How many fail the PPL test?
 

Hi all. Got my mock test booked in a fortnight, and was wondering if anyone knew (ballpark figures even) how many people fail the skills test for PPL(A)? I've searched the web, and had a look through the CAA guide for sitting the test, but cant find any figures for chance of passing first time, or the other way, percentage that fail.

If there are figures for failures, are there any breakdowns of the most common reasons? I'm sure it'd make interesting reading for anyone preparing for the test....

Thanks all.

Good luck with your mock test.

Try and concentrate on gettiing it right first time round and then the figures wont matter.

Are you doing it out of DND or PTH?

Robbo - remember, 90% of all statistics are made up on the spot. Follow stocker's advice.

It might be worth looking at it on a club basis...I asked the same question and was told that at my club it was about a 90% pass rate, ie 9/10 applicants pass.

No sure about national stats though.

Your instructor won't let you take the test until he/she's pretty sure that you'll pass. It costs a lot of money and doesn't make good business sense to irritate the student with that expense twice over.

It does not have to be perfect in anyway shape or form but it DOES have to be safe.

Mine was far from pretty at times but if something is not right do something about it i.e. too high, too low, too fast, too slow, off track etc. Recognising something isn't right and correcting it is often just as good as getting it perfect.

Unless you do something totally daft I'd say the only way you would fail is if the instructor has to take the controls for reasons of safety. If you failed for any other reason you weren't ready for the test.

Above all examiners want you to pass and work with you within reason and the concept of a test environment to make that happen.

Are you sitting your test in ABZ?

Test
 

Robbo

Just relax on the day. Don't think of it too much as a black and white test. Examiners normally try and assess the general competance and not look for everything to be done within 100% accuracy.

Ask anyone who has done a CPL or IR to confirm they made no mistakes. I would assume the answer would be very few.

Just a tip or two from talking to people. Lookout, lookout, lookout and speed.

I am sure you will be OK.

I don't recall ever meeting anybody who failed.

What happens a LOT is that flights are postponed over and over and over, for months and months, until the weather is deemed suitable.

It seems to me that a partial pass is more common than a complete fail and I've heard of a few who've partialled on the PFL.

Hey Guys,

I'm new here, i don't want to go off topic but can someone tell me how much is the PPL course and exam fee? How many hours does it consist of?

TIA

" Partialled on the PFL?"

Was it Winston Churchill who said "There is no noun which cannot be verbed" ? :) (Or indeed adjective)

The minimum is 45 hrs but more likely to be low 50's.
Around £8k -9k for a PPL including exams and other stuff.
Go for it!
:D

If you are really ready for it, you should not be considering failure as an option. It will only stress you. You can do it, you know you can do it, and your instructors know you can do it. So just go and do it!

If your examiner asks you to do something stupid (mine did) just check he really means it, let him know you wouldn't be happy doing it in other circumstances, then if he insists, have a go. On my test it worked out OK, and I was left feeling that he probably knew it would, but he wanted to see whether I knew it was dodgy.

(I did check beforehand - and was assured that he is the commander for the flight, so you do what he asks.)

BTW before the flight, my examiner told me that things would go wrong (and he made sure they did!) and that I was to put them behind me as soon as they were resolved. I found that quite hard. But I passed.

Good luck - and believe me, it is only a licence to learn!:ok:

On my first attempt at the test I failed the short field landing (and passed everything else).

My second attempt, a few days later, consisted of a couple of circuits to get into the mood, then a short field landing which I passed.

(Caveat: the rules might have changed since then, you might have to re-take more on a partial failure these days.)

Thanks for the advice all,

I'll be doing my test out of Dundee, though I live in Aberdeen. Flying school here was a bit pricey, so even with a train to Dundee I'm saving a heap! (As I say to my girlfriend, the more I fly the more I save!)

Anyways, the main reason about stats was just interest. Like others, i've never met anyone who failed, and thought it was a bit odd. I know lots of people who failed their driving licence, was just curious as to the actual figures.

I'm actually more nervous about the mock test than the final one, as crazy as that may sound. My instructor doing my mock test is great, he really knows his stuff. He does however, have a manner that knocks my confidence from time to time. Although I'm prepared to have the list of things to work on, the way he puts things sometimes has made me come away from a flight a little deflated, and as though i've really majorly done something very wrong. 99% of the time I havent, its just seems to be his way, other students agree.

Unfortunately at the moment, if you want to book something like a mock test with a specific instructor, you'll be waiting weeks and weeks. Its a case of "a slot available? seriously? i'll take it!" lol. Maybe not that bad!

Anyway, thanks for the advice all. Feel free to keep adding the minor mistakes people have made on tests, maybe times you've thought you failed but passed?

I did more than that on my CPL(H) - I made some fairly major mistakes but still passed!

I get horrendously nervous doing exams, and it seems to get worse as I get older and do more. I've tried everything to deal with it; nothing helps much.

This was the case with my CPL test. I got in, and did the start-up, using the checklist, as I'd done hundreds of times before. But I forgot to put in the clutch...for f/w pilots, this is about as basic as you can get! Eventually I realised it, came clean and said I was nervous, and carried on. But I could hardly fly. My speeds and heights were all over the place, and I even made mistakes doing the familiar airfield departure. I almost told the examiner that we should abandon the test, and I thought that we might as well, since I thought I'd failed anyway.

