I was cleaning up some old documents I had laying around, and found my personal debrief of my Private Pilot Checkride. I wrote this right after I finished my drive home from the checkride, a few years ago on 4/27/2012. Hopefully, my notes and thoughts will help others in their quest for their PPL. I’ve edited out the examiners name to respect any privacy concerns he may have, and put it up on Google Docs for anyone who is curious. Here is the link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iRsGejAtRN4Pp0acwHNwIH5lOKznL37SizxMRmg6jzs/edit?usp=sharing

For those that don’t know, getting a US Private Pilots License involves certain amounts and types of training to be logged, at the end of which you must pass three exams: a written, an oral exam, and a practical exam. The written is an FAA Standardized Test for the license you are applying for. The oral exam and practical exam usually happen at once with either a DPE (Designated Pilot Examiner) or an FAA Examiner, though they can happen separately if there are concerns as to the ability to perform the flight on that day such as the weather. This doc covers just the oral and practical exams.