things.
Take a melatonin, if it's what you need to fall asleep.
Getting super, super, just restful great sleep.
You're going to be nervous already,
so let's start working on that sleep schedule.
If sleep is an issue for you,
let's start building up some good nights of sleep,
leading up to that checkride.
The day of the checkride now, again,
awaking early, arriving early.
I will stress this many, many times over.
Thirty minutes early is on-time for a checkride.
If your checkride is at 9:00 a.m., I want you there at 8:30.
And, you can say, "Jason, that's crazy."
I don't want you strolling in at 9:00.
You're going to be stressed.
I don't need you running behind.
It'll be just our luck that traffic is bad,
you need to stop and get gas, whatever that is, 8:30.
If they say 9:00, that means you're there at 8:30.
And, at 8:30, I want you to find a little room
the school is putting you in.
I want you to line up all your books.
I want you to get your chair comfy.
I want to get you a water, get your DPE a water.
Have your snacks laid out.
You need to bring snacks.
And, have all these things ready ahead of time,
so you have 30 minutes, "I'm set up. I'm here.
Let's just breathe and chill out a little bit."
That's what we really need to do.
Being early, by the way, is just professional.
And, what we do is professional in everything that we do.
Speaking of professional, I need you to dress professional as well.
Now, whether that's a collared shirt--
I realize, a lot of this is seasonal for you,
but this is a good rule of thumb.
I am not a golfer, but I know how golfers dress.
That's a pretty good rule of thumb.
Dress like you're going golfing at a nice golf course, I guess.
Maybe, there's different standards. I don't know.
Just like you're going golfing.
I know, checkrides in August and Florida are tough.
But, again, you can get a golf shirt and golf pants tucked in with a belt
and some shoes that you're comfortable with.
I'll come back to shoes in a second here.
I don't mean to be weird, but this is serious stuff.
A checkride examiner will tell you,
someone who just shows up in a hoodie and sweatpants and looks a mess,
they're off to a bad start, in a way.
You need to dress for the position, right?
Flying is a professional sport, in a way.
And, you need to dress accordingly for it.
Let's end on shoes here, then we'll go to storytime with Jason, I promise.
Shoes,
this is going to sound really crazy.
You might say, "Man, I want to wear my nice dress shoes."
Have you ever flown with those dress shoes before?
Because you may hit the rudder pedals and go,
"Oh, that feels weird.
This shoe doesn't have as much flex to it."
I would, once again,
there's nice tennis shoes, whatever it is.
You're going to think I'm so crazy,
but the shoes you're going to take your checkride in,
if you haven't worn them before
and you're going to wear them on your checkride,
start wearing them two, three, four weeks out,
to get used to flying with your checkride shoes.
Maybe, even your whole checkride outfit, for all that matters.
You can call me crazy, whatever you want.
I am all about over-preparing for things.
We make the plan.
We work the plan as much as we can.
We also know the plan changes.
That's true of business.
That's true of relationships.
That's true of flying and checkrides, especially.
Sometimes, you have to know when to divert, right?
Let's plan it out as much as we can.
I can't wait to read your comments on that.
Hey, storytime with Jason.
Let's dive into it.
Weather is a big portion of this, obviously, for us.
I'm reading from "Pass Your Instrument Pilot Checkride,"
again, on Audible, for you.
What are the three stages of a thunderstorm?
You can pause this video if you need more time,
but for the sake of brevity, I'm going to answer it out for you.
The three stages of a thunderstorm are, first, the cumulus stage.
The cumulus stage is depicted as what?
The cumulus stage is the building stage.
Everything is growing.
It updrafts is what characterize it.
That's the building stage, the cumulus stage.
Next is the mature stage.
The mature stage is signaled at the start of rainfall.
The moment rain begins to fall,
that storm has entered into what's called the mature stage.
And, lastly, we have the dissipating stage.
The dissipating stage is where the storm begins to rain itself out.
Have you ever been out shopping or just driving
and it's raining, raining, raining,
and all of a sudden it seems like the whole storm just breaks loose,
and, then, it's over just like that?
The drops get so much bigger.
It's because the updrafts and something else have ceased,
that rain is now too heavy,
so the storm lets it all out at once because it's dying, it is dissipating.
That's why everything breaks loose for just a second.
The drops get so much bigger.
That is the dissipating stage.
And, then, from there, the storm is actually over.
Your instrument pilot checkrides
can be made up of so many weather-related questions,
regulatory questions, everything else.
If you're struggling with this, again, I encourage you to grab a copy of
"Pass Your Instrument Pilot Checkride" audiobook,
if you want to brush up on a few things.
Also, you can take a two-week, no-strings-attached,
no-credit-card-required free trial of our online ground school
at MZeroATrial.com.
That's our brand-new instrument course
inside our brand-new Learning Management System,
injected with the science of learning in there as well.
So, just very, very exciting to show and share all of that with you all.
So, do check that out, MZeroATrial.com.
Please, also, don't forget we're heading to Zoom again this month, MZeroALive.com.
I'm doing a live Zoom mock checkride.
I'll be asking questions.
I'll be unmuting you to hear your answers.
And, if you get it right and you're one of the ones that I unmute,
you're going to win something great.
So, MZeroALive.com to go ahead and opt-in and sign up for that as well.
Again, no spam, no credit cards required.
We are just here to serve you all, not just to pass your checkride,
but to be a safe real-world pilot,
because that's what we're ultimately all about.
So, listen MZeroA Nation,
I'm sorry these videos are being a little bit longer,
but there's just so much to share.
And, I hope you realize,
next week we're going to talk about commercial pilot checkrides.
And, you may say, "I don't want to be a commercial pilot."
There's some wisdom in what we're sharing next week that I encourage you,
even if you're at the private pilot level, to go back.
Watch every video in this checkride series, because things like how to dress,
that information transcends all checkrides.
And, we'll be sharing more wisdom like that next week as well,
talking more specifically about your commercial pilot checkride,
but some great transcendent information there as well.
Have a blessed, amazing, 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.