Failed PPL Check Ride

Sorry to hear, but I'm sure you'll do dynamite on the retest. He is required to point out specific areas that you failed. I didn't see them when I read your post, though. If I had to guess, one of them was on aeronautical decision making in attempting the flight in questionable conditions. I recently passed my PPL, but my instructor warned me of all the little coy things they do to bust you.

My favorite two were:

1) When he attempted to see if I would go from minimum controllable airspeed to power off stalls without doing clearing turns

and

2) After doing hood work and unusual attitude recoveries under the hood, he told me to find my way back to the airport. He fully expected me to reach for the GPS, but instead I used a landmark and a VOR for good measure. He griped that "Damn, I really wanted to give you a GPS malfunction..it seems that every other applicant I see is totally useless when the GPS goes on the blink"

Again, best of luck on the retest! :nana2:
 
No problems we don't suceed from time to time. But you only fail when you don't get back up and try again.

I don't know the weather but DPE may have not have been wrong as CHASEN indicated. If was another ride maybe but for the private a lot of guys are apprehensive.

If you don't mind me asking, what did you fail on? Was it a wind related maneuver? Most examiners I have flown with aren't out to fail you, they want you to pass but they also want you to be safe.

I am sure you will do fine on the retest. You will find out as you go along in your flying career the go no go decision is always not the most popular decision and you need to stick your decision and be able to back it up. Don't forget, I am not comfortable flying today is a valid reason.

Good Luck
 
Bandit_Driver said:
No problems we don't suceed from time to time. But you only fail when you don't get back up and try again.

I don't know the weather but DPE may have not have been wrong as CHASEN indicated. If was another ride maybe but for the private a lot of guys are apprehensive.

If you don't mind me asking, what did you fail on? Was it a wind related maneuver? Most examiners I have flown with aren't out to fail you, they want you to pass but they also want you to be safe.

I am sure you will do fine on the retest. You will find out as you go along in your flying career the go no go decision is always not the most popular decision and you need to stick your decision and be able to back it up. Don't forget, I am not comfortable flying today is a valid reason.

Good Luck
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Chasen was making a reference to my ride, but again, thats another story. I must say I have learned a lot from that ride and I agree that you never fail unless you give up. A failed ride is alright. Several failed rides and many failures on the same ride, that may be a different story.
 
Don't sweat it. Learn and move on (which you seem to be doing). I've failed two and it's never even been mentioned in any job interview. The attitude you display in your post will be an asset, from what I can tell.
 
Keep your head up, nice write up and the bust will only affect you positively. (I've learned a lot from my busts)
 
Lots of great advice so far. I especially agree with the idea of postponing a flight test if you're not comfortable with the circumstances. Being a pilot isn't just about nailing the maneuvers, IMHO it's mostly about judgement. I blew my comm SEL (already had comm/multi/ifr) by flying in too much wind- screwed up the short field landing 3x in a row. I was too confident and thought I could handle it no problem. I learned a lot that day.

And no, failing your PPL won't be a problem in the future. Avoid multiple failure on the same ride and failing 135 or 121 rides though. I think that would be a bigger issue.

Learn from this and move on. :D
 
Havent read all of the posts in here, but I would just like to reiterate that you are PIC. The go/no go decision is yours, if its legal and your comfortable then have at it, if not, dont hesitate to push the ride back to another day. With the checkride itself already inducing large amount of stress, there is nothing wrong with pushing off the test for a day with more friendly conditions, to keep the stress to a manageable level.

When I took my oral, the ceiling wasn't too low, but it wasn't high enough for engine out, or other air work. The DPE said to go preflight the airplane, I checked the weather again, upon doing so I said I would prefer to continue the test another day. The clouds ended up breaking and it turned into a nice sunny day as I was driving home, which was sort of annoying. But the next day, the DPE made a comment about ow we could have flown, but also said he was happy to see me not be swayed by his opinion and make the no go decision.

Good luck!
 
I failed two items on the check ride. They are actually the easiest maneuvers in my opinion. They are the soft field landing and the engine out emergency landing. I have not had any problems with them in the lessons at all. I just went out with my instructor yesterday with perfect weather and knocked out those 2 maneuvers, even doing a wheelie down the runway until our taxiway. Now I have the sign off and will be taking the test tomorrow. I am excited to show the DPE that I can fly a whole lot better than I did that windy day. I know that all is required is to re-do those 2 maneuvers, but I hope he has me do more than that, so he will be confident in signing me off. Seriously, thanks for all the encouragement.
 
