Traveling for a Checkride
Updated December 27, 2025
Sometimes, it can seem like there’s no end to the training journey in sight. You’ve completed all of your aeronautical experience requrirements, you have gone through hours and hours studying and checkride preparation (including a mock checkride with us), but you’re still struggling to find a Designated Pilot Examiner in your area. Perhaps the airplane you were planning to use has gone in for maintenance, and what was supposed to take a few days to fix has turned into a few months. Or you’re in a part of the country where LIFR weather is the default for several months at a time, and your training finished up right as the crummy weather started.
This article discusses the merits of traveling outside your home area – that’s to say, at least a few hundred miles afield – to take a checkride.
Advantages of traveling for a checkride
- Get your certificate soon(er). The primary reason that candidates choose to travel to an out-of-area location for a checkride is to get things done quicker than they might be able to in their home area. Flying from one state to another, or even coast to coast, just to take a checkride may seem ridiculous, until you consider the challenges of maintaining “checkride-ready” status for weeks or months on end.
- Save money. This might seem ridiculous at first – there can’t be that much of a regional disparity where traveling hundreds or thousands of miles can be offset by exam fee differences, right? In fact, we’ve worked with several candidates who have found this to be exactly the case. Even after paying for a commercial flight or aircraft rental fees, a couple of nights in a hotel, etc., they’ve still come out ahead. If examiners in your region are charging $2,500 for CFI-Initial rides and are booked out a few months, and examiners a few states away are doing them for $1,000 and have availability within two weeks, there’s a pretty hefty incentive to travel.
- Build real-world experience and knock out requirements for the next certificate/rating. This one’s harder to quantify, but there’s something to be said for taking long cross-country flights with a specific purpose. If you’re flying out for a Private Pilot checkride, you’ll probably be flying with your instructor. You can use those hours to work on instrument flight training, use it as an opportunity to land at a little grass strip en-route and practice “real” soft-field technique, etc.
- Concentrate on aviation. Some candidates who have numerous family, work, and other obligations may find it advantageous to physically distance themselves from these distractions. We’ve spoken with a few candidates who have set aside a week or so as a “checkride vacation,” where being removed from their day-to-day obligations has allowed them to devote more time and effort toward their success on the ride.
Disdvantages of traveling for a checkride
- Unfamiliar examiner. It’s fairly common for CFIs to have local examiners whom they know and trust to give a pleasant, fair checkride experience. Oftentimes, the instructor will also have an idea of that examiner’s typical checkride flight profile (e.g., depart KABC, go to first waypoint on plan, divert to KXYZ, etc.) A new-to-you (and new-to-your CFI) examiner is harder to prepare for.
- Unfamiliar environment. This causes the most challenges for initial certificate applicants, who by the nature of their inexperience, haven’t gotten to see many places outside their home practice areas and local airports. If you’ve trained at a small uncontrolled field and made just a few forays to the sleepy nearby Class Delta, you’re probably not going to do well on a checkride at a busy Class Charlie. A checkride isn’t a great time to see that level of traffic, Class C procedures, rapid-fire communications, etc. for the first time. Similarly, if you trained at that big Class C, a checkride at a short/narrow strip where “short field procedures” are more than just an exercise, you’re setting up for a tough time. Instrument candidates – this is an important consideration for you, too. Instrument procedures are always easier the second (and subsequent) times you’re flying them. Do you want to be flying an entire slate of “new-to-you” plates on your checkride? Other environmental factors can come into play here, too. Think local weather patterns, density altitude, unpublished local procedures, and so on.
- Unfamiliar equipment. This isn’t an issue if you’re flying your own airplane (or the airplane you’re renting for training) out to the checkride. However, if you’re hopping over a region, it may make more financial sense to fly out on an airline ticket, and rent an airplane at the new location. You’re going to be expected to be familiar with the aircraft you’re flying for your checkride. If you can secure the exact same make/model/avionics, this won’t present much trouble. However, even a slight difference (think different panel-mount GPS, different flap limits, different submodel of engine, etc.) can create unexpected pitfalls. And, of course, if you’ll be transitioning into an entirely different make/model and/or avionics suite (steam to G1000 or vice versa), you’re going to need to spend substantial time in the airplane to feel comfortable with it. Securing rentals in a different location “just for familiarization and then a checkride” can also be challenging. Rental companies often reserve their airplanes for exclusive use of their full-time students. Those that welcome the public may require additional insurance, aircraft checkouts, etc. as well.
- Harder to remedy paperwork issues. If your recommending instructor has not traveled to the checkride with you, and your examiner finds a logbook discrepancy, or if you’ve forgotten to bring an important document, it can be tough to get this remedied in a timely manner. We do have more options nowadays to receive digital endorsements/logbook entries/etc., but it’s still hard to “run home to grab…” if home is 1,000 miles away.
- Lack of options in case of discontinuance, unsatisfactory, or unexpected delays. Though no one plans to fail or discontinue a checkride, it can and does happen. Imagine that you’ve flown out to a different region and have a three-day timeline to complete the ride. You do the ride on the second day, and receive an unsatisfactory on two maneuvers. You’re going to need to somehow get retrained and rechecked within the next 24 hours — a very unlikely proposition. Now, you’re looking at having to schedule a second trip out (sometime in the next 60-ish days), as well as coordinating the airplane rental, examiner, and so on. It’s not just an unsatisfactory on the ride that could cause you headaches. As you can imagine, any of the delays/issues that you’ve run into during flight training at your home base can occur at another location – and you’ll have fewer options at your disposal.
Our recommendation
- We don’t love the idea of traveling a long way for initial certificates (Private/Sport). Examiner availability is generally better for initial (Private, Sport) certificate exams, and the cost difference from region to region is seldom more than a few hundred dollars. With that in mind, there are fewer advantages to traveling a long distance for a checkride. Add in the variables of unfamiliar environment and unfamiliar equipment, which are especially challenging for low-time pilots, and we feel it’s usually best to stay at or near home for your first checkride. Even for instrument candidates, we’re not a big fan unless there will be ample prep time at the new location.
- Upper-level certificate? Maybe. As a commercial, CFI, or ATP candidate, you’re going to be expected to go to unfamiliar environments, fly equipment that isn’t always your favorite, and deal with lots of different people and personalities. You’ve also accrued a fair bit of real-world experience at this point in your flying journey. If the dollars and sense pencil out (see the following point), it may be worth it to travel to a checkride.
- Perform a risk assessment. If you’re weighing your options and find that the rewards outweigh the potential downsides, it makes sense to consider traveling for your checkride. However, if as you read the above sections, you’re finding that you haven’t thought of some of these pitfalls, it’s probably wise to gather a little more information before committing the time and money to travel.
- Regardless of whether you’re planning to travel or stay in your local area – make sure you’re prepared! Read on to find out how we can help with a comprehensive mock checkride to assess your level of preparedness.
Take a mock checkride
We provide third-party mock checkrides to help you (and your instructor) assess whether you’re ready for your upcoming FAA Practical Test.
We suggest taking a mock checkride with an instructor other than your own primary instructor approximately 7 to 14 days prior to your scheduled checkride date. If you find you are deficient in some areas during the mock checkride, this buffer provides sufficient opportunity to brush up.