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Lakes Upgrade

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check six

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 10, 2002
Posts
133
What is normal operating procedure at Lakes if you get dismissed from upgrade training your first time? Do you get another shot or do they release you?

Thanks,

Check Six
 
You can attempt to upgrade three times before they will let you go. After every failed attempt they make you wait anywhere from 6-12 months to try again depending on how bad things were. Lately not many have been getting discontinued...
 
What is normal operating procedure at Lakes if you get dismissed from upgrade training your first time? Do you get another shot or do they release you?

Thanks,

Check Six

It was three when I was there YEARS ago. The Lakes upgrade was hands down, the most challenging yet most rewarding experience of my career. I'll never forget landing the plane in CYS after my final approach into the airport. It was an NDB, circle to land with partial panel, gear and flap failure, with the examiner playing the "I'm sick" game. It was a bear. On the taxi in to the hangar, feeling elated, I started to relax and accidentally got off the taxiway centerline. He threatened to fail me if I did it again. I took my temporary certificate and RAN out of there. Are they still doing crap like that?
 
Sounds like my first 135 ride. Climbing out of ice in a SE hold. The hold was on a LOC DME fix. We didn't have DME, but we had a VFR GPS, not legal but more of a way for the examiner to show me what my limitations were.

Those were the days.

X
 
It was three when I was there YEARS ago. The Lakes upgrade was hands down, the most challenging yet most rewarding experience of my career. I'll never forget landing the plane in CYS after my final approach into the airport. It was an NDB, circle to land with partial panel, gear and flap failure, with the examiner playing the "I'm sick" game. It was a bear. On the taxi in to the hangar, feeling elated, I started to relax and accidentally got off the taxiway centerline. He threatened to fail me if I did it again. I took my temporary certificate and RAN out of there. Are they still doing crap like that?

BS flag. Last time I checked, you can't be given multiple failures on a 121 ATP or type ride.
 
BS flag. Last time I checked, you can't be given multiple failures on a 121 ATP or type ride.

Seen stuff like that in air carrier programs many, many, times. Left engine failed with a right engine fire on the peanut guages.......etc....etc. Once and old school DE decided he was going to pass you the fun started. They wanted to see if you could think while you were task saturated. Most of them wouldn't fail you for anything you did after that. I ditched gear up on a type ride and passed it too. If you were on the receiving end - and sharp - once the ridiculous multiple failures started you knew you had passed the ride. It's funny how you still didn't relax though.

The FAA and unions have ended that fun though. Those types of rides are frowned on now.
 
Depends on the carrier 2 carriers had max 2 fails 2 others had 1....at the end of the day its really up to the examiner, most dual fails i see are the result of you messing up the first which causes the 2nd 3rd 4th etc....gets fun!!!!!
 
BS flag. Last time I checked, you can't be given multiple failures on a 121 ATP or type ride.

Not BS. Multiple failures was precisely why Lakes had a 50% pass rate on upgrades and lost their DE status for a period of time. As I said, this was years ago and anyone that worked or knew someone that worked for Lakes can attest to having had a similar experience. But thanks for playing.
 
Last edited:
Not BS. Multiple failures was precisely why Lakes had a 50% pass rate on upgrades and lost their DE status for a period of time. As I said, this was years ago and anyone that worked or knew someone that worked for Lakes can attest to having had a similar experience. But thanks for playing.

Uhhh... no you shouldn't be recieving multiple failures at the same time... only case where an applicant should see this is if the pilot applicant screws up and causes a second or third failure. That is both out of the PTS and our POI's mouth. If Lakes was operating in that fashion I would imagine that there are a lot of people who have the right to get that pink slip removed from their record. Furthermore.... that would be cause for losing their DE status because they were operating outside of the testing standards set by the FAA.
 
Uhhh... no you shouldn't be recieving multiple failures at the same time... only case where an applicant should see this is if the pilot applicant screws up and causes a second or third failure. That is both out of the PTS and our POI's mouth. If Lakes was operating in that fashion I would imagine that there are a lot of people who have the right to get that pink slip removed from their record. Furthermore.... that would be cause for losing their DE status because they were operating outside of the testing standards set by the FAA.

If you read what he wrote then you'll see that that's exactly what happened to Lakes, they lost their DE status for awhile. Their upgrade program is no longer like that but that was back in the day it was and that was just part of the process.
 

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