Failed checkrides
 

Getting closer to starting my PPL. I’ve read a lot about failed checkrides and how it seems most everyone has at least a failed checkride. Are some DPEs just out to give everyone at least one fail? Is getting a certain DPE a requirement for making sure you don’t have failed checkrkdes when interviewing for the big leagues?

This is something very important if you want a good career and the flight schools are not honest about it. Do what you can to not have any failures. They will weaken your chances at the majors and in some cases be a complete dealbreaker. Being ready and well prepared goes without saying. Everyone knows who the easy examiners are. People get grief for going to the easy ones, but the airlines won't excuse your failures because you had a tough examiner. Get an opinion of a CFI other than yours to see if something is missing before you take the checkride. Don't let a manipulative flight school push you in to bad ideas during your training. .

Anyone can pass OR fail ANY given checkride. We’ve all seen morons skate through unscathed, and the golden boys get screwed somehow. That said, prepare for every checkride as if you’re going to war. This is YOUR training record. Failures can have life long effects on your earning potential so make sure no stone is left unturned and when possible, try to ensure you get the “easy guys”. In your career you’ll come across DPEs that are wildly inconsistent with their peers and frankly, make $hite up. It ain’t a perfect system but that’s how it goes. I have no shame in doing my best to avoid the wild card examiners. No airline will care about your war story. You’ll just have to come up with some narrative that makes it look like you had some life changing epiphany or moment of personal growth after the pink slip, no matter what really happened.

It’s good that you realize this early on how important checkrides are especially if your goal is to fly for a living. I wish my instructors would have had the talk with me in the beginning! It wasn’t until I failed my commercial multi add on rating my instructor beat his head off the desk (literally lol) in front of me and said it’s going to hurt my chances getting a job at the majors down the road. That woke me up fast to the enormity of taking a ride.

Like others said, study as hard as you possibly can for them, leave nothing up to chance, and only take it when YOU feel ready. Don’t let any flight schools push you if you are unsure.

If you do fail one or two, you’re probably okay for the regional level, but it will be a little tougher getting on at a major-not impossible but you will need to have a bit of a stronger resume most likely

I would estimate that about about 50% of major airline pilots have failed a check ride. Few have failed more than one or two. Try not to fall any, and part of that involves knowing the story on any DPE you use.

And I'm sure that 50% will go wayyyy up in the next 5-10 yrs, possibly sooner. There is no way the majors will be able to be that picky when the retirements peak. I bet the big 6 will be no more competitive in the mid-late 2020's than Frontier is present day if I had to make an educated WAG.

No offense to Frontier of course!

Cutting a couple of corners here for simplicity sake, the further you get the more consequences a fail will have.

Is there a process to dispute and possibly remove a failure?

With a DPE you would have to appeal with the FSDO that provides DPE oversight in that region. I’m not sure what the time frame is but I expect it would have to be the very next workday if not immediately.
A FAA inspector may decide to re-examine you if grievous actions on the part of the DPE caused the fail.

Like what I should have done in the case of one of my students long time ago.
Student made it to the airplane and the starter failed upon which the DPE decided to give him a pink slip because he was “weak on the oral anyway”. So why didn’t you fail him then?
He should have been issued a discontinuance, that’s specifically what they are for.
Anyway I was weak and didn’t want to make waves so I didn’t appeal it just verbally protested with the DPE in question who lost his designation about 10 years later.

Now saying that you weren’t out of tolerances on a maneuver is going to be impossible to prove. A DPE can also set an intimidating atmosphere which will lead to a fail, now this may be intentional but again very hard to prove.
Forcing an applicant to fly in clearly unfavorable conditions is another one.
Now this is a tricky one as you can be reasonably expected to handle some less then ideal conditions as you should have been exposed to those during training.
However gusting 25 for a Private pilot applicant is too much AMS that is why you should be available for your student during their check-ride and you as the instructor should pull the plug on a ride and take the possible backlash.

Not going to happen like that. If an applicant fails a check, they certainly have the option of filing a complaint with the FSDO that has oversight. An investigation will be held, which includes interviewing the DPE and the applicant. This takes time, and is not going to be a quick "next day" event. And during this, the fail remains on the record through airman records.

The next step will likely be having the applicant recheck with another DPE. The applicant has the right to request an Inspector give the ride, but right now resources are low and that may take considerable time.

The original failure will remain on record, unless the DPE was found incompetent and the airman wishes to go through a long and complicated process to attempt to expunge the record.

Finally, the FAA gets several complaints against DPE's for failures. In our society today, it's always someone else's fault. The majority of those complaints usually end with no action after it's determined the DPE was well within the scope of his area of operation.

Choose DPE's carefully.