Originally Posted by
coldpilot
So, heard from a friend today that he busted his checkride on SOP's. He said that he was taught differently than the check airman wanted it done.
It's not unusual to have the blame for failure placed anywhere but on the shoulders of the person taking the check. I hear the 'my instructor taught me that' excuse all the time...more often than not, after asking the instructor, I find that not to be the case. No surprise since most of my time is spent with my own students...I recognize BS when I hear it.
Sometimes it is the case. In programs where instructors teach the same jet to different companies who have different procedures, mistakes happen. Those mistakes are usually procedural and seldom, if ever, are significant enough to merit a failure. Such things happen frequently in the checks that I give, and these mistakes are usually left for the debrief or corrected on the spot.
Originally Posted by
coldpilot
Do the Flight Safety instructors just teach you the systems and generic opeartions of the aircraft leaving you to study the company procedures? I just thought that they always trained you the way the company wanted you to fly.
Correct. Every attempt is made to teach the current company procedures as well as how to fly the jet.
Was this a line or sim check?
Was the check airman a FSI instructor or a company pilot? If company, it's not unusual for the sim check to be more oriented to line standards simply for the reason that the company instructor likely has never taught in the sim. Too often, line standards are more demanding that what is seen in the sim...the major example being the tempo of the check...the company pilot may not give the student as much time to set things up as a FSI evaluator might. As a result, the student gets rushed and makes mistakes that may not have otherwise been made.