Pathetic excuses on a skill test.
Moderator
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Orlando, Florida
Age: 68
Posts: 2,586
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Pathetic excuses on a skill test.
One for the examiners, really.
You know the situation - having completed all the necessary flight and ground training hours, somebody comes to you as a candidate for a skill test of some kind, SEP, MEP, IMC, CPL, I/R - whatever.
They are presenting themselves for a test for licence or rating issue that will let them fly any make, mode, type of aircraft, etc - yet, part way through the flight you ask them to do something and they come out with some line, which is clearly grovelling for sympathy, but actually means, I haven't learned this properly yet - I hope you wouldn't ask that.
Something along the lines of - "I've not flown this particular aircraft before, I don't know how to turn the radio on".
You know what I mean - all those lines and comments that really p**s you off and make you think, "Well why did you come for the test then?"
You know the situation - having completed all the necessary flight and ground training hours, somebody comes to you as a candidate for a skill test of some kind, SEP, MEP, IMC, CPL, I/R - whatever.
They are presenting themselves for a test for licence or rating issue that will let them fly any make, mode, type of aircraft, etc - yet, part way through the flight you ask them to do something and they come out with some line, which is clearly grovelling for sympathy, but actually means, I haven't learned this properly yet - I hope you wouldn't ask that.
Something along the lines of - "I've not flown this particular aircraft before, I don't know how to turn the radio on".
You know what I mean - all those lines and comments that really p**s you off and make you think, "Well why did you come for the test then?"
Last edited by Charlie Foxtrot India; 3rd Sep 2005 at 14:51.
Moderator
True excuses
"my instructor didn't show me how to do/ told me you wouldn't test me on/ that"
"I didn't think the wind direction was important"
"NOTAMS? was I supposed to check the NOTAMS?"
"Someone must have moved that hill, it wasn't there last week"
"there's something wrong with the ailerons" (forgot to disconnect autopilot)
"But I really need to finish my licence today! Can't you just....."
"I didn't think the wind direction was important"
"NOTAMS? was I supposed to check the NOTAMS?"
"Someone must have moved that hill, it wasn't there last week"
"there's something wrong with the ailerons" (forgot to disconnect autopilot)
"But I really need to finish my licence today! Can't you just....."
With an innocent expression on her pretty little face, a young blonde candidate brushed a loose piece of damp hair from her face before smiling sweetly, glancing down at her thin blouse and saying "It's so hot in here - would you mind taking control for a sec whilst I take my top off?"
Oh well, perhaps one day....
Until then it's usually "Shall I go around" when the glide approach is obviously never going to make the runway. "No - why don't you just kill us both instead" is what you want to say- but you have to say something like "You must make all decisions - but if I have to take control as a result, you will fail" in rather an insistent manner - and quite quickly.....
Oh well, perhaps one day....
Until then it's usually "Shall I go around" when the glide approach is obviously never going to make the runway. "No - why don't you just kill us both instead" is what you want to say- but you have to say something like "You must make all decisions - but if I have to take control as a result, you will fail" in rather an insistent manner - and quite quickly.....
Join Date: May 2001
Posts: 10,815
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I always thought the "What are the current NOTAM's" was a test in how well you could tell Fibs to the examiner.
They would normally start the game by telling you that they are 75kgs so you can fill the tanks, maybe 30kgs out on a good day.
MJ
They would normally start the game by telling you that they are 75kgs so you can fill the tanks, maybe 30kgs out on a good day.
MJ
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: UK
Posts: 342
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Whats this - "Pass 'em all Paul" not passing them all quite so regularly anymore?
Yes - sometimes, somewhere we all come around to the full circle and to the same conclusion, if they are not safe to fly on their own with your nearest and dearest they don't get to pass - no matter how much they have to 'offer'!
Yes - sometimes, somewhere we all come around to the full circle and to the same conclusion, if they are not safe to fly on their own with your nearest and dearest they don't get to pass - no matter how much they have to 'offer'!
Join Date: May 2001
Posts: 10,815
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Porrige I know what your having a dig at.
And although the exam may get turned into a lesson. The very brief period i had anything to do with the scene in FL. The dig you are getting at happened quite a few times even though there was no failure paper work completed. The student still went on to do retraining and re-sat the test
Which I might add is very common through out the land.
And the whole ppl examiner system in the US needs looked at never mind one individual. I personally will freely admit i shouldn't have been given a license on the GFT I did. I only learned this after completing a FIC and listening to a proper RT test without the examiner banging the wall and yelling "get it right C**t"
MJ
And although the exam may get turned into a lesson. The very brief period i had anything to do with the scene in FL. The dig you are getting at happened quite a few times even though there was no failure paper work completed. The student still went on to do retraining and re-sat the test
Which I might add is very common through out the land.
