GFPT and nerves, do they go together?

[Guest DarkstrangR]

ahh hi people, this is my first post in the forum.. hope im posting in the right section

 

just wanted to ask people how they felt when they were going for their GFPT license test, i am about to sit it in the next few days, and the nerves are getting to me.

 

i know it is nothing major in relation to CPL or PPL tests, but it still has me quite worried

 

and how many hours did it take everyone to get their GFPT.. it took me around 45 hours - which seems pretty high?

 

 

[numptie]

Don't worry about how many hours it took, as long as you covered everything and you are confident in what you're doing. I already had my RAAus license and it still took me about 10 hours after that in a GA aircraft to get the GFPT.

 

It's easy to say but try not to get stressed out about the GFPT. I just treated it like any other flight with an instructor on board. All you'll do is go through all of the things you should've been taught thus far. Just remember, 'just fly the plane'. Once you've finished it you'll think "why the hell was I so nervous".

 

Good luck with it, let us all know how you go.

 

Bob

 

 

[Guest Booker YPMQ]

Who is doing the GFPT test? Is it an instructor you have done a lot of flying with? If so you can take heart in the fact that he/she knows how you fly and in their own mind they have probably made up their mind that if you fly on the test the way you have been recently then they wil pass you. I know this is my mind set for my students.

 

I know it's hopeless to say "just relax" but you really have to try to get yourself in that frame of mind. Keep telling yourself that it is just another flight to add the the 40 or so you have done before. Nothing new here.

 

Good luck.....Let us know how you go.

 

 

[Guest brentc]

I wouldn't worry too much. The instructor wouldn't have put you up to the CFI for the flight test if he thought you wouldn't make it!

 

 

[Guest TOSGcentral]

I will leap in here with a slightly different view that some may find radical but I find very practical.

 

“Exam Nerves” are a fact of life and a lot of very competent people cannot compete with the strain.

 

So as a CFI on ab-initio I never did GFPTs because I think they are totally artificial and even cruel! But on the other hand I did do them and did them very thoroughly.

 

I am not testing a students ability to withstand an exam, I want to know what they are like as a pilot and whether the training has been absorbed and may be applied to the required standard in real life scenarios. I find throwing everything in the syllabus at a student in a single flight is not only stupid but totally impractical in meaningful terms.

 

So, I would assess that my students were “there” and put them on a series of three or four routine flights where we would assess the syllabus and see how they were going. This was my GFPT and the student never knew it was happening – just “congratulations you are being signed off as a pilot so get ready to really start learning!

 

I had very few failures and any I had just required patching instruction that was easy enough done. Gave me a last overview as well before I turned them loose.

 

Just my views – but I always have been a Heretic.

 

Aye

 

Tony

 

 

[vk3auu]

Heretic

 

And a bloody good one too Tony.

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

Tony

 

Bit of a concern.... I find myself agreeing with the rationale you provided. ;)

 

Lets discuss 103 again so we can get back to our usual corners

 

:;)4:

 

Andy

 

 

[Guest DarkstrangR]

Tony, i like the way you handled things.. because i have been flying very well in the past 10 hours or so, actually, if i fly like that for my exam i doubt it very much that i wont pass.. but the problem is, i doubt i will..

 

i wish i had been secretly tested in the last 3 or 4 lessons, because i wouldnt have let the nerves get to me..

 

the reason im a little more concerned is, because i am flying with a grade one instructor, and i have never flown with this person before - so i feel kind of intimidated.

 

anyhow, i should be sitting it tomorrow - i will keep everyone posted

 

wish me luck

 

 

[leestanley]

I already had my RAAus license and it still took me about 10 hours after that in a GA aircraft to get the GFPT.

Bob, did you mean to say PPL in yr post?

 

My understanding (without researching thoroughly) was that once Certified, and with pax and x-country endorsements, you could bypass the GFPT stage and go straight to PPL (after completing min 40 hours, 2 hours instruments, etc and passing the PPL exam)

 

Cheers,

 

Lee.

 

 

[facthunter]

Good luck.

 

DarkstrangR,

 

Very few people don't suffer from pre-test nerves, and I would be somewhat suspicious of anybody who said they didn't. Don't make it too easy for the instructor to fail you, make him work for it, show him what you can do. GOOD LUCK . N...

 

 

[Guest TOSGcentral]

As an addition to my post above on what is the human aspects of instructing and testing - there was one area that I did not cover. That is the situation where the tester has to be a person that the student does not normally fly with (ie a CFI and a school with staff instructors).

 

This is easily overcome! As a student began approaching pilot certification I would arrange circumstances so I began hopping in with them now and then so they got used to me and also flying with a different instructor.

 

This was never on the basis of "I am going to check how you are going" (an implied test) but just routine syllabus instruction and I "happened" to be taking the flight.

 

This gave me a spin-off benefit by enabling me to see how my staff instructors were also actually going.

 

So by the time we all got to the dreaded "GFPT" stage the student did not see anything particularly unusual about me being there and I had them relaxed so that I could read their ability quite exactly.

 

It worked for me!

 

Tony

 

 

[Guest Roger]

Take heart in the fact that your instructor will go through the throws of making you feel comfortable before he starts looking seriously at your knowledge & ability.

 

He will have done this many times over and unless you make some major FooPar you will get through!

 

Its not a bad thing to be slightly nervous and anxious. It sets in motion a series of psychological / physiological processes that heighten, among other things, your senses and therefore can actually improve performance. ;)

 

Goodluck....you will be fine ;)

 

 

[Guest DarkstrangR]

Hey!

 

sorry for the delayed response, the weather in melbourne has been terrible for the last week or so, and i hadnt had the chance to sit my GFPT..

 

i did it a few days ago, and believe it or not, i flew perfectly.. i guess i held myself together..

 

i just sat my first CPL exam today - Human factors and got 90%..

 

and sitting another exam on thursday.. hope i do well

 

thanks everyone for the support :)

 

 

[Guest Decca]

Well done DarkStrangR. The voices of experience were right, but it was you that passed it. And with a score of 90% you may be instructing Human Factors in this region soon.

 

Regards, Decca.

 

PS in fact if you can remember any HF questions from the exam please share them with us.

 

 

[Guest DarkstrangR]

Exams

 

Hello, thanks for the kind words

 

well what i rememeber about the Human factors exam is that, a lot of it was not what i expected.

 

i expected many questions relating to - hypoxia, eyes, human body, illusions, heart and respitory systems etc..

 

but there weren't many questions from those topics at all..

 

you should study up a lot about crew resource managment, stress, decision making, memory, sleep etc.. and other things related to our mind and the thinking process, rather then actually physical aspects of human factors. - hope that helps

 

i had my Aerodynamics exam today in which i got 88%

 

Aero was much more difficult i found, i studied the whole text the day earlier which helped a lot.. my advice for this exam is make sure you know your graphs well, and what they each mean.. in relation to endurance, range, drag, lift etc..