failed private pilot checkride

[gaz18]

I took my private pilot checkride last week and had a horrible flight although the ground portion went just fine. I am already at 75 hours and I am wondering if anyone has any advice. I am motivated to become a pilot but I am having doubts about making it to CFI in my 200 hours... I know I can take the test again, but I don't want to spend so much money without making it to CFI. it seems like my flying is very inconsistent and I feel like I should be better than I am now. I have a fulltime job, so I can't fly as much as I would like, but that won't be able to change. Has anyone had a similar experience? Has anyone taught someone who was slow at first, then did fine? Do some people never get it? ANy thoughts good or bad would be appreciated.

[Helo-Pilot]

Why did you fail?

[RotorWeed]

What did your instructor say?

 

Rotor

[flying high]

What did you eat for breakfast? J/k couldn't resist. Just need a few more details on the flight.

[chesky1]

I don't have enough details about your situation, but I could share with you my experiences.

 

It took me over 80 hours to get my private pilot license (I moved to a different area and finished my training at a class C airport) and completed the check ride on my first try. I went on with the instrument and commercial rating and I’m working on my CFI rating right now. I will probably be done with my CFI course around the time I hit 200 hours. You need at least 200 hours in order to teach in the R22.

 

I also work full time so I could relate to your situation. Take a day or 2 off to relax and then sit down with your instructor to see what else you need to re-take the check ride. It doesn’t have to be that you don’t get it… it could be that you were very nervous from being afraid to fail.

 

Good luck and don’t give up when you are so close to your private pilot’s license!

Chez

[RotorWeed]

Don't give up if you are this close. Figure out what you need to work on and get it done. Talk to your CFI. It' doesn't look good on him or her if you failed. Your CFI should be willing to help.

 

Rotor

[danter]

I took my private pilot checkride last week and had a horrible flight although the ground portion went just fine. I am already at 75 hours and I am wondering if anyone has any advice. I am motivated to become a pilot but I am having doubts about making it to CFI in my 200 hours... I know I can take the test again, but I don't want to spend so much money without making it to CFI. it seems like my flying is very inconsistent and I feel like I should be better than I am now. I have a fulltime job, so I can't fly as much as I would like, but that won't be able to change. Has anyone had a similar experience? Has anyone taught someone who was slow at first, then did fine? Do some people never get it? ANy thoughts good or bad would be appreciated.

 

If you trained at universal this is normal so they can get more money out of the student. However they supposedly changed their ways. It doesn't help with anything when your instructor says your a failure over and over after each auto. This is what students have to look forward to at this school. What worked for me was to visualize the whole flight. The examiner said I flew better than just about anyone else in his 20 years. Two months later with the comm. and ins. check ride set up I was told the loan money was gone. I was told to take out another loan. After my cfi this loan was gone. In order to work for this co. you need your cfii. Thats right I needed another loan but decided to stop at this time and to let others know of our experience. One reason the money disappears so fast is because of flight and ground that was never received. Also $6,500 was missing from my account and I was told I needed to take out another loan to cover it. I had no access or control over the loan. Surprisingly the money was found only to disappear again.

[tomw]

I bet he is flying at Universal or Silver State Heli. I've never heard of a *real* school who will allow a student to carry on like this upwards of 60 hours just to get a private license. Every other school that I have encountered are straight up with the student when they start to notice he might be wasting money. As a school operating honorably and effectively, if the student has significant problems at 40 hours they would *advise* the guy to take his loses and quit or they would work extra hard to get him to where he needs to be. It sounds like in this case the guy is working or willing to work hard but the school is not making the attempt to help out, except as to provide an aircraft and instructor at cost. I also understand some of you are saying "well this guy needs to study more or work harder"....ok..maybe a little true...but when you are spending these kind of bucks, any and every student should get ALL the help they need (and want) in order to make it happen in a reasonable time frame. To me, anything over 60 hours is way too much just to get a private license, But money-grubbing schools like SSH usually see and tell otherwise.