And the whole ppl examiner system in the US needs looked at never mind one individual. I personally will freely admit i shouldn't have been given a license on the GFT I did. I only learned this after completing a FIC and listening to a proper RT test without the examiner banging the wall and yelling "get it right C**t"
MJ
Dancing with the devil, going with the flow... it's all a game to me.
Join Date: May 2000
Location: England
Posts: 1,688
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I was suprised I passed my FAA PPL skills test (not with Keygrip I might add) as I even forgot to put in the wind corrections on my plog for all my headings! What a prat eh?! It was dodgy from the off but somehow I pulled it around however had that been in the UK I know I'd have failed quite quickly.
VFE.
VFE.
Jet Blast Rat
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Sarfend-on-Sea
Age: 51
Posts: 2,081
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
M J
I take it you attended a certain school at about 29°18'04"N 081°06'49"W? In the sunshine state, not too far from the coast? Has a way with his tests, does that one.
I take it you attended a certain school at about 29°18'04"N 081°06'49"W? In the sunshine state, not too far from the coast? Has a way with his tests, does that one.
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Northants
Age: 80
Posts: 227
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Pass rates
Out of interest, as my own skills test is getting ever closer, are there any statistics showing the % rates of first time passes for the ppl? Do the majority pass first time?
I'matightbastard
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Texas
Posts: 1,747
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
And although the exam may get turned into a lesson.
I guess I understand what they mean, but still, every new flight and every new cockpit companion presents the opportunity to learn.
Understandable it might be, but an opportunity lost it also is I think.
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: South Norfolk, England
Age: 58
Posts: 1,195
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Speaking as a non instructor, I've never tried to blag my way through a test but haven't always been perfect either!
In my experience, the better examiners are those who can recognise someone who is safe, competent or whatever, and if necessary, make a slightly fudged error into a kind of lesson come workout. I realise the commercial world has strict guidelines, but I would hope that a certain amount of examiner discretion is still allowed? After all, who'd want to be a bank manager these days? Once, they could make there own minds up and actually be proper accountable human beings ... now they hide behind computer decisions! Would you, as an instructor/future examiner, really want to just be yet another box ticker?
SS
In my experience, the better examiners are those who can recognise someone who is safe, competent or whatever, and if necessary, make a slightly fudged error into a kind of lesson come workout. I realise the commercial world has strict guidelines, but I would hope that a certain amount of examiner discretion is still allowed? After all, who'd want to be a bank manager these days? Once, they could make there own minds up and actually be proper accountable human beings ... now they hide behind computer decisions! Would you, as an instructor/future examiner, really want to just be yet another box ticker?
SS
Join Date: May 2001
Posts: 10,815
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I must have been lucky in my 900 hours of instructing. I never once had to work hard to recover off a student. Which pissed a few of them off.
I did have a couple of scary ones in the early days but that was more my fault than the students.
ie don't fill the C172 to the tops when you haven't seen the 3 fat bastard rugby players who are the next trial flight which coupled to a fat bastard instructor equals a seriously over weight plane, thank god for the curvature of the earth and ground effect (BTW after getting the seat from between my bum cheeks i gave myself a bollocking for that one and didn't do it again)
And don't mess with mountain wave, going up at 1500ft per minute with the power off at Vne nose down is a bit diconcerting.
And certainly never walked away from the lesson thinking that bugger tried to kill me.
Even if you learn how to put across a point in a different manner.
I always worked on the principle that it was up to me to change my teaching style for the student. Not the student changing there learning style for me.
MJ
I did have a couple of scary ones in the early days but that was more my fault than the students.
ie don't fill the C172 to the tops when you haven't seen the 3 fat bastard rugby players who are the next trial flight which coupled to a fat bastard instructor equals a seriously over weight plane, thank god for the curvature of the earth and ground effect (BTW after getting the seat from between my bum cheeks i gave myself a bollocking for that one and didn't do it again)
And don't mess with mountain wave, going up at 1500ft per minute with the power off at Vne nose down is a bit diconcerting.
And certainly never walked away from the lesson thinking that bugger tried to kill me.
Even if you learn how to put across a point in a different manner.
I always worked on the principle that it was up to me to change my teaching style for the student. Not the student changing there learning style for me.
MJ
Jet Blast Rat
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Sarfend-on-Sea
Age: 51
Posts: 2,081
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I was thinking of the one that forgot to rotate again on the touch and go at Compton Abbas. Or the one that thought the action for wing drop at the stall is to snap full opposite rudder - amusing in a Robin 200 (not cleared for spins for very good reasons!). The one that thinks nose up is always good, even when you've just cut the power for an EFATO drill.
All in a day's work
All in a day's work
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: uk
Posts: 1,042
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I was checking out a new instructor who froze on the controls, holding off at 10 feet above the ground with no hint of applying power and going around. I had to grab the controls quick.
After that i never relax with anyone no matter what their experience.
After that i never relax with anyone no matter what their experience.