Michelle Patrina DPE Checkride Gouges

Across these eight reports, Michelle Patrina shows up early, often with donuts or snacks, and tells applicants to take breaks and stay hydrated. She wants your paperwork done early, with the 8710 or IACRA finished at least two days before the ride. She is strict about endorsements and wants them spelled out fully, like Airplane Single Engine Land instead of ASEL. She prefers paper logbooks and gets frustrated with messy digital ones. Have your airworthiness documents, registration, and inspection records organized, and photos of placards help.

On the private oral she goes through the ACS line by line and asks one or two questions per item. Topics include weather minimums, inoperative equipment, cloud clearances, and personal minimums, which she loves to see printed. She is a stickler about calling a weather briefer and knowing the request order: rating, flight type, tail number, departure, route, altitude, and destination. She demands you know your oil, ashless dispersant and 25w60 for the Cirrus, plus minimum oil of six quarts. For commercial she covers medical certificates, common versus private carriage, part 121 versus 135, currency and proficiency, oxygen requirements, high altitude endorsements, weight and balance with CG and fuel stops, alternator failures, and the SAM battery duration.

For the CFI ride she has you teach steep turns and runway incursion avoidance, with strong emphasis on foot position and not taxiing with the brakes. Expect an endorsement scenario, often a helicopter pilot adding an airplane rating. She evaluates Fundamentals of Instruction throughout the day by acting confused to see if you catch it.

The flight is briefed fully on the ground, then flown line by line. Common items are short field takeoffs and landings, chandelles, power off stalls into secondary stalls, 8s on pylons, S-turns, and an ABCDE engine failure she flies while you teach. She wants maneuvers kept over safe spots.

She is fair and welcoming when you are prepared. One report describes her arriving late, wearing sandals on the ramp, and pushing a CFI applicant hard, so expect a demanding examiner who notices everything.