Busts in themselves are not disqualifying. Every good interviewer knows that even those with completely “clean” records probably had a gimme or two. On paper I have zero failures or non sats in 29 years of flying. Truth be told, in 1991 I should have failed my commercial SEL oral exam in the 172RG.

“Tell me how the CS prop works....”

“Well, you turn the knob to the right and the speed increases.”

“Great. How does it WORK?”

“You turn the knob to the left and the prop speed decreases. To the right it increases.”

“Great. So what mechanism makes the prop increase and decrease speed?”

“THE KNOB.”

I then got a lesson in governors, speeder springs and oil pressure. Lesson learned without a pinkie. Grounds for failure? Absolutely. Gimme.