PLT200: Dead Reckoning
What code PLT200 covers, why the FAA tests it, and how to study Dead Reckoning before your checkride.
Recall dead reckoning - calculations / charts
What this means for your checkride
Dead reckoning computes where you will be from known heading, speed, wind, and time. You correct true course for wind to get a heading, apply variation and deviation for a compass heading, and use groundspeed to predict time and fuel to each checkpoint.
Dead reckoning underlies flight planning and the E6B problems on the written, so the FAA tests the wind-correction and time-speed-distance math.
Candidates skip the wind step. Without a wind correction angle the heading is wrong, and small errors compound over a long leg.
Where to study it
A code on your test report is an area of deficiency. An authorized instructor must review it with you and endorse that review before you take the practical test, and the examiner may revisit it during the oral. Study it until you can explain it out loud, not just recognize the answer.