[RotorWeed]

What difference does it make if it takes 50 or 70 hours to get your PPL? Some people spread their training out over a year and it takes extra flight time. Not everyone gets a bank loan to finance a helicopter rating.

 

Rotor

[tomw]

What difference does it make if it takes 50 or 70 hours to get your PPL? Some people spread their training out over a year and it takes extra flight time. Not everyone gets a bank loan to finance a helicopter rating.

 

Rotor

The difference is around 8 grand+ when talking about SSH. Maybe 4-5 grand at other schools. Time is very significant to the student. It means he will be just that much further behind on his future ratings. It all adds up, fast.

[RotorWeed]

How can you say the guy is behind? For all we know he could have 50 HRS of PIC out of the 70+.

I wouldn't look down on a student that has 70 hrs of flight time. That isn't a fair statement in my opinion.

 

Rotor

[67november]

Talk to your CFI. It' doesn't look good on him or her if you failed. Your CFI should be willing to help.

 

Rotor

 

agreed, from everything I've read your CFI isn't going to have you test if he/she was not confident that you would pass

[PhotoFlyer]

If you trained at universal this is normal so they can get more money out of the student. However they supposedly changed their ways.

 

 

I bet he is flying at Universal or Silver State Heli. I've never heard of a *real* school who will allow a student to carry on like this upwards of 60 hours just to get a private license.

 

Gentlemen, please stop with the school bashing. If you have constructive comments, good or bad, I would welcome them, but bashing schools in this manner cannot be tolerated.

[RotorWeed]

I agree, let's not bash the students either. Who know's maybe the guy just had a bad day flying.

[Eric Hunt]

I had a student once who was a retired 747 captain with 20,000 hours plus, early 60s.

 

He already owned his own H500 and had about 700 hours on it, using his Private licence in Hong Kong. He wanted to train up to Commercial standard and then to fly his machine commercially.

 

Off we went in the R22.

 

He was tragic, couldn't cope at all with the little Robbo, especially the emergencies. When we finally made it to the navigation phase, he was stuffed. A man used to making decisions regarding a Jumbo and 400 passengers, delegating tasks to cojo and all that stuff, couldn't fly the helo, hold a map, read it, and talk on the radio at the same time.

 

One channel only would operate at any given time.

 

I told him, and he agreed, that he would never cut it as a commercial pilot, and that he was pretty scary as a private pilot.

 

He sold the chopper, went back into another airline as a training captain, and managed to land a jet wheels-up a few years later.

 

Shoulda stayed retired.

[danter]

Gentlemen, please stop with the school bashing. If you have constructive comments, good or bad, I would welcome them, but bashing schools in this manner cannot be tolerated.

 

Sorry, I will try to stop the bashing.

[fry]

The difference is around 8 grand+ when talking about SSH. Maybe 4-5 grand at other schools. Time is very significant to the student. It means he will be just that much further behind on his future ratings. It all adds up, fast.

 

"8 grand+"?? Try $20,000 more at SSH. SSH's contract provides for 200 flight hours for $69,900. All other schools advertise 200 flight hours for less than $50,000. It is entirely possible that the student may not get to CFI in 200 hours at SSH or another school but $20,000 is the initial difference between SSH and its competition.

 

And at SSH...because the loan money is paid in advance and because the school charges the student a fixed 10% of the contract amount each month...it is possible that the student will not get their CPL before they are out of money and have used up the 200 flight hours.

[tomw]

I will stop bashing as well (on this thread): right after I clarify to fry what I meant...the difference in 50 hrs and 70 hours is 20 hours of flight time....which can cost around $8000 in itself after you throw all the expenses (SSH charges) of just those extra 20 hours in the mix. As for the 10% SSH now charges every month (if that is in fact the current trend) then yes that extra time (in months) can add up to somewhat more than $8000.

[500E]

gaz18

Do you feel that you will get there ?

