Preparation for the Pilot Technical Evaluation

I've done 5 FAA pilot checkrides to obtain all my certificates and ratings. The longest of them lasted about half a day. Now the Technical Evaluation (TE) to determine your suitability as a missionary pilot typically lasts 5 days, encompassing 6 flights. That is a long time! This is an account of my experience, from preparation to acceptance.

Preparation

The whole process of getting a TE date penciled in the calendar took about 3 months. That included:

• Application submission

• HR interview

• References check

• Aviation interview

After jumping through all those hoops I got invited for the TE at JAARS in late January 2026. Part of the invitation is a folder of documents with administrative instructions and importantly something called KSA's. Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes/Attributes. These are used in many industries to more objectively determine the suitability of a candidate for a role. There was a lot of transparency about what you were being assessed on and the matrix being used. In all, there were 14 areas that needed to be assessed. This necessitated a deep study of the aircraft flight manual, practicing maneuvers and honing aircraft control, creating my own table-top-exercises to go through flight planning scenarios and a lot of self-reflection and self-analysis to understand where my character strengths and weaknesses lie.

Pilot's Operating Handbook

The number of times I fell asleep reading through the flight manual, trying to commit all the dimensions, limitations, emergency procedures and normal procedures to memory was comical! I rarely nap. The aircraft being used for the TE was a Robinson R66 helicopter. A turbine engine. For the uninitiated, this represents a huge milestone for a helicopter pilot due to the experience required to operate it. For most pilots, you would be somewhere in the region of 750-1000hrs of flight experience before you get the chance. This was my chance. I watched every video I could find on youtube about the starting procedure, a very crucially time-sensitive procedure. I referred back to the handbook and practiced imaginary start after imaginary start whilst watching video after video to get the coordination right. Then the performance charts. A whole new set of considerations for flight planning and high-performance operations. I expected that I would be made to do some weight & balance calculations so I created an excel spreadsheet to try and automate some of them. It worked! By the time I got on the plane to North Carolina for the TE, I could recite all the key limitations, EP's, normal procedures, performance variations and i'd figured out the start procedure!

Flight Planning

In the same vein of preparation for the new aircraft, I also went into some research of Charlotte, NC:

• VFR sectional chart

• Terminal Area Chart

• Charlotte Class B airspace

• All airports within 10miles of JAARS + NOTAMS + TFR's

• Airport information for JAARS-Townsend

• IFR approaches into JAARS-Townsend

• Satellite view recon

• Strawberry Hill (one of the mountain training areas i'd seen being used in a JAARS video)

• Weekly weather patterns and temperatures

• Identify key landmarks for navigation

• Print blank navlogs for the cross-country scenario

  
  

Spy Mode

To get even more of a step ahead, I trawled the JAARS youtube videos for any helicopter clips where I might get an idea of the way they operate at the airfield or what some of the training areas might look like. I found the aircraft registration in some of the videos, so looked that up and checked the recent flight history. Of course, I went to study the history of JAARS as well for good measure.

Knowledge, Skills & Attitudes/Attributes

To know this list by heart is somewhat pointless. We have a natural affinity to certain ways of thinking and dealing with pressurised situations. I'm certain that with awareness and great practice one can mitigate to a certain extent, but for the most part, this is assessing raw you. Don't get me wrong, I tried. Everyday at work I have the opportunity to exercise this, and when you're on the ground... Perhaps it's doable. But when you're put in the pressure cooker airborne and are completely task saturated, I know that I would not have the capacity to think about what attributes i'm being assessed on. What became important for me was to know where my weaknesses were, take ownership of them and then try to remedy.

So what's the point of all of this?

The entire process of preparation reminds me of Matthew 24:42-44 :

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."

If I were to prepare so diligently for the TE, it obviously must carry a lot of importance to me. The irony being i've put in so much effort to try for an opportunity to serve His kingdom work, but am I even preparing that hard in my day-to-day for His eventual return? Do I read the Bible till I fall asleep, as I did with the POH? Can I memorise as much of the Bible as I can the limitations of the R66?

Isn't the Bible the most important list of knowledge, skills and attributes? What can I do today to remedy my spiritual weaknesses for the hour I know not of?