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6 Answers

Making good use of downtime while waiting for check ride

Asked by: 4342 views General Aviation

Hey guys so I finished the test portion for my PPL and now I am trying to do the hours and get the practical skills to pass that portion so I can move on.  What advise do you guys have as I am trying to go full time to get my CPL and not trying to waste my time, I saved up the money to live and pay for school, but it isn't endless.  Should I start on doing instrament rating in the meantime?

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6 Answers



  1. Bill Trussell on Jan 27, 2013

    You are in the zone now where the expectation is you are gaining experience with both operations and weather. Yes, you should be building experience toward your instrument rating, which is the next milestone. Do as much instrument time as you can, both dual and with a safety pilot. A good bit of cross country during this time is good as well. Once you have obtained your instrument rating flying within the system on cross countries while doing your airwork toward your commercial is in order. Be sure to offer yourself as a safey pilot for a fellow instrument student or newly rated instrument pilot. It can be good experience.

    Do not forget to have fun along the way!

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  2. Sam Dawson on Jan 27, 2013

    On the ground side I would look at the free course available through faasafety.gov, especially the AOPA ASF courses. Shoot for one a week.

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  3. Ben on Jan 27, 2013

    I also recommend the free AOPA online safety courses. I’ve done most of them for VFR and they help as refresher.

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  4. Chris Carlson on Jan 28, 2013

    I’m not sure if you mean you have passed the written, and are waiting for the oral/practical, or if you have accomplished the latter…if so, congratulations!
    If not, still, good job on passing the written!
    What Bill said is great advice for after the Private checkride, but if you are between written and checkride, you should be continuing to build hours getting even better at the private maneuvers. Try and hold yourself to commercial PTS standards, or some sort of higher standard than the private PTS. I suggest you don’t start your ifr stuff till after the ppl checkride, otherwise you will start to forget to look outside the plane, which can be detrimental to the checkride. Also, always be studying the oral portion, go through the oral prep book by ASA, and critically think about every question. Or better, go teach someone what you know, a friend, or another pilot, who can ask questions to help you better understand by means of you having to explain it, and making sense doing it.

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  5. Lagmanbek on Jan 28, 2013

    If you haven’t purchased an ASA oral exam prep book yet, or the equivalent, checkride.com has an excellent product. i’ve had really good luck with them on 3 written exams (instrument, commercial, CFI) and two oral exams (haven’t passed the CFI oral yet). You can load it on your laptop or handheld, and be reviewing when you’re not flying.

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  6. Jim MacKay on Jan 28, 2013

    Kev:
    Please focus on the task at hand. If you have not passed the private practical test, thats what you need to be doing.
    The next hurdle, as mentioned before, is the instrument rating. Your commercial ticket is really next to useless without an instrument rating.
    Do as much cross country time as PIC as you can. Remember the 50 hours x-cty needed for the instrument ride.
    Good Luck

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