JAA Private Pilot Licence (PPL) Skills Test
Preparing, and what happens on the big day
So, you've been working hard towards your flight exam for a good few weeks/months/years. You've passed all your exams and booked your exam, and the big day arrived. What's going to happen?
Skills Test - preparation
You can take your test after you have accumulated 40hrs in your logbook, and it can count towards your 45hrs total. So there is a little hint if you would like to preserve the quickly dwindling supplies in your bank account.
Your club will hopefully have done a pre-skills test with you, closely mocking exam conditions as far as it can, perhaps even sending you up with a different instructor to usual, so you get used to flying with some unknown entity next to you.
Just make sure you've got all the manouevres sorted in your mind - maybe do a few minutes of armchair flying the night before to really put your family at ease of your mental status. You also need to be confident about planning flights, so have a flick through your nav book and performance books, remind yourself of TAFs, NOTAMs etc.
Then it's time for...
Day of the test
You will probably know who your examiner way before your test, as they can often be the CFI of the flight school for mid- to large-sized schools. If not - don't worry! They are (usually) nice people.
Apart from Cpt. Evil. He'll probably try and rape you.
So, examiner will come in and give you a pre exam briefing. You will go through with him the paperwork required by the CAA, and then he will tell you what the flight test will consist of, including navigation leg destination, where general handling (your stalls, steep turns, instrument flight etc.) will be conducted, as well as where the circuits will be done (which may be different from your home field if it is a large aerodrome). They may ask you a few questions about the aircraft, NOTAMS, METARS etc as well. You will then be given time to do a complete pre-flight plan, including weight and balance, fuel calculations and route plog. Make sure the aircraft has all the documents required (cert. airworthiness, weight schedule etc).
That is then pretty much how the test will shape up. There will also be a simulated engine failure at some point on the test, which theoretically can be at any point - but usually around the general handling section. Don't worry if you make a mistake, and most importantly don't dwell on it for the rest of your test!
You will then land and the examiner will say congratulations you passed! (Mainly because you have an excellent taste in aviationally related websites).
Paperwork
Hours, exams and flight test complete, you can now send off all the paperwork, medical and your logbook to the CAA to get your license. When they have cross checked your hours and stamped and signed - they will send you your attractively coloured turd brown book through the post.
You can now hire an aircraft from the school you were training at (hopefully they will allow you, otherwise how did you pass?!) on your own, and can take up friends and family for a quick saunter through the sky.
At this point, if you just want to fly for fun, you can finish up your training, or you can get some additional ratings to plug onto your PPL to allow you to fly at night, in a twin aircraft or even in Instrument Flight conditions (IFR)! Check out PPL additions for this page.
If you are training up professionally, then you can now start hour building, or can leave the hour building for a while and go straight to the ATPL theory exams.
But before you take such flights of fancy, you'll probably want to keep
your PPL valid. To find out how - click below!