Advice for a Friend

He could sit in the plane and chair fly the whole ride. I spent about six hours total sitting in the Aztec going through each maneuver until I knew it cold. I opened up some mental bandwidth during the ride.
 
If your friend is serious about saving money, he could go to the alpha victor school next to the maintenance hanger. There are some good instructors from his school there.
 
Best single sentence piece of advice I ever got was from the director of training at my first 135 (actually I got it about 10,000 times): "Do it slowly, but do it now." Helps more than you'd imagine.
 
I see two avenues being taken. The first is a person having problems getting up to speed. I had some issues with that too, albeit all headwork mistakes on the practical exams (yes, with a "s").

It can be overcome. As soon as I identified my issue, I was able to push past that, and have never failed another ride. After that point, I haven't failed again. As a matter of fact, I think I've done pretty well from that point on, ending up as a checkpilot in 121 operations.

On what SafetyEngineer said, I agree, as it relates to a person employed at a 135/121 operation. If you have been trained, current an qualified at an airline, and have a pattern of unsatisfactory performance, there is a serious issue. Everyone has a bad day. When it's a trend that one continually is unsatisfactory in an aircraft they have a significant amount of experience in, there is a serious issue.

I don't think, though, either scenario can be inter-related, unless via a specific individual. The required types of learning are different. One is testing the individual on new knowledge. The other is verify the quality of knowledge and skills already learned, experienced and ingrained.
 
I want to thank all of you for being so receptive to my views. I respect pilots very much. You all have some of the highest preesure and most important jobs in the world. My posts on accident safety is simply of all the years as a firefighter and safety engineer and I have seen, responded, and investigated my share of plane accidents.

Its nice that you all have seemed to respect my posts. I really appreciate that. This is one of the best boards I have been involved with. If any of you need safety help or information an any crahs, please feel free to contact me.

And, I still hope that everything works out. Good luck to your friend.

Fly high, fly safe, and again thank you all. :rawk:

Safetyengineer
erich@safeworkinc.com
Safety Engineer- Paramedic/Firefighter
 
One of my friends seems to be having a hard time with checkrides. He busted his private once, and in the past few weeks, busted his commerical Multi 3 times. He has asked me if there is any hope for his future in aviation. I myself have never busted a checkride, and don't have enough experience in the area to give him a solid answer. I told him to keep his head up and further down the road, if they don't ask, don't tell. I know that 1 or 2 busted checkrides is pretty easily looked over. but 4, I'm not so sure. I don't know. I feel for the guy, but think he is skating on thin ice. Any good advice that I can pass on?


The only checkride you ever fail, is the one you never retake.
 
Best single sentence piece of advice I ever got was from the director of training at my first 135 (actually I got it about 10,000 times): "Do it slowly, but do it now." Helps more than you'd imagine.
Wow, that just rang pretty deep with me.
 
Seems to be working with with him daily. about an hour or two of briefs a day. I'm not sure how often he is flying with him now, I'll have to ask.
 
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