Incidents and Interviews...
 

Okay here's the story:

A student here at the flight school where I instruct at went up for his ME Comm Checkride last week. While he was doing an engine out landing he forgot to lower the gear (my guess is because he was under stress and forgot to lower it). The sad part was that neither the examiner nor the student realized the gear wasnt down until they were floating half way down the runway. They did a go around and i guess somewhere during the acceleration process they dinged one of the props. The good news is that there wasnt any engine damage. However, he had to fill out an FAA statement about it. They said that it could either be recorded as an incident or an occurance (no engine damage).

The poor kid is now freaking out because he's worried that potentially having an incident on his record could ruin his chances at working at an airline. I know that they ask that question during interveiws and stuff. What's your guy's take? The FAA hasnt come to any conclusion yet.

Tell him that he doesn't need to worry. Just explain exactly what happened and what he has learned from the experience. Just don't try to rationalize it in any way.

Plenty of guys have much worse than incidents on their record and it has had no effect on their carreer's.

I was once told by an FAA POI that its not whether you have anything on your record or not, It is what you have learned from the experience. He believe in almost all cases it has made a guy a better pilot.

Glad it didn't get any worse(life threatening, paralysis, etc). I would definitely freak out if that happened to me. The good thing from this is he will NEVER forget to lower that gear again. This experience can be a good thing especially from such an early stage. I hope all works out for him.

Maybe he should quit now and start making real money outside the aviation... And yes I know that some people don't do it for the money but if he wants a house or a family someday, then maybe this isn't such bad thing...

Tell him to avoid American Eagle and AA. They don't give the time of day to anything with anything on their record, no matter what happened and who's fault it was. ExpressJet, Delta, Continental, Horizon, Air Wisconsin, and Northwest have concerns, but they'll interview and hire someone with an accident, incident, or occurrence on their record.

Just so ya know, some places are asking, “Have you ever been investigated by the FAA and/or NTSB?” If you ever had a ramp check, the answer is yes.

Seriously? Ok... so this kid is on his ME comm. checkride and your going to tell him to get out now, after he's spent a mere 50 or so grand on flight training... I really have an issue with all of the people on here who b***h and moan about QOL and pay, you knew this BEFORE you ever started working towards your pilot certs, and furthermore you're really not that much better of in other industries most places you will make somewhere between 20 - 30 K your first year out of college, and thats sitting behind the same old desk every day, where we get to do what we love. Yeah, your right being a pilot is terrible.

Rant over.

He'll be fine. If it gets classified as an occurrence he has nothing to worry about, if it gets classified as an incident it can be explained away at an interview especially since he wasn't the PIC, and the check airman should have been there to stop this from ever happening.

hmm. i am married have kids and a house in a nice area (as nice as you can get in memphis i guess :) ) i have a pretty good life.

None of my friends make 20k their first year so I really don't know if you are referring to a janitor or some other blue collar job. Plus they work 40 hours per week and get to be home for every weekend and every holiday out there and they did not spend additional 50k in ratings. If you expect pilots to a certain level of responsibility then maybe we should be getting paid like responsible adults and not like kids living with their parents because they can't afford a crappy apartment. How is that OK with you? Need I add that as pilot with every new job you ALWAYS start with a first year pay? A college graduate only makes first year pay once in their lifetime. As long as pilots like you keep telling themselves that it's OK to work for peanuts this profession will keep sinking. Maybe instead of defending this business we should tell public how it really is and that way we spare some poor soul of making the mistake that I made by becoming a pilot. But I assume that for the most of us it's easier to deny how poorly we are treated because it's much cooler to tell other how awesome we have it... The fact is that most of us on these forums are here because that's the only place where we can ***** and remain anonymous and not embarrassed of how crappy things are.

Then quit and go work 40 hours a week.

Problem solved.

I did. The problem is solved for me but I just thought that maybe if not for the wrong attitude of pilots that want to fly for free maybe I could still be flying and and earning a living at the same time....OK I am done.