Love the attitude here!!! Dust yourself off and go again! I busted my Commerical ride (one of the easier rides) No one has ever cared as far as getting a job. It is all about attitude, and looking back, I'm sorta glad I busted, because it helped me to be a better student (for the rest of my ratings) and a better instructor! I never wanted my students to feel that feeling like I had to!

Have FUN on your check ride! Remember, your just taking a guy up flying and showing him all the cool stuff you have learned! Think of him like an uncle or someone in your family, and he is like "hey, show me how to stall an airplane". And your like, "dude, check this out!!! It is all good and safe as long as the ball stays centered . . . see"! :beer:
 
Great advice from everybody here. I think the best idea is to avoid thinking of the DPE as a crutch to bail you out if necessary. If you need to be bailed out, you shouldn't be there in the first place. If the wx is such that you wouldn't go up there alone, postpone the ride!

For the guys who say a checkride can be fun.... well.... whatever. That's something akin to Stockholm Syndrome I guess. The fun part is when he hands you your temporary certificate.
 
Hey guys sorry the delay in posting on the re-test. I PASSED, we just went out out and did the engine failure and came back to the airport for a soft field landing and we were done. 0.6 on the hobbs, it was too easy. After reading all your advice I would agree I should of postponed the first check-ride, but now I know I have that option. Again Thank You for all the encouragement. It's really cool knowing I am a pilot, finally, over 2 years and 10k!!! It was worth every penny. The reason I have not been able to respond is because I lost my job and my apartment. I am in the National Guard and they had orders for me to move then right before I was suppose to leave the said I couldn't go, their mess up, not mine. So now I'm bummin around untill they can get me orders again, it might be a month or so. The orders are for a year long school, not a deployment, just FYI. Here's a question that the DPE asked me, he told me the answer but lets see which one of you can answer it. Why is there a sign below the flap lever on a Cesna 172 saying avoid slips with flaps?
 
roconnell said:
Why is there a sign below the flap lever on a Cesna 172 saying avoid slips with flaps?
Click to expand...

The same reason you don't run an engine over squared...

or

The same reason you have to beware of shock cooling engines...

*inside joke*
 
roconnell said:
Hey guys sorry the delay in posting on the re-test. I PASSED, we just went out out and did the engine failure and came back to the airport for a soft field landing and we were done. 0.6 on the hobbs, it was too easy. After reading all your advice I would agree I should of postponed the first check-ride, but now I know I have that option. Again Thank You for all the encouragement. It's really cool knowing I am a pilot, finally, over 2 years and 10k!!! It was worth every penny. The reason I have not been able to respond is because I lost my job and my apartment. I am in the National Guard and they had orders for me to move then right before I was suppose to leave the said I couldn't go, their mess up, not mine. So now I'm bummin around untill they can get me orders again, it might be a month or so. The orders are for a year long school, not a deployment, just FYI. Here's a question that the DPE asked me, he told me the answer but lets see which one of you can answer it. Why is there a sign below the flap lever on a Cesna 172 saying avoid slips with flaps?
Click to expand...


HAH, i LOL'd about running the engine over square and shock cooling.

seriously tho, doing slips with flaps extended wont hurt the airplane, it just causes a disruption of airflow over the elevator and causes the airplane to "buck" if you will. If you feel confident that you can control the airplane, theres no reason that i know of not to do it.
 
roconnell said:
I failed two items on the check ride. They are actually the easiest maneuvers in my opinion. They are the soft field landing and the engine out emergency landing. I have not had any problems with them in the lessons at all. I just went out with my instructor yesterday with perfect weather and knocked out those 2 maneuvers, even doing a wheelie down the runway until our taxiway. Now I have the sign off and will be taking the test tomorrow. I am excited to show the DPE that I can fly a whole lot better than I did that windy day. I know that all is required is to re-do those 2 maneuvers, but I hope he has me do more than that, so he will be confident in signing me off. Seriously, thanks for all the encouragement.
Click to expand...

What specifically failed you on the soft field landing? The engine out is easy enough to picture, but did you come in too fast on the soft field? Floating? Hard Landing? You don't have to answer, but I'm the nosy sort :D
 
No problem BaronPete, the winds were at 18-19 gusting 30 and that was my first landing for the checkride. I was just happy I got the plane on the runway. When I was coming in for final I was being pushed all over the place, sweating like crazy, just hopeing I wouldn't crash the plane with the DPE in it.
 
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