For many licensed and student pilots, a checkride is a nerve-wracking event even if everything goes as planned. Last weekend an unfortunate pilot had his Private Pilot checkride turn into an actual emergency when two propeller blades separated from his Sting Sport LSA. Fortunately the pilot made a successful emergency landing and walked away uninjured with his Private Pilot License (PPL). But what would you do if you experienced an emergency during a checkride?
The first thing you need to do is to forget about the checkride aspect of the flight. It’s important to know that equipment malfunction qualifies the pilot certificate applicant for a letter of discontinuance. This means that you can continue the checkride at a later date without having to repeat the maneuvers you already completed and without having a failure on your record. So your last thought should be whether you’re going to pass your checkride or not just because you experienced a systems failure of some kind.
