5 Common Flight Review Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

The Mistakes That Cost Pilots Their First Attempt

Most Canadian drone pilots pass their flight review eventually, but many don’t on the first attempt. The reasons are remarkably consistent across reviewers and regions. Five mistakes account for the majority of first-attempt issues — and all of them are preventable with focused prep.

If you’re booking your review through the Pilot Network, use this list as a pre-review sanity check.

Mistake #1 — Treating Pre-Flight Planning as a Formality

What pilots do wrong: Show up with a vague idea of the site, wave at an airspace map, glance at the weather app, and say “looks fine.”

What reviewers expect: A deliberate, documented pre-flight plan. You should walk the reviewer through:

• A current site survey (ideally created that morning)
• NOTAMs checked within the last 4 hours
• METAR and TAF interpreted correctly (not just “it’s sunny”)
• Airspace classification for your operating area confirmed
• Nearby aerodromes identified with distances and directions
• Hazards documented (people, structures, power lines, wildlife)
• Risk mitigations for each hazard

Fix: Build a standard pre-flight planning checklist and practice using it on every flight for the 2 weeks before your review. Treat every practice session as if a reviewer is watching. For a full prep checklist, see Preparing for Your Flight Review.

Mistake #2 — Fumbling Radio Procedures

What pilots do wrong: Trip over callsign order, forget position reports, use non-standard phraseology, or panic when asked to simulate an ATC conversation.

What reviewers expect: Correct radiotelephony even in uncontrolled airspace scenarios. Reviewers commonly ask you to simulate a call to an ATC tower, an FSS, or another aircraft — regardless of whether your actual review site requires it. The Advanced certificate covers controlled airspace, so competency here is mandatory.

Fix: Practice out loud. Rehearse:

• Initial call: “[Facility], [your callsign], [position], [altitude], [intentions]”
• Position reports at defined intervals
• Reading back clearances verbatim
• Emergency calls (mayday, pan-pan)

Use the Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM) section on radio procedures as your source. Don’t improvise phraseology.

Mistake #3 — Treating Emergency Scenarios as Hypotheticals

What pilots do wrong: When the reviewer says “your drone has just lost GPS” or “you’re seeing a low-battery warning at full altitude,” the pilot freezes, gives a textbook answer, or says “I’d just bring it home.”

What reviewers expect: An immediate, decisive response that demonstrates you’ve rehearsed this. The response should include:

• Immediate aircraft action (altitude, heading, mode change)
• Spatial awareness check (where am I, where’s my visual observer, where’s the nearest safe landing)
• Communication action (radio call if in controlled airspace, notify ground crew)
• Follow-up plan (how do I get the aircraft down safely)

Fix: Before the review, write out your response to each of these scenarios and practice saying them aloud:

• Lost link
• Lost visual line-of-sight
• GPS failure
• Battery warning at altitude
• Unexpected aircraft intrusion in your area
• Injury to a bystander
• Hardware failure (motor, camera gimbal, etc.)

Your reviewer doesn’t need you to recite the manual. They want to hear that you’ve thought about it and know what to do in the first 10 seconds.

Mistake #4 — Not Understanding CARs 901 Like Your Life Depends on It

What pilots do wrong: Remember the big rules (max altitude, visual line-of-sight, registration) but blank on specifics like the 100ft lateral distance rule, the restrictions on flying over assemblies of persons, or the recency requirements.

What reviewers expect: Working knowledge of Subpart 9 of Part IX. Not verbatim recall — but enough familiarity that you can answer “what’s the rule on X?” without guessing.

Topics reviewers frequently probe:

• Altitude limits (standard and permitted exceptions)
• Visual line-of-sight requirements and how VO fits in
• Lateral distances from bystanders and structures
• Controlled airspace authorization requirements (NAV CANADA RPAS Flight Planning tool)
• Site survey content requirements (CARs 901.27)
• Recency — see Flight Review Recency Requirements
• Incident reporting thresholds and procedures

Fix: Re-read CARs Subpart 9 the week before your review. Even if you studied it for the Small Advanced Exam, the gap between exam and review is often months and rules fade. See Advanced Exam vs. Flight Review for the distinction.

Mistake #5 — Showing Up With Expired or Missing Documentation

What pilots do wrong: Forget proof of registration, bring an outdated aircraft serial, miss the liability insurance certificate, or show up without a photo ID matching the pilot certificate.

What reviewers expect: Complete, current documentation organized and ready to show. Specifically:

• Transport Canada pilot certificate (digital or printed)
• Photo ID matching the certificate
• Proof of drone registration with current serial number
• Liability insurance certificate (required by many reviewers)
• Aircraft manuals or operating handbook
• Recent flight logs showing recency activity
• A current site survey for the review location (CARs 901.27)

Fix: Build a “flight review folder” — physical or digital — and keep it updated. Review the contents 48 hours before your review and re-check the morning of. Missing documentation is the easiest mistake to avoid and the hardest one to recover from during a review (reviewers rarely reschedule if you show up unprepared).

Bonus — Overconfidence from Experience

Pilots with hundreds of flight hours sometimes assume their experience speaks for itself. It doesn’t. The flight review is a structured evaluation, and habits that develop in solo flying (skipping checklists, cutting planning corners, using non-standard procedures) are exactly what reviewers notice. Treat the review as if it’s your first supervised flight.

The Common Thread

All five mistakes share one root cause: not taking the review seriously enough in the weeks before. The review itself is only 1.5–2.5 hours. Your prep is the previous two weeks. Pilots who dedicate focused study time in the 10 days leading up to the review pass at noticeably higher rates than pilots who cram the night before.

If You Don’t Pass

Not passing isn’t the end. Your reviewer will give specific feedback, and you can rebook as soon as you’re ready — no waiting period, no attempt limit. See If You Don’t Pass Your Flight Review for next steps.

Ready to Prep Well?

Browse reviewers on the Pilot Network, pick one who fits your experience level, and commit to two weeks of focused prep. Most pilots who do this pass on the first attempt.