Zona Pilot 1830

I just read a "letter to the editor" in the "Career Pilot" section of AOPA Flight Training magazine where an individual wrote in and asked about their chances of getting hired by the airlines after several checkride failures. Th answer (and I'm paraphrasing) was "Your chances aren't good".

I want to preface this by saying I only failed my CFI initial checkride and nothing else. However, this article got me thinking about how hard it is for a student to be successful on a checkride when they have a $hi##y instructor. Believe me, I have had several $hi##y instructors that just sit in the right seat and watch the Hobbs meter tick away and provide minimal instruction as they daydream about whether or not their app is being reviewed by some airline HR department. My success rate is more thanks to my motivation to self-study ruthlessly and educate myself rather than rely on these idiot instructors who provided crappy instruction. I used to work with a guy who actually sat on his laptop and IM'ed his buddy while giving ground instruction to students! (Good news - this putz instructor eventually washed out of ground school at a regional and the last I heard he was working for his dad at an insurance company selling insurance. What goes around comes around...). I think it's unfair for an airline to reject an applicant simply for the the fact that they have multiple busts. They should at least have some type of evaluation process in place that determines if the applicant has learned from his or her checkride failures or see how they perform iduring IOE.

And that's my 2 cents.....

Salukipilot4590

The evlauation is usually the interview.

Unless you have an egregiously large number of busts....then you just get kicked out of the computer.

I've never heard of someone not getting an interview with 2 busts.

yimke

Relax man.. Only failing one checkride is not going to kill you. Especially the CFI. However, if you are failing 4 or 5 checkrides, there is probably a good reason. Usually I have seen, that those people are 95% poor rounded character. Either their flying is terrible, or their ground knowledge is. I'm sorry, but people are not entitled to a job. Sometimes yes, it is because of poor instruction. If you are getting poor instruction, then switch!! It's your money and your career at stake!!

piper338

Failed my Initial CFI passed the very next day, simply put I was out of PTS on one maneuver.

No excuses, went back the next day nailed it. Hasn't been a big deal.

SkylineAviation

Airlines and other departments are looking for a pattern and/or a history typically. Not just one bust for instance. It is recognized that everyone has a bad day or something else from time to time and that day may come on the day of your ride.

Just don't make it a habit.

EatMyPropwash

Just to be 110% honest, after my 4 hour ATP PIC oral, which the APD waitied all 4 hours before busting me, I now have 4 failures, and still get interviews with numerous carriers... It's all about how you carry yourself, how you tell your story in the interview, and overall personality. If you blame everyone but yourself, you'll be looking for a non-cfi gig for probably ever. If you live up to your mistakes, take it on the chin, admit what you messed up on, how you corrected it, and how you grew/learned from that, then you'll be golden, and that's exactly what I've always done. 1 checkride isn't going to hurt at all. In fact, it shows that your human, and not a smart pants know it all. :-) Plus, the initial CFI checkride, they expect you to bust that one anyways. A few of my interviews they asked me "how many checkride busts will your PRIA paperwork come back and say you failed in JUST the airplane?" To which I have 1, and its Part 141 so I don't even think it'll show up, honestly, but I admit it anyways...

40ozslurpee

You're not in a bad boad at all, friend.

My sim partner told me of a guy he knew who failed his initial CFI checkride seven times. Seven.

I think it's gonna work out okay for you.

Apokleros

I read that article also; that guy failed his instrument checkride THRICE, his CFI-I once and two others as well. His issue is that he has had hardship moving beyond the online application systems so that he could be called for an interview. He has around 3000 TT and has worked at three airlines, but can't find anyone who will hire him now. That really sucks.

Wasatch Phantom

I believe I read that same Letter To The Editor. To me the writer came across as.... well, an idiot.

He wrote that he had lost his logbook(s) and was trying to recreate his flying history from other sources. He contacted the FAA for their information on him. (This is where it goes downhill.)

When he gets the information from the FAA he "discovers he failed his instrument check ride three times when he was 21 years old". (The records show other failures as well.)

Fortunately I haven't failed an FAA checkride, but I would think one would remember a failure pretty clearly for the rest of your life; especially if you failed it three times!

The competition for jobs at what I'll call "the premier carriers" is quite simply very, very tough. The individual carriers can be very selective, and given the number of applicants without such a history, I would think this fellow will never get called.

Quite honestly why should he? This isn't a profession where every participant gets a trophy. There are "winners" and "losers".

Bellanca

Zona, I agree with you. There are definitely people that just weren't cut out to be pilots, but I've also run into a lot of sh!tty instructors with high failure rates, too. It will be interesting how much emphasis is placed on failed rides once the ATP rule is in place. I'd say failures, especially private and instrument on sub-100 hour pilots are not going to be at all indicative of how good a pilot years later with 1500 hours is. Also, there are going to be a lot more of those crappy CFI's hanging around instructing, as there won't be many other avenues for them to build time to get to the airlines.

Personally, I've only failed my CFI initial, too. I'd like to get my seaplane and my glider rating, but I'm honestly nervous that I'd do something dumb and end up with another bust on my record. It would really suck to go to get a 'for fun' rating and end up getting a strike against me that keeps me from making it through the computerized app weed-out.