Busted Checkride - How to Explain?

[psunder]

Update:

Looks like a couple of friends currently working for the organization at which I was refused employment are going to bat for me... just what I needed, someone to explain the situation WITHOUT making me seem like I am not owning up.

 

[siucavflight]

I have not ever heard of anyone caring. What company bounced you because of your pass rate?

 

[L'il J.Seinfeld]

Wow. No offense, but do you not see a trend? You need to get yourself a track record of success. Get it out of your head that you failed only because the evaluator was hard. You failed because your skills are not where they should be. You'll never get hired if you pull crap like saying it was because you chose the wrong examiner. That's a cop out. You had better do whatever is necessary to ace any checkride you have the rest of your flying career or you won't have one. Just being honest.

 

[psunder]

Wow. No offense, but do you not see a trend? You need to get yourself a track record of success.

I have one, my student pass ratio is superb... a bust is more a refection on the instructor than the student. Outside my PPL I never received ANY ground from my instructor.

Get it out of your head that you failed only because the evaluator was hard.

Incorrect, you need to know the examiner I went with. I have been referred to as "crazy" and "masochistic" for my choice in examiners. This mans pass rate is about 50%.... now you tell me how many checkride you would have bused had you failed 50% of them?

You failed because your skills are not where they should be.

I fly as well and know as much as ANY pilot of similar experience you will find, period.

You'll never get hired if you pull crap like saying it was because you chose the wrong examiner.

Interestingly, I did get hired... and I said exactly that, moreover my boss (who deals with this DPE daily) agrees with ME


I chose the examiner I chose because I WANTED the checkrides to be hard. I studied more and knew more than nearly ANY of my contemporaries and I wanted to test myself. I knew full and well what I was getting myself into so I agree these busts are MY FAULT.

 

[Stifler's Mom]

My question is, how would one suggest I go about establishing to potential employers that my pass rate is a sign of my seeking excellence and not the easy road?

- busted my MEI (initial) on not knowing how to use manual E6B (knew how to use electronic)

If you are going to say you are not seeking the easy road, I would leave this one out.:0

 

[psunder]

If you are going to say you are not seeking the easy road, I would leave out this one.

Ok, i will give you a test (the exact same question I had), tell me how to do "short-time" problems on you E6B?

I didn't know and neither did ANYONE I asked with the exception of the cheif flight instructor (who was the one who signed me off). In addtion, the PTS does NOT require me to know how to use a manual E6B, only that I can teach it using some method (ie. electronic E6B)

 

[Stifler's Mom]

Not even sure what a "short-time" problem is. But if it has anything to do with how long it will take me to get to point A, I just look on the FMS.

 

[jetfo]

I must not be bright enough to get this. You are doing everything the hard way why?!?!?

It is great to pursue excellence, what you have pursued is self defeating.
Life is hard enough, don't try to do it the hard way. There is no point to it. Is there something you have to prove to yourself?

If you want to know everything there is to aviation, read books and learn from others that know more. Torturing yourself isn't the road to excellence.

 

[atlcrashpad]

Busted ride

My story is I showed for my Comm SEL with a "Sporty's" E6B (Electric). The examiner said "Your batteries just died" I pulled a fresh pack out of my bag, he said "those are expired and dead too". After I pulled a total of 6 packs of 4 AAA batteries, he gave up and let me use my "Sporty's" E6B.

I then f*cked up the holding entry and was give the option to "continue or stop now and re do the only failed portion later" I chose to continue. Obvious I was under super pressure, but I did flawless on the rest. As we parked and I was getting out, I mentioned that since this was a commercial add on to my Comm R/W, holding was not required by PTS. He looked it up and I was right. He made me go back out and re-enter holding to make sure I knew how to do it. I did exactly what I should have done on the first attempt. He was more than fair and was considered one of the hardest in the area.

 

[psunder]

Not even sure what a "short-time" problem is. But if it has anything to do with how long it will take me to get to point A, I just look on the FMS.

Answer:

Instead of using "60" for rate, use "36" becasue there are 3600 seconds in an hour, then the "B" scale is in seconds (instead of minutes) and the "C" scale is in minutes (instead of hours)

 

[Fly_Chick]

As we parked and I was getting out, I mentioned that since this was a commercial add on to my Comm R/W, holding was not required by PTS. He looked it up and I was right. He made me go back out and re-enter holding to make sure I knew how to do it. I did exactly what I should have done on the first attempt. He was more than fair and was considered one of the hardest in the area.

