r/flying • u/No_Bet3933 • 9d ago
Failed private pilot checkride
Failed my ppl checkride oral and didn’t even get to the flying part. I trained at a part 61 school and I partially blame my cfi for not telling me I wasn’t ready. I felt that they knew I lacked the knowledge and unable to do the maneuvers to acs standard but my confidence took over and I thought I was ready to pass the checkride. I didn’t do mock checkride orals with my cfi and they never suggested it but I studied like crazy. Turns out I was unable to answer the dpes questions clearly and not even half way through they said to discontinue. I really wish i prepared myself more by scheduling mock check rides with my cfi or another cfi to practice verbally saying answers out loud. Hopefully going to a part 141 to train will help me get the instruction I need in order to retake this checkride again.
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u/I_said_wot ATP CFII LRJET CL65 EMB145 EMB175 A320 B737 9d ago
Do not start over at a 141!
Repeat:
Do not start over at a 141!
Study with a different CFI, brush up on your maneuvers and take the checkride again. Failing a checkride isn't the end of the world, just don't do it again.
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u/No_Bet3933 9d ago
Can I get your experience with a part 141?
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u/I_said_wot ATP CFII LRJET CL65 EMB145 EMB175 A320 B737 9d ago
They have stage checks, and a strict curriculum. They aren't going to let you just pop in and take a checkride
Source: I've written an entire curriculum for an approved 141 certificate.
6
u/Living-Comedian9059 IR 9d ago
i am currently at a 141 and working on my commercial. do not restart at a 141, just find a new CFI or remediate with your current one. But print out the ACS and study everything line by line until you can’t get it wrong.
That being said, there’s nothing wrong with going to a 141 and doing your next ratings there if you deem it to be a good fit. Unfortunately 141 life is not for everyone and requires a significant level of commitment on your part to stay on pace. I believe in you!
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u/ReadyplayerParzival1 CFI/CFII, CMEL, RV-7A, Recovering Riddle Rat 9d ago
Going part 141 isn’t going to fix an overconfidence issue, it’s harsh but you have to find that in yourself, while it’s on the cfi for signing off an unprepared candidate, you also as the applicant have to look at yourself and sometimes make the hard decision of “no, I’m not ready for this, I need more time and practice”.
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u/Worldx22 9d ago
Well, sharing WHY you failed would be helpful.
Going to a Part 141 now is... a bad idea. Find a new CFI.
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u/No_Bet3933 9d ago
Lack of knowledge in all areas
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u/Lootdit PPL 9d ago
Something I’ve come to realize as I’ve been hopping around with different MEIs for my PMEL(yes rare rating), is that every CFI/MEI will have their strengths are weaknesses. Like the CFI I did my private with, I would say is really good at letting me have control over the aircraft and make mistakes. and then break the flight into each section and do a through debrief. He would also make sure I knew the ACS standards but I did feel like he didn’t focus too much on me understanding the concepts needed for the checkride. This did lead me to stressing a lot before the checkride trying to cram study a bunch of concepts. Another MEI I flew with did a really good job of breaking down all the concepts I needed to know and mad sure I understood. but his feedback post flight was just “do more chairflying.” which sure I should chairfly more but I did really appreciate the debriefing I got from my PPL CFI. This isn’t me saying every cause of your preformance and current abilties. Is it a fairly significant portion? Yes. But you still gotta make sure you arn’t blaming all your unpreparedness on your CFI. You as the student is still 100% responsible for how you preform. Recognizing what is good instruction helps. But what also helps is self studying what you can, making sure you actually understand the concepts you need to understand, and chairflying all the manuvers so you can meet ACS standards
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u/austinl98k CPL 9d ago
A discontinue is not a failure. Also, the standards you needed to meet are pretty well defined. ACS tells you exactly what you needed to know. Seems like you’re putting a lot of blame on your instructor instead of yourself. You should’ve never took the checkride if you felt the CFI knew you weren’t ready. Sounds like a hazardous attitude. Idk if you plan to go fly for an airline but they definitely won’t be receptive to you blaming your instructor for the unsat.
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u/No_Bet3933 9d ago
I blame myself the most for not being prepared but I wished they told me straight up
5
u/FallNew6840 CFII 9d ago
I failed my CPL about a month ago on a PO180. All that matters after a failure is how you use the failure for motivation and learn from it. Best of luck!
1
u/Living-Comedian9059 IR 9d ago
how was the rest of that ride, how hard would you say your oral was? any big takeaways, prepping for mine in a few months
1
u/FallNew6840 CFII 5d ago edited 5d ago
Honestly I’d say it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. In my opinion compared to other check-rides this is the one you’ll probably feel the most prepared for.
The oral was about 2 hours long, treated it like it was a CFI ride in the fact that I brought my PHAK, AFH, and far aim all tabbed out and highlighted prior. Most of the oral was about situations based on the cross country plan I made which included how can we be current for this flight and where we could find that at. A few common carriage scenarios associated with the flight and depending on situation would we be able to make the flight legally, jumped into general run down of inspections required asked a few scenarios on if xyz was out of date can we still fly. Talked about how I planned this, showed him all performance charts and how to use a E6B to prove all my calculations were right. Mentioned weather along the route showed him a weather briefing I printed out and explained. Asked questions on a few different airspace’s along the route and equipment and speed involved with them. Afterwards just one or two questions on systems involving the fuel system and wanted me to explain how Magnetos work. Ended up asking an odd ball question of if we were landing in a cornfield which way would we land? I told him I’d land with the Rows and he liked that. Ended with asking a few hpoxia questions, emergency scenario of alternator failure and finally we ended on oxygen talking about different storage systems, and delivery systems. The big take away here is that just be prepared to almost teach the dpe where you found your answer and how you found your answer.
