Check Ride Prep

Is preparing for a checkride always this crazy? I got the signoff last weekend, and scheduled my exam. I ended up scheduling with an examiner that my instructor doesn't know (I know, that's risky-- but we had our reasons for why that made sense). The morning after I scheduled the exam, I got a voicemail from the examiner saying that he wanted to send me some stuff, and that I should email my address. So I did. Then he also emailed some instructions on using the online system to register for the checkride.



At this point, I decided to ask M about all of this as it was starting to seem a little intense. Unfortunately, M was out of town on an interview... so I had to wait. While waiting to get in touch with M, I got the packet in the mail from the examiner. Oh my. Very thorough. The packet contained an 11 page document of how the examiner expected the check ride to proceed. On the one hand, it gave very specific information on the examiner's expectations and questions to expect (that could be good-- to know exactly what to expect), on the other hand, it was so specific that it came across as... very unforgiving. So now, even more of a dilema. I finally talked to M this morning, and sent him a scan of the document. After he made it through 3 out of the 11 pages, he called me. He thinks I definitely should not go with this examiner. That I should go with one of the others (M's usual examiner, who is a very nice guy, just lost his medical). M was definitely not impressed with the examiner's document. Not only was it overly specific, but it also, in at least one case, was based on the wrong PTS standards (he used the old standards for a short-field landing instead of the new ones).



So now, I'm waiting to see if I can get in with the examiner who is known to be LONG (but so is the one I'm currently scheduled with), but nice. M thinks this guy just sounds like trouble. Hopefully, I can get an appointment with the new guy, and then manage to get myself unbooked with the other guy. (And I hate making phone calls!)



The good news is, I've been studying every night this week. And I think I'm pretty ready for this. There are a few things I want to go over still... but most of the stuff is falling into place. And-- on the up side-- I felt like I knew most of the stuff in the document that the examiner sent me!