Mxsmanic wrote:

All these "replies", and I can see how you are still confused. It's
been a while since my Prive checkride, but be expected to demonstrate
pilotage, dead reckoning, and use of navaids. Notice on the PTS that
both areas are listed. The reality is that it will depend on your
examiner. Most VFR cross country flight will involve some combination
of navigation skills- you have to get on that airway somehow, right?
On your checkride, note your time when you takeoff, and explain to the
examiner how you are getting from the runway onto course. Make all your
turns from point A to point B, and update your flight log times as you
go.This might satisy him/her that you have the skills. You are the one
planning your cross country, so make sure you know what you have
planned- examiners have a sixth sense for knowing what you don't
know,lol.
Also, there are a lot of things listed in hte PTS. You can expect that
the examiner will be lumping things together in the interest of time.
If you did everthing on the PTS individually, your checkride would last
all day. For example, they can combine a distraction with turns around
a point and evaluate how well you hold altitude all at the same time.
For my checkride, after we did the initial part of my flight plan the
examiner said that he wanted me to divert to another airport. he asked
me to figure out when and how we would get there, and to make it
happen. I was allowed to use everthing available to me- my charts,
navaids, but most importantly my training and common sense. I guessing
this will be the part where your pilotage and dead reckoning skills
will be most handy. They just want to make sure you are safe up there.
Hope this helps. Good luck and have fun on the checkride!