Corey Kirkwood DPE Checkride Gouges
Designated Pilot Examiner
Preparing for an FAA checkride with Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) Corey Kirkwood? GougeHub has a first-hand Corey Kirkwood checkride gouge report from a pilot who tested. Read oral exam questions, flight test patterns, and examiner insights.
↓ View 1 available gouge reportAs of this writing, only one report is on file for Corey Kirkwood, and it comes from a private pilot applicant. The standout feature is the three-strike rule. Corey tracks your mistakes across the oral and the flight, and three strikes can end the checkride. This is not about one bad answer. It is about the pattern, so stay steady and recover well after a slip.
The examiner values big-picture thinking. Corey wants to see how you connect the pieces rather than recite isolated facts. On the oral, that means explaining your reasoning out loud and showing why a decision makes sense. Memorized answers without understanding will not carry you far here. Think through the problem and walk the examiner through your logic.
The report points to a standard PPL oral and flight built around the ACS. Expect the examiner to probe how you plan and how you make decisions in the air. Show that you understand the system behind each answer, not just the answer itself.
The flight portion follows the maneuvers a private pilot applicant should expect under the ACS. Fly the profiles cleanly and keep your thinking visible. Each error counts toward that three-strike total, so manage your mistakes and do not compound one miss with another.
The practical advice from this single report is simple. Prepare to reason, not just recall. Treat the oral and flight as one continuous test where consistency matters. Stay calm after a mistake so it stays a single strike. If you fly with Corey soon, add your own report afterward so the next applicant gets a fuller picture of this examiner.
Examiner Patterns
Preliminary insight — based on 1 report
- Oral style: 1 pilot reported the examiner conducted a knowledge-recall style oral
- Navigation tools: 1 pilot reported the examiner accepted EFB use
- Logbook review: 1 pilot reported the examiner reviewed endorsements specifically
Based on self-reported pilot submissions. Data methodology
Analyzed across 113 site-wide Private Pilot checkrides in the GougeHub database, the same questions keep coming up. Here’s one of the 37 in the guide:
“What weather briefing did you get for today’s flight, and how did you get it?”
⚠ Common Pitfall: ForeFlight and other EFBs can count as a standard brief, but they must meet 91.103. See AC 91-92 for what belongs in a standard brief. ForeFlight keeps a record of your briefing for 120 days — not required, but useful to prove you were briefed if it’s ever questioned.
All 37 questions, ranked by frequency, with Examiner Insights and Common Pitfalls from 113 real checkrides — written and reviewed by Andrew Gray, CFI-II.
Get the Private Pilot Oral Exam Guide — $14 →7-day money-back guarantee · Instant PDF download
Ratings & Checkride Types
- PPL (Private Pilot)
Transparency Disclaimer: This page summarizes patterns reported by applicants. It is not an endorsement, prediction, or guarantee of checkride outcome. Every checkride varies based on the applicant and circumstances.