Designated examiner ?

[Fiveoh]

Had a student take a checkride today. Unfortunately he was found deficient in soft field landings and needs to go back and do that part over.
His checkride fee was $275 which a normal fee in this area. However, the student was told that for the retest he would need to bring an additional $200 dollars for an examiner fee.
I was wondering if this was a standard practice to charge for making up one deficient area.

Thanks in advance for all replies,
fiveoh

 

[bobbysamd]

Recheck fees

[T]he student was told that for the retest he would need to bring an additional $200 dollars for an examiner fee.
I was wondering if this was a standard practice to charge for making up one deficient area.

Yeah, 'fraid so, though some examiners might charge less than others.

I think the rationale goes to something about how examiners are limited to giving only two practical tests a day. A recheck would consume one of the two, so that's how they get away with charging so much. Having said that, I think everyone knows of a few examiners who give more than two practicals a day, as well as those whose sole source of income are practicals. That is also against the rules; examination fees cannot be an examiner's sole source of income.

 

[blott]

go to the local FSDO, FAA should be for free right?

B

 

[rumpletumbler]

Thats still cheaper than the $500 my CFI ride cost.

 

[Fiveoh]

Thanks for all of the help on the subject.

 

[Iceman21]

Thats still cheaper than the $500 my CFI ride cost.

D A M N, I thought the $400.00 I paid for my CFI ride was the highest in the nation. Where did you take your ride?

I got charged 400 for the retest too.

 

[rumpletumbler]

I took the ride at RYY but the examiner traveled there to give it to me. He is based out of an airport further to the north and actually drove about an hour to give the ride. It would have been more expensive for me to fly to him and back than to have had a $400 ride. He was a great guy and while it was lengthy (12.5 hours), and I felt like I had been hit in the head with a hammer later that night and the next day it was a good experience. We almost were not able to fly (getting the logbooks straight) and he told me during that time that if we had to finish another day that he wouldn't charge me but that I would have to fly to him to take it so that would have cost. This guy was the most knowledgeable person I have ever met in aviation by leaps and bounds. I would have loved to have been taught by someone like him. He was with ASA for a long time and now retired.

 

[Vladimir Lenin]

$500 for the initial is the norm around these parts, SE PA

 

[avbug]

Five hundred bucks? That's a lot of gum balls. I did my ride with the gov'mint. No bucks but airplane rental. That thar fi' hunred we bo gonna buy lotsa mo top ramen, dontcha think?

If I had an examiner try charging five hundred bucks extortion fee for representing my hard earned tax paid government, I'd set fire to his house and skin his dog for breakfast. (Unless he had a poodle; they taste terrible with milk).

 

[KigAir]

The DE at my airport charges $300 per checkride and $100 for a retest.

 

[KigAir]

Is there any truth to the rumour that a checkride given by a DE is easier than a FAA checkride? I've have multiple instructors tell me that if at all possible I should never go to a FSDO for a checkride.

 

[rumpletumbler]

I think that all depends on who you go to on either end. I went to the FAA the first time and failed the ride. I had explained how a governor works but I had been taught a multi-engine governor instead of a single engine (oooops) and as such explained it backwards (yes I had made it through my commercial and multi without ever learning what a governor did) The only guy in Atlanta who did CFI's at that time was hard to book and I wound up setting it up with a DE. The DE wasn't easy, it was a 12.5 hour day which only included about a half hour lunch. He earned every penny of his $500 and went far into I'm doing it because I like/love it IMO. The DE I used gave a CFI ride to an acquaintance of mine and it was of the same length so I think its his standard OP. I've heard stories bad and good on both sides but I think the bottom line is that if you know your stuff it doesn't matter who you go to.

 

[Iceman21]

I think it goes both ways. A few people have told me taking the ride with the FSDO was the easiest checkride they have every had and others who have had horror stories. Vice-versa with DE's.

My personal belief is you can fail any checkride for any reason, any day. One day you pass, given the same exact checkride with the same responses on another day and you could fail.

 

[avbug]

When you perform even to the minimum practical test standard, what's the difference between easy and hard? All you are required to do is perform to a minimimum level of competence. Weather you pay an examiner your life savings, or wait thirty weeks for the FAA to open a slot for you in their schedule, you meet the standards, you pass.

(With the possible exception of a period several years ago when the FAA mandated by memo a very high failure rate for initial CFI applicants...).

No law exists which prevents you from performing to a higher standard, either.

 

[bobbysamd]

Easy DEs v. hard ASIs

I, too, feel it depends on the individual, barring any FAA memo that mandated a high CFI bust rate.

At ERAU in Prescott, before we had 141 self-examining authority, we would send our students to the three examiners on the field. One was a man who ran a school and 135 operation, and who has since moved to Southern Arizona. The other was an older woman who lived in Chino Valley and who reportedly worked with Amelia Earhart and was one of the woman military ferry pilots of World War II. The third was an old man, whose background I cannot recall. A significantly high percentage of our Riddlers busted with these three individuals.

I would submit that because these three examiners believed that they had cornered the market that had lost, or had refused to exercise, their objectivity regarding Riddlers. In fact, one always whined that our students were always poorly prepared.

Our Chief Flight Instructor had been ordered to reacquire 141 self-examining authority. So, he came up with an idea. He thought, why not send our students not to the three examiners on the field but to other examiners?? So, we did. It was a real stroke of genius. We sent our students to examiners in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Goodyear, Deer Valley, Tucson (that examiner even came to us sometimes to give practicals), and even Lake Havasu. Guess what?? Our pass rate climbed, prodigiously. And, we got our self-examining authority. Nothing had been changed in the training. Same students, same syllabus, same (tough) Riddle stage checks.

This experience proves that despite PTS standards and other objective criteria that even well-prepared applicants can fail, because examiners, for whatever reason, inject subjectivity into their testing. It is wrong, but what can you do?