Alchemy
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2003
- Posts
- 492
Went to the FSDO for my CFI checkride on thursday. It didn't go well at all. All my paperwork was in order but when the maintenance inspector went to examine the aircraft (a c182rg) he came back with 7 (!!!!) discrepencies. To top it off, the plane had just come out of a 100 hour. Needless to say, the Examiner and Maintenance inspector didn't have too many nice things to say about the flight school or the mechanic after that (although they didn't seem to be familiar with the flight school when I told them which one it was).
Basically, my checkride turned into an incident investigation. Both my examiner and the maintenance inspector were taking numerous pictures of the aircraft and started writing reports. The inspector jumped all over me and asked if I had even done a preflight before I flew the plane to the FSDO. He told me that he should technically write me up for a violation or at least fail my checkride for bringing an unairworthy aircraft, but since I was "just a kid" he was going to let me off the hook. I had to give him a written statement about the condition of the airplane on a blank piece of paper. I wrote:
"The discrepencies pointed out on N***** by the FAA on February 22, 2004 were not observed to be present during my pre-flight inspection of the aircraft on February 21, 2004".
The discrepencies pointed out were
1. Oil in the cockpit due to a bad seal on the oil pressure gauge.
2. Low Nose strut (there was still about 1.5-2" of chrome showing)
3. Loose housing for the left nav light
4. Exposed safety wire in the nose gear door bay.
5. One missing rivet on the left mid-fuselage
6. One loose rivet and loose panel on the left-mid fuselage
7. Various screws missing throughout the aircraft.
I didn't recieve a letter of discontinuance and the inspector treated the whole thing as if the practical test had never started. The airplane is still in maintenance at the airport where the FSDO is located. With the approval of the owner, I opted to have the plane repaired there and drive myself back home rather than obtain a ferry permit.
Personally, I think the inspectors were put-off as soon as they saw the airplane....it had dead bugs on the front of the fuselage and the leading edge of the wings, and as usual, had quite a dirty underside. From the moment they laid eyes on the plane it was a down hill slide. They said I should find another airplane and another flight school if I wanted to try to get my CFI certificate. Unfortunatly, my only real choice is to have all the discrepencies on this airplane repaired, have it cleaned spotlessly, and hope it recieves a warmer reception from the feds next time......
In any event, I will fill out a NASA form just in case they do decide to turn around and violate me. I didn't make that written statement voluntarily.....the examiner told me I needed to make one and at that point I was just nodding my head and saying "yes sir" to everything he asked of me.
The examiner also told me "take a good luck at all those business jets on the ramp. There's no reason why your aircraft shouldn't be in just as clean and in the same condition as those airplanes. 1 in every 300 airframes will kill someone this year. Do you want to become a statistic? You're flying a jalopy through the air."
Any advice about how to go about getting my CFI certificate would be appreciated. It will take me some time to work up the confidence to go back to that FSDO for another checkride. I feel lucky just to have walked away with my pilot certificate still in hand and no violations on my record.
Thanks
Basically, my checkride turned into an incident investigation. Both my examiner and the maintenance inspector were taking numerous pictures of the aircraft and started writing reports. The inspector jumped all over me and asked if I had even done a preflight before I flew the plane to the FSDO. He told me that he should technically write me up for a violation or at least fail my checkride for bringing an unairworthy aircraft, but since I was "just a kid" he was going to let me off the hook. I had to give him a written statement about the condition of the airplane on a blank piece of paper. I wrote:
"The discrepencies pointed out on N***** by the FAA on February 22, 2004 were not observed to be present during my pre-flight inspection of the aircraft on February 21, 2004".
The discrepencies pointed out were
1. Oil in the cockpit due to a bad seal on the oil pressure gauge.
2. Low Nose strut (there was still about 1.5-2" of chrome showing)
3. Loose housing for the left nav light
4. Exposed safety wire in the nose gear door bay.
5. One missing rivet on the left mid-fuselage
6. One loose rivet and loose panel on the left-mid fuselage
7. Various screws missing throughout the aircraft.
I didn't recieve a letter of discontinuance and the inspector treated the whole thing as if the practical test had never started. The airplane is still in maintenance at the airport where the FSDO is located. With the approval of the owner, I opted to have the plane repaired there and drive myself back home rather than obtain a ferry permit.
Personally, I think the inspectors were put-off as soon as they saw the airplane....it had dead bugs on the front of the fuselage and the leading edge of the wings, and as usual, had quite a dirty underside. From the moment they laid eyes on the plane it was a down hill slide. They said I should find another airplane and another flight school if I wanted to try to get my CFI certificate. Unfortunatly, my only real choice is to have all the discrepencies on this airplane repaired, have it cleaned spotlessly, and hope it recieves a warmer reception from the feds next time......
In any event, I will fill out a NASA form just in case they do decide to turn around and violate me. I didn't make that written statement voluntarily.....the examiner told me I needed to make one and at that point I was just nodding my head and saying "yes sir" to everything he asked of me.
The examiner also told me "take a good luck at all those business jets on the ramp. There's no reason why your aircraft shouldn't be in just as clean and in the same condition as those airplanes. 1 in every 300 airframes will kill someone this year. Do you want to become a statistic? You're flying a jalopy through the air."
Any advice about how to go about getting my CFI certificate would be appreciated. It will take me some time to work up the confidence to go back to that FSDO for another checkride. I feel lucky just to have walked away with my pilot certificate still in hand and no violations on my record.
Thanks