Can you afford it?

Do you realy want to fly helios ?

If the reply to all is yes GO FOR IT

If 1 reply is NO sit down with someone and talk it through (family CFI or someone you trust }

My ch ride was possably the worst time I have flown the only thing I was happy about were the landings, + it was at about the same hours as yours.

I worked full time to pay for the lessons and supported a family it took 22months.

[Gerhardt]

RotorWeed is correct in that the # of hours it takes for PPL is irrelevant. My CFI tells me the avg time for his PPL students is 55-60 hours, so you're in the ballpark. I'm about to take my PPL check ride but my CFI is nervous about it because he had a student fail one a couple of weeks ago. My fixed-wing instructor failed his PPL check ride the first time. LOTS of pilots do and it's nothing to be embarrassed about. What it means is that you have at least one maneuver that you need to work on, not that you are a bad pilot. Personally, if there are maneuvers that I need to improve I absolutely WANT the examiner to fail me. And I am a little nervous because while my autos are w/in the limits I know they could use some improvement...i.e. be more fluid.

 

I also work full-time, have kids ages 4 & 7 and my flight school is 2.5 hours away so even when the weather is great I can fly only once a week. Obviously I will be disappointed if I fail the check ride but if I do I'm certainly getting back in the game because I enjoy it so much. And I hope to be taking my CPL check ride next fall and the CFI the year after that, regardless of the number of hours it takes and the number of checkrides. Don't be discouraged.and feel free to email me at r22head@yahoo.com if you want to bat a few things around.

[svtcobra66]

I failed my instrument oral the first time if that makes you feel any better. You feel like crap for a week or two, then you get over it and are even more determined. Learn from your mistakes.

[flingwing206]

I've never heard of a *real* school who will allow a student to carry on like this upwards of 60 hours just to get a private license.

What differnce does it make if a student gets their PPL at 40 or 60 hours as long as they have their instrument/commercial at 150? 40 hours is the minimum and most students don't do the PPL at the minimums - in fact they usually hit it upward of 50 hours.

[kanedog]

Everyone learns at a different pace. Your learning curve has NOTHING to do with the quality or the skill of pilot you will become. Just because you soloed in 15 hrs doesnt mean you are a better pilot than the guy who soloed at 45. I have 1st hand experience with this situation, so don't despair. Some of the best pilots out there have failed their checkrides or took more hours than the average guy to get his license. Practice good airmanship, never lose what you learned in training and do your best.

[RotorRunner]

There is probably one of five things that happened if you failed your check ride.

 

1. You could be to uncoordinated to fly a helicopter. I doubt that, but you should know by now.

 

2. You got to nervous and froze up on the check ride. You would know that too.

 

3. The examiner was having a bad day. You could have figured that out as well.

 

4. You are not putting your all into your studies and doing everything your instructor tells you to. You can answer that.

 

5. OR... Your instructor is simply not doing his/her job in finding your problems and giving you the tools, time, and advise you need to overcome these issues. Everybody has things they must overcome to fly a helicopter. If you have a good instructor, with enough experience, he/she should immediately recognize these issues and instruct you in ways that will allow you to overcome them. If this is not the case then do some instructor shopping!!

 

Do some soul searching. You will find the problem. I'd be willing to say it is somewhere in option 4 or 5. Keep your head up and get'r done.

Edited February 24, 2007 by RotorRunner

[Niteshade]

No need to dispair at this point. I failed my first private ride...in the first five minutes (started out at a class C, never had done that before, never trained in talking with clearance delivery, etc). Ended up retaking the next week and did fine. It happens to people, and I wouldn't fret too much, though I'l admit it is a bit discouraging.

 

Unless your school is trying to rob you, they would let you know if you weren't going to make it or doubted your abilities to become a pilot. Just imagine the examiner as someone who you are trying to impress with your ability to handle a helicopter professionally. Good luck with your further training and next checkride.