Originally Posted by
Pilot DAR
...... The check pilot has to have the guts to tell the candidate that they are not ready , and the candidate has to have the spirit to hear and embrace that wisdom! ........
As a club instructor back in the day I often checked out ex-students/now PPL hirers if they went out of the "28 day" window and it was always great as it was seen as a chance to improve skills and always very productive. Of course, some were better than others but always safe and I tried to ensure it was good value to the PPL as I'd often offer to use the time to refresh anything they wanted to look at again as well as satisfying myself that, basically, they were still safe. It very much depended by how much they were out of check + their ability on the day + if they wanted to revisit stuff themselves. I then had someone new to us turn up, as we did occasionally, who had already got several 100 hrs post PPL and just wanted to be checked out to rent from us.
Well, I had never seen such poor flying but, above all, such a dreadful attitude! Once we'd debriefed we "agreed" that I'd not let him near any of our aircraft let alone in one unless his attitude changed markedly and that he then got to at least somewhere near a PPL standard!!! He stormed off ranting "Well, there are 2 other clubs on the field! They'll sign me off!". Both Clubs rang me back after his visits - one thanking me for warning the instructor so he was better prepared for when the guy tried to kill him on one approach and the other didn't even let him get in an aircraft!
We all agreed it was for the best as we really didn't want him in our planes ........ nor anywhere near "our" airfield come to that!
