Originally Posted by
Alfred E Newman
Simple to explain: Back then the check ride was for an SIC type rating. Now it is for PIC, and that makes a significant difference.
AWAC is a good company but I found that their Training department lacks standardization which is a contributing factor to a high percentage of initial check ride failures. Yes, most re-test and move along fine, but that significant percentage (nearly 50% I was told by more than one instructor) get through with the initial "fail" on their record.
I am an AWAC Sim instructor; We do not have a 50% failure rate. We do have a good number of additional training students. Additional training students are students who do not finish on the scheduled footprint, and need to come back for additional training. This is not a failure. Failure is someone who the instructor thought was ready and signed them off and then that student fails that actual check ride. Currently our footprint is 5 days of CPT and 8 full lesson sim training events, a loft and then a check ride (10 total sessions). Most are doing 9 sessions (skipping the loft) and then day 10 is used as an evaluation to see how many more days you need. Usually it's around 4. So the student then gets a number of days off, comes back, gets extra time and hopefully gets signed off and passes.
A few months ago at an instructor meeting. I was told our actual failure rate is industry standard, around 18-20%. If you are not ready we won't sign you off and we will recommend additional training to make sure that you meet OUR standards.