Checkride Frustration

Dynasty22

Dynasty22

Well-Known Member
At the 141 flight school I am at, I am finally understanding what a dump this place is.


  • For my commercial multi engine initial check ride, my last flight lesson and between end of course took two weeks, then another two and a half weeks on top of that for FAA.
  • For my commercial single engine add-on check-ride, it was three weeks from my last flight lesson and end of course, and then two weeks on top of that for the FAA check-ride.

So I ask, is this NORMAL?
 
FDX8891, I just would like to clarify that I did not fail these check rides as they were within PTS, but its just that level of comfort and confidence going in knowing that its not a toss up if I were to fail or not. I am just asking if it is normal that one would wait that long for an FAA ride.

Intern_mike, I was not aware of places where 141 check-rides were done in house, I thought at a minimum that commercial check-rides were done through the FAA.
 
I suppose it depends on the particular 141 school, but I don't personally know of any 141 school that does anything in house beyond the Private certificate. Instrument & Commercial rides are usually done by designated examiners.

I also don't know of any FSDO's that want to be bothered with Commercial checkrides. Some don't even want to be bothered with CFI initial checkrides and farm everything out to designated examiners
 
At DCA, we could do Private/Instrument/CFI in house, but Commercial Single-Engine and Multi-Engine and CFII were through the DPE.
 
At UND, we do Private/Instrument/Commercial/Multiengine/CFI/CFII inhouse and only MEI with a DPE...that probably has more to do with the fact that out of the 7 DPEs in North Dakota, 5 work for UND--4 do MEI rides and 1 does helicopter rides. It'd be a nightmare if we lost our examining authority for the Fargo FSDO, so we get somewhat special treatment.
 
intern_mike said:
I thought all checkrides at 141 schools were conducted in-house??
Click to expand...

Some are and some aren't. It is called "self examining authority", which is an additional authority the FAA can give to a school after it has held a 141 certificate for a while.
 
Guy said:
Some are and some aren't. It is called "self examining authority", which is an additional authority the FAA can give to a school after it has held a 141 certificate for a while.
Click to expand...


IIRC, two years and ten 141 graduates. I don't have access to my notes at the moment otherwise I'd confirm it.
 
Not all 141 schools have self-examining authority. And even if one does, that doesn't mean they have examining authority for every course available.

Dynasty,

It's not a good idea to have any prolonged period of time between your last flight and your checkride. I think this is especially important for the private, instrument and commercial levels, but becomes less of an issue when it comes to the more advanced stuff like CFI, CFII and MEI (at that level, you know how to fly the airplane, and you know how to teach, so for most people I'd say it's okay to have a week between your last flight and your checkride and still be okay).

I'd say the responsibility for preventing that prolonged waiting period from happening lies with the student, and that's simply because no one is putting a gun to their head to take any checkride. You take your checkrides when you are good and ready, end of story. As you know, there are many variables when it comes to completing your flight training on time, and many of them are out of your control. If you encounter delays, and your flight school has a problem with you doing a review flight (and I don't see why any good school would), then that is a problem.
 
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