Ethan Malavolti DPE Checkride Gouges

Oral Emphasis

Malavolti's oral covers a wide swath of topics but hits hardest on airworthiness requirements, weather knowledge, and cross-country flight planning. Expect detailed questions on aircraft documents (AROW), ADs, and who is responsible for maintenance. Weather is a major block — he wants you to pull a full briefing via 1800wxbrief on the spot and interpret surface analysis charts, fronts, isobars, winds aloft, freezing levels, TFRs, NOTAMs, SIGMETs, and AIRMETs. Cross-country planning is equally thorough, with a focus on manual computations and fuel management.

Common Questions

• Explain each of the AROW documents in detail — not just list them.
• Who is responsible for ensuring the aircraft is airworthy and maintaining it?
• What are Airworthiness Directives and how do they apply?
• Questions designed to catch sport pilot-specific regulatory nuances, such as who can and cannot perform preventive maintenance under 14 CFR Part 91.
• Who is authorized to placard inoperable non-critical instruments — the pilot or the A&P?
• Give a go/no-go decision based on the actual weather briefing you pulled.
• Calculate fuel consumption broken into takeoff, cruise, and descent phases — not just a single cruise average.
• Identify alternate airports relative to your planned route and explain your choices.

Practical Focus

Gouge data for this examiner is limited on flight-specific details, but the cross-country planning phase feeds directly into the practical test. He expects your sectional chart to be marked with the flight plan and clearly identifiable checkpoints. Flight plans must be completed the morning of the checkride using real weather. Manual heading, time, and fuel computations are required — he is very fuel-conscious and will scrutinize your planning closely.

Examiner Style

Malavolti is described as very professional with a calm demeanor. He is thorough but fair. He is conversational in approach but will dig deeper if he senses you're giving a rehearsed or memorized answer — he wants genuine understanding. He allows reference materials but will notice if you're leaning on them too heavily. He conducts a careful review of your logbook and endorsements before the test begins, so make sure everything is correct — errors in endorsements needed to be fixed before one applicant could proceed. Aircraft documents and maintenance records also get a detailed review.

What Surprised Pilots

• Endorsement issues in the logbook had to be corrected on the spot before the checkride could move forward — double-check every endorsement with your CFI before test day.
• The sport pilot preventive maintenance question caught applicants off guard — sport pilots cannot perform preventive maintenance, only private pilots can under Part 91.
• He expects fuel planning broken into three distinct phases (takeoff, cruise, descent), not a single averaged number, which is more granular than many applicants prepared for.
• He wants a live weather briefing pulled up during the oral using 1800wxbrief — bring a laptop and a reliable hotspot.