I just finished IRA and FII written exams ( 92,88) and now its time for my checkride. IRA checkride is supposed to take place in like a month and here is my question. How did you guys prepare yourself for the oral portion ? I have pilotscafe review sheet and red oral exam guide ( not a big fun of that book, i’m just looking through it). Would you recommend anything else ? what is your experience? . Of course I know pilot is always studying and there is never enough knowledge but I hope you guys will understand what I mean
Read the Instrument Flying Handbook and the Instrument Procedures Handbook. Read the applicable FARs. Then…go back and read the Red Prep Book. Ask your peers to quiz you. Not only will you pass the oral, you will actually know what you are talking about and can back it up with the regs.
I mostly studied pilots cafe and the regs, based on flash cards I made for myself. Personally I’m not a fan of the ASA oral books, and for the instrument (red) book, the only thing I really reviewed was the weather section.
Pilots cafe, plus the flash cards I made, and studying with fellow classmates and quizzing each other did the trick for me. When we studied we would often take turns going up to the white board and teaching the group on one particular IFR topic each.
Pilot’s Cafe was pretty helpful overall, but just a quick word of caution, it IS going on 8 years old and there are a few things in there that are no longer applicable. Just make sure you verify all the information in it before you rely on it for a checkride.
I was fortunate enough to get Mary Schu as my DPE. She does the mock Instrument Checkride on King Schools. Bought that video and used it to prep for mine. My oral was an identical copy of the King Schools video.
Edit: Pilots Cafe is gold though, try and know everything on there.
Only other thing I would add to the suggestions already made is make sure you read through the Instrument ACS while you’re studying. It’s very easy to miss something that might come up on your check ride. Having referenced the ACS and reviewed any areas of deficiency will help prevent any surprises. I have also found mock check rides to also be very effective.
It would be good to go through the Instrument Flying Handbook and the FARs relevant sections to familiarize yourself with them. After that know Pilots Cafe BY HEART to just regurgitate it.
Finally this is my main suggestion and you will learn this in CFI Academy go through the entire ACS as Tory said (not just for this checkride but all of your future ones). The DPE will be using that as his/her guide and if you can know and/or do all of those sections you’re golden. I don’t know why instructors don’t make their students go through it more as its literally the checkride section by section.
