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Helicopter Check-Ride Student Failures Online Ground School
Hello, I'm Kenny Keller the creator of Helicopter Online Ground School. And today I want to share with you the three helicopter check-ride failures of students that I've had over the past thirteen years. Number three coming up again -- out of all the hundreds of people that I've sent for helicopter check-rides, I've only had three people fail on the first attempt. So I thought out of all those check-rides, these are three probably good tips to cover for some quick helicopter check-ride prep on what I've seen trip these three people up over a number of years. Number one was my very first student that I've ever sent for a helicopter check-ride anywhere and it was in a Robinson R-22 helicopter. And these three failures: one's a Robinson, one's a Schweizer and one's an Estrom. So again the number three: the three failures have been in three different styles of aircraft. So this first gentleman was an airplane CFI and he was a really sharp individual and he was really well-prepared and he got to the check-ride and he was busting through the oral stuff and he was doing great and then the examiner asked him how to figure out pressure altitude. And he couldn't remember how to do it by hand, he wanted to use a chart or use his fancy electronic flight computer and the examiner said "No, you have to be able to figure out pressure altitude by hand." For example you're in an aircraft or in a helicopter and you're going to divert and land at an airport where you hadn't planned on landing and maybe it's a higher elevation and you need to know if you can hover when you get there. So you need to be able to get the current pressure setting for that airport, figure out pressure altitude by hand in order to work the performance chart. And he could not do it by hand. So the examiner failed him. So that's one that I've always made sure over the years, one hundred percent hands down make sure my students know how to figure out pressure altitude by hand. Number two was a student of mine back in Cleveland when I was a fairly new instructor with a few years under my belt and it was in a Schweizer helicopter and this one was on a steep approach. And this was a female student that was going for a Helicopter CFI check-ride. And she was excellent on the ground, she was a great ground instructor and was doing really well with all the ground stuff. And the flying was, you know, it could have been a little bit better but it wasn't too bad. And on the flight portion of the helicopter check-ride, she of course aces the oral part, they go out to fly, fifteen minutes later I see them flying back in, or hovering back in and I thought "Oh-oh, I know this can't be good." So when they get in, basically we all sat down together and he says "Okay, on your steep approach, you started it and you told me it was too steep." And then as she continued the approach, she kept saying "Oh, this is too steep, this is too steep." But she continued the approach all the way down. And when she got to the end he said "Well, what do you think?" And she said "Well, that was too steep." And he said "Yeah, that's right. And you had the opportunity to go around because it was too steep at the beginning." So at the beginning of the approach when she first started it and said "This is too steep," she had the option to go around. She could have gone around, took her time, got set up again, she could just go around one, because that's a maneuver for the check-ride. Go around, take a big deep breath, set it up and try it again. But she started too steep, told the examiner it was too steep and then continued the approach. So we all know settling with power's a big deal and that's why the steep approach is a big deal and you've got to use a good technique and if you think it's too steep, go around. And you have to catch it early. You can't wait until you're three quarters of the way through the approach and say "Oh, I'm going to go around now." That's not the point. If you start out a little bit sloppy and you think it's a little bit too steep at the beginning of the approach when you're up several hundred feet, you could ultimately go around and save yourself busting the check-ride. So remember, a steep approach is fifteen degrees.