Hey Everyone! It’s been almost 6 months-ish since I’ve last posted!
Here’s the update on me:
I got my instrument rating and did my time building phase (225 TT at the moment) at my college program. I made sure to file IFR as much as possible and even got an okay amount of actual logged. While studying for the IRA, i took the IGI and the CFII written and passed with high scores! Also took my FOI and nailed that too. I was even brought on to do formal classroom instruction at the local flight school!
Now, onto my question! I would like any and all advice how you guys studied for your commercial checkride. Thought about getting Sporty’s or King Schools, but a lot of people advised me not to do that since it’s very similar to PPL stuff (“glorified PPL” is the exact term they used). Self-study enough or a ground prep program a good idea and if so, which one?
Glorified private exam was what I heard a bunch going into my commercial check ride as well, and it really did feel like it. It seemed to me like you mainly need to know your private pilot stuff, but just a little bit better. I’m sure it can vary from one DPE to another, but my DPE hit hard on airspace, including special-use airspace, and aircraft systems. For commercial, you’ll definitely want to know your airplane that you’re testing in VERY well. I also got a handful of questions on atypical or emergency procedures, which goes back to knowing your airplane very well. I also got some aeromedical questions from the perspective of “Your passenger is experiencing…” and knowing what to do in those situations.
To answer your question, I think self-study should be enough to prepare you for the oral. Knowing your aircraft, knowing airspace, and knowing many of the common regulations for things like required aircraft documents, required day VFR equipment, fuel requirements, etc. will likely get you very far in your commercial oral.