Ryan Brown DPE Checkride Gouges

Oral Emphasis

Ryan divides the Commercial Multi oral into two distinct parts. Part 1 covers your new identity as a commercial pilot: privileges, limitations, and the difference between private carriage and common carriage. Part 2 shifts entirely to multi-engine systems — propeller systems, landing gear, and the standard multi-engine aerodynamic concepts.

• Commercial pilot privileges and limitations
• Private vs. common carriage distinctions
• SMACFUM and PAST (multi-engine memory items)
• Propeller system — mechanical knowledge plus the aerodynamics of adjustable propellers (how a higher blade angle of attack produces more lift and therefore more drag)
• Landing gear systems

Common Questions

Ryan is scenario-driven. He'll set up a straightforward commercial flight scenario and then layer in conditions to test your decision-making. Pilots reported being asked to work through situations like:

• An inoperative equipment scenario — can you still legally and safely make the flight?
• A weight-and-balance change mid-planning (e.g., adding 200 lbs to the load) — do you cancel the flight or find a practical solution like a fuel stop?

He wants to see you think like a working pilot who finds solutions rather than just canceling a flight at the first complication.

Practical Focus

• Expect to fly the first few waypoints of your cross-country nav log. Ryan checks your timing — tolerance reported was within 3 minutes of planned estimates.
• He'll call a diversion (Tucson was the reported destination) and expect you to come up with a new altitude, route, time estimate, and fuel calculation in flight.
• Full run of commercial multi-engine maneuvers.
• Engine failure simulation: he'll have you work through the full troubleshooting and securing checklists. Unless he specifically tells you not to touch something, you can move the fuel selector or mixture — he may then indicate the problem was fuel-related and the engine recovers.

Examiner Style

Pilots describe Ryan as genuinely chill and one of the best DPEs they've encountered. He strikes a balance between thoroughly testing your knowledge and not being unnecessarily tough. The oral feels conversational, not adversarial. He wants you to demonstrate sound judgment and commercial-pilot-level thinking, but he's not trying to trip you up or play gotcha.

What Surprised Pilots

• The two-part oral structure was a pleasant surprise — it keeps things organized and lets you shift mental gears between commercial knowledge and multi-engine systems rather than bouncing between topics.
• On the engine-out procedure, pilots were surprised that Ryan lets you actually move controls (fuel selector, mixture) during the troubleshooting flow unless he explicitly stops you. This makes the scenario feel more realistic and less scripted than expected.