But I didn't. And I don't quite know what it was that made me suddenly stop and somehow manage to pull myself together. But I remembered my instructor saying that there may be particular things you're meant to do/not do, but ultimately it's down to the examiner, and you should never give up till it's all over. I decided that it didn't matter if I passed or failed; I'd just fly, and to hell with what happened. And things got better. Not instantaneously, easily, wonderfully, better, but the numbing panic eased somewhat. The first section was the nav, and I found my isolated house...though I was still so scared I could hardly tell the examiner which house I thought it was (don't worry; this is a CPL bit; you won't have to do it). By the time we got to the general handling I was pretty much flying as I always did, though not brilliantly, and during the instrument flying I just relaxed and followed the instruments as usual.

I still thought I must have failed, but the debrief was interesting. The examiner said he could see I was incredibly nervous, but he was impressed by the fact that I was overcoming it and getting better. And I'd proved I could navigate...in the end. My general handling, he said, was acceptable after the first few cockups (my words, not his), and my instrument flying was good (wow!). So he finished by saying, "So you've passed, but I don't want you to think you did well". I breathed a huge sigh of relief, and said, "I know I didn't do well".

Moral of this longer-than-intended story...no matter what happens, never ever give up...at least until you've landed and shut down.

Confess,confess
 

On my test,I started taxying to the hold without retracting the flaps,soon realised,confessed and no more was said.
I also forgot to align the DI,but confessed whilst lined up and no more was said.The idea of confession is to let him know you have spotted your mistake as he will have seen it anyway.

I ended up with a partial pass,failing the PFL as the only field that looked suitable was full of sheep and I picked a crap alternate and made a right hash of it.:{.Examiner said if it was a real life FL,then I would have to take my chances with the sheep.
I had some revision and passed the (partial) retest the following week.I seem to remember that you still had to redo the departure and rejoin but not necessarily the landing.
You may want to do your A check before the examiner gets in.Mine got straight in while I did the checks,freezing his n:mad:ts off,to his annoyance.
Good luck.
MM

Confess
 

On my skills test I started the engine with quite a bit more than 1/8 throttle set :eek:, the parking brake was on (as it bloody should be!) and I acted speedily and brought the throttle back to 1200rpm! It was weird, I was pretty sure I had set it properly, always wondered whether the examiner whacked it up full whilst I wasn't looking to see how I reacted :), if it was him I'm sure glad he didn't knock the parking brake off too, although toes were on the breaks at the ready!

The rest was almost flawless if I do say so myself :) Best PFL & Bad Weather circuit I've ever done :)

Oh did get a slight telling off in the debrief for calling 'ready for departure' before moving right up to the hold line, was still facing into wind, about 5 yards back.

Thanks for the reply and everyones replies

So 45 hours, that's pretty big but yeah i'm all for it, during the course do you get taught night time flying and will you be allowed one passing the course to fly anywhere in the world carrying multiple passengers, (is there a limit to how many you can carry?)

Also what the fastest plane in mph you can fly on this license? Does it allow landing on sea with amphib floats?

Thanks in advance

Don't worry about the test. Comparing it to driving, as a lot do, isn't really fair. Look at this way. Worse thing in a plane is you stall. So you practice that and the recovery. Worse thing in a car is you plough into a brick wall at 50mph. Not many driving schools actually have you do that, instead you stand on the brakes at the appointed time.

And so we could go on. If you break downthe training, you could teach someone to fly a plane BASICALLY in about 10 to 15 hours. The rest comes in nav training and emergency drills. In addition, millions of people take a driving test every year, not as mant take a skills test so to uise that staistic will only affect your confidence. Also bear in mind that the CAA don't peer over the examiners shoulder all the time. The DSA do peer at driving examiners. There is no pass and fail rate for each examiner contrary to popular belief, but there is an average figure, a national average of a pass rate. And the examiner (driving here remember) needs to be around that figure or else his boss wants to know why. So in effect there is a pass fail rate that the examiners need to stick to. All test centres have at least one route guarenteed to fail a pupil.

In the air it is different. You have had all the training, there are no surprises really, what the examiner is looking for is your ability to be safe and make safe decisions. When I did mine I started dropping like a stone in the steep turn. Part way round I levelled off and told him that I wasn't happy and was losing control and so returned to level flight, did it again and all was well. It is all about being safe and making safe decisions based on the information you have available.

More than anything else, enjoy it, yes enjoy it. It is 2 hours plus of flying with everything thrown in. One thing to bear in mind, if you lash something up, TELL THE EXAMINER that you know it has been lashed up. He might let you do it again, and he then knows that you know it wasn't good. Don't for one minute think "he didn't notice that, I'll keep quiet about it" for hr WILL have noticed it, very much so. Driving examiners are the same in that respect. I clipped a kerb on my HGV test and let out a stream of obscenities about it. The examiner then replied, I take it you know you shouldn't have done that? I told him yes and the reason it happened (too fast on approach to the turn) and I passed. Clipping a kerb is an instant fail but he knew that I knew it was wrong and why it happened so he was happy.

That's my advice anyway

Good Luck