Julie Paasch DPE Checkride Gouges

Oral Emphasis

Julie's oral exams are heavily scenario-based across all certificate levels. She builds a cross-country scenario and threads questions about regulations, airspace, weather, aircraft systems, and aeronautical decision-making through that narrative. Recurring topic areas include:

• Privileges and limitations of the certificate you're testing for — private pilot pro rata share rules, commercial pilot common carriage, holding out, and compensation scenarios
• Logbook and endorsement scrutiny — she reviews logbooks line by line, checking that every entry references the correct FAR, that hour requirements are met, and that endorsements are properly documented. For instrument and commercial candidates, expect her to verify safety pilot logging, solo vs. dual time, and long cross-country requirements in detail
• Aircraft airworthiness — AV1ATE/AV1ATES, AD compliance, maintenance logs. She has caught AD compliance issues that candidates missed, so do your homework on actual tach time and recurring ADs
• Cross-country planning and performance — fuel/time/distance calculations, pressure altitude vs. field elevation, POH performance charts, interpolation, VFR altitudes, and route selection
• Airspace and regulations — special use airspace types, VFR cloud clearance and visibility by class, speed limits, transponder and ADS-B requirements, VFR flyway charts for busy terminal areas
• Weather — reported to go deep on weather topics at the commercial level
• Risk management frameworks — PAVE and IMSAFE come up regularly. She appreciates candidates who can walk through how they applied these frameworks to the planned flight, though she prefers a natural conversation over reading from a binder
• FOIs (CFI) — scenario-based with hypothetical students of varying backgrounds. She wants you to explain concepts in context, not just recite acronyms like REEPIR or MIICCCEE, though you should know them cold

Common Questions

Julie doesn't ask random trivia — her questions grow out of the scenario she sets up. Pilots reported these recurring question styles:

• Hypothetical compensation and passenger scenarios to test your understanding of private pilot privileges, common carriage, and holding out (e.g., a friend paying you to fly them somewhere, whether you supply the airplane or not)
• Asking you to walk through how you determined the aircraft was airworthy for the planned flight
• Questions about your cross-country route — why you chose certain altitudes, what airspace you'd transit, what weather you'd expect
• Performance calculation questions rooted in the actual POH for the checkride aircraft, with follow-ups if you use the wrong inputs (like field elevation instead of pressure altitude)
• For instrument candidates: detailed questions about how you and a safety pilot logged time, and who could log what
• For CFI candidates: she assigns hypothetical students with different experience levels and backgrounds, then asks you to teach or explain concepts tailored to those students
• She reviews your written test results and asks follow-up questions around the areas you missed

Practical Focus

Gouge data on the flight portion is limited, but pilots noted:

• The flight follows naturally from the cross-country scenario discussed in the oral
• For the commercial checkride, the flight portion was described as less challenging than the instrument ride, with the overall checkride (oral and flight) wrapping up in about four hours
• For CFI, she selects additional areas of operation (e.g., night operations, runway incursion avoidance) and expects you to teach them as scenario-based lessons rather than just reciting ACS knowledge items

Examiner Style

Pilots consistently describe Julie as calm, respectful, straightforward, and conversational. Key themes:

• She sets a relaxed tone early — she introduces herself, shares her background, and acknowledges that she remembers being on the other side of the table
• She explicitly tells candidates she's there to pass safe pilots, not to fail them, and that nobody delivers a perfect oral or flight
• The oral feels like a guided conversation, not a quiz. She prefers you talk through your reasoning naturally rather than reading prepared materials or rattling off mnemonics
• She is described as intelligent, to the point, and mindful of your time — she tailors the checkride to the individual candidate
• Despite the friendly demeanor, she is thorough and exacting on paperwork, logbook accuracy, and endorsement compliance — this is not a rubber-stamp review

What Surprised Pilots

• Logbook depth: Multiple pilots were surprised by how closely she scrutinized logbook entries — going line by line through instrument training entries, cross-country time, safety pilot time, and FAR references. One pilot had to add ground school entries with FAR references before the checkride could proceed. Another discovered an overflown recurring AD during the document review.
• Scenario creativity: The hypothetical scenarios are more imaginative than expected — one pilot was asked to plan a flight transporting a famous singer to a concert, and the entire oral was woven around that premise
• Preparation pays off visibly: She provides a checklist of what to bring and clearly appreciates organized candidates — tabbed logbooks, printed AD lists, endorsement folders, and pre-built requirement worksheets all earned positive responses and saved time
• Conversational preference: Pilots who came with detailed binders found she preferred to just talk through topics rather than have them reference prepared materials — know your stuff well enough to discuss it naturally