Stage checks shouldn't count or be on any record. If you go part 61 you'll have 3-5 checkrides, if you go 141 you may have 15+. And most places they do a stage check right before your final checkride, and they make the stage check much harder then the checkride to you know where your weakness is.

I went to UND, and I failed a stage check while doing my private because I forgot 1 of the 4 parts to an MEL, and the guy said it was a zero tolerance area, and I had to know everything about the MEL. I then failed during a commercial prep on eights on pylons because "It looked too square." When I asked the guy a year later what that was all about, he said he was sorry and was way too strict when he first started, and just laughed.

So because of the preamble to the MEL and square looking eight on pylon I cant apply to Colgan with 2 years CFIing, 2 years cargo, and over 2000 hrs? As John Stossels would say, "give me a break."

(I'm not applying to Colgan, Colgan was just used as an example, and my story is just to give an example of the many people out there in my shoes.)