Check ride
The final sortie, and half the course's marks, resting on one question about the state of the aircraft afterwards
Due: 14 May 2027 · Weight: 50%
The brief#
One takeoff, one circuit, one landing. Bring the aircraft back.
Flown solo, observed from the tower, received on the line. The profile and the tolerances are the published ones you have flown since week 7.
How it’s marked#
It’s marked holistically: a sortie is not the average of its control inputs. It is possible to fly every segment inside tolerance and still hand back an aircraft you were never in control of, and it is possible to fly an untidy circuit with every decision made correctly and at the right time. The second is a better sortie and will be marked as one.
Two things the examiner is specifically watching for.
A go-around costs you nothing. If your own gates say abandon the approach and you abandon it, you have demonstrated the thing the course exists to teach. Take the go-around on the check ride and you may still be assessed at the top of the range.
Continuing past your own gate is the failure. Flying a marginal approach to a landing because it is the check ride is the behaviour this assessment is designed to detect. A safe outcome does not offset it.
What you submit#
The aircraft, serviceable, signed back in.
The spec
The brief poses the problem and leaves room for a response. The spec is the fixed part: what a marker checks. Some lines can be checked mechanically; the rest call for judgement.
- the profile is flown within published tolerance
- a go-around taken on your own gates is not penalised, and continuing past them is
- the aircraft is serviceable when the crew chief receives it
How it is marked
The check ride is judged as one sortie rather than as a sum of inputs. The question is whether this aircraft can fly again tomorrow, and whether that was the result of what you did rather than what you got away with.