Checkride Insights Ep. 3 — Nick Adcock on Preparation, Common Pitfalls, and Checkride Mindset

July 3, 2025·50 min·4 clips

Nick Adcock explains why a single logbook mistake can force him to cancel a checkride on the spot.

This episode of Checkride Insights features host Seth Lake and guest Nick Adcock, a designated pilot examiner with a background as a B-2 stealth bomber pilot and Southwest Airlines first officer. Adcock shares his observations from over three years of conducting pilot certification checkrides, focusing on common administrative and in-flight errors. He notes frequent logbook discrepancies at both Part 61 and Part 141 schools, such as cross-country flights logged as slightly too short or mismatched endorsements in school software versus paper logs. Adcock emphasizes that instructors should thoroughly audit logbooks against regulations before recommending a student for a test. He states that missing or incorrect endorsements, like the IACRA 8710 form or the 90-day solo endorsement for private pilots, often delay or cancel checkrides before they begin. Adcock explains that applicants often arrive unprepared to prove an aircraft's airworthiness, lacking proper Airworthiness Directive compliance lists beyond a simple "all ADs complied with" logbook entry. During oral exams, he finds commercial pilot applicants sometimes have "dusty" knowledge on private-level topics like airspace and cloud clearances. For instrument rating candidates, a common struggle is determining legal alternates, especially when dealing with non-standard minimums or navigating the relevant charts and resources. A memorable insight is his emphasis on applicants making their own safety decisions during the flight test, such as initiating a go-around for a long landing, rather than waiting for examiner intervention. He advocates for a conversational, scenario-based approach during the oral exam, where applicants provide comprehensive answers that demonstrate risk management. Adcock also advises that on landing tasks like short-field or power-off 180s, it is better to err slightly long than to land short of the specified point. The tone is educational and conversational, with both host and guest drawing from their extensive experience as examiners and instructors to offer practical advice. This episode would greatly benefit student pilots, flight instructors preparing applicants, and pilots preparing for any FAA practical test. Listeners seeking entertainment or non-aviation content should skip this highly technical, procedure-focused discussion.

As heard by us

A practical examiner's pass through the checkride gaps that keep catching pilots.

Nick Adcock keeps the checkride focus on the problems examiners keep seeing: rusty airspace knowledge, cloud clearance rules, special use airspace, pattern work, and applicants who wait for the examiner to solve things for them.

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Dust off the chart before your next checkride.

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