The Pre-Checkride Oral Exam

So this morning I met up with Alec to go over the oral component of the IFR checkride as a prerequisite to taking the checkride.

Went very well, I apparently have at least some idea what I'm talking about and got some good tips on wha tthe examiner is looking for.

First important tip:  The examiner was paper and lots of it - paper IFR charts and Paper chart supplements.  Never mind that all of this is available on Foreflight, I now need to go out and buy paper copies for the exam.  Blech.

Second:  You need to really know your paper chart symbology.  I was fine with that as I had studied expecting that to be the case.

Third:  Need to know how to explain how the Garmin G5s actually work - solid state gyroscopes, accelerators and air data computer.  We apparently don't need to know how to disassemble and replace the internals so there's that. 

Fourth:  Everything is fair game and there is a heckuva lot of it

Upside:  I passed and now have the checkride booked.

I do now have yet another pre-checkride requirement: a required pre-checkride flight with Alec to do this Friday, so I better not mess that up.

There may just be a light at the end of the tunnel, but it may very well be an oncoming train.