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Flight Safety
27th Jul 2002, 06:39
I checked out a flight school the other day (looking to get my PPL) and found a very interesting arrangement.

All of the flight instructors at this school have some sort of "Gold Rating", where an instructor has to average 8 out of 10 of his/her students to pass the FAA PPL check ride on the first attempt. Again, ALL of the flight instructors at this flight school have achieved this rating. The owner of the flight school told me that an FAA "designate" performs the check ride, but this is not always an FAA employee (not enough to go around), but can sometimes be a "designate". In this case, the "designate" (who performs all of these check rides) also happens to be an employee of his flight school. Is this possibly why ALL of his flight instructors have achieved the Gold Rating?

Also, his flight school cators to the business owner and the executive niche in the flight school market. Do you suppose then that the all Gold Rating of his flight instructors has any bearing on his ability to sell flight instruction to this group of clients (i.e. students)? Also, do you think that maybe some students are passing check rides that maybe shouldn't?

Like I said, an interesting arrangement.

IRRenewal
27th Jul 2002, 20:42
I hope you are not implying somebody is running a scam?????:) :) :)

Maybe the UK system where 'gold ratings' for instructors don't exist is not so bad after all!

Cheers

Flight Safety
28th Jul 2002, 00:50
I don't know if any scams are being perpetrated, but at the very least you'd have to say that a potential conflict of interest exists. I'd feel MUCH better knowing that ALL of his flight instructors were Gold Rated, AND the check rides were being performed by someone OUTSIDE of his employ.

B2N2
28th Jul 2002, 01:58
This smells like a part 141 school and they are pretty strictly
regulated
It's maybe sounds a little fishy but I wouldn't be too worried.
You never know how the place is run.The owners might just fire anybody who cannot keep his score above 80%.
That's been known to happen.
Just imagine you have 3 no-brainers in a row....:)