Julie Keane DPE Checkride Gouges

Oral Emphasis

Julie structures nearly the entire oral exam around the cross-country scenario she assigns in advance. She uses the planned route as a springboard to cover airspace, weather, regulations, systems, and aeronautical decision-making — so thorough flight planning is essential.

• Flight planning & navigation: She expects a complete paper nav log, including fuel calculations for every segment. For instrument checkrides, she wants every fix on an approach — feeder routes, procedure turn fixes, IAFs — accounted for in the nav log with associated fuel burns. She wants to see how performance numbers, weight and balance, and fuel figures were derived from the POH charts.
• Airspace: She spends significant time pointing to locations on the sectional and TAC charts, asking what airspace exists at various altitudes, along with weather and communication requirements. Study and understand every item on the chart legend.
• Weather: Pilots should obtain and print all weather products for the scenario flight. She expects you to read raw ATIS and TAF data, understand the differences between weather products, and explain when you would call a no-go based on AIRMETs, SIGMETs, or conditions along the route.
• Aircraft airworthiness & inspections: She reviews aircraft logs carefully, looking for AAV1ATE entries, ADs (including when recurring ADs are next due), and required inspections and documents. She walks through the inoperative equipment flow (91.205, 91.213, KOEL, AD, POH) and wants to know what makes an airplane unairworthy.
• Systems: She asks about engine, fuel, electrical, vacuum, and gyro systems. She wants you to know which instruments are vacuum-driven versus electric, how gyro instruments work, and what happens when systems fail. For the carburetor, she wanted to hear about the venturi tube specifically. Short, confident answers can satisfy her — she probes deeper when she wants more detail.
• GPS and avionics: She covers how GPS works, the satellite constellation, trilateration, RAIM, and WAAS. For instrument candidates, know primary/supporting instruments and GPS/WAAS integration.
• Regulations & currency: Pilot currency requirements, logging approaches, commercial privileges, fuel requirements, alternate requirements and minimums, and the difference between ODPs and SIDs are all fair game.
• Aeronautical decision-making: Risk management and personal minimums are a recurring theme across all certificate levels. She asks about personal fuel reserves, ceiling minimums, go/no-go criteria, and how you would handle scenarios like inadvertent IMC or partial engine issues. She references PAVE, I'M SAFE, and 5Ps. She is looking for safety-oriented decision-making beyond the legal minimums.

Common Questions

Julie rarely asks direct, rote-style questions. Instead, she frames questions within the context of the scenario flight plan. For example, rather than asking you to recite alternate weather minimums, she might ask what weather considerations you accounted for when picking the alternate you filed.

• She points to spots on the chart along your route and asks you to identify the airspace, altitudes, and requirements.
• She asks what you would do if a friend offered to pay for the entire flight (commercial privileges/private pilot limitations).
• She asks when your airspeed indicator might read zero in flight and what you could do about it.
• She asks about flying into a cloud unexpectedly and what actions you would take.
• She poses in-flight scenarios — such as a drop in oil pressure — and evaluates whether your response shows good judgment (e.g., diverting to a nearby airport while the engine still has power, rather than immediately treating it as a total engine failure).
• She asks about ground effect, preventative maintenance, and the purpose of magnetos and alternator failure consequences.

Practical Focus

• Cross-country segment: The flight typically begins with a departure to the first checkpoint of the planned cross-country. She may then issue a diversion — asking you to turn to a heading, estimate distance and time, and locate the airport.
• Approaches (IFR): Pilots reported flying an ILS, a localizer-only approach, a GPS approach, and partial panel work. One pilot noted that approaches come up very quickly when departing certain airports, so be ready to brief and set up fast. She checks that you identify navaids.
• Maneuvers: Soft field takeoffs, slow flight, stalls, and unusual attitudes have been reported. She wants to see basic instrument flying and partial panel work for instrument candidates.
• Scenario-based flying: She introduces simulated equipment failures or abnormal situations during the flight and evaluates your decision-making process, not just your stick-and-rudder skills.

Examiner Style

Pilots consistently describe Julie as approachable, friendly, patient, and professional. She creates a comfortable atmosphere and makes an effort to put candidates at ease. She is conversational rather than adversarial — she uses the scenario to guide a discussion rather than firing off rapid-fire quiz questions.

• She allows candidates to reference charts and legends during the oral when needed.
• She gives friendly hints if you miss something minor, rather than letting you spiral.
• She provides a thorough debrief after the checkride, explaining what she was looking for and how you could improve.
• She suggests keeping systems answers simple and then asks follow-up questions when she wants more depth.
• She is very thorough with logbook review — she goes line by line to verify cross-country PIC time and checks that destinations meet distance requirements.

What Surprised Pilots

• Logbook scrutiny: Multiple pilots were surprised by how meticulously she reviewed logbooks, adding up hours line by line and verifying cross-country distances. Have your logbook organized and ensure FAR references for required training are explicitly noted.
• Nav log detail (IFR): She expects every mile of every approach to be accounted for in the nav log — including feeder routes and procedure turn segments — not just direct-to distances. This level of detail caught pilots off guard.
• Scenario over rote: Pilots expecting traditional question-and-answer drills were surprised that the oral was almost entirely scenario-based. The ACS-style approach means you need to apply knowledge to the specific flight plan rather than recite regulations from memory.
• Decision-making emphasis: She cares more about your judgment than hitting the textbook answer. One pilot was surprised when she wanted a diversion to a nearby airport during a simulated oil pressure drop, rather than an immediate forced landing — she was testing aeronautical decision-making, not just emergency procedures.
• Length of oral: Several pilots noted the oral was long and thorough. Come prepared for an extended ground session.