Did you enter the hold a second time on the check-ride or did he just want you to go out and enter it by yourself or with and instructor?

Curiously, as it is not required by PTS, under which Area of Operation was he going to classify the bust?

 

[atlcrashpad]

Holding

He was going to bust me on holding. I held on the wrong side of the fix. I went right back out with him that afternoon. He was satisfied and I've never forgotten my mistake. No Bust. PTS did not require holding if you had an instrument rating in another catagory. ie. I had a comm R/W with instrument and was adding comm SEL w/ instrument.

 

[WhiteCloud]

For interview purposes you answer honestly. If asked it's usually something like..."Have you ever busted a checkride" You can pick one of your busts that you take credit for and say "Well, I blew X on the CFI checkride so I had to go up again and redo it. I knew how to do it but I was nervous and lost my concentration. Everything else went well and I retook that portion of the test the next week and got the certificate." Be honest but don't recite all the busts unless directly asked. They'll probably move on to other things since the goal of the question is to find out if you accept responsibility and not necesarily to determine if you're superpilot.

 

[banned username 1]

Let me give you some perspective from the standpoint of a person who used to give pilot interviews- and that of a flight instructor too.

Even the best pilots have busted check rides. An interviewer is looking for somebody who takes the adult attitude toward that sort of thing, takes full responsibility for it, makes it right and learns from it and moves on.

Let's take a look at the situation as you've described it. You've failed MULTIPLE check rides. One failure- hey it happens, two- wow, unlucky, but the number that you're talking about would raise an eyebrow (if they even ask you at all). Failing a checkride isn't the end of the world, but pilots, being egotists, usually make doubly-sure that that sort of thing doesn't happen again- almost to a fault. It's embarassing.

Where there's smoke, there's fire, and you're describing something smoking here. You started out by laying out the facts, but then when somebody made an honest critique and opined on your situation, you got defensive. I'm seeing the red flag from something that you never even considered. Since I don't have the luxury of getting to know you for an hour or so, that's all I'll say on that subject.

Next, don't blame your failures on your instructor. It's a shared responsibility of you both. I had to laugh about the E6-B thing because although it's old-school, you should be able to use it- and weren't you an instructor already? Your instructor is supposed to get you ready to pass a check ride. That includes the oral. Any instructor should pretty much know the scenario that the examiner uses and not only prepare you based on the checkride guide, but extra emphasis for particulars that the specific examiner hits. But he's only human and not a mind reader- if he truly prepared you for every possible situation and question, your training would cost four times what it does already. YOU have to share the responsibility for learning and retaining what you've learned. If you don't feel like you can be the best applicant the examiner has ever seen, then you're not ready. Easy as that.

Back to your question. You need to give yourself some introspection. If the question ever comes up, and it was required to be asked of every applicant I interviewed, you'd better have an adult, cogent response. If you haven't really sat down and asked what are the underlying, common threads that connect all of the checkride failures and what have I done to address them, you will fail the interview. Sorry, it's the truth. Nothing is easier to detect than insincerity and you better believe what it is that you're telling the interviewer. They've seen and heard it all- don't BS them.

You wanted opinions. Here's mine. It's worth what you paid for it. IMHO, if you take my advice and get to the root of the problem, you won't fail another ride. If you handle the situation like an adult, who has learned something about himself and has made definite, positive steps to change, it will be a non-event on an interview.

Good luck.

 

[Ralgha]

I have one, my student pass ratio is superb... a bust is more a refection on the instructor than the student. Outside my PPL I never received ANY ground from my instructor.

Actually, 4 busts, 3 of which were in a row, is not a good track record. A bust is SOMETIMES a reflection on the instructor, and sometimes on the student. If any of your instructors after PPL said word one about anything you did or would do, then you did get ground from them.

Incorrect, you need to know the examiner I went with. I have been referred to as "crazy" and "masochistic" for my choice in examiners. This mans pass rate is about 50%.... now you tell me how many checkride you would have bused had you failed 50% of them?

If you thought what he did was unfair, then you should have taken it up with the FSDO. If not, then you're just making excuses.

I fly as well and know as much as ANY pilot of similar experience you will find, period.

Funny. You wouldn't have busted a single one of those checkrides where this true.

I agree these busts are MY FAULT.

Quite obviously you don't, since you referred to the examiner as hard. If you truely took responsibility, you wouldn't have said a word about the examiner.