Four Failed Checkrides
 

thanks for the advice

Lot of these threads lately.

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/as...des-1-dui.html
http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/as...heckrides.html

Just a heads up: If everyone who tells you that 4 failed checkrides is probably too many to be competitive for an airline job in the current market is an a-hole, then you are going to run into a lot of a-holes.

Here is my humble opinion, from someone who has been in charge of hiring pilots both at an air national guard unit and a part 135 outfit: You see a kid who is a good stick who has had a run of bad luck early in his career, and I'm sure he's a great guy. The guy that reads the resumes, however, sees a guy who so far has failed every checkride he's ever taken. That's all I need to see before I move on to the next one, because for both jobs I've hired for in the past, I literally have had a stack of resumes from guys who have never failed a checkride. Harsh but true.

Hopefully your "don't get discouraged" speech was followed by some coaching on how not to dig yourself into a hole on an FAA oral, because that sounds like a trend item to me. That probably should have happened after bust #1, definitely after bust #2. Although you apparently don't want to hear it, the majority of guys I currently work with actually have busted 1, maybe 2 checkrides over the span of a 25 year career with most of them having zero busts. Sorry if that injects unwanted reality into your worldview, but it is a fact.

Most of the insight and examples of real life you are getting ready to receive are going to sound a lot like what I just said above. Your buddy has a lot of work ahead of him before he is going to be able to build a resume that will outweigh this enough for him to get hired at a reputable company. I wish him the best of luck, but it isn't going to be easy.

His best shot at getting a job is going to be through networking. Having a friend somewhere that talks to the chief pilot, and brings him in that way. Other than that, like was posted above, with a stack of resumes in front of me four failed check rides is going straight in the trash. If he can't pass any of those, why would I think for a second he'll succesfully complete training and not waste my company cash? Too risky of an investment.

Reading your post I see four busted check rides and a lot of excuses. You "reprimanded" a DE? Maybe if he gets his CFII/MEI and spends a few years as an instructor with a flawless pass rate, that may bury some of the past performance, but having dreams doesn't mean he's capable. You'd be doing him more of a favor being honest rather than him continuing to throw good money after bad.