PLT218: Common Student Errors
What code PLT218 covers, why the FAA tests it, and how to study Common Student Errors before your checkride.
Recall flight operations - common student errors
What this means for your checkride
Recognizing common student errors is part of instructing: over-controlling, fixating on one reference, poor division of attention, and tension on the controls. The instructor anticipates the typical error for a maneuver, points it out early, and gives a correction the student can apply.
Good instruction depends on spotting and fixing predictable mistakes, so the FAA tests recognizing common errors and correcting them constructively.
Instructors correct the symptom, not the cause. A student ballooning the landing may be fixating on the nose; naming the underlying error, where they are looking, fixes it better than repeating do not balloon.
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.