RagMan Posted February 4, 2015 Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 (edited) I really can not wait for this school (excuse me, pilot mill) to be under. I thought the PTS and studying the 20 different books is what prepared you for the check rides? Now apparently the new thing is to bring in DPEs and let them tell students exactly what they need to know in order to pass their given check rides. I'm not sure if it's a ploy to up their check ride pass ratio, or what their thought process is on this one. Ideas? Lets hear them! Maybe I'm being a bit extreme on this, but this just seems over the top to me. Edited February 4, 2015 by RagMan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerryphx Posted February 4, 2015 Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 I don't understand the outrage. All DPE's are required to evaluate a candidate against the practical test standards. If you meet the standard, you pass. There are no secrets, its all out there in the open. I don't know what a DPE could say that could give anyone an edge. You can meet the standard or you cant. A benefit to this - in my opinion - is it may serve to allow the student to feel a little more at ease having seen or meeting the DPE, freeing them to relax. Especially for newer pilots, the checkride can seem a little mysterious, not to mention nerve-wracking. Anything that can prepare the pilot for one of the best learning experiences they'll have is a good thing. One of the most informative and educational video's I've come across is a DPE on youtube going through a typical ride. When I took my ride (with another instructor), what I learned from the video helped tremendously. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle5 Posted February 4, 2015 Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 Its not that different than cfi's who did their rides with a particular DPE telling their students exactly how he likes certain maneuvers done , what things he looks for, what to expect during the ride (like this is the place he likes to chop the throttle), or these are the reasons he's failed others. Good or bad this is what happens with schools who always use the same DPE and hire their grads. My school did it too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spike Posted February 4, 2015 Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 (edited) IMO, It’s 100% the responsibility of the instructor and school to appropriately prepare the student for the ride. Check-rides are a solid building block to job interviews as no operator will coach an applicant to pass the interview... If the DPE make students nervous, maybe the DPE should approach the check-rides differently. However, I think having “nervous” students is a good thing….. That is, being too comfortable can cause problems as well…. Edited February 5, 2015 by Spike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whistler Posted February 10, 2015 Report Share Posted February 10, 2015 I think you are just being hyper sensitive about this school because of their other practices. Yes, they do their students a GREAT disservice by encouraging or even allowing them to do their commercial training in a turbine helicopter and YES their ad where they claim you can "skip that first tier job" and "go straight into EMS is hogwash... and NO I would not recommend this school to anyone for these reasons alone... but I see no problem with this scenario. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rick1128 Posted February 10, 2015 Report Share Posted February 10, 2015 I'm not sure if it's a ploy to up their check ride pass ratio, or what their thought process is on this one. If a DPE passed all their examinees the first time, the FSDO would notice and have issues with that. The FSDO's hold the DPE's to an average failure rate. However as an examinee I wouldn't worry about it. If you meet the PTS standards you will pass. Enough examinee's will mess up to fail, without the DPE having to jack up their numbers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aclark79 Posted February 10, 2015 Report Share Posted February 10, 2015 I always thought the idea that there should be an average failure rate was hogwash. When I was a CFI the FSDO came out to audit our DPE because he wasn't failng enough candidates. After sitting in a number of examns he agreed that we were preparing our students very well (overkill was his description) and the whole issue went away. If one of our students failed it was because they were having a bad day, I can't remember a student signed off for an examn who wasn't ready for it. The criteria you're judged on is known, the standards are published and the DPE doesn't get to fail you without a reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizzyD Posted February 11, 2015 Report Share Posted February 11, 2015 Flight Safety and Simuflight, two huge Part142 training providers, historically have very few checkride failures even though they are audited regularly by the FAA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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