Gregory Collins DPE Checkride Gouges
Designated Pilot Examiner
Preparing for an FAA checkride with Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) Gregory Collins? GougeHub has a first-hand Gregory Collins checkride gouge report from a pilot who tested. Read oral exam questions, flight test patterns, and examiner insights.
↓ View 1 available gouge reportThe oral with Gregory Collins covers the pilot side of PAVE first. The pilot reported questions on IMSAFE, required documents, currency, passenger currency, and the flight review. He asks you to prove airworthiness in the maintenance logs and to name required equipment and placards. Expect questions on preventive maintenance too. Know your personal minimums and be ready to talk through them honestly.
Weather and planning get real attention. The report lists weather sources, briefing weather along your route, and high versus low pressure systems. He asks about AIRMET, SIGMET, and convective SIGMET, plus reading a TAF, METAR, and PIREP. Bring a VFR flight plan and be ready to calculate fuel burn and time in a scenario. Use CAS and TAS on your navlog, and know the difference between CAS, TAS, and ground speed.
Systems and airspace round out the oral. He may ask you to draw and explain the engine, electrical, and fuel systems, and whether the engine fails without the alternator. Expect weight and balance with added luggage, plus characteristics of aft and forward CG. He covers TFRs, special VFR, cloud clearances, night definitions, and special use airspace like flying into a restricted area. He also asks about the sectional, the airport beacon purpose, and its daytime usage.
On the flight he lets you choose landings or the cross country first. You can pick the short field to numbers or the thousand footers. He cares about proper soft and short field technique and energy management. The report says he is more lenient on a clean short field that runs a little long than on a hard landing.
Maneuvers include steep turns, slow flight with turns, normal turns, climbs, and descents. He runs foggles work with turns, climbs, descents, and unusual attitudes, and asks how you exit a cloud. Expect diversion, engine failure, ground reference maneuvers, a forward slip, and a power off 180. As of this writing, only one report is on file for this examiner.
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 documents must you have on your person to act as pilot in command?”
📋 Examiner Insight: A guaranteed question — know it cold.
⚠ Common Pitfall: While not required on your person, your logbook should be available to demonstrate recent experience and currency if questioned. Not all forms of ID are acceptable — reference 61.3 for the acceptable forms.
All 37 questions, ranked by frequency, with Examiner Insights and Common Pitfalls from 113 real checkrides — written and reviewed by Andrew Gray, CFI-II.
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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.