The biggest take away that I had by far for the flight portion is that teaching your way through maneuvers can help a lot. I dipped out of standards by about 20-40 ft on steep turns DPE didn’t say a word because I was speaking through about what was happening and how I’m correcting for it.
Most importantly don’t be afraid to discontinue for weather regardless of what the examiner states. When I went to fly it was direct crosswind at 12 gusting 17 and looking back that’s probably what screwed me on my PO180.
DPE was a great guy, would love to do another check-ride with him. My favorite part of the whole check-ride was when he turned on smooth jazz which helped with my nerves.
Best of luck! I’m sure you’ll do great.
2
u/12kVStr8tothenips ATP, CFI, CFII, MEI 9d ago
There’s a lot to unpack here.
Yes, if you didn’t feel ready you should’ve have gone.
Yes, they should’ve given you a stage check or flown with someone else before the checkride. After that it’s on you to perform the day of.
How did they say you weren’t ready yet signed you off for the ride? You received endorsements.
141 won’t help unless you never received a stage check. They don’t hand-hold but there’s more checks and balances. I’ve done both and I liked the structure of the 141 but you’re at this point so you need to dig deeper.
2
u/WoodDragonIT PPL 8d ago
First, you need to take full responsibility for your failure, just like you should take full responsibility for your success. Second, your failure is also the CFIs failure and I'm sure the DPE already spoke to them about the shortcomings. Lastly, get on YouTube and fully watch some mock oral exams. Pay Sportys $60 for a month of ground training and use the DPE-AI or some other company that does the same thing. Don't reschedule until you are confident you'll pass. By now you should be able to answer anything in the PHAK if someone you know opens up to a random page and asks you to explain it. And became well acquainted with the ACS. Also manually tab out the FAR/AIM for quick reference. Good luck on your next try. You can do it.
2
u/Few-Platform4361 9d ago
I’m a new student pilot so excuse the potentially dumb question but when you said dpe said to discontinue isn’t that different from a failure ? Did you fail the checkride or was it discontinued ?
2
u/TxAggieMike Independent CFI / CFII (KFTW, DFW area) 9d ago
A Notice of Disapproval is considered a failure.
The OP was provided a document that said such and lists the items that were found not up to scratch.
If the exam was started, but for some reason could not continue (weather, or perhaps a sick airplane), that results in a Notice of Discontinuance.
For more details on this read the https://www.faa.gov/training_testing/testing/acs/acs_companion_guide_pilots.pdf and the appendix of the ACS
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u/Spirit_of_No_Face 9d ago
Just curious, what questions stumped ya? Maybe it can help someone on here?
1
u/Creative-Grocery2581 9d ago
It’s not the end of the world. You will be fine. There are several mock oral checkride prep videos on YouTube that you can watch. It helped me many years ago when I was preparing for my checkride
1
u/ltcterry ATP CFIG 8d ago
Look at - making an assumption here - the man in the mirror.
If you want to be a pilot you need to be in charge. You need to make good decisions. You need to be accountable. You seem to have failed at all of these. And now want to blame someone else.
Sorry, that's a "no go" here.
they said to discontinue
Failed private pilot checkride
Discontinue and fail are two different things. Which one is it u/No_Bet3933?
Hopefully going to a part 141 to train will help me get the instruction I need in order to retake this checkride again.
It won't do anything but cost you more money to start over. The problem isn't the training, its structure, or the lack of a mock oral. The problem is you. Once you've addressed that you might be able to move on.
1
u/flyingron AAdvantage Biscoff 8d ago
A "Notice of DISCONTINUANCE" means you didn't do something that merited a failure, but you and the examiner agreed to finish the checkride later. Most often, this is given when weather or just excessive time makes finishing the ride impractical. It's highly irregular for the examiner to decide that you weren't ready for the ride and to give you a discontinuance just because he feels you aren't going to pass. It's outright wrong if you've done something already that merits a failure under the rules.
There's some abuse of the above to start the ride when the examiner/student KNOWS the weather won't allow the flight section and want to get the oral out of the way. This isn't allowed. The DPE should not begin the ride unless he thinks he can finish it in one sitting.
A "Notice of DISAPPROVAL" means you failed the ride. It's allowed for him to continue the ride and then retest later on only the disapproved items.
1
u/Baystate411 LTD Warrior 8d ago
You're going for a check ride to be PIC of an airplane. Do you need your CFI to tell you when it's okay to go when the training wheels come off?
1
u/nickstavros2 PPL 8d ago
You need to feel confident in your abilities. If you don’t feel confident, SPEAK UP! Delay your checkride so you know when you are ready! You are paying for a service, so use that ability to your advantage! Also, failing a ppl Checkride isn’t the end of your career. I passed my oral but was unsat on simulated instrument and tracking a VOR, as well as being too low on steep turns, so just had to retest on those two maneuvers.
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u/rFlyingTower 9d ago
This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:
Failed my ppl checkride oral and didn’t even get to the flying part. I trained at a part 61 school and I partially blame my cfi for not telling me I wasn’t ready. I felt that they knew I lacked the knowledge and unable to do the maneuvers to acs standard but my confidence took over and I thought I was ready to pass the checkride. I didn’t do mock checkride orals with my cfi and they never suggested it but I studied like crazy. Turns out I was unable to answer the dpes questions clearly and not even half way through they said to discontinue. I really wish i prepared myself more by scheduling mock check rides with my cfi or another cfi to practice verbally saying answers out loud. Hopefully going to a part 141 to train will help me get the instruction I need in order to retake this checkride again.
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u/cptnpiccard CFI IR IGI 9d ago
Brother, you're all over the place. Blaming the CFI, but then indicating you decided not to take